As a parent of three children and being married to a teacher, I have long been surrounded by differing perspectives on the education system. When my youngest daughter began her secondary school journey at Longhill High School, I wanted to become a parent governor to use my skills and experience to give something back to our local school and community. I began my working life in the accountancy world, before moving into IT within local government, which has given me a good appreciation of finance and budgeting processes. In that role I also worked with many of the local education authority services, and am very aware of the pressures and challenges that schools have been and are continuing to be faced with as a result of government policy together with the ambition to help every pupil achieve the best they can. I am passionate about education being inclusive and serving the local community in supporting every child to develop and learn, through both the curriculum and extra curricular activities.

I have two sons whom I am proud to say currently attend Longhill High School and I became a parent governor in June 2022. I wanted to become a governor to support and challenge the direction of the school from a parent perspective. I am interested in education as a teacher myself, working in a special needs school in West Sussex. There I was the designated teacher for children looked after for ten years and I am currently responsible for staff development. I am excited about serving as a governor, working together with Longhill staff and the wider community to ensure success and well being for all students.

I have lived in Saltdean since 1983 and both my daughters came to Longhill High School before college, university and successful careers. I have been a member of the Personnel and Finance committee for many years and also have responsibilities for Safeguarding, Buildings and Health and Safety. For 11 years, until February 2017, I also worked at Longhill High School, as a member of the Cover Supervisor team, taking lessons for Teachers who were absent. This gave me a unique insight into how the School works on a daily basis and gave me access to the Staff to hear their views, enabling me to discuss matters with the Leadership Team, as a Governor, when they arose.

I am a professional classical musician, working as a conductor of orchestras, ballets and operas.  Primarily conducting professional musicians, I have always been involved and passionate about Participation & Learning, and my most rewarding work is sharing my love of classical music with new audiences. I have written a book about conducting which hopefully demystifies the job a little.  I love my profession which takes me all over the world, but I also enjoy connections to my local community.  I have recently moved from London to Brighton and I was on the Governing Board of a local school in North London for several years, which I found to be a very rewarding and interesting responsibility.

I am a practising solicitor and have worked in London and financial centres abroad for almost two decades, leading teams of lawyers and advising global organisations how to meet their commercial objectives whilst putting clients first and managing risk appropriately.  I am passionate about creating high achieving and supportive cultures in which every person feels safe, excited and challenged to deliver their best work.  As a local parent, I aim to support Longhill in pursuit of the same goals for pupils and staff, at a time when the operating environment for schools has never been more difficult and everybody is trying to do more with less.