Governors

Michael Marsden

Michael was originally elected as a Parent Governor in 2009 and has served on the Finance and Resources Committees ever since.  Currently Mike is Chair of Governors.   After having seen his daughter successfully go through the school and on to university, he is acutely aware of the challenges faced by both parents and the school at each stage of education.  Mike has endeavored to be an active supporter of the school, and really enjoyed any activities that include pupil involvement, as their boundless enthusiasm and creativeness is infectious.  Since graduating from Sheffield University, Mike has worked as design engineer across a range of industries, including Aerospace and Automotive.  Mike currently manages R&D teams for a silicon valley telecoms company.  

Mike is interested in supporting the leadership team to secure funding to enable improvement of the learning environment and facilities for current and future generations of students.

Membership:  Trustee, member of Local Governing Board.  Chairman of Governors, Member of Resources and Finance Committee.

Caroline Norris

Caroline is an ex Waingels student and became a governor when both her children attended the school. They have now left but she wished to continue to be involved in the school as she cared about quality education for the children of Woodley and the surrounding areas.

Caroline is also the Headteacher at a local primary school, so she is particularly interested in the transition from primary to secondary school. 

Membership:  Trustee, member of Local Governing Board.  Vice Chair of Governors, Teaching, Learning, Culture and Values Committee; Member of Resources and Finance Committee.

David Reilly

David became a governor at Waingels in 2002 when his children attended the school. David is a Chartered Engineer, currently employed as a civil servant in an energy policy role, but spent the majority of his career in the oil and gas industry, mainly in investment portfolio management. David has lived in the Woodley area since 1998 following a 7 year period of living and working in the US and South America. David is the Chairman of the Finance and Resource Committee.

Membership:  Trustee, member of Local Governing Board.  Chair of Resources and Finance Committee; Member of the Teaching, Learning, Culture and Values Committee.

Gareth Hayes

Membership:  Member of Local Governing Board.  Member of Teaching, Learning, Culture and Values Committee and Resources and Finance Committee; Health and Safety Governor. 

Nayana Bharti

Membership:  Member of Local Governing Board.  Member of Teaching, Learning, Culture and Values Committee.  Governors responsible for Educational Visits.

David Whittall

David has lived in Woodley for 30 years and has three children who all enjoyed attending Waingels College before going on to University.

David is employed by a large US technology company where he leads the delivery of high value programmes of work. He has worked on assignments in several European countries, the Middle East and the USA and has substantial experience delivering IT-related professional services including financial and people management.

David graduated from Warwick University (MSc) and Cardiff University (BA Hons) and has a Certificate in Education from Edge Hill College of Higher Education. He started his working life in the early 1980s as a secondary school teacher and has maintained his passion for and interest in education as a School Governor. Also, as part of his commitment to the principle of lifelong learning, David delivers training events and coaching to project management colleagues across Europe.

He is proud to have been a Governor at Waingels for 12 years or so and before that at Woodley Church of England Primary School for 4 years. 

Membership:  Trustee, member of Local Governing Board.  Member of Teaching, Learning, Culture and Values Committee. School Safeguarding Governor.

Heather Manford

Heather is a Parent Governor with a son in the 6^th Form.  Heather is linked with the Intervention and Inclusion Department. Heather was previously a Governor at Woodley Church of England Primary School. Heather works for a Global IT company as a Bid Manager.

Heather feels the continuous legislative changes place huge pressure on our schools and Waingels`  Aims, Values and Visions where “Better Never Stops” will ensure our children will be confident, well-rounded and employable when they leave school.

Heather believes she is an honest parental voice, with the ability to support and challenge on key issues and help establish the school as outstanding for its current and future pupils.

Membership:  Member of Local Governing Board.  Member of Teaching, Learning, Culture and Values Committee; SEN Governor. 

Stuart Alexander

John Kick

John has lived in Woodley since the early 1970's and has been a Governor since 2010.  John’s career was in the IT industry including a stint as HR director for a large American IT company. Both of his children studied at Waingels and went on to University.

