Governor Profiles

I attended the Hemel Hempstead School for 7 years for my secondary school and Sixth Form education between 2015-2022 and my younger sibling also currently attends the school.  Due to this, I have experience with the workings of the school as well as the perspective of being a student.

Since leaving the Hemel Hempstead School I have continued my career as a high-performance athlete/World-Class British Gymnast competing in World, European, and Commonwealth competitions in various countries.

I have worked supporting this school for ten years, nine of which as the first face seen of the school, in reception. This has given me a great first hand perspective into the goings on of a busy school. 

I have put myself forward for first aid training to support the school and got involved in the allocation and administering of covid tests during 2020/21. I have also been involved in the staff wellbeing meetings, offering a possibly different perspective to staff issues and possible resolutions.

Through my own children and a previous role within healthcare I have experience of the issues faced by those with disabilities and hope to be able to use this in any way I can for the benefit of school and its community.

I am co-opted governor, previously a parent governor, and on my second term of office.

For almost 30 years I worked for a large oil company with varied experience in sales,distribution and IT project management for global implementations. I moved in to the education section and qualified as a School Business Manager then choose to work in HR in a local school.

Utilising my experience around schools HR and safeguarding I have taken over the safeguarding link role monitoring that safeguarding is embedded throughout the school and we are meeting our statutory obligations. I am also on the pay and resources committee ensuring our money is being spent effectively and staying within our budget.

I am a senior pracademic in legal education, having been called to the Bar of England and Wales before moving into academia. I now have over 20 years of experience in higher education, the last four years as a member of the senior leadership team in a large university law school. I have specific portfolio responsibility for learning, teaching and the student experience ensuring programmes within our school are contemporary, exciting, practical, inclusive and accessible. Aside from my experience in learning and teaching I have a keen interest in SEND and working with students from a disadvantaged/widening participation background to enable them to access higher education in law. 

I have two boys, one of which is presently attending the school. I have always been involved with their primary schools, usually as an active member of the parent’s association and am now hoping to bring my educational background to good use on the governance side. 

I am new to the Governing body of HHS.

I have been employed for many years in the paper merchanting business, always working in newly emerging opportunities. 

My current role involves managing and developing existing and new customers within a wide market base including active management multi-sited businesses across the UK. A focus on sales and product development led to a opportunity to create a new business venture within the company. This involved managing a team, developing Products and a Supply chain and creating a UK Market. It also involved working with our European company & supply partners to develop branded products to market across different UK and European territories. The skill set developed included - a mindset to be able to manage change, working proactively within different teams and with a wide range of varied stakeholders to influence and aid decision making. This, coupled with a willingness to learn and be involved in new projects will hopefully equip me to continue to take on the challenges of governance.

I have been a member of the governing board for three years becoming Chair of the Resource Committee, and strategically overviewed health & safety gaining the IOHS qualification to aid understanding of this area.

I have two children in The Hemel Hempstead School and a strong connection to the local area having lived in the town for 55 years

In any spare time I am engaged in a range of outdoor activities.

Relatively new to the board, having been a parent governor for 2 years, I bring a professional diversity coming from a creative industry background. As an actor for 25 years in theatre, tv and film, resilience, perceptiveness, communication, creativity, empathy, team and stamina are all personal and professional qualities that I contribute. I also bring a cultural and religious diversity to my role, being Jewish.

I am a trustee and director of a non-mainstream school educational charity and bring that leadership and governance experience to the Board.

My link role is in Personal Development and I am immensely proud of the growth opportunities we provide for students and the responsiveness with which we act to meet their needs and passions, knowing, from personal experience, that when we do what we love, we thrive. I seek to understand the world from another's perspective, often asking myself and others how a person views situations.

As a coach for a personal and professional training and development company, I am trained to ask "what's missing,the presence of which would make a difference". On the return to work in September 2020 after the first lockdown, I enquired into the "well-being safety net" provision for all staff. Within a short space of time, and thanks to the responsiveness of our DSL, on-tap counselling sessions were put in place for any member of staff. This has been a much appreciated service for our workforce.

