Sue has been a community governor on Whiteways Junior School governors for over four years. As we all know, this is a completely voluntary involvement and involves many hours of voluntary time being given over to make the governing body of any school run effectively. It’s people like Sue who make the system work. Sue’s been a governor since 2003 – but how did a woman with no direct link via children with a primary school become a governor when she’s into her 60s?
After Sue took early retirement from BT, she decided that she wanted in some way to make a difference to her area. She isn’t one for shying away from hard work. Initially she became active with Margate TARA but as interest ebbed, her brother said he’d recently become a governor and suggested she might want to think of this as a way of ‘putting something back’. As she lives overlooking Whiteways School – it was her natural choice, and after seeing the then head – Tony Carter – she joined the governors. Her work on helping the school meet the financial standards now required of all school, alongside the school bursar, is widely recognised. And although Sue’s deafness prevents her working closely alongside the children in class as a volunteer, which is a source of regret for Sue, the children themselves are so impressed with her that they once asked if Sue was the Queen… (She should be!)
Nowadays, Sue’s an experienced governor, frequently sitting on interview panels – helping perhaps to have recruited over half of the recent staff at Whiteways. The proposer for Sue explains:
“She is so quiet and unassuming she would be totally shocked by this nomination… But we think that she is brilliant and thoroughly deserves this”.
And so does the Area Panel!