Excalibur Academies Trust is committed to ensuring that all schools within the Trust maintain their individuality whilst benefitting from the support of being part of a multi academy trust. Every school has an Academy Committee, governors are volunteers from the parent body and local community. The purpose of the Academy Committee is to support and challenge the Principal to ensure that the best outcome is achieved for every child.
The responsibilities of the Academy Committee encompass:
Culture, vision and ethos – working with the Principal to formulate the culture, vision and ethos for the school, in keeping with the values of Excalibur Academies Trust.
Personal development, welfare of the pupils and staff welfare – supporting and challenging the Principal to ensure all activity effectively contributes to personal development and welfare and report to Excalibur’s Board of Directors.
Behaviour and Attendance – supporting and challenging the Principal to ensure behaviour is effective in encouraging learning, inclusion and welfare and report to the Board.
Extra-curricular provision – ensuring extra-curricular provision is appropriate and good quality and report to the Board.
Safeguarding – monitoring to ensure that the school is carrying out its statutory duties and supporting and challenging the Principal to do so effectively.
Engagement and promotion of the school within the local community – promote and champion the school in the local community, helping to build productive links between the school and community, including parents.
The governors of Nythe Primary School are:-

Julia Cottee, Co-Chair of Governors
I have been a school governor for 15 years, working in a variety of schools in and around Reading. I am a firm believer in state education being free from selection, and so therefore every school should be a good, inclusive place to learn and grow. I am extremely lucky to be able to commit the time to directly help schools with their progress and improvement. Being a governor is an enormously inspirational role, and very soul-enriching, hence why I am still doing it.
Being an accountant, I am also the Finance link governor, and my curriculum links are Mathematics and Computer Science.
Business Interests – Trustee, The Willink Charitable Trust; Trustee, Wallingford Chameleon Arts; Governor, Reading Early Years Schools; Reading Governance Association; Relative employed by school

Andrew Twine, Co-Chair of Governors and Safeguarding link governor
I have been a school governor since 2021 and am delighted to be involved in Nythe Primary School. Since 2022 I have worked in the education sector and have an extensive background in operations and IT, and experience leading strategic teams.
I bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the school and I am excited to help Nythe Primary School continue to improve and succeed.
Business Interests – Employee of Excalibur Academies Trust; Director, VentureRadar Digital Ltd; Partner employed by White Horse Federation Central Team

Ben Clare – Parent Governor
I am proud to have been a parent Governor at Nythe Primary School since 2017. I have two sons, one of which still attends Nythe. I have been a Geography Teacher for 20 years and have taught at a large mainstream secondary school in Swindon and am currently working at EOTAS (Education Other Than at School) in the town.
I am glad to have been part of the academisation of the school with Excalibur and look forward to future success for our students.

Kerry Hussain – Community Governor
I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to be a parent governor at Nythe Primary School for 4 years. Alongside my two boys, I’ve got to know the school, learn from the staff, and support them as best I can through my link governor roles in finance and education performance.
An inclusive education is something that I am passionate about and the reason why I trained as a teacher myself. After five years of teaching and several years as a teaching and learning lead, I’m now Assistant Manager for a Specialist Resource Provision for Autistic students in a local secondary school and absolutely love my job.
I chose to become a parent governor because I still love to learn and I wanted to support our fantastic school community and their amazing pupils.

Victoria Adams – Parent Governor
My name is Victoria and I have recently moved to Swindon, as part of my job role we were encouraged to apply for volunteering opportunities and that is when I saw this opportunity to apply to be a governor. I have vivid memories of my Dad being a governor when I was at school and seeing the difference that the governors make, so I really wanted to get involved. I have been married for nearly 3 years. In my spare time I help out at a local small animal rescue and I have 4 bunnies myself.
