Meet our Governors

Alan Dunstan – Chair of Governors. Joined the board as a governor in January 2020, as a member of the Finance & General Purposes Committee, following a move to Goring in 2018. A 35 year career in financial services in senior roles as a qualified banker, management consultant and plc director, allows me to contribute to the financial wellbeing and the evolution of Langtree School. During my career, thirteen months were spent seconded to HMG in the Environment Ministry; this followed the Liverpool (Toxteth) riots in July 1981 and riots in cities across England and Wales. The role was to look at inner city deprivation and social inequality. My various commercial roles have facilitated travel across the world to investigate and implement new product ideas and technologies. Much of my career has been spent in marketing departments at senior level with responsibility for developing advertising campaigns on TV, Press and in Cinemas. Since retiring I spent several years as a volunteer and trustee with the Lantern in Ringwood, a residential centre for adults with learning difficulties. Whilst living in Cape Town, I supported a Waldorf township school in Hermanus for many years and continue to do so today.

Alan Broomhead. I am connected with Langtree as both a parent and a governor, having had 4 children go through the school as students. My tenure as a governor is over 10 years now and during that time my main focus has been on the financial and infrastructure aspects of school life. I’m currently the chair of the Finance and General Purposes Committee, the team that provides strategic guidance and support for the Senior Leadership team on such things as balancing the books, financial procedures, catering, personnel and staffing matters, capital projects and buildings maintenance. I value the opportunity to help steer the school through challenging times in those areas and in some way contribute to its ongoing success. On the professional front, I qualified as a Physicist and have spent time in engineering and software development. I am now retired after working in various operations management roles for Microsoft UK.

Catherine Roche – Vice Chair of Governors. Living in Purley for over 18 years, I was really pleased to join Langtree’s Board of Governors in January 2021 as a parent, with my child now in Year 9. I sit on Langtree’s Pastoral and Community Committee and am the link governor for Pupil Premium. Growing up in Ireland, my career began in teaching before completing an MBA and joining KPMG Consulting. Since 2014 I have been CEO of Place2Be, a children’s mental health charity which provides mental health services in schools across the UK. I am a member of the Board of the NHS Confederation Mental Health Network and a non-executive Director of GoodCorporation Ltd. It is a pleasure to be part of the Langtree school community and support the education and wellbeing of our young people with a firm commitment to helping each of our young people to achieve their full potential.

Linda Burton. I have lived in Woodcote for nearly 20 years. I am a qualified accountant who has worked in industry for over 35 years. I became interested in becoming a governor as a way of giving back to the school after my son, who was a student at the time, and I, received fantastic pastoral support during my son’s dad’s illness and subsequent death. As a result of putting myself forward as a governor I sit on the Pastoral and Community committee, headed by Vicki Hamilton. I like to be involved in the community, so in addition to still working, I am a Beaver Scout leader at the local Goring Heath Scout Group, volunteer my time as a Poppy Appeal Organiser for the Royal British Legion, and currently sit on the Woodcote Village Fete committee.

Jesse Cleverly. I live in Goring on Thames and have a daughter in year seven, and two more coming up though Goring Primary School. I am a film and television producer with my own production company which enables young creative talent to take their careers to the next level, recently winning a BAFTA for a short film made by two young creators. Before starting my own company I was Head of Co-Production and Acquisitions for BBC Children’s, centrally involved in commissioning the programming the BBC broadcast to young audiences. I am a product of and passionate believer in state education, and is determined to see more young people from the state sector enter the media. 

Vicki Hamilton. I have lived in South Oxfordshire for the past 40 years, having worked as a family doctor for most of that time. I retired from medicine in 2013. I am a parent of four grown up children, and now a grandparent. I hope that with my knowledge of how important the school environment is in influencing young people’s well being, enabling children to reach their full potential , I can make a contribution as a school governor. I am keen to continue to serve the local community.

Sarah Parish. I live in Caversham Heights and have a grandson who is currently in Year 8 at Langtree. My whole career has been in education: as a primary teacher, teaching children across the whole age range, then as a Headteacher in the 12 years before I retired. (During my career breaks, when my two daughters were young, I was a Playgroup supervisor and adult Literacy and Numeracy tutor.) (I have also worked with Reading’s School Improvement Team in the area of Looked After Children and research for the Reading ASD Strategy.) Currently I am a member and vice chair of Reading’s Foster Panel. I hope that by being a governor at Langtree School, I can use my experience and knowledge to make a valuable contribution to the whole school community.

