Our Trustees & Our Members
The Yardleys Board of Trustees
Our Trust Board is a diverse group of professionals who care deeply about the school, its staff and its students, and work closely in a professional capacity with the Headteacher.
Effective governance:
• ensures clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
• holds executive leaders to account for the educational performance of the organisation and its pupils, and the effective and efficient performance management of staff
• oversees the financial performance of the organisation and makes sure its money is well spent
Jean Helme, Chair of Trustees & Member
Jean has been a governor at Yardleys for over 30 years, the last few years as Chair. For nine years she was also chair of an Infant & Junior School in the inner city of Birmingham as an elected parent governor.
Until her retirement in 2011, Jean was an educational social worker for Birmingham Education Welfare service, for several years as a Team Manager. She was also a Practice Educator for social work students. Since then she has been an independent panel member for a foster agency, a role which she finds extremely rewarding.
Jean is very involved with her eight grandchildren, the oldest of whom is taking his A levels and three of whom are at primary school. This has enabled her to keep in touch with education at different stages.
At Yardleys she has worked with four Headteachers, all with very different personalities but all of whom shared the same ethos and values that Yardleys embodies. She has acted as the safeguarding link governor for many years.
Jean has undertaken and continues to do much training in education and social work to keep up-to-date with current policies and research. This enables her to have informed discussions with the Headteacher and other staff and governors. She has been interviewed by Ofsted on a number of occasions, and is confident in doing so.
In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, dog walking, yoga, current affairs and is always reading.
Email - jean.helme@yardleys.bham.sch.uk
Benn Gray, Trustee
Benn joined Yardleys School in 2004 as a member of support staff and feels lucky to have been part of the school as it has continued to develop and grow over the years. As Multimedia and Resources Manager, he is passionate about providing well equipped classrooms and a safe, secure environment for students and staff. He was appointed Staff Governor in 2016 and feels privileged to be part of the strategic development and growth of the school. As a governor he contributes his knowledge and experience of premises management and health and safety to the Finance, Premises and Staffing committee.
Outside work, he has an academic background in in Music Technology and has continued interest in composition and production.
Joanne Killarney, Trustee
Jo was originally a student at Yardleys School. She was then employed as a Food Technology Teacher before moving into pastoral work becoming a Head of Year. She worked at Yardleys for 21 years before retiring and has now joined our trust board where her extensive pastoral and safeguarding experience is invaluable.
Kibrest Suzie Bennett, Trustee
Suzie is an elected parent governor who cares deeply about her local community, for the school, children, parents and staff alike.
Matt Minshall, Trustee
Matt joined Yardleys in 2013 and he is Head of the Humanities Faculty. He joined the trust board in January 2024 and sits on the Finance, Premises & Staffing committee, bringing his financial knowledge and experience from his previous career.
Nadeem Khan, Trustee
Nadeem was a pupil at Yardleys School before going on to study IT at college. He is currently employed by Deutsche Bank and works as part of the Know your Customer/Anti-Money Laundering team. His career in banking stretches back over fifteen years and includes experience in portfolio management and customer relationships. He has been involved with local community work/youth clubs and supports his local mosque/community centre.
Peter Lee, Trustee
Peter has been a governor at Yardleys for over thirty years, working with four Headteachers, initially on the site of the old Victorian school and more recently moving to the current, carefully designed new building.
When Peter first joined the governing body, he was working in Birmingham Education Department, one of the largest in England. His role was Assistant Education Officer for the central area. Here he gained much valuable experience, getting to know many different schools and assisting them in providing a worthwhile, life-enhancing education for all their students. This required resources in terms of money and fully trained, caring staff.
Before working in Birmingham, Peter spent ten years in Zambia as a District Officer then after training in London as a teacher, as Headteacher of a mixed secondary boarding school.
After retirement from the City’s Education Department in the 1980s he had more time to work with the other governors to get to know Yardleys, its staff and students, and to contribute through visiting to school and observing lessons as a link governor for various subjects.
Peter is proud to be a governor and enjoys his involvement in reading, assessing and questioning the reports which are presented to the full governing body and the finance committee, of which he has been a member for many years.
On a personal note, Peter was born in Birmingham, educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and has two children and three grandchildren.
Saiqa Rafiq, Trustee
Saiqa is an elected parent trustee. She is a mother of three children. She has a background in retail and banking. Saiqa has been a governor at Yarnfield Primary School for the past four years and currently volunteers there. She is a caring individual and enjoys helping others. Saiqa is our link governor for mental health and wellbeing.
Tony Day, Trustee
Tony is currently the Principal and CEO at Joseph Chamberlain College – a large, successful Sixth Form College in central Birmingham. Over the last fifteen years, he has held a variety of Senior Leadership roles in colleges and has held substantial Middle Leadership positions with a Curriculum, Quality and Teaching/Learning focus. Tony is also a trained and practising Ofsted Inspector.
Adill Hadi, Member
Adill is a passionate Senior Youth Worker who has been at the forefront of transformational youth work approaches with young people in and around Birmingham. He has well over twenty years’ experience working for Birmingham City Council across a broad spectrum of youth projects and programmes across the diverse City. He was previously the Project Manager of a successful Alternative Educational project, Crossroads, responding to the educational needs of young people outside the school setting.
He was delighted to be recognised in the Queens’s New Year’s Honours list in January 2022 for services to vulnerable children during Covid-19 and to be awarded the British Empire Medal.
Adill has specialised in a number of projects and programmes centred on preventing and reducing youth violence. He was one of the first partners to work on the Government’s PREVENT agenda for Birmingham Youth Service. He has his feet rooted in the community and is a passionate community cohesion advocate and has been a prominent campaigner for reducing youth violence.
John Gardner, Member
John has been a governor at Yardleys School for over 28 years, becoming a parent governor when his youngest son started at Yardleys (all three of his sons had their secondary education at Yardleys School). He lives in the local area so has excellent knowledge of the community that Yardleys School serves. He was previously the Chair of Governors for thirteen years and has been part of the recruitment panel for a number of staff including three headteacher appointments, as well as dealing with a number of pupil exclusions, both permanent and fixed, over the years.
Now retired, he worked for HMRC for over 40 years and this experience, combined with previous voluntary work as treasurer of three local community organisations has provided him with a breadth of financial expertise which he uses to advantage on the Finance Committee, of which he has been a part for many years.
Patricia Saunders, Member
Pat lives in the local area and her sons previously attended Yardleys. She was a trustee before moving into the member role. She works at a local university and has a strong knowledge of our local community.
