Governors

Sevim is a former Beam pupil who is now a Strategy Advisor at the Department for Education.  She leads on apprenticeships in schools and has also worked in Social Mobility in the Department. Sevim’s previous experience includes international policy at the Department of Health, strategy at the London Borough of Camden and graduate recruitment at TeachFirst. She also worked at the Social Mobility Foundation after completing her Philosophy and History degree at the University of Southampton.

I am Donna Lumsden, I am a foster carer who specialises in looking after challenging behavioural children.  Some of the children that I foster may be: autistic; have mental health issues; complex needs; subject to substance abuse; have special needs or  a disability.  My current foster child is a very challenging child who I have  to  teach to live a very good fulfilled lifestyle.

My current foster child is a very challenging autistic child who I have been supporting and nurturing to live a fulfilling  lifestyle by giving him holistic care.

My current job as a foster carer was inspired while working as a support worker with Tower Hamlet authority working with mental health and substance abuse patients and Newham authority working with disabled, autistic, special needs and complex children, where my manager told me I have a good heart and am passionate about my job.

I was encouraged and recommended  by the Councillors of River Ward to become a School Governor to a prestigious school like Beam County School. This has been a real honour and pleasure for me. The Executive Head, Head of School and all the teachers are a fantastic team to work with.

My hobbies are: Cake decorating, flower making, reading and gardening.

Vision: Beam County School to be the first to achieve London level grade.

I am of Caribbean heritage, where I started my career as a Mathematics and Sciences teacher. While I thoroughly enjoyed being a teacher, and the satisfaction of seeing my students’ progress with successful achievements in examinations, I had a deeper passion for e-Commerce and Digital technologies; hence I migrated to the UK to pursue postgraduate studies in this area. Since then, my career in the UK has evolved within the discipline of E-Commerce and Digital Marketing.

When I initially moved to Dagenham, I was a bit unsure as I had no family or friends in the local area. However, I’ve come to love and thrive here, and my son now attends Beam Primary School. I’m very pleased with his progress so far, his love of school, and the excitement in his voice when he talks about what he’s learned, or the day’s activities with his friends and teachers.

I am honoured to be selected as Parent Governor and look forward to taking on and growing in this role. I’m very enthusiastic, excited, and committed to working with the other Governors to help shape and positively influence the direction of the school, to continue the great progress and attainments the school has achieved over the years.

Simon Cole is an office/commercial professional with over 35 years of experience working within the electricity utility industry. He has been a Governor at Beam for over 15 years, and both his children and nieces and nephews have been pupils at Beam. With his wealth of commercial and financial acumen, Simon chairs the Finance Committee.

 Simon is an extremely hardworking and professional Account Manager with a distinguished history; he is a very well-organised and detail-oriented individual with experience in managing overlapping projects, keeping track of deadlines, and being proficient in time management. A strong analytical thinker with problem-solving skills and proactive in identifying opportunities for improvement. Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to build rapport and working relationships with customers. Simon has exceptional leadership and supervisory abilities; successfully recruit, train, mentor and motivate highly productive teams and support personnel.

In Simon’s spare time, he is a Goal Keeping coach for a local grass-roots team, and a number of pupils from Beam are active players at the same football club.

Growing up in apartheid South Africa, I witnessed first-hand the profound negative impact the denial of quality education can have on individuals and communities. It instilled in me a deep commitment to promoting equality in education. It made me realise the importance of education as a tool for social mobility and an instrument to break cycles of poverty and oppressive ideologies.

After dedicating 28 years to teaching in both primary and secondary school settings, I am eager to share my experiences and contribute to shaping the educational landscape at Beam County Primary School.  I am passionate about advocating for the needs of students, teachers, and the wider school community. I believe the school governor role presents a unique opportunity to serve the Beam community.

As an Early Career Teacher (ECT) mentor and wellbeing lead, I am wholeheartedly dedicated to supporting the next generation of educators to ensure their success in our noble profession.

I am delighted to join the Beam Governing Body as a Parent Governor from 2021. My child is currently in Year 1 and seeing how the school delivered online learning during the pandemic was exceptional and it feels good to be joining a great team. My past experiences include working in various Public Sector organisations, which include the NHS, Local Charities and now working for the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham in Community Solutions.

