Governor Profiles

Having taught at Ralph Sadleir for some 6 years now, I have been the teacher governor for the past 2 years. My current role at RS is a Year 6 tutor and the head of year for the KS2 cohort. As you can imagine, this can be a challenging role; however, there are many enjoyable elements to the middle leadership position I hold within the school.

Teaching was a late career choice for me, and RS provided me with my first position after formal training at the University of Bedfordshire. After initial placement roles within Year 5, I have become the longest serving tutor in Year 6. With the flexibility of a role within a middle school, I also teach KS3 maths to both years 7 and 8.

A career within education has enabled me to pursue my passion of travelling. Long, well-earned holidays are a chance for me to explore the world and the amazing cultures of others. Not to mention, motorcycle adventures when I can squeeze them in.

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 Deputy Chief Officer for Community Voluntary Services for Broxbourne and 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 joined the Local Governing Body (LGB) in May 2014 as a Parent Governor, and I am now coming into my 5th 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 as does my younger child.

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 as the Community Support Manager.

Within my role at CVS, I work with Adults 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. I also have my Level 3 in Teaching and Training and deliver bespoke courses to help people gain new skills helping them back into employment.

As Chair of the Local Governing Body, I support the Chair of the Board of Directors, Mr Fuller, 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 an 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 and working with the school community.

I am the 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 children keep me busy. I enjoy keeping fit through jogging, yoga 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 8 years ago with my wife and our 4 children to live in Braughing. As a Business Manager in the Environment & Infrastructure 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.

I joined the Governance team in 2017 and Chair the Resources Committee as well as being Vice Chair of the Local Governing Body and sitting on the Board of Directors. With my eldest daughter attending Ralph Sadleir before moving to Freman College and our other 3 currently at the school, I am keen to provide any support that I can to improve school life for all of the pupils. I value the ethos of the school and that the staff strive to provide a broad and balanced curriculum which gives the pupils a fantastic opportunity to experience topics and subjects that they would otherwise have to wait until attending the secondary system to take part in. Since being involved, the efforts ‘behind the scenes’ from all the staff, often in very challenging circumstances, has been incredible to see and I’m sure that it will continue with every new pupil that makes the decision to join.

Probably, like other parents or carers, outside of work my life is about my family and aside from driving children to numerous clubs. I enjoy helping coach Braughing Cricket Club’s youth section (especially when the sun is out!) but do find time to socialise with friends and family once in a while.

I am new to the role of Governor but have been involved with the school with my children attending and enjoying their school life here

I hope to help the school grow as it has helped my children grow. I have worked with families and schools for the past 15 years in various roles from learning support assistant to family support and will use the skills and knowledge I have to support and help to develop changes that move the school forward.

I’m really excited to be involved with Ralph Sadleir School and look forward to seeing how it continues to change and adapt.

I am the Headteacher of Freman College and have been since 2004. This has informed my understanding of and commitment to our very special three tier education system. I hold the national qualification in executive school leadership and I am a school improvement partner with Herts for Learning and a former Ofsted inspector.

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 offering pupils 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 they move from one school to the next.

I have been teaching at Ralph Sadleir for many years now and have held many positions from class teacher in years 5 and 6, through to Deputy Headteacher. During this time I have also been a staff representative on the Local Governing Body.

Having trained as a middle school practitioner it is a privilege to help continue the tradition and support Ralph Sadleir through its continuous development.

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 is at Roger de Clare, my middle two are at Ralph Sadleir and my oldest is at Freman College 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.