Governors

 GOVERNING BODY

 

Denis Collins (Community Governor)

Denis has served for many years as a Warrington school governor commencing with a Warrington High School 30 years ago. His service at Lysander commenced around 1990 and he has undertaken many roles, presently being Chair.
 

A local pastor, living in Orford, Denis is involved in many local activities and has a real compassion for the youth of the area. Lysander is a very important factor in Denis's life and he is confident that the school will go from strength to strength. Having served in industry for many years as an Export Manager, he is well aware of the needs of the modern society and contributes his experience for the good of the school.
 

Currently he is Chair of Directors at the Walton Lea/Long lane Projects employing special needs adults, and Vice Chair of Warrington Community Transport (Dial-a-Ride).

Michelle Gammo-Felton (Community Governor)

Michelle has been working in Higher Education for almost ten years. Whilst studying for her BA in Management and Organisations at Lancaster University Michelle was both a College President and worked as a student ambassador for the Student Recruitment Team. This led her to the role of Undergraduate Student Recruitment Officer for the university. In this role Michelle actively recruited students into the degree programmes through a range of initiatives including summer programmes, HE Fairs, talks, parents evenings and school tours, as well as developing recruitment strategies for individual courses.
 

In 2005, Michelle moved to the University of Westminster in a joint role, the first was to coordinate the national AchieveAbility project, the second was to continue in student recruitment for the University. The AchieveAbility project involved managing a variety of projects, which aimed to break down the barriers to Higher education for young people with Specific Learning Difficulties. This involved managing mentoring projects, teacher training courses, organising profile raising events and lobbying government.

Since 2008, Michelle has worked at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts as the Widening Participation Manager. The role involves managing partnership projects with schools and colleges, developing a strategic plan to widen participation, fund raising, managing residential summer schools and working in the local community. Michelle has a team of tutors who work for her on a part time basis to deliver performing arts training for young people, the community and teachers. She is also the lead Child Protection Officer at LIPA and trains staff/students on working safely with young people.

Michelle brings an in-depth knowledge of higher education, student recruitment, community/education partnerships, social justice, child protection and fund raising. Michelle also has a Masters in Social Justice and Education.

 

Chris Wakefield (Community Governor)

Chris comes from London where he was born in 1943. He has been based in the North West since graduating with a degree in Chemical Engineering at Cambridge. Chris is married to Joan and they have three children.
 

His professional life has been spent in the manufacturing industry with exciting excursions into international business systems projects. Since retirement he has more time to pursue his interests in walking, skiing, cycling, cooking, languages, distance learning with the Open University and all sorts of DIY activities.
 

With his family he has been fortunate in spending time abroad. His eldest children received their primary education in The Netherlands and in Brazil. In the Netherlands he learned that there are many alternative viable models for school organisation but all depend on proper public funding and proper targeting to the needs of the individual. In spite of recent improvements he still believes that British education is too much biased towards the needs of those who will ultimately benefit from academically orientated higher education.
 

Chris became a school governor when his children were at Lymm High School a number of years ago now. He hopes that his experience over the years with chairing staffing and curriculum committees will be of benefit to Lysander High School.

Brian Glover (LA Appointed Governor)

Brian has been a Local Authority governor for over 15 years and is at present Chair of the Student Welfare Committee and a member of the Staffing Committee. Brian is also Vice Chair of the governing body of Longbarn County Primary School.
 

Having started his teaching career in Shropshire, he joined the staff of Boteler Grammar School in 1964 and remained there through its many phases until taking early retirement in 1992, teaching English at all levels. For many years, he was in charge of Careers and Pre-Vocational Education and organised many conferences and activities in this field. He also helped with rugby and the Duke of Edinburgh Award.
 

Brian's daughter attended Padgate Community High School (as it was then) and his grandson has just started at Lysander Community High School.
 

He is a keen rugby supporter and a regular golfer.

 

Neill Harris (LA Appointed Governor)

Neill has been a LA Governor at Lysander Community High School for nearly two years and has really enjoyed playing a part in the life of a school which he believes is on a journey from good to great!
 

He is now a civil servant working for the DCSF (Education Ministry) but previously he worked in the Education Department in Warrington Borough Council and before that he was a teacher for 20 years.
 

