What do Governors do?
REAch2 now has 62 primary schools and is organised into 10 clusters. You can find a complete list of the clusters on the REAch2 website. Our school is in Cluster 10.
Governors play an important role in our school providing strategic oversight, focusing on vision, finance, and accountability. They aim to ensure high educational standards and help set our school’s vision, ethos, and strategic direction. They also hold leaders to account for performance, oversee our finances, ensure a broad and exciting curriculum, and engage with the school community.
REAch2 Governance
We have 2 layers of governance in REAch2: local governing bodies which oversee individual schools and our Board of Trustees who are ultimately accountable to the Department for Education for the running of the Trust.
All our schools share the same governance structure and you can find information about the trust on the REAch2 website at www.reach2.org. The Governance page gives details of how the Trust is organised, including the Articles of Association, the Master Funding Agreement and all the documents which relate to how the Trust was founded and how it runs today. You can also find details of who our trustees are.
Our school, like most schools in the Trust, has a local governing body (LGB). There are terms of reference below, which detail how the LGB should work and what its responsibilities are. On the REAch2 website, terms of reference are available for all our boards, including the Trust Board. You can also find documents which show how all the different layers communicate and how responsibility and accountability is distributed.
Governance in our school
Our LGB holds 6 meetings during the year in which they help to support the school, its leadership and pupils, whilst challenging to make sure that everyone achieves as much progress as they can and should.
Our school’s LGB is made up of 4 trust-appointed members, who are volunteers, two parents, two staff and the headteacher. They can invite other members of staff in to meetings to discuss current issues. They have to declare that they are working for the school in an open and honest way and so fill in a declarations of interests form annually and declarations of interest is an item on every LGB meeting agenda.
There is also a shared services team with officers and business partners who specialise in providing support in areas such as finance, education, HR, health and safety, estates and governance.
Our Governing Body
Carole Webb- Trust Appointed Chair of Governors
I have for many years been connected with Dorothy Barley Junior Academy and my own children attended the school. I first became a Governor, Parent Helper and Midday Supervisor at the Infant School and then made the decision to become a Governor at the Junior School
Christine Thomas- Vice Chair of Governors
Olufisayo Noibi- Co-opted Governor
I currently work in investment management and have over 3 years’ experience in Finance & Capital Markets.
During my time at the University of Oxford, where I studied French & Arabic, I thoroughly enjoyed working with young people and took part in a number of Access & Outreach initiatives across the UK. In 2019, I founded my own mentoring/community-led scheme to provide resources, advice & support to young people, particularly to students from underrepresented backgrounds.
Having grown up in the borough myself, it has been a long-standing goal of mine to give back to the community and to help our young people to reach their full potential. I am keen to work hard as a new school governor to ensure DBJA students can achieve their aspirations and much more.
Rumi Forid- Staff Governor
Stacey Flint- Staff Governor
Vacancy – Parent Governor
Wunmi Agunbiade – Trust Appointed Governor
I am a management accountant with over 20 years’ experience; 18 years of which has been gained in the higher education sector.
I also have certificates in CIEH and NEBOSH coupled with practical H&S knowledge gained in my role as being Facilities Manager and Departmental Safety Officer (DSO) for the past 6 years. I conduct ‘Day one inductions’ for all new staff; coordinate and lead H&S inspection of six campus libraries.
I have four children – two of which are graduates of Westminster and Brunei Universities respectively; the third is attending Dagenham Park (C of E) secondary School; while the last is just starting at John Perry Primary School.
I have so much interest in children’s welfare, wellbeing and am quite keen for them to achieve success in whatever they chose to be in life. Though, I have been living in the UK for over 30 years, whilst in Nigeria I was a proud and successful scouts leader which shows I have always had a keen interest in children and youth being active, creative, building self-confidence, self-reliance and understanding of the importance of education.
Miss C Leicester – Headteacher
Member Details & Responsibilities 2025-2026
Attendance-DorothyBarleyJunior 2024-25
Declarations being compiled.
Meeting dates for 2025-2026
- 15th October 10am
- 3rd December 2025 10am
- 11th February 2026 11:00 am
- 25th March 2026 10am
- 21st May 2026 10am
- 8th July 2026 10am