Krishna Avanti School

The Governing Body has clear authority to run and manage the School as per its governing documents. 

The governing body fulfils a largely strategic role in the running of the School. It establishes the strategic framework by:

• Setting the aims and objectives for the School;
• Adopting policies for achieving those aims and objectives; and
• Setting targets for achieving those aims and objectives.
  

The Governing Body numbers 16 and is made up of the following:

Foundation Governors - 9

Nitesh Gor is Chairman of the Board of Governors of Krishna-Avanti Primary School. His career experience encompasses management, investment banking and a broad business strategy background gained as a result of working for two leading corporate strategy consultancies. He has an MBA from London Business School and a BSc from the University of London. Nitesh is a Director of I-Foundation.

Dr Kirit Modi is Vice-Chair of the Board of Governors of Krishna-Avanti Primary School. Kirit has been involved in education for over thirty years. He started by teaching in two secondary schools for ten years, as a teacher of Mathematics, and became Head of Department in both. Kirit then joined Bedfordshire Local Education Authority as the coordinator of Multicultural Education.

When Luton became a unitary authority in 1997, he became an Assistant Director of Education and helped set up a successful education department.

Over the last eight years, Kirit has worked in Islington as Assistant Director, and helped turn round a failing authority. He has had extensive experience in helping improve schools, managing change, leading teams, overseeing functions such as capital programmes, finance, human resources, ethnic minority achievement and governor services.

Kirit is now working as an education consultant on a part-time basis. Kirit is a member of the Executive of the General Teaching Council for England and a governor at Canons High School in Harrow. Kirit's particular interest is in helping establish Krishna-Avanti Primary School as a successful school which meets the needs of the children in our multiethnic society, and is passionate about making equality a reality.    

Dr Kamlesh Bahl is the Chief Executive of Lotus Consulting Services, a social enterprise providing conflict resolution services and consultancy and training on diversity. Kamlesh has been a solicitor for 26 years and a mediator since 2007. She started her career as a lawyer in local government and then worked in a number of companies including British Steel and Texaco as an in-house lawyer and then as Company Secretary and Board Member at Data Logic Ltd. 

In 1993 Kamlesh became Chairwoman of the Equal Opportunities Commission and was the youngest and first Asian woman to hold this post. In 1996 Kamlesh was elected as Deputy Vice President of the Law Society and became its Vice President in 1997. Kamlesh has also served as a Non Executive Director on two health authorities, the Open University and London Transport. She was the European Commission representative on Racism and Xenophobia at the EC Consultative Commission which led to the establishment of the European Observatory on Racism. She works as a volunteer mediator with Camden Mediation. Kamlesh is the Chair of the Admissions Committee for Krishna-Avanti Primary School.

Srutidharma Das is a long-standing priest at Bhaktivedanta Manor and is a spiritual figurehead for the Hindu community. He has lived over 17 years as a fulltime Hindu monk and over a period of 25 years has been a pillar of Bhaktivedanta Manor's success as Europe's most successful Hindu temple. Srutidharma's responsibilities for Bhaktivedanta Manor include the spiritual development of Europe's largest Hindu congregation, regularly delivering lectures and programmes both at the temple and in the community and general managerial responsibilities of the temple. Srutidharma is a Trustee of the Hindu Forum of Britain and is an expert in Hindu teachings and their application. 

Sanjiv Agarwal M.S., F.R.C.S., F.R.C.S.(Urol.) is Consultant Urologist at the Hammersmith, Charing Cross and St.Mary's Hospitals. He is also an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Imperial College School of Medicine. Sanjiv is a Director of I-Foundation.

Peter Hamilton is the Head Teacher at The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School.

 Dr Kapil Chawla-MD MRCGP: Dr Chawla is a General Practioner with special interest in nutritional medicine. He work across various PCTs with varied ethnic minority populations.

Mrs Sudeep Sharma is a teacher of both state and private sector schools for the last ten years and she is currently a Maths and Year Leader in her current school, which is based in Northwood. She is also a mum to two beautiful girls which is a challenging yet rewarding role. With both roles there is never a spare moment as there is always something to do!

Sponsor Governors - 2

Hare Narain Maskara has retired from the services of Vedanta Resources plc where he was Assistant Company Secretary between August 2004 and May 2008. He was associated with the Vedanta Group since 1992 in various management roles and before joining the Group he has had 30 years of experience in Banking and finance. Mr. Maskara has a Masters degree in Commerce from the University of Calcutta and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, London. 

Krishna Ghosh is a founding teacher of the Swaminarayan Prep School, involved in the curriculum development and management. Six months after the school’s inception in 1992 she became the Head Teacher for over 10 years. Krishna has had a wide range of teaching experiences since her professional career began in 1968 after a Masters in English. She practiced as a classroom teacher for 13years until 1981 when she became a teacher trainer for primary school teachers at the ILEA Centre for Urban Educational Studies. Krishna was also a Parent Education Coordinator lecturer at the Adult Education Institute for childcare. In 1990 Krishna went back to primary classroom teaching and became the Head of Key Stage 1 in a school in Brent.

Local Authority Governor - 1

Father Paul Reece is an Anglican (Church of England) Priest who is Rector of St Lawrence Little Stanmore which is in the locality of the School.

Fr Paul has had a long-standing interest in education and for nearly 15 years was a Governor at a local Voluntary Aided Primary School including 9 years as Chair of Governors. In addition Fr Paul has been for many years the Church of England Representative on various Committees of the London Borough of Harrow including chairing the Harrow Admissions Forum. Fr Paul also has sat and chaired Admission Appeals Panels for many Voluntary Aided Schools in neighbouring boroughs.