Neill's second teaching job was at Woolston High School when Padgate High school was a newly opened neighbouring New Town school and his last teaching job was at Birchwood High. When he was Senior Adviser for schools with Warrington he worked with the family of Woolston schools. So although he doesn't live in the Padgate and Woolston community he has many friends, colleagues and former students in the area, lots of fond memories and a real attachment to the community.
 

He has a 22 year old daughter and a 16 year old son so he is keenly aware of the difference schooling can make to the happiness, well-being and life chances of a child.
 

He hopes the blend of being a dad, an educationalist and a believer in the strength and quality of the Woolston and Padgate communities enables him to make a positive contribution to the direction and development of Lysander. In return he gets to meet some amazing school staff and governors, drop into a friendly school canteen for a tasty snack, but most importantly be in the company of Lysander students and delight in their energy, spirit, talent and ambition.

Jacqui Waby (LA Appointed Governor)

Jacqui brings over a decade's experience in the events industry in a variety of roles including event management, venue sales, client liaison and project management.
 

Following her studies at the University of Liverpool (BA (Hons) English Language and Literature and MSc Information Systems), she began her career in the Event Management Services team at Liverpool John Moores University before moving to a role with the leading healthcare charity, the King's Fund, in London.
 

Prior to joining UMIC (University of Manchester Incubator Company) as Event Sales and Conferencing Manager in June 2009, Jacqui was Business Development Manager for Convex Leisure, an independent catering and hospitality company operating in London and the South-East. During her time with the company she managed the sales, events and business development activities for Convex Leisure at a variety of prestigious venues including the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and Bournemouth International Centre, managing relationships with major clients including the Labour Party, the Royal College of Nursing, Nationwide and Barclays Bank.
 

Jacqui offers a range of management skills including event management, marketing, sales, financial management and business planning.
 
 

John Butler (Parent Governor)

John has been both a parent and community governor for over 6 years, and is currently the vice chair of governors. He has two sons, Colin who studied at Lysander and Fearnhead Sixth Form College leaving in 2009 and Adam who at present is in year 8.
 

John is married to Christine and they have lived in Warrington for 27 years. He is employed by Salford City Council in the traffic and transportation section.
 

John's hobbies include fishing and fell walking.

 

Sid Charlton (Parent Governor)

Sid has lived in Warrington all of his life, he went to St James Primary School, Latchford, and then on to Richard Fairclough Secondary Modern School. He started work on his 15th birthday as an apprentice moulder in an Iron Foundry where he worked for 20 years, before moving to Crosfield Chemical Company, working with electricians before retiring after 20 years service.
 

Sid is married to Marjorie and had a daughter Jackie (deceased 2001). Jackie left a son Paul who now lives with them, so they are parents/grandparents. Paul is a student in year 10 at Lysander High School so this is where Sid's interest in the school originates.

Sid has been a parent governor for 3 years, and is on the Student Welfare Committee, he is also an Exam Invigilator at Lysander. Sid is the Chair of The Warrington Spinal-Bifida Association, which he helped to get started in 1972.

Sue Conneely (Parent Governor)

Sue Conneely has 7 children, they have all attended Padgate/Lysander High school. The older children 26/24/22, are now following successful careers after completing University degrees and Masters programmes. One daughter is at Chester University, one son at Lysander College and the youngest two are pupils in year 7 and 9.
 

She is a higher level teaching assistant, now working in a nurture group at Meadowside Primary school in Orford, and until recently worked at Longbarn Community Primary School. Her involvement with Longbarn also included being a parent governor for 12 years, serving as SEN, gifted and talented governor and being on the finance committee, curriculum and nursery. She also sat on many staff interview panels as well as disciplinary and appeals.
 

Sue especially values the support that her children have received at all levels whilst at Lysander and sees the planned future developments as an exciting time for education. She feels privileged to have such an insight into the plans for Lysander.


Anthony Horrigan (Parent Governor)

Anthony has lived in Warrington for 17 years with his partner Stephanie and has one daughter Samantha, who in September 2009 successfully gained a place at Manchester University, having studied at Lysander High and Fearnhead Sixth Form College respectively.
 

He has been a parent governor for over 2 years and is currently the Link Training governor and acting chair for both the Staffing and Community and Marketing committees.
 

