If you have any questions about these roles, and/or would like to find out more and apply to be a Malmesbury School Governor please contact Elaine Smith, the Clerk to the Governors, via the school email address: admin@malmesbury.wilts.sch.uk marking it FAO Elaine Smith

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Pen Portraits

Tamsyn Luggar – Co-opted Governor (Chair)

Tamsyn was elected to the Governing Body in July 2018.  She has been a School Governor since 2012, initially at Lea and Garsdon Primary School and then at Westonbirt School.  Tamsyn has a degree in Geography and qualified as a Chartered Mineral and Waste Surveyor.  She is also a swim coach with Malmesbury Marlins ASC.

Deborah Gray – Co-opted Governor (Vice Chair)

Deborah joined the Governing Body in September 2000 and served as Chair from 2004 until 2018. Both her children attended Malmesbury School and, although their needs were different, they both thrived and enjoyed their time at the school. Years on, they would say that Malmesbury School made them who they are today. Deborah is a freelance food and travel writer who enjoys yoga, literature, live music and theatre.

Sharon Millar – Co-opted Governor

Sharon joined the Governing Body in 2008, having just moved to the area from Northern Ireland where she worked as 6th Form Study Manager with one of the Province’s leading Grammar Schools. She now lives and works in Malmesbury running her own Recruitment and Management Consultancy business. She has until recently been a Childline Volunteer involving support for children in long term residential or foster care. She has three sons, one of whom attended Malmesbury School and a stepson who attended the school.

Brett Jouny – Headteacher

Brett joined the Governing Body as an ex-officio member on his appointment in September 2021.

Sue Poolman– Co-opted Governor

Sue joined the Governing Body in 2012. She practised as a solicitor in East London for over twenty years, specialising in Legally Aided Family and Criminal cases. After this she spent a decade living in Switzerland, where she took an active part at her daughters’ school. She moved to Malmesbury in 2009 and is now involved with various local organisations, including the Athelstan Museum, Carnival and Oxfam.

Hayley Twist – Staff Governor

Hayley joined the Governing Body in 2016. She teaches Science at Malmesbury School. Hayley is currently on maternity leave

Tillie Rundle – Staff Governor

Tillie joined the Governing Body in 2022 to provide maternity cover.  She teaches English at Malmesbury School.

Lara Farahar – Co-opted Governor

Lara Farahar joined the Governing Body in 2021 and has three children at Malmesbury School. Lara lives in Malmesbury with her family. She is a primary school teacher as well as a speech and drama tutor and examiner for LAMDA.

David Mitchell – Co-opted Governor

David became a parent governor in 2008 when both his daughters were at the school and became the first Chair of the Athelstan Trust in 2015. After a several years break, he returned to the Malmesbury Governing Body in 2021.  He owns a brand consultancy working with a Formula 1 team , F1 drivers and various corporate clients. He is also a keen wildlife photographer.

Caroline Wild – Co-opted Governor

Caroline joined the Governing Body in 2021.  She attended Malmesbury School and went on to earn a BEd in Primary Education. She has taught children from EYFS to KS2 as well as tutoring children with SEND. Caroline has a son at Malmesbury School and she sings with the Malmesbury Community Choir.

Amy Lydiate – Parent Governor

Amy Lydiate joined the Governing Body in 2022 as a Parent Governor.

Tom Summerbee – Staff Governor

Tom joined the Governing Body in 2022.  He teaches Modern Foreign Languages in Malmesbury School.

Catherine Oxtoby (Co-opted Governor)

Catherine joined the Governing Body in 2022.  She qualified as a vet and worked in local practices for 13 years before undertaking a PhD at Nottingham vet school. She currently works for a bespoke insurance company assessing and underwriting veterinary risk, and supervises 3 PhD students. She has two boys who both attend the school and is married to Tom – one of the directors at The George Vets in town.

Brian Fung (Co-opted Governor)

Brian joined the Governing Body in 2022.  He is originally from Hong Kong, having moved to the United Kingdom in 2021.

Florence Yu – Parent Governor

Florence joined the Governing Body in 2022.  Originally from Hong Kong, she has a background in human resources management.  She has also led a large number of programmes collaborating with schools, healthcare professionals, environmental groups, charities in areas covering nutrition education, active healthy living, D&I and sustainability projects.

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How to contact the Governors
Any of the governors can be contacted by writing to them at the school address or emails can be directed to: admin@malmesbury.wilts.sch.uk marked FAO Clerk of Governors.

