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Governor Who's Who

Christ Church School has 14 governors. Please see below for more details about the people who currently make up the Governing Body.

The Department for Education instructs that governors should be recruited for the skills they can bring into the service of the school.  The 14 governors are made up of 8 foundation governors, 1 nominated by the borough, 1 member of staff, 2 elected by the parents, 1 co-opted and the Headteacher.  This gives a majority of 2 foundation governors as required by legislation.

NAME

DETAILS/REGISTER OF INTEREST

Robert Shrimpton

Chair of Governors

Governor Type: Foundation Governor appointed by the Diocese

Date of Office: September 2022 - August 2026

Committee Membership: Admissions, Business Impact, Human Resources & Pupil Impact

Robert (Chair of Governors) has worked in the Education sector for 12 years and is a qualified teacher with experience teaching children with special needs across the Key Stages. He is an Assistant Headteacher at Cricket Green School in Mitcham. Robert is a Designated Safeguarding Lead with expertise in this field and delivering training to support special needs children in education.

Amy Brown

Governor Type: Staff Governor

Date of Office: November 2021 - October 2025

Committee Membership: Business Impact & Christian Ethos

Amy has taught for 8 years and has experience across Key Stage 2. She is currently teaching in Year 6. Originally from North Yorkshire, she began teaching in a small village primary school before moving to London to teach at Christ Church at the beginning of 2020. She is the lead of writing in the school as well as being the Upper Key Stage 2 Teaching and Learning Lead. She is passionate about helping children and staff reach their full potential as well as creating a happy and safe learning environment. Amy is an avid reader in her spare time and enjoys sharing her knowledge of books with colleagues. She is a keen traveller and enjoys visiting new places all across the world and she is able to share the stories of her travels with the children. She is looking forward to speaking on behalf of the children and staff of Christ Church.

Claire Caldwell

Governor Type: Elected Parent Governor

Date of Office: May 2021 - April 2025

Committee Membership: Admissions, Christian Ethos (Chair) & Pupil Impact

Claire is a parent of four children, two at the School and two in secondary school. Her family are part of New Malden Baptist church. Claire previously taught RE and Philosophy at a secondary school in Tooting. Originally from Northern Ireland, but has enjoyed living in Vancouver and Zambia before moving to New Malden. Claire is also deeply interested in wellbeing amongst both staff and pupils.  Claire enjoys sports, cooking and travelling, though people bring her the biggest joy. 

Anna Edwards

Governor Type: Foundation governor appointed by the Diocese

Date of Office: May 2022 - April 2026

Committee Membership: Pupil Impact (Chair) & Christian Ethos

Anna is a member of Christ Church and has two children at the School. Anna is a qualified teacher who has been working in education for 12 years. She currently works as Head of Psychology at Kingston Grammar School and has previously taught science as a nurture group teacher. 

 

Marcy Gwanzura

Governor Type: Foundation governor appointed by the Diocese

Date of Office: August 2021 - July 2025

Committee Membership: Business Impact & Human Resources

Marcy comes from an engineering, computer science and business background and, as a Cyber Security engineer, is passionate about fostering a sense of gender equality and racial diversity within primary school education and encouraging children from all backgrounds to pursue their interest in STEM subjects. As a practising Christian, she hopes to inspire pupils to explore the positive relationship between faith and education. Having two daughters has taught her a lot about being compassionate, patient and attentive to children’s needs and creating an environment conducive to healthy development. As a governor, she believes she can bring a wide range of experience, having worked in the private and public sectors. She is particularly interested in ensuring mathematics and IT lessons are engaging and accessible to all students.

Andrew Rankin

Governor Type: Governor appointed by the Local Authority

Date of Office: January 2021 - December 2025

Committee Membership: Admissions (Chair), Business Impact & Human Resources (Chair)

Andrew retired a few years ago from working in the post-16 sector of education, but he has a lively interest in primary education. He has college management experience and is a long term Association for Science Education member.  Andrew is keen that all subjects are taught well, but science is his passion. Andrew has been a member of Christ Church since he was a teenager.

Mike Sainsbury

Governor Type: Foundation governor appointed by the Diocese

Date of Office: September 2020 - August 2024

Committee Membership: Business Impact (Chair) & Human Resources

Mike has lived in New Malden since 1986 and is a member of St Johns, Kingston Road. He has been an Operations Manager at UCL since 2018, having previously worked in Human Resources for many years. Mike has been delighted to bring his personal and professional experience to the school, particularly on the HR and Business Impact committees. Mike enjoys working with the school’s excellent staff and other governors to ensure that Christ Church remains a school where every pupil has the opportunity to thrive in a caring Christian community.