Fr Paul very much recognises and encourages the need for interfaith dialogue and working in this increasingly secular age and is committed to social cohesion especially in this part of NW London.

Fr Paul has been ordained for 25 years serving the Church in Boreham Wood and Potters Bar prior to coming to Little Stanmore. Before ordination Fr Paul read Theology at Southampton University and then worked for nearly 3 years in Japan for a welfare organisation for merchant seafarers of all nationalities and faiths. Fr Paul trained as a Priest at the Community of the Resurrection Mirfield the only Church of England theological college which is part of a monastic community.

Staff Governors - 3

Mrs Sandra Clark
Teacher

Mrs Clark is has taken a leading role in setting up and managing private nurseries and the very first independent Hindu primary school in the UK. She has been teaching for over 25 years and has had experience in both the state and private sectors of education.

Extensive global travel and working in a variety of countries in Africa led to her celebrating the richness of cultural and inter religious diversity. Mrs Clark has a BSc Honours degree as well as a PGCE degree in Primary Education.

 Mr Jin Hwangbo -Statement to follow

Parent Governor - 1

Mrs Gita Sanghani has four years experience of coordinating children's sanga. Her role is to arrange activities, stories prasadam and to teach the children of the forth-coming festivals and teach spiritual topics as well as teaching slokas from the Bhagvat Gita and prayers.

The sanga has also performaed plays for festivals at the temple, the sanga's aim is to give children spiritual knowledge, perfection in art and design and confidence to preach.

 Associate Members

Ben Rich MCIPR is Director of his own Communications consultancy, Ben Rich Associations, which specialises community and faith issues.  His experience includes 15 years advising some of Britain's leading blue-chip companies, as well as Government, public bodies and charities.

In 2007, Ben stepped down as a Director and Partner of leading independent PR consultancy, Luther Pendragon, to establish his own specialist consultancy business, working for clients whom are working in a variety of different ways to heal the world.

Ben is a regular columnist for the Jewish News and editor of the Jewish Chronicle's annual Power 100. He is an adviser to the Board of anti-death penalty charity, Reprieve, and a full member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. His 2005 campaign to mark the 60th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on behalf of the Home Office won the CIPR' "best not-for-profit" excellence award for the year.

Ramesh Shah is a chartered accountant with over 35 years experience managing his own successful city-based accountancy firm. Ramesh has over 15 years experience managing and advising charities and also brings a wealth of experience in supporting charitable schools and angel investing. Ramesh is co-founder and former Director of Garland Management, where he managed a substantial property investment portfolio. Ramesh is a Director of I-Foundation.

 Guru Carana Padma (Wendy Harrison) BA Hons Primary School Education and School Management has been  head teacher at Bhaktivedanta Manor Primary School  for the past 5 years.   She has worked in school administration, teaching,  and curriculum development for the  past 15 years and has carried out significant research in regards to faith schooling.    Bhaktivedanta Manor School is a small independent school based at Bhaktivedanta Manor,  the headquarters of the faith partner.  It has recently been classified by OFSTED as “a good school with outstanding provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.”

 Rasamandala Das is an Educational Consultant specializing in education and Hinduism. He currently serves as a member of the Executive for the Religious Education Council for England and Wales and is a member of the Steering Group for the forthcoming National Framework for Religious Education. He has consulted to a number of publishers, including Heinemann, Hodder & Stoughton, Oxford University Press, Evans Brothers, Franklin-Watts, University of Derby/the Interfaith Network and SCAA/QCA (DfES). He is the founder and Director of ISKCON Educational Services, and will shortly begin a PhD in developing a pedagogical theory for ISKCON, addressing issues such as Values education, Emotional literacy and emotional intelligence, SMSCD and assessment in these areas.

Rasamandala’s publications include:

21^st Century Religion - Hinduism (Hodder Wayland, 2004)

The Heart of Hinduism teaching packs (IES, 2002)

My Life, My Religion – Hindu Pandit (Franklin Watts, 2000) 

Places of Worship; Hindu Temples (Heinemann 1998, 1999)

World Religions; an Illustrated Encyclopaedia (Open Mind, 1997)

The Hindu Concept of God in ‘Meeting Hindus’ (Christians Aware, 2000)

Time – the Hindu Perspective in the Shap Journal (The Shap Working Party, 2000)

Visiting Faith Communities published in ‘RE Today’ (CEM, 1992)

Rasamandala has also helped develop various courses, notably:

Teacher Training Course One, Two and Three (1995, 1997 and 1998 respectively)

Primary and Secondary Teacher Training Course (2000)

Vijay Persaud B.Ed Hons. London University, Dip teaching mathematics in primary school.

Vijay is an associate governor and has been a governor of the Board of Governors of Krishna-Avanti Primary School for the past three years. Vijay has over twenty years of experience as a teacher governor. She has been involved in education for over thirty years and has experience of teaching children from the age of three to twelve years.

She has held various posts of responsibilities at different levels. This includes being a LEA advisor teacher in Brent assisting primary school to come out of Special measures. As a Head of an independent school she successfully worked towards obtaining a good ofsted inspection. Vijay advised and lead as an independent educational advisor for fifteen years. She was the Head of foundation stage for five years and has experience of co-ordinating maths, art and R.E. throughout the primary stage.

Vijay has been practicing maha mantra meditation for the past thirty years and assists to lead meditation garden annually. As well as meditation Vijay also gives yoga, breathing, laughter yoga and relaxation classes weekly.

Her particular interest has been in supporting at different levels when required to establish Krishna-Avanti Primary School as a successful school. 

Ghanshayam Patel … to follow