He is employed as the national Geographic Information Systems (GIS) manager, part of the Spatial Intelligence team for the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), to whom he has been employed for over 17 years. During his employment period he has gained numerous professional qualifications and has developed strong skills in communication, business planning and effective team working, he is also currently an active member of the AGI – Association for Geographic Information and BCS – British Cartographic Society, he is also studying to become a Chartered Geographer (GIS) accredited.

Outside of work and family life he is a very keen runner, fell walker and ornithologist.

Karen Rowland (Parent Governor)

Karen lives in the local community and is married with two sons, both of whom attend Lysander Community High School.
 

She is a former pupil of the school and sixth form college, one of the original intake of pupils when the school first opened in the late 1970's. She left to embark on a career as a photographic artist for several years, followed by five years working as a colour separation artist in the wallpaper industry, before taking a break to raise her family.
 

She is currently employed as a teaching assistant at one of the partner primary schools, Cinnamon Brow C.E. Primary and was part of the team when the school was graded as 'Outstanding' by Ofsted. During her time at the school, Karen has worked in all year groups and has supported children with very challenging behaviour and complex needs, all with successful outcomes. She works closely with members of staff to plan and deliver a wide variety of lessons to mixed age and mixed ability classes and has a good understanding of the school curriculum. She has recently achieved Higher Level Teaching Assistant status.
 

 

Heather Stanway (Parent Governor)

Heather has always felt the need to be involved in her daughter's education. She joined the PTA at her primary school and when she moved to Lysander she joined the board of governors to hopefully have a positive involvement in her daughter's future education and the school development.
 

She counts it as a privilege to be a governor and being part of a team who all have the same goals and future aspirations for Lysander High school.
 

Since leaving school she has volunteered for many businesses, including, Rape crisis, woman's Aid and Youth Clubs. Being part of the governor team takes up a lot of her spare time, so for the next few years she will concentrate on my child's future.
 

 

 

Mike Howard (Support Staff Governor)

Mike is a support staff governor and the school's catering manager; he has worked at the school for nearly 10 years. Mike is member of the community and marketing, finance and staffing and student welfare committees. He is also a local parish councillor and sits on many outside committees within the borough which being a local representative for the area gives him more avenues to explore; this can complement the school and governing board on a number of issues. Mike feels he fulfils his role as a school governor and looks forward to future challenges.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom Edwards (Teacher Staff Governor)

Tom trained as an electronic engineer and spent a few years doing academic research at Hull University before deciding on a career in Mathematics Teaching. He began his career in Fulham in a challenging inner-city school and since then has worked in several schools including William Beamont before joining Lysander Community High School.
 

As a mathematics teacher he has a keen interest in developing thinking skills and has been actively involved in the Warrington CAME project (Cognitive acceleration through mathematical education) which helped to develop a borough wide strategy for teaching students how to work together and problem solve. His current responsibility is to help raise achievement in the Mathematics Department a job which, though challenging is proving immensely rewarding.
 

Tom's ambition is to become an AST and work to help develop a more child centred approach to teaching mathematics across the school and the borough.

Fay Welsh (Teacher Staff Governor)

Fay began her teaching career as an NQT mathematics teacher at "Padgate Community High School" in 1993. She was elected as a Staff Governor in 2008. As a Staff Governor, Fay has sat on several committees including Curriculum and Finance and Buildings, gaining experience into the many and varied roles of the School Governor.
 

Following her studies at Sheffield University (Bsc Hons in Pure and Applied Mathematics) Fay studied Accountancy with Boddingtons, based in the North West, before taking up a PGCE place to train as a Mathematics teacher in 1992.
 

Fay's teaching experience within School has included mathematics at all key stages 3 to 5 across the whole ability range ( including Special Needs, Gifted and Talented and successful Oxbridge candidates), together with lower school science and ICT. Within her wider managerial role as Assistant Headteacher Fay has responsibility for the school curriculum development, the school timetable for pupils and staff, 14-19 collaborative provision across the LA including the new diplomas, options guidance at key stages 4 & 5 and line management of the very successful Lysander Sixth Form College. In addition she also holds the role of Educational Visits Coordinator, ensuring all school trips and events meet LA and Government regulations.
 

Married, with two teenage daughters, Fay believes very passionately in the development of the "whole student" by ensuring that the individual needs of every child are met not only through the appropriateness of courses but also through varied and extensive extra-curricular activities, including musical and sporting opportunities.