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Message from Chair of Governors July 2022

As the school year draws to a close, I wanted to reflect on life at Malmesbury School as we emerge from the global pandemic.  This year has represented a year of change, one of new beginnings and perhaps most importantly a refocus on our School Values: Happy, Caring and Excellent.

In September we welcomed Brett Jouny as our new Head.  Whilst a new beginning, this also marked a return to Malmesbury School, as he had previously worked at the school as head of modern foreign languages, before moving to Balcarras School in Cheltenham, where he was an assistant head overseeing their sixth form provision.  From Cheltenham, he moved to Burford School in Oxfordshire, a state boarding school, to take up a deputy headteacher role responsible for managing pastoral care.  I am sure you will all join me in thanking him for the enthusiasm and drive that he has brought to the role of headteacher.  You only need the briefest of conversations with staff or students to realise just what a positive impact Mr Jouny has already had.

A special thanks must also be extended to the school’s Staff, both our Teaching and Support Staff.  This academic year, our staff have seen a return to teaching students in classrooms.  With the exception of a day in February, when Storm Eunice necessitated the closing of the school, and a two-week period in March where we had to ask certain year groups to work from home, we have had the majority of our students in school each day.  After the last 2 years, this is something to be celebrated.

It was with great sadness that, in July, we received the news that Barry Gustard, a much loved and respected member of our Art Faculty had died suddenly at home.  His loss will be felt throughout the school and wider community.

Our students, all 1,434 of them, have relished the move away from teaching in bubbles and segregated outside areas and are clearly enjoying the ability to move more freely around the school, without the requirement to abide by one-way systems.  School trips have once again been possible; sixth form groups have visited university open days; the School have run both Bronze and Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award Expeditions which included overnight camping and we have run trips to the Theatre and to Art Galleries.

Our Local Governing Body has continued to meet through the year, with the majority of those meetings returning to face-to-face meetings.  COVID has continued to dominate many of our discussions, but with the focus moving from the management of a rapidly changing situation to one of recovery.

The Governing Body continue to monitor the progress the school is making in specific areas of focus post pandemic, with our experience at Malmesbury School mirroring the national picture.  We have reviewed how the school has used the “COVID catch-up funding” and the “national tutoring programme” to ensure that our disadvantaged students are given additional support.  At each of our meetings, we have been joined by representatives from our sixth form.  Their insight of life within school, supported by what our Governors learn from the head’s breakfasts and school council meetings that we regularly attend, together with our many meetings with school staff and learning walks around the school, has helped to inform our understanding.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) continues to be an important focus within the school, with all of our staff receiving training at a Trust wide training day, hosted by Malmesbury School, which saw all of the staff from the five schools within the Trust coming together in one place.  A review of the curriculum has been completed to ensure that EDI is reflected in everything that we do as a school.  Our ilearn programme, supported through assemblies, which delivers age-appropriate education on personal, social, health and economic matters, has continued to adapt in response to issues within our society.  This year this has evolved to include issues such as vaping and anti-social behaviour.

The mental health of both our staff and students continues to be a priority area within the school.  We are fortunate to have a team of counsellors operating out of the Bungalow to provide on-going support.  This has been particularly important with a return to formal examinations for our Year 11 and 13s.  We sincerely hope that these students get the GCSE and A-level results that they hope for and deserve.

The Athelstan Trust continue to invest heavily in the school’s IT infrastructure.  We have recently upgraded our child protection and safeguarding management software.  This software will give our staff an additional method of reporting any concerns and give our safeguarding team instant access to this important information.  This builds on the work that we did last year in response to the Everyone’s Invited/Me Too movement.  Both Class Charts and Teams continue to be used throughout the school to support our students learning.

The structure of the Governing Body has changed this year.  Claire Graves stood down as Chair at the start of the year.  I would like to thank her for her dedication to the school through a particularly testing timing.  We also said goodbye to: Pat Wilkinson, Clerk to the Governors, Mark White, who had been a governor at the school for many years, Ben Griffiths, one of our staff governors and also to Justin Davies, Simon Whelan and Dr Ardiana Gjini.  I wish to thank them all for the many hours they have given to supporting the school.  The Governing Body has also welcomed a number of new Governors, many of whom are parents of students at the school; Lara Farahar, Alex Revans, Caroline Wild, and Amy Lydiate, with David Mitchell returning to the Governing Body after a stint Chairing the Board of Trustees of the Athelstan Trust.  Elaine Smith has taken up the role of Clerk to the Governors.

If you would like to learn more about the governors, please see their profiles which are found at https://malmesbury.wilts.sch.uk/governors/.

I would like to wish you all a relaxing summer holiday.

Yours sincerely

Tamsyn Luggar

Chair of Governors