Governors

For the latest governor newsletter: click here. To find out more about our School Governors, please read their biographies below.

Rowena Barnes

Chair of Governors
Committees: Resources, Standards & Curriculum, Personnel, Data Scrutiny Taskforce

I have lived in Girton since 1996 and have been a governor at the school since January 2012. I am keen to support the school in developing a strategic plan that supports educational achievement and in developing wider community involvement.

I have over forty years experience of working in and with the National Health Service and have been retired since September 2011. I worked as a Director at Board level over many years and was Interim Chief Executive at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn before becoming Chief Operating Officer at Peterborough & Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust where I oversaw the successful move from four older buildings into the new Peterborough Hospital in November 2010.

My other experiences include working for Pricewaterhouse Coopers for 5 years as a health specialist and I also have strategic, clinical, research and value for money audit experience.   Since my retirement I have enjoyed getting more involved in the village and I’m one of the key organisers of the Girton Feast Week. I also enjoy watching my grand-daughter grow and develop new skills.

Pieter Wallace

Vice-Chair / Parent Governor
Committees: Standards & Curriculum (Chair), Data Scrutiny Taskforce

I have been a Cambridge resident since 1997 and moved with my young family to Girton in 2011. We currently have one child happily enrolled at Girton Glebe Primary School and another attending one of the nurseries in the village.

My professional background is as a teacher with almost 20 years of experience working in the state funded secondary education sector. I read History at the University of York before qualifying as a teacher and securing my first post at St Peter’s School in Huntingdon. Since then, I have worked in a range of school based settings and am currently employed as Deputy Principal at a local 11-16 secondary school, Sawston Village College.

In addition to gaining an insight into the challenges of school leadership, my career includes extensive experience of raising standards and leading change in an education setting and I have particularly enjoyed those opportunities to mentor and coach colleagues looking to develop and improve their practice. I have published articles on both History teaching and initial teacher training and I have collaborated closely with the teacher training programme delivered at Cambridge University; first as a school based subject mentor, then as a professional tutor and finally as a member of the Secondary PGCE standing committee.

My current role includes a strategic focus on raising achievement, academic intervention and improving the outcomes for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Nigel Howlett

Co-Opted Governor
Committees: Resources, Personnel (Chair), Data Scrutiny Taskforce

I have worked in affordable housing in and around Cambridge for 30 years and am currently Chief Executive of CHS Group, a social investment agency and housing association. CHS provides a wide range of services across Cambridgeshire from affordable housing to Early Years childcare and end of life care for older people.

I have lived in Girton for more than 10 years; all my children have been to Girton Glebe and 2 are at the school currently. I have been a governor for over three years and have been most involved with finance and staff recruitment. Beyond my family and work I enjoy gardening and am interested in the weather.

Corinne Garvie

Co-Opted Governor
Committees: Standards & Curriculum, Data Scrutiny Taskforce

I worked for the NHS for 40 years as a Speech and Language Therapist working with many different disorders in children and adults.  During this time I worked in special schools and mainstream schools and in the Child Development Centre. I have taught teachers about the range of communication disorders and how to help children with a communication problem in the classroom and also taught families with little children with very delayed language how to develop their child’s language skills. I have also helped people who stammered and people with voice disorders. Since I retired, I have continued working for the Faculty of Education with students who have poor voice projection and students with a poor teacher presence.
I have been a volunteer at the school which I enjoyed greatly. When I retired I wanted to get involved in the life of the village. As a Governor I am particularly interested in Early Years and Key Stage 1 and Special Needs. My son was born with low tone and dyspraxia and my nephew has Downs so I have personal experience of Special Needs too.

Lucy Wilson

Safeguarding Governor
Parent Governor
Committees: Resources, Personnel

Debbie Macklin

Co-Opted Governor
Committees: Personnel, Standards & Curriculum

Almost 40 years ago, I studied Physical Anthropology at New Hall (now Murray Edwards College) before going into journalism and freelance communication work, which proved flexible with family life and my husband’s career which took us to Brazil, Japan and France.

We came to live in Girton in 2013, after sixteen years living west of Paris, where our two children grew up and went to school. I was a governor in the British Section of the Lycée International in Saint Germain-en-Laye for ten years, where I chaired the Human Resources sub-committee. Albeit in a different context, this experience is what sparked my interest in joining the Governor team at Girton Glebe, along with a desire to get involved in village life. I have been struck by the welcome of a friendly open and caring school led by a committed professional team.

I currently work part-time for the Tropical Biology Association in the Cambridge Conservation Campus; I do freelance editing and writing work, and qualified last year as a Green Badge guide for Cambridge.

