Original Trustee & Members Page
This is the original page we got from e4 for trustee and member information - holding onto it in case we need it in the future.
Beverley Hobbs
Director
Spurred on by her incredibly positive experience as a pupil at secondary school, and following graduation from Southampton University, Beverley has spent her entire career working in education. Beverley began by teaching English to pupils aged between 11 and 18, then undertook various middle leadership roles, including assistant head of sixth form and head of year, before entering senior leadership, in 2005, as deputy headteacher.
Beverley has served as headteacher in three schools; all mainstream, but each very different and, as a result of this experience, now works on a part-time basis as CEO in a small, but ambitious multi-academy trust. In this role she acts as lead education professional for day-to-day operations within the trust and has responsibility for working alongside the chair of trustees to create, evolve and deliver the trust’s strategic development plan. In addition, she line manages the head of finance and operations and the headteachers of the member schools, which enables her to maintain a detailed understanding of the challenges and opportunities experienced within both the primary and secondary phase.
An essential aspect of her role as a headteacher and CEO has been to develop an understanding of effective governance. Experience has taught her that the most effective governance is based upon respectful uncertainty – the best school leaders want their governors to ask good questions, rooted in a genuine interest in the important work they are doing, day-in, day-out, to secure excellence in their schools.
Having retired from the role of full time headteacher in 2019, the additional “bandwidth” this has created has enabled Beverley to sit more regularly as a magistrate, a role to which she was appointed in that same year. Her purpose in undertaking this voluntary activity has been to embrace new learning and to put to use some of the key skills developed in school leadership, such as careful listening and the processing of complex information in order to make discerning judgements.
Not surprisingly, having served her final period of headship in a Church of England school, membership of her local church community has also had a key role to play in her personal and professional life. As a result, she has for a number of years served as secretary on the PCC, a role which, like the magistracy, calls for an understanding of human nature - very familiar territory for anyone with experience of working in schools and leadership.
From a personal perspective, the opportunity for Beverley to join the Board of Directors of the Vale Academy Trust arose at precisely the right moment. With detailed experience of securing sustainable school improvement and an understanding of the value of working collaboratively as part of that process, she understands and embraces the business of building brilliant futures together.
Term of Office: 23/10/2021 - 22/10/2025
Membership Type: Appointed by Member