Governor Profiles

Having been brought up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, I moved to Hertfordshire in 1987 as an Environmental Science graduate to work for the Countryside Management Service. Since then I have worked for a range of Community and Voluntary organisations locally on both environmental and community engagement projects. I am currently working as a Community Development Manager for the Community Voluntary Service (CVS) for East Herts.

My husband attended Ralph Sadleir as one of it’s first pupils, and our three children have attended the school.

We live in Braughing, and enjoy walking and being involved with our local community. Our children enjoy a range of sports – including football, cricket, tennis, horse riding and clay pigeon shooting – and the majority of my time (when not working!) is supporting them in these activities.

I am the new Headteacher of the school, having taken up the post from September 2019. I was previously the Deputy Headteacher for four years. Prior to that I worked at another local Middle School for four years, two of those were as Assistant Headteacher and two as Deputy Headteacher. I began my teaching career as a secondary PE teacher and worked within secondary schools for eleven years, progressing to be Head of Year and Head of Department.

My role within the governing body is to provide other governors with relevant school information so that they can understand how the school is progressing and how we operate. This allows the governors to ask challenging questions, which enable us to reflect and improve.

Outside of school, I like to spend time with my family and my three young children keep me busy. I enjoy keeping fit through jogging, attending a gym and playing golf. My other interests are listening to and playing music.

I have been involved with Ralph Sadleir for over thirty years, as a parent, full time teacher and at present a regular supply teacher. The school has been an important part of my life and as a governor I hope to promote the school and it’s ethos and help implement changes that will help the school move forward.

I lived in Puckeridge for the first 18 years of my life and was pleased to move back to the area 6 years ago with my wife and our 4 children to live in Braughing. As a Business Manager in the Environment Department at Hertfordshire County Council, I hope that I can bring some of my skills and experience to assist the school in the role of parent governor. With my two daughters currently at the school and the boys looking to join in the future, I am keen to learn how the school is performing and to provide support for any ongoing improvement. Probably like other parents, outside of work my life is about my family and aside from driving children to numerous parties and clubs, I do find time to play or watch sport once in a while!

I joined the Local Governing Body in September 2016 and have since become an Associate Governor for Ralph Sadleir focussed on supporting the Board and Senior Leadership Team with marketing, communications, reputation management and student recruitment.

I am the Corporate Communications Manager at the University of Hertfordshire with a focus on brand management, content development and B2B marketing. My role involves the development and enhancement of the University’s brand both in the UK and overseas. Additionally, I work to enhance the University’s written content across our digital and print channels surrounding the topics of education, research and business services.

Most recently, I am have completed a postgraduate study into the effects of geo-politics and global economics on inbound student recruitment to the United Kingdom from overseas. I am Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (MCIPR) as well as the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).

I have previously held the elected office of Vice President Communications & Media of Hertfordshire Students’ Union and sat on the University of Hertfordshire’s Student Educational Experience Committee (SEEC) & Consortium Quality Committee (CQC).

I joined the Local Governing Body (LGB) in May 2014 as a Parent Governor, and I am now coming into my third year as Chair of the LGB.  I am also a member of the Board of Directors for the Academy Trust, the Link Governor for SEN, Safeguarding, Pupil Welfare and Pupil Progress.

I live in the village of Puckeridge.  My daughter after “having the best 4 years of her life” at Ralph Sadleir School now attends Freman College and my son is now half way through being a Ralphie.

After 20 years in sales in the event industry,  I have completely changed my career direction and I am now employed by Community Voluntary Services (CVS) for Broxbourne and East Herts working on a project funded by The Big Lottery and the ESF.

Within my role at CVS, I work with Adults with a range of disability’s helping them get back into education and employment, I am Designated Safeguarding Person overseeing safeguarding for both children and adults, I have an extensive knowledge and skills of working with children and adults with complex needs, I oversee the General Data Protection Regulations for our team along with Health and Safety and Induction. These areas of expertise enable me to support the school in my governor role as and when needed.

As Chair of the Local Governing Body, I support the Chair of the Board of Directors, Mr Spong, Headteacher and his team. We work together to achieve the school’s goals and are striving to become an outstanding school.  We are always moving forward with ideas and training to keep up with the never ending changes within the world of education.

It is a honour and a pleasure to be involved with Ralph Sadleir School and to see how the school has grown.  I am now looking forward to continuing this growth in my next 4 years of service.

I am the Headteacher of Freman College.  Given that pupils from Ralph Sadleir move on to Freman in Year 9, it is very important for me to be closely involved in working with the school and its governance.  Our two schools are committed to providing pupils with a really excellent and enjoyable education which provides them with the best possible qualifications and future opportunities.  To do this we work closely together to make sure that our curriculum prepares pupils for the next stage of their education and that we have strong pastoral links to support pupils as the move from one school to the next.

This is my fourth year teaching at Ralph Sadleir School. I joined the staff of Ralph Sadleir; teaching in Year 6 and now Year 5 as well as KS3 Science.

I qualified as a teacher 11 years ago; undertaking a Middle School PGCE specialising in Science in 2001. Initially, I qualified as a Librarian in Australia. Then I had a break whilst I brought up my children and followed my husband’s job around the world living in both Scotland and Denmark before settling in Hertfordshire. Having retrained as a teacher, I worked in the primary system before finding my way back into Middle Schools.

I think it is an interesting time to be a Governor and I am looking forward to representing the staff on the Governing Body.

I have lived in the village with my wife for over twenty years. We have two boys, one is currently at Ralph Sadleir, the other has had a happy transition to Freman College.

I work for a new start-up pharmaceutical company specialising in rare disease responsible for the profit & loss, compliance and distribution in the UK and Ireland. This and other roles have given me good experience in challenging and managing budgets, recruitment and management of staff, and general management responsibilities.

These are skills which I hope help the governance team to achieve school’s goals and vision.

I grew up in Standon and attended Ralph Sadleir school during the years of 1986-1990, although it was a little bit different then!! Having obtained a qualification as a chartered accountant, and then spending a number of years working abroad in Australia, I returned to my roots and now live once again in Standon.

I have four children, my youngest two are at Roger de Clare, with my eldest two are at Ralph Sadleir, so I have a personal interest in the Rib Valley Schools consortium, and having been through the system myself I am a great advocate of the three tier system.

My personal interests include playing netball, travelling abroad and socialising with friends and family.

I moved from Leicestershire to Hertfordshire in 2010 and live in Braughing with my wife and 3 children. I became a parent governor in December 2012, and have had 2 of my children attend Ralph Sadleir with the third in year 6 now. I stepped down as a governor in 2017 however continue my support for the school as one of the academy Directors.

I work in Hoddesdon for a global pharmaceutical company where I am part of the senior leadership team, and hope that this experience provides benefit to the school in a variety of ways.

In the little spare time that I find, I enjoy spending time with my family playing sport and generally relaxing!