Christine Reeves. I have lived in Goring for 38 years and have 2 grown up daughters. I am a Social Science graduate who qualified as a social worker, and worked in Children’s Social work for over 20 years. I then moved to the NHS in London commissioning Children’s health and mental health services for 15 years, gaining experience of multi-agency working in diverse communities as well as spending time as Children’s Policy lead for health in London. Since retiring I am a member of Oxfordshire’s Adoption Panel and an independent Fostering agency panel. I look forward to supporting the Langtree community as a Governor and continuing my interest in children’s education, well being and life chances.

Kirsty Rogers. I am the Deputy Headteacher at John Mason School in Abingdon. I have a passion for education and believe every child has the potential to make a difference in the world. With the right curriculum and support in place all students can achieve. I am a firm believer in research-based education and so after achieving a degree in mathematics and completing my PGCE in Mathematics teaching, I continued my own education in order to gain an MRes in Leadership and Mathematics Education. I continue to use the skills and knowledge I gained from this in my everyday work, ensuring that changes I make for school improvement are well thought out, researched and effectively planned for. I have been a qualified teacher for 12 years and have experience in inner city schools, an Upper School and now here at John Mason, a comprehensive school part of the Abingdon Learning Trust. Each of the schools I have worked in have given me valuable experience including being part of the journey from joining a school in “special measures” and helping to lead it into being classed as “good”. I am keen to use my experience to support my local community and stand by my values of every child deserves a good education.

Hayley Scott – I live in South Oxfordshire with my family and our son is in year 8 at Langtree School. My background is working for the Metropolitan Police as a Forensic Practitioner (Crime Scene Investigator) where I worked for 14 years. After leaving the police I set up a company where I run educational and entertaining forensic events for children and adults throughout England. I’ve been doing this for the past 4.5 years. I am also a university lecturer at a local university where I have created and run the forensic studies modules for the BSc Hons Forensic Studies & Criminology degree. I am an Alumni and graduated in 1998 with a BSc Hons in Criminology & Sociology. Running forensic workshops in schools and CSI after school clubs means I’m experienced working with students of all ages and its great that I’m able to be involved in Langtree as a governor and support the local school.

Jan Seal-Roberts. I am a medical publisher within Springer Nature, a global scientific publishing company, and have particular professional knowledge of drugs and disease therapy. Within the school context, having employed many graduates over the years, I am particularly interested in the teaching of English and Science—but also how young people learn, and are prepared for the world of work. I have been a Governor of Langtree for more than 15 years, since my own children were students at the school, and have been delighted with the way the school has developed and the students have thrived over this time. But with the recent appointment of our terrific new headteacher, Simon Bamford, supported by our dedicated staff team, I firmly believe that Langtree is now stronger than ever – and as a governing body, we are looking forward to even greater things!

Clive Watts. In 2019 we moved from Caversham to Woodcote, and I retired after 40 years in IT. My career included pioneering the internet as a future business tool and managing IT security across EMEA for Digital Equipment Corp. Since co-founding a small company 12 years ago, which provided disaster recovery and cloud services to a number of large companies, my role has been that of Sales Director. My grandson is currently in year 9 at Langtree and I have been impressed with the attitude and ethos of the school from day one. I am keen to offer any of my many years of experience that may be relevant to the school and its governing body. I am currently on the Finance and General Purposes Committee, with additional responsibility for Health and Safety.

Nima Zarrabi – I am an Investment analyst in the UK Equities team at Invesco. Analysing, selecting and investing across the UK stock market. Prior to this I held several roles within the Investment Risk function. Prior to joining Invesco, I was a Teaching Assistant at the University of Essex in various finance and econometrics subjects including statistics, quantitative methods and time series modelling, both at graduate and undergraduate levels. I have a PhD in Finance and is a visiting lecturer at Kings College and Queen Mary University, London

Simon Bamford- Headteacher

Lucy Phipps – Staff Governor Head of Geography. Head of Year 11. AQA GCSE Geography Team Lead examiner.

Annie Temple – Staff Governor. Following an Honours Degree in German, with English as my subsidiary subject, from Goldsmiths College, London, I unintentionally fell into a career in finance, ending up as the Group Financial Controller of a group of companies in the Reading area. I took a career break to have a family and it was finding out that my eldest child was dyslexic that re-awakened my interest in pedagogy and learning. Following a course in Mental Imaging I started working as a TA at Langtree in 2015 and am now the Pupil Premium Interventions Coordinator and Young Carers Lead. I am also the school ELSA