Upton Junior School Governing Body

An Introduction from the Chair of Governors

Dear Parents & Carers,

I am writing to introduce myself as the new Chair of Governors at Upton Junior School. My name is Keith Parsons and I have been a member of the Governing Body since January 2017, becoming Vice-Chair and then Chair in April 2018.

I have worked in Secondary Education for 39 years, the last 26 years as Deputy Head at a large, local Comprehensive school. I have a son in Yr6, who was previously at Upton Infants School and so I have learnt a lot in the last four years about Early Years Education. I have also valued the opportunity to meet, and get to know, many of the parents who now have children at the Junior School.

I am totally committed to working with all parents, staff and my fellow Governors in supporting you and your children in our efforts to provide a highly stimulating and rewarding education for all of our pupils.

I am fortunate to work with a very proactive and talented Board of Governors, several of whom are new to the school, and who have brought a wide variety of expertise to help support and improve all areas of UJS for the benefit of our children.

We act as a critical friend to challenge the Headteacher and his staff and hold them to account in all our efforts to improve pupil’s achievement. We are keen to improve our Ofsted rating and have developed our own Governors Improvement Plan, following a Review of Governance as requested in our most recent Ofsted Report.

The Governors are developing their expertise in all aspects of the school Strategic Development Plan and, although there is still much work to do, we feel confident that, by our next Ofsted visit, we shall be in a much stronger position. Our aim is to achieve what we feel is the correct Ofsted rating, i.e. Good!

Please continue to help us in this endeavour and support us, not only in attending school events, but also in continuing to encourage your children to strive hard to achieve their best potential. We value them for all their splendid efforts in school and what they have achieved so far but we know that the stimulation given by parents to their children can be the most motivating factor of all.

Thank you for reading my comments. We, as a Governing Body, look forward to working closely with you in the future.

Best wishes, Keith Parsons

Summary of relevant business and pecuniary interest of Governors at Upton Junior School 

                       Keith Parsons – Chair of Governors - Literacy

My name is Keith Parsons and I am very honoured to have been recently elected Chair of Governors at Upton Junior School and I am totally committed to working with all Staff, Parents and my fellow Governors in supporting you all in our efforts to provide an excellent, stimulating and rewarding education for the children who attend our school.

I have been in Secondary School education throughout my working life, starting as a Modern Languages Teacher, followed by some years as a Pastoral Year Leader and then a stint of 26 years as Deputy Head at Poole High School. I thought it was the best job in the world and I was lucky to have worked with excellent colleagues and amazing students.

I have two grown up children and one younger one in Yr. 3 at Upton Juniors; my elder son is a Consultant in Intensive Care in a London hospital and my daughter is a University Lecturer in Birmingham- I am immensely proud of all three!

Until Aubrey started at the Infants School my knowledge of Early Years teaching was very scant and I have been hugely impressed by what I have seen, both here and at Upton Infants and I have found my new educational journey a real pleasure to embark upon.

My hobbies include reading, music, cricket and going to airshows. I also try, with varying degrees of success, to grow vegetables on my allotment!

Diana Crisp – Numeracy Governor

I am a retired teacher who worked in a local junior school for 23 years. I now work part time for Winchester University as a link tutor. This enables me to go to many schools and help aspiring young students on their journey to be a teacher.

I am also a Governor of a federated school locally which has an infant school and junior school. I was part of the governing body when it became federated and more recently became an academy.

Both my children went to Upton Juniors and now my grandchildren. Upton has been my home for 38 years and I enjoy living here very much.

I hope to help to further develop the junior school and look forward to working with the team of staff and Governors.

David Sargent – Pupil Premium Governor

I’m a family man who grew up in Upton having attended Upton Juniors as a child myself. I currently have one son at the school and hope to have my youngest son join in September.

I qualified as a lawyer back in 2008 with a local firm of solicitors working in litigation and leasehold property for the 10 years I was with them. I do not currently practice law as I wished for a change in career and now work for a large Building Society as a mortgage product manager where the team I work in has end-to-end responsibility for the whole Specialist Lending (buy to let) mortgage proposition from designing the products to how they are serviced. Working for a Building Society which has a strong social agenda is very rewarding.

Outside of work, I’m a keen runner and a member of the local running club Lytchett Manor Striders where I have enjoyed racing both on and off-road in all distances from 5k to full marathons. I have previously competed in triathlons and enjoy cycling but running is my main interest.

I am interested in “tech” and computer science and find developments in this quite exciting. I have recently started experimenting with a Raspberry PI micro-computer to learn about “coding