Colin Black

Co-Opted Governor
Committees: Resources (Chair)

I have worked in education for the past 15 years, at Coventry University for 5 years as Operations Manager at the School of Lifelong Learning and with Cambridge Assessment for 10 years in a variety of roles, mainly involving the provision of teacher training and learning resources. In my current role as Interim Head of Product Support for OCR, I am responsible for all the assessment support that we provide for teachers in the delivery of our qualifications.

I received a BA (Hons) in Public Administration at Nottingham Trent University, obtained an MA in European Studies from the University of Bradford and recently completed a PG Cert in Educational Studies at the Faculty of Education at Cambridge.

I moved to the village 2 years ago and I have a daughter currently in the school. Having recently become the father of twin boys I am keen to ensure its long term success! I volunteer my time because I have built up a number of skills and experiences over the years which I think can help with the management of the school, and I would like to support all the dedicated and hard-working staff and governors to achieve the best for all of its pupils.

Diana Johnson

Co-Opted Governor
Committees: Resources, Standards & Curriculum

I am London-born and was brought up in Clerkenwell and Finchley, from which a place at Sandhurst beckoned. During 21 years of enjoyable military service, some high points were active service, intelligence work in Berlin and teaching officer cadets at Sandhurst; before  I retired as a lieutenant colonel. Three years at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, brought a master’s degree in Pastoral Theology to complement another in International Relations, and I have held a variety of teaching and leadership posts at a school in Cambridge for nearly 20 years.

Since being ordained as a priest, I have served the people of St Andrew’s in Girton, and I am also keen to give to the wider Girton community. I have three grown-up daughters and proud of my two grandchildren, too. I enjoy hill-walking, photography and am seldom happier than when walking in the wild places of God’s creation.

Peter Goodwin

Co-Opted Governor
Committees: Resources

Originally from Croydon, south London, I studied for a BSc in Accounting & Financial Management at Loughborough University. Upon graduation I moved to Cambridge in 2008 where I started working in audit for Grant Thornton UK LLP and studying to be an Associate Chartered Accountant (ACA). I qualified in 2011 and made the jump out of practice in 2013.

Since then I have worked for two local AIM listed businesses; Domino Printing Sciences plc and Marshall Motor Holdings plc. I am currently Group Financial Accountant at Marshall – responsible for all external statutory financial reporting.

I have lived in Girton since 2010 and got married at St. Andrew’s Church. I enjoy a variety of sport and like to travel. My wife has been involved with the Girton Brownie pack since 2010, and we have two pre-school children in nursery. We enjoy the closeness of the village and the strong links between the school and other local associations.

I look forward to contributing my skills and supporting the fantastic staff achieve their goals and maintain a friendly and challenging educational environment for the children.

Alex Read

Co-Opted Governor
Committees: Standards & Curriculum, Data Scrutiny Taskforce

I am a relative newcomer to Girton, moving here in 2017 and becoming a governor in 2018. Prior to this, I lived in Houston, Texas, and London, and grew up in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

My professional background is in engineering and software. I work for Siemens’ software division, where we help companies design everything from cars to mobile phones and much in-between. I lead a business development organisation in their modelling and simulation business line.

I have spent too much time in universities, having earned an undergraduate degree in Engineering (BEng), a graduate degree in Computational Fluid Dynamics (MSc) both from the University of Leeds, a graduate diploma in Law (GDL) from BPP Law School in London, and a graduate degree in business (MBA) from Rice University in Houston, Texas. Rice is a small university, best known for hosting President Kennedy’s “moon speech”, where he set the challenge for a manned mission to the moon (not because it is easy, but because is it hard), and for having a football stadium large enough to accommodate every graduate from the university in the last 100 years.

We have two children at the school. It’s a privilege to be part of the management team of the school, and helping it provide the best outcome for all students.

Andrew Simpson 

Headteacher
Committees: Resources, Standards & Curriculum, Personnel, Data Scrutiny Taskforce

I began my teaching career in Lancashire in 2001 and spent many years working in the Ribble Valley. From 2007 I worked across county as an Advanced Skills Teacher, supporting schools and colleagues in all aspects of teaching and learning. As an AST I spent 20% of my time on out-reach work specialising in history, Able Gifted and Talented provision and cross-curricular learning.  The AST role also provided me with the opportunity to produce topic plans for the Home Office in support of their PREVENT agenda and I was fortunate enough to spend many years working with the BBC creating online learning resources and advising on educational videos and programmes. The final collaboration I had with the BBC was to create a series of 32 videos based on the series Planet Dinosaur which were accompanied, on their Class Clips website, by my lesson outlines and planning ideas.

My wife and I relocated from Manchester to Cambridgeshire in 2012 where I was appointed as Deputy Headteacher at an Ely school and was part of the ‘Outstanding’ leadership team that guided the school on its journey towards being classified as ‘Good’. My wife and I now have a four-year-old daughter to keep us busy, and aside from family life and school, my passions are playing the guitar (both classical and electric), photography and running.