I was lucky to have the opportunity to help with the Lateral Flow Testing provision at The Hemel Hempstead School, which gave me a window of time to get to know teachers, other members of staff and many students and hear what they were dealing with; an opportunity not usually available to governors. I am grateful for the depth of insight into the school, that this extraordinary period afforded me.

I have 2 children at The Hemel Hempstead School.

I am the teaching staff governor at The Hemel Hempstead School.

I have been teaching for over 18 years as a teacher of Art and Design and have passionately led a successful department for more than 14 years. In my role as head of department, I am experienced in leading colleagues at different stages of their career and promoting high standards of teaching and learning as a performance appraiser, line manager and mentor to trainees. I have expanded the department to offer a wider range of qualifications at GCSE and A level, extending our curriculum and increasing our numbers. I have the privilege of working closely with both teachers and support staff. 

In my role as a governor, I have chaired the meetings of the Standards Committee (previously Teaching and Learning Committee) and take active part in all discussions and decision making. Having been recently re-elected, I look forward to furthering my experience and undertaking training as required.

I am an EdTech Marketing & Communications Director with 12 years of experience in education leadership, during which I led on a period of substantial growth and digital transformation. My passion for education allowed me to take responsibility for a wide range of projects across further education at board level, including strategic planning, successful mergers and change management, software development and online learning, admissions, CEIAG and curriculum planning.

As a qualified journalist and PR professional I have a passion for writing about education, technology and the creative industries which has developed into expertise in social media for business. In 2021 I completed an MBA, with a focus on the link between marketing and careers education. I have recently completed a term as a trustee of a new charity, Gambling Harm UK, seeing it successfully through its startup phase. For the last eight years my professional expertise has been utilised for mentorship and succession planning, developing future leaders. I am currently working as a consultant with TeachingSchool Hubs to improve marketing and admissions practice and attract more trainee teachers to the sector.

Before retiring three years ago, I spent over 30 years in industry with roles in IT, product & portfolio management, business strategy, and marketing, including board level and director roles in the latter two. Highlights of that career included award winning work on digital inclusion and marketing campaigns in partnership with devolved and local government which generated over £35m of reinvestment funds.

Since then, I have divided my time between a role on the board of Social Housing Provider Thrive Homes, a small scale property renovation consultancy and two Governor roles. As well as being vice chair of Governors at Pixies Hill Primary school, I have served 4 years as Chair of Governors at The Hemel Hempstead School, leading the governing body through the challenges of the pandemic and the implementation of Centre Assessed Grades, a period of unexpected illness for the Head Teacher and most recently the evaluation of options for the future of the school, leading to the school joining a multi academy trust.

In the last 15 years, I have been employed by different regional and international organisations within the internet domain name industry, specialised in stakeholder engagement, policy advocacy, and business and product development. I am currently a product manager at the organisation operating the UK country code top level domain registry, managing the strategic development of different product areas related to .UK domain names and being a custodian of the registry in respect of compliance to internet standards and protocols. 

Over the years, I have been an active volunteer at ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), an international organisation responsible for coordinating the management of the Domain Name System and IP addresses, with focus on policy work related to business operations of domain name registry and registrar.

I am looking to serve The Hemel Hempstead School and support its leadership in making the School the best place to learn and flourish for our children with my professional and volunteering experience. 

I currently serve our borough resident as Cabinet member at Dacroum borough council for housing & property service portfolio holder and as elected Boxmoor councillor since Feb 2022.

I have many years of hospitality business experience and worked with all age of people which gave me chance to engagement with our local community. 

I did my MBA in corporate Finance in 2009 which gave a good start to my career at young age and helped me work in many different industries ie facilities Manager & accounting, beauty. 

I am a people’s person, and enjoy working hands on.