In the past I have also worked as a voluntary youth worker and have been involved in setting up various community projects which included summer schemes and poetry writing projects for the local youth. I have also been involved in mentoring schemes as I was a peer mentor in my secondary school for Year 7 children and also part of the National Mentoring consortium at University of Greenwich. My previous role in the NHS as a Deputy Costing Accountant showed me how important financial decisions are, as they have an impact on the organisations service delivery. I hope my past experiences and knowledge would have a positive contribution to the decisions made by the governing body.

Councillor Philip Waker

I have been on the Governing Body for about 25 years and Chair of Governors for about 10 years.

I am also a Governor of Leys Primary and Eastbrook. I recently became Chair of Eastbrook School and believe in striving to get the children of Barking and Dagenham the best education possible.

I am particularly grateful to all the Governors of Beam School and the efforts they make to encourage, support and challenge the school to continue its amazing record of improvement.

Beam County Primary School was always good, but thanks to the efforts of all staff and the school leadership team I have seen it become even better each year that goes by. Some of its results are consistently among the best primary results in the country, but it also has a wide cultural and sporting focus that helps to create a well rounded school experience for all those that come to the school.

As a Village Ward Councillor for around 14 years I have had a particular interest in Housing and when responsible for Housing for the borough fought to change the national financing structure of council housing. We led and won that battle and were then able to start building council housing for the first time in well over 20 years as well as improving our current stock. I believe that decent housing is fundamentally important for the education of our children and am particularly concerned about the lack of decent housing and the high costs of housing, particularly in London and the South East.

As a Councillor I am currently the Chair of the Living and Working Select committee that scrutinises housing, environmental issues in the Council as well transport and employment issues in general. I am also a member of the Council’s Development Control Board and Personnel Board.

I was a Post Office/Royal Mail employee for many years and was a Communication Workers Union representative for much of that time. I was on the National Executive of the Communication Workers Union for about 10 years.

The staff of Beam School have always been willing to assist the improvement of other schools and I am proud of my association with the school through the Governing Body.

Growing up in Dagenham, I attended Richard Alibon Primary School and Sacred Heart RC for Girls, Dagenham (predecessor to All Saints).

Teaching was a calling from a very young age (I loved school), and I was adamant that I would teach in Dagenham. At its core, Dagenham has a strong sense of community. As a headteacher at a primary school in Dagenham, I am proud to give back to the community where I grew up. Furthermore, I am pleased to say that all three of my children attended their primary school education in Dagenham. My daughter also attended Barking Abbey (for the Basketball Academy).

As an experienced educator and community leader passionate about fostering excellence in education and as a Trustee at a Secondary Grammar school and governor at Brook 6th Form and Academy, I bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to my role as headteacher.

Having served in various capacities within the education sector for nearly 30 years, I understand the intricacies of educational development.

I am committed to ensuring that every pupil at Beam receives a high-quality education that prepares our children for future success. Moreover, I believe in fostering a supportive and inclusive learning environment where pupils can continue to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.

Pearl Kowlessar (RN, RM, MSc Quality & Safety in Health)

Parent Governor

I am a mother of 3 children, 1 on which still attends Beam County Primary School. I joined the Board of Governors as a Parent Governor in 2017.

I am very enthusiastic about being able to offer my support and professional skills to this wonderful school and team, whose values and ethos I share.

I have over 20 years’ experience of Governance and Senior Management within the NHS. With my experience of senior leadership, governance and risk management I am keen to back the development and progress of the school by providing support and being a critical friend to the Leadership of the School. I hope that I will be able to offer some of those skills in useful ways as a Governor, as well as providing more general strategic and practical support to the school.

Whilst I have worked in the Health Sector (UK and Trinidad) for more than 25 years, I have always been very interested in education and the development and welfare of children. I am pleased to give back to my community as I have seen from my 2 older kids, the positive impact this school have had on them and have nurtured them into strong, respectful and focused young adults.

I have taken on responsibility as governor for Health and Wellbeing, support the school with the Safeguarding agenda and I am also a member of the School Improvement Sub-Committee. I am really enjoying the role of Governor and look forward to continuing working with the teams.