Andre Rickerby

Governor Type: Elected Parent Governor

Date of Office: November 2023 – October 2027

Committee Membership: Business Impact

Profile to follow

Joy Uren

Governor Type: Foundation Governor appointed by the SDBE

Date of Office: June 2022 - May 2026

Committee Membership: Admissions, Human Resources & Pupil Impact

Joy is a member of St John the Divine Church in New Malden and has been associated with Christ Church school for many years as a neighbour and parent of two girls who attended the School several years ago. Joy taught for many years in special education at St Philips School in Chessington. She is a specialist dyslexia teacher and has worked part-time tutoring from home since retiring in 2012. She has a great interest in the area of dyslexia and in facilitating young people to achieve their potential.

Neil Meehan

Governor Type: Headteacher Ex-officio

Date of Office: September 2022 - ongoing

Committee Membership: Pupil Impact, Business Impact, Human Resources & Christian Ethos

Neil has been Headteacher since September 2022. Neil has 16 years of previous headship experience in community and church schools, over three different schools, including most recently as Executive Headteacher of Ashford and Laleham CofE Primary Schools in Surrey.

Register of Interest: Where no Register of Interest is noted, this is because the governor has declared that they have no pecuniary or business interests related to the school. They have also declared that they have no family or close personal connections to those working for the school. Declarations of Interest 2022

Local Authority Governor Checklists (which further indicates governor areas of interest): Kingston LA maintains a list of Mandatory Governing Roles. These will be reviewed in the Full Governing Body meeting on 29th September. For the 2022-23 academic year, these were as follows:

Chair: Robert Shrimpton; Clerk to Governors: Julia Tagg; Safer Recruitment (trained governors): Andrew Rankin and Neil Meehan; Performance Management (trained governors): Robert Shrimpton and Joy Uren.

Kingston LA also maintains a list of Link Governing Roles. In 2022/23 these are as follows: Child Protection: Robert Shrimpton & Andrew Rankin; Curriculum: Mike Sainsbury; Health and Safety: Mike Sainsbury; Looked after Children: Joy Uren; SEND: Joy Uren; Early Years: Robert Shrimpton.

Associate members

Associate members are non-governors who sit on at least one sub-committee. Associate members have no voting rights at the Full Board of Governors and, at CCNM, no voting rights at the committee level.

NAME

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS (with no voting rights)

Andrew Burkinshaw

Date of Office: September 2017 – ongoing

Committee Membership: Full Board, Business Impact, Christian Ethos, Pupil Impact & Human Resources

Andrew is the School’s Deputy Headteacher. Before becoming a teacher, Andrew trained as a barrister before working in and around politics for ten years. He and his family live in New Malden, where they are members of New Malden Baptist Church. Both Andrew's daughters attended Christ Church.   

Ian Duncan

Date of Office: June 2017 – ongoing

Committee Membership: Business Impact

The School’s Business Manager, Ian is responsible for anything that affects the operation of both sites, including health and safety, maintenance, finances and human resources. Ian was a foundation governor of Christ Church Infants and then the amalgamated Primary School for eight years. Both Ian’s daughters attended the School.

Anna Hornby

Date of Office: September 2020 – ongoing

Committee Membership: Christian Ethos

Anna has been teaching at Christ Church for the last 7 years and has enjoyed getting to know the Christ Church community over that time, having lived all her life in the local area. Anna has taught in LKS2 for many years and is now enjoying teaching Year 6. Anna's passion for education stemmed from her first teaching experience in Ethiopia in 2014, where she enjoyed immersing herself in local Ethiopian life and culture. Anna is an active member of her local church and finds it a great privilege to incorporate her faith into school life. Outside school, Anna enjoys cooking, knitting and walking in the Surrey countryside with her husband.

Past Governors (who have served within the last 12 months)

NAME

DETAILS

Emma Scott

Governor Type: Elected Parent Governor

Date of Office: November 2018 – October 2023

Committee Membership: Business Impact & Pupil Impact

Dave Pamphilon

Governor Type: Foundation governor appointed by the Diocese

Date of Office: May 2022 - March 2024

Committee Membership: Business Impact & Pupil Impact