Throughout my career I have used educational research to develop both my own practice and the culture of the schools I have led. I am a passionate advocate of Prof. Carol Dweck’s work on Growth Mindsets and feel that the insights that this offers are vital in producing resilient, life-long learners.

Joanne Pyle

Assistant Headteacher
Staff Governor
Committees: Standards & Curriculum

Tom Austin

Assistant Headteacher
Associate Governor
Committees: Resources

Governor Details, Register of Interests and Meeting Attendance

Name	Committees	Category of Governor	Appointed by	Term End	Relevant Business/Pecuniary Interest	Governor at Other Schools	Relationship with Other Governors or Staff
Rowena Barnes (Chair)	Standards & Curriculum, Resources, Personnel (Chair)	Co-opted	Governing Body	31.8.18	None	None	None
Nigel Howlett	Resources, Personnel (Chair)	Co-opted	Governing Body	31.8.18	Cambridge Housing Society (Chief Executive)	None	Sharon Howlett, TA
Tanya Sheridan	Resources	Local Authority	Local Authority	14.3.19	None	None	None
Corinne Garvie	Standards & Curriculum	Co-opted	Governing Body	31.8.18	None	None	None
Pieter Wallace (Vice-Chair)	Standards & Curriculum (Chair)	Elected Parent	Parents	2.11.19	None	Sawston Village College (Deputy Principal)
Lucy Wilson	Resources	Elected Parent	Parents	2.11.19	None	None	None
Andrew Simpson	Standards & Curriculum, Personnel, Resources	Head	Ex officio (from 1.9.16)	n/a	Head Teacher	None	None
Jo Pyle	Standards & Curriculum	Elected Staff	Staff	2.11.18	None	None	None
Colin Black	Resources (Chair)	Co-opted	Governing Body	7.11.19	None	None	None
Debbie Macklin	Standards & Curriculum, Personnel	Co-opted	Governing Body	7.11.19	None	None	None
Peter Goodwin	Resources	Co-opted	Governing Body	TBC	None	None	None
Diana Johnson	Resources	Co-opted	Governing Body	TBC	None	None	None
Alex Read	Standards & Curriculum	Elected Parent	Governing Body	TBC	None	None	None
Elise Kinnear		Clerk (Cambs CC)

Full Governing Body: Meeting Attendance 2018-2019

Full Name	11 Sept 2018	27 Nov 2018	22 Jan 2019	2 Apr 2019	7 May 2019	6 June 2019	17 Sept 2019
Rowena Barnes	P	P	P	P	P	P	P
Pieter Wallace	U	P	P	P	P	U	P
Colin Black	U	P	P	P	P	P	P
Corinne Garvie	P	P	P	P	P	P	P
Peter Goodwin	A	P	P	P	P	P	P
Nigel Howlett	P	P	P	P	P	P	P
Diana Johnson	P	P	P	A	P	A	A
Debbie Macklin	P	P	P	P	P	A	A
Jo Pyle	P	P	P	P	P	A	P
Alex Read	P	P	P	P	A	P	P
Tanya Sheridan	A	P	P	P	P	P	P
Andrew Simpson	P	P	P	P	P	P	P
Lucy Wilson	P	P	P	P	P	A	P
Tom Austin	P	P	P	P	A	P	P

Resources (Finance & Premises) Committee: Meeting Attendance

Full Name	4 Oct 2018	22 Nov 2018	10 Jan 2019	7 Mar 2019	25 April 2019	13 June 2019	17 Oct 2019
Rowena Barnes	P	P	A	A	A	P
Nigel Howlett	A	P	P	P	P	P
Lucy Wilson	P	P	P	P	P	P
Andrew Simpson	P	P	P	P	P	P
Colin Black	P	P	P	P	P	P
Tanya Sheridan	P	P	P	P	P	A
Peter Goodwin	P	P	P	P	P	P
Diana Johnson	P	P	P	P	P	P
Tom Austin	A	P	A	P	A	P

Personnel Committee: Meeting Attendance

Full Name	16 Oct 2018	28 Feb 2019	13 Jun 2019
Rowena Barnes	P	P	P
Nigel Howlett	P	P	P
Lucy Wilson	P	P	P
Andrew Simpson	P	P	P
Debbie Macklin	P	P	P

Standards & Curriculum: Meeting Attendance

Full Name	4 Oct 2018	22 Nov 2018	28 Feb 2019	6 June 2019
Rowena Barnes
Andrew Simpson
Corinne Garvie
Pieter Wallace
Jo Pyle

Attendance Key
P= Attended
A = Absent with the consent of the governing body (apologies accepted)
U = Failed to attend or absent without the consent of the governing body