Governors

For the latest governor newsletter: click here. To find out more about our School Governors, please read their biographies below.
The ELA Scheme of Delegation can be viewed here.

Rowena Barnes

Chair of Governors
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
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
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
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.

Colin Black

Co-Opted Governor
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.

Peter Goodwin

Co-Opted Governor
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
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.

Anyela Camargo Rodriguez 

Co-Opted Governor
I am a Systems Engineer by training and a Biologist by experience. I am Colombian, and early in my career developed a project that used ICT to create a virtual community of sugarcane farmers. The work was recognised by the FAO (Food Agricultural Organisation) and I was invited to their headquarters in Rome and took the opportunity to visit UNESCO in Paris on the way to discuss a different project. This trip to Europe was an amazing opportunity and I met some brilliant people at FAO and UNESCO and a year after this trip, won a scholarship with Korean Telecom and extended my travels to work in South Korea.

After my trip to South Korea, I travelled to England to further my education, completing my PhD at Liverpool University in the Electrical Engineering department, with my thesis focusing on the development of an intelligent system for the early detection of plant diseases. I learnt about Machine Learning, Computer Vision and Plant Biology and the combinations of these three fields became the focus of my research.

Today, I still work in science – it doesn’t pay much, but I love it. I am a Computational Biologist; I use models to explain Biology. I get to work with very clever and fantastic people and I get to work in projects that are designed to make a positive impact in the community. I am passionate about sustainable development.

I became a school governor because I firmly believe that it is through education that we can make a real difference, for it is those early experiences that remain in our minds and later become the foundations of what we become as adults.

Margaret Hyde

Co-Opted Governor
Career

A BBC journalist for 35 years producing, presenting and reporting on radio news programmes in North West England. Became first woman local radio news editor in 1979 and later managing editor of stations in Cambridgeshire and Essex. Had secondments on Corporation strategy groups in television management, national newsgathering in London and on the BBC Charter renewal team.

Was a governor of Anglia Ruskin University for 9 years until 2017 and chaired the Board’s Student Matters Committee. From 2006 to 2012, chairman of the Ixion Group of companies specialising in support for small and medium sized businesses. Was a trustee of the Essex Community Foundation for 10 years and chairman of that county’s Crimestoppers Board.

Currently

A volunteer with the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation. a member of a world-wide women’s organisation, Soroptimist International for 20 years and interim global director in 2013. A member of the City of Cambridge Domestic Abuse Forum and a judge for the annual Society of Editors UK regional press awards. Born in London, married for 50 years with one daughter who attended Girton Glebe 1987-8 before IVC Two grandsons aged 10 and 4.

Kathryn Bigg

Although very newly arrived in Girton, I have spent most of the past 20 years living and working in Cambridgeshire. I read Mathematics at New Hall, Cambridge, before completing my PGCE and MEd there too. After university I taught maths at local secondary schools, spending most of my teaching career at Comberton Village College where I oversaw the introduction of KS5 maths provision when we opened our sixth form.

In recent years I have worked on maths education projects, including Underground Maths (KS5 maths resources) and currently I am developing content for Blutick, a maths education website. This has afforded me the flexibility to continue working in maths education whilst also having young children at home.

We have two children currently attending Girton Glebe, and our youngest is looking forward to being old enough to come too! I am passionate about education and look forward to contributing to the continued success of the school.

Andrew Spencer

Headteacher
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 five-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
Tom Austin

Assistant Headteacher
Associate Governor
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Governor Details, Register of Interests and Meeting Attendance

• Register of Attendance and Interests 2020-2021