About Us: David Marriott LTD.

David Marriott Ltd provides consultancy services to schools, academies, multi-academy trusts and local authorities. Its Directors and consultants are David and Marya Marriott. Originally established in 2010, the company expanded to include Marya Marriott in 2014.

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David Marriott

David (BA(Hons), PGCE and MEd) served as Head of Governor Services for Wiltshire Council between 1995 and 2011. Prior to that role he was a teacher (English and Drama) for 21 years in 5 different secondary schools, including deputy headship in the city of Bristol.

Author of Being Strategic, Monitoring and Evaluation and The Effective School Governor, David has also written Getting to grips with performance related pay (e-book) and Outstanding governance for academies - ensuring a skilled and confident governing body (training pack) for Optimus publishing. He contributes annually to The School Governors Yearbook (Adamson Publications). He made a substantial contribution to a Governance Pathway e-book for Oxford University Press in 2016-17 and is currently writing a new book on how governors can challenge school leaders due for publication in autumn 2017.He was a governor at Priory school, Weston-super-Mare, in the 1990s and Rose Hill primary school, Oxford, in the 2000s. He chaired the Interim Executive Board at Berinsfield primary school, Oxfordshire between 2012 and 2013. The school is now an academy. He served as Chair of Governors at Kingham primary school, Oxfordshire and chaired an IEB at Dundry primary school, North Somerset during 2014/2015.

Marya Marriott

Marya is a very experienced governor and clerking expert. She is a qualified adult education teacher (Certificate in Education). She has chaired several governing bodies, including 2 IEBs (Interim Executive Boards).

Her professional studies focussed on business and finance, and public administration. From 1995-2012, Marya worked in Governor Services at Oxfordshire County Council. She led two highly successful traded services, including a clerking service. She was responsible for service delivery and planning, managed large budgets and was responsible for c75 staff.

She is experienced in headship recruitment and appointment and is a Governor Mark Assessor and Accredited Assessor for Hampshire County Council's clerking accreditation.

Marya is a quality assurance expert. She led her team to achieve the Customer Service Excellence Award (Charter Mark) 'at a higher standard than most other organisations'. She was a key member of NCOGS' (national co-ordinators of Governor Services) national service improvement group (NSIP) benchmarking of Governor Services. Marya has worked independently since 2012. Currently, she is working in/with 7 local authority areas across all categories of school.

Key activities:

  • External Reviews of Governance
  • Governor and Clerks development training
  • Chairs Mentor
  • Conference workshops
  • Clerks Accreditation Mentor
  • Clerking
  • Exclusion Panel clerking
  • Writing and document update projects

Marya wrote Strengthening Clerking - presented to and debated at NCOGS 2010 Conference and Towards Professional Clerking (2011) for The School Governors' Yearbook (Adamson/TES). She also wrote an article for Governors' Agenda - National Benchmarking (Outcomes from Reconstitution) and was a contributor to the Succession Breeds Success Toolkit (NCOGS). Marya served as NCOGS Representative for SW Region and was a key member of the National Service Improvement Group (NSIG).

 

Some of the services we provide:-

David has provided the following services in ten different local authorities:

  • Written and delivered regular training sessions on a wide variety of topics for governing bodies, including Academy governors
  • Keynote speech at conferences for governors, clerks and governor associations
  • School governance reviews and reports, including in a MAT
  • Research project on commercial services for governors
  • Research and publicity article for a governors' intranet provider
  • Helpline advice for governors in a city area
  • Setting up and developing a chairs' mentoring project
  • Reviewing an authority governor appointment process
  • Development work with a city wide collaborative project
  • Chairing two Interim Executive Boards (IEB)
  • Investigation of allegations against a governing body
  • Evaluation of an IEB
  • Leading two primary schools towards sponsored Academy status
  • Advising a Free school on policies and governance
  • Facilitating a workshop for headteachers in a partnership cluster
  • Supporting governance professionals in writing bids for a national project
  • Advising a group of clerks on accreditation
  • Reviewing an LA Governor Services team and offer
  • Reviewing a dispute between governors and a headteacher
  • Setting up and facilitating two networks for chairs of governors
  • Investigating four cases of alleged misconduct and writing reports on the investigations for the governing bodies
  • Facilitating teambuilding between the head and staff at a primary school
  • Advising an LA on the establishment of a team of governor consultants to add capacity to school improvement work
  • Investigating and reporting on allegations of impropriety by a secondary school during an Ofsted investigation

He has also:

  • Written a training workshop for chairs of governors for the National College
  • Assessed National Leaders of Governance for the National College
  • Written articles for a governors' newsletter
  • Written articles for School Governor Update
  • Drafted the basis for "Knowing Your School: Governors and staff performance" for NGA
  • Written two articles for Governor Doc (Adamson Books)
  • Provided consultancy for Best Practice Network in relation to the national programme for chairs of governors
  • Delivered a webinar on Governing Body Self-Evaluation for Optimus Publishing
  • Written a governor's calendar and supporting articles for Optimus Publishing
  • Written e-bulletins for governors via Optimus Publishing
  • Contributed articles for successive editions of The School Governor's Yearbook

Marya has provided the following services in five different local authorities:

  • Governor training and development courses
  • External Reviews of Governance
  • Contribution to a clerking conference
  • Writing and reviewing advice and guidance documents for governors
  • Assessment of Clerks' Accreditation portfolios
  • Clerking for schools and academies
  • Clerking exclusion panels

 

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Davids' Books

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Davids Books:-

See the Publications page for full details of the published books I have written: "Being Strategic" and "Monitoring and Evaluation".
These books quote from and include references to a number of publications, not all of which are still available in downloadable form. Below lists and links to all those currently available.

Being Strategic

DfES: Governing the school of the future

National College: National Standards for Headteachers

DfE: Structural Reform Plan - also known as the Business Plan

OECD: Scenarios for schooling for tomorrow: school governance scenarios

Ofsted: School governance: making it better

NCOGS: Succession Breeds Success

 

Monitoring and Evaluation

Ofsted/BIS/DFE: Governing bodies and effective schools

Ofsted: Making it better: improving school governance

Ofsted: Governance - the effectiveness of the governing body - a briefing for inspectors

   

DfES: National training programme for school governors (published as 11 documents listed below)

- national training programme for new governors - toolkit 2005 intro.pdf

- national training programme for new governors - introductory module.pdf

- national training programme for new governors - module 1.pdf

- national training programme for new governors - module 1 ohts.ppt

- national training programme for new governors - module 1 activities.pdf

- national training programme for new governors - module 2.pdf

- national training programme for new governors - module 2 ohts.ppt

- national training programme for new governors - module 2 activities.pdf

- national training programme for new governors - module 3.pdf

- national training programme for new governors - module 3 ohts.ppt

- national training programme for new governors - module 3 activities.pdf

   

DfE: The importance of teaching (summary)

 

IoE: DISS project (published as 6 documents listed below)

- Diss project 1

- Diss project 2

- Diss project 3

- Diss project 4

- Diss project 5

- Diss project 6

   

GLM partnership: Governor Mark

 

Common to both books

Ofsted: School governance: learning from the best

DfE: A Guide to the Law for School Governors

Audit Commission: Valuable Lessons - improving economy and efficiency

Audit Commission: Valuable Lessons - briefing for school governors

 

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