During his career John was responsible, among many things, for graduate recruitment and that formed his interest in guiding as many students as he can in preparing themselves  for work both in terms of taking the right paths and then doing the basics of presenting themselves appropriately for selection.

John is now particularly interested and supportive of the new apprenticeship programmes in all sectors, particularly engineering.'

Membership:  Member of Local Governing Board.  Member of Teaching, Learning, Culture and Values Committee and Resources and Finance Committee. 

Rob Hobart

Rob is a parent with 3 children attending Waingels; the family are new to the Woodley area having moved back to the UK in 2017 after 10 years working abroad in the US, South America and Africa.

Professionally Rob has over 20 years of experience in the Food & Drink industry, working in Marketing and Innovation roles.

During his time in Venezuela, Rob was also a Governor of the American International School in Caracas and this instilled an appreciation of the many challenges the different stakeholders face and an interest in helping schools achieve success for its community in its widest sense.

Membership: Member of Local Governing Board. Member of Teaching, Learning, Culture and Values Committee.

Jim Mathieson

Jim started his teaching career in Brighton in 1974 and after teaching posts in Peterborough and Bracknell came to Rivermead Primary School in Woodley as Deputy Head at Christmas 1986. He was appointed substantive head in April 1989. Jim was seconded to the Berkshire Local Management of Schools support team for the spring and summer terms 1992. He left his headship at Rivermead in the summer of 2005 to become a Primary School Improvement Officer with Wokingham Borough Children’s Services. As such he was involved with the launch of the ‘Every Child Matters’ Extended Services agenda in Woodley in 2006. 

During the last 11 years he has also been the Interim Area Manager of two Neighbourhood Teams working with multi-disciplinary teams including social care in 2008-2009, and the Interim Head at Willow Bank Junior School for a year in 2012. 

He has just retired from his Children’s Services post, having also been the lead officer for primary phase assessment in the Borough, accountable for the work with disadvantaged pupils, and the Assistant Head of the Virtual School working with Children in Care and their educational provision. 

His wife is a Key Stage 1 teacher in Wokingham and Jim and Chris have two daughters, both of whom very successfully received their secondary education  at Waingel’s College.

Kevin Wooldridge

Kevin joined the Governing body in February 2019 as a Parent Governor, having two daughters attending Waingels.

Previously a parent governor at Loddon Primary School for 8 years, during a time of much improvement for the standard of education and learning environment, demonstrated by  the Ofsted report documenting improvement both in the School and of its governance.

He is passionate about the continual improvement of the learning environment for our children at Waingels and, being employed in the IT sector recognises the many opportunities and challenges the digital transformation represents for our Children, their learning, and their future.

Kevin has worked at Microsoft since 2000, holding several different positions during this time, currently a Director in the Core Services Engineering & Operations organisation managing a worldwide team responsible for Change Management and Project Implementation across the globe.

In addition to this he and his family work with Guide Dogs for the Blind as boarders for Dogs during their advance training before going out to be partnered with a human that they will support which they find immensely rewarding.

Membership:  Member of Local Governing Board.  Member of Standards Committee and Resources and Finance Committee.

Tom Bartlett- Principal

Tom grew up and went to school in the East Midlands where both his parents were teachers before training as a teacher of Drama and English at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, graduating in 1983. After completing his induction year at an inner city primary school in London, and having always wanted to travel, Tom took up a teaching position in a small rural secondary school in Botswana in Southern Africa, and having initially only signed up for a two year contract, it was 17 years before he finally returned to the UK during this period Tom served as a Teacher of maths and English, as a National Schools Athletics Coach, he was Deputy Headteacher of two large boarding schools, a University Lecturer and a Headteacher of a rural community school for 5 years.

Tom returned to the family home in West Oxfordshire in 2001 and taught in two Oxfordshire schools as a Head of Year and as a pastoral leader before joining Waingels in 2008 as a Vice Principal. At Waingels he has held responsibility for Staff Development and Teaching and Learning and was appointed as Principal in September 2016. Tom is a passionate advocate of community based comprehensive education, having spent his entire career covering four decades– both here and oversees - serving in state-funded community schools. He lives in West Oxfordshire with his wife and daughter. 

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