Trustees and Members (ID 1289)

• David Blow
  Trustee (Executive Headteacher and Accounting Officer)
  David Blow

  David was Headteacher at The Ashcombe School from 2004 to 2019, having previously been Deputy Head. When SESSET was established in 2017 he became Executive Head and Accounting Officer. He was instrumental in The Ashcombe becoming a Language College in 1998 with a focus on the innovative use of technology in language learning and working collaboratively with all local schools in the Dorking Schools Language Development Group. This expanded with the formation of the Dorking Schools Partnership. He also continues to be involved with the Surrey Alternative Learning Programme which was set up in 2010 to coordinate provision across Surrey.

  As well as working with the Association of School and College Leaders at a national level on data, he has also worked with Surrey Heads and other groups. He continues as co-chair of the Leadership Partner Schools Network, a small countrywide group of schools.

• Deborah Chaplin
  Trustee (Audit & Risk Committee)
  Deborah Chaplin

  Debbie is a Chartered Accountant (FCA) and a member of the Trust’s Audit & Risk Committee. During her accountancy training she worked as an external auditor covering a wide range of clients, from sole traders to a large national charity. She currently works as a Senior Group Accountant at a multinational engineering consultancy and specialises in financial reporting. She has an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University.

  Debbie has previously been a parent governor at West Ashtead Primary School serving on the Finance & Resources Committee and covered Gifted & Talented provision. Before becoming a trustee at SESSET, she was a parent governor at The Ashcombe and was a member of the Finance & General Purposes and Curriculum Committees. Debbie has children who attended Therfield and The Ashcombe schools.

• Christine Coughlin
  Member
  Christine Coughlin

  Christine has been actively involved in education in a variety of voluntary positions and settings over the last 30 years. She was a governor at The Ashcombe School for nine years, four as chair of the Curriculum Committee and previously as vice chair of the HR Committee.

  Christine has a strong belief in education as a mechanism for promoting and securing the improvement of all children’s lives regardless of ability or background thereby ensuring greater social mobility and social justice. She is passionate about public service and is now working as part of the administration team at a local GP practice having qualified as a nurse and a midwife. With a highly developed competency in appreciative enquiry, Christine brings a refreshing, practical lived-experience perspective to key issues and data.

• Jayne Dickinson
  Trustee (Vice Chair and Link Trustee Governor for Carrington School)
  Jayne Dickinson

  Jayne has over 20 years’ experience in the further education sector, starting out as a part-time lecturer before becoming CEO of the Orbital South Colleges group, having undertaken a variety of leadership roles. During her time as Principal/CEO of East Surrey College until December 2021, Jayne led the College to two ‘Good’ inspections with many areas judged ‘Outstanding’ and led on the successful merger with John Ruskin College. She has experience of curriculum transformation, HR, estates and capital build projects during the period the Group maintained its Outstanding financial health rating. Jayne is a governor at Carrington School and has been a community governor at Oakwood School for several years.

  Jayne holds an MA in FE (Further Education) sector management as well as teaching qualifications and a BA Hons in Contemporary European Studies. She has served as an examiner for the Cambridge and OCN boards and has experience as an external education peer reviewer. Prior to this, she started in the healthcare sector before moving into a commercial marketing role and has run a successful franchise business. Since retiring from the CEO role last year, Jayne has delivered a range of consultancy projects, including for the national Association of Colleges.

• Connie Engelbrecht
  Trustee
  Connie Engelbrecht

  Connie is a marketing and communications professional with over 15 years of international experience focused on brand management for leading local and international brands across the beauty and FMCG industries such as Rimmel and Colgate. In her most recent role Connie was Director of Admissions, Marketing & Development for a state boarding school and was a member of the school’s senior leadership team. She is a certified copywriter and is passionate about the power of effective communication.

  Growing up in South Africa, Connie witnessed profound social and economic inequalities, and has always fostered a passion for education as a tool for change. She has enjoyed pursuing her interest in education by working in a school for the last two and a half years, and is keen to continue to stay involved in the education sector despite taking up a new commercial marketing role in July.

  Connie has previously been a Trustee on the U.K. board of a Kenyan charity which helps orphaned young adults in Kenya who have had a difficult start to life to access further education.

• Paul Goossens
  Trustee (Link Trustee Governor for The Ashcombe School)
  Paul Goossens

  Paul is a governor of The Ashcombe School and a trustee of The Ashcombe Trust (a charitable fund-raising body). He is the Chief Operating Officer and founder of Revoola, a health and wellbeing app, which embraces inclusivity. He qualified as an accountant after being accepted onto the graduate training scheme at Dalgety, and has, since his mid-twenties, either been Chief Executive Office or Chief Operating Officer of a number of tech businesses.

  Paul's skillset has primarily been that of a technical architect delivering "big data" analysis to the banking and pharmaceutical sectors, and more recently antivirus and security solutions to internet service providers around the world.

• Elizabeth Hinchliffe
  Member
  Elizabeth Hinchliffe

  Elizabeth has worked in education for over 40 years, teaching children ages 4 to 16 and with a significant part of her career working in a variety of roles training NQT’s, ITT (Initial Teacher Training) students, SCITT students and Teachers and Teaching Assistants. She worked for Surrey County Council for many years as well as education consultancies including CMC, VT and Babcock 4S, and was a part-time Deputy Head for four years focusing on staff development and curriculum reform. Currently Elizabeth is a freelance consultant delivering intervention training for Every Child Counts at Edge Hill University; and overseeing the assessment of apprentice teachers through Surrey South Farnham SCITT.

  Elizabeth was a parent governor at The Ashcombe School from 2000 to 2010 including as Chair of the Curriculum Committee and then as a co-opted Governor from 2017 to 2021.

• Tim Jones
  Trustee (Safeguarding)
  Tim Jones

  Tim has been a SESSET Trustee since September 2019, and is currently the Trustee with designated responsibility for Safeguarding. Prior to this he was a governor at Therfield School for 12 years, including three years as Chair of Governors. Tim also has governance experience in the primary phase, having been Chair of Governors at an inner-London primary school for several years.

  He is committed to supporting children and young people to have the best possible start to their lives. He has worked as an educational psychologist for over a decade, practising in Surrey as well as London boroughs. Tim is currently the Principal Educational Psychologist for Buckinghamshire Council, within their Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Service. He is also an Honorary Associate Professor at University College London, where he lectures on the Doctorate in Educational and Child Psychology. Tim works part-time, spending the remainder of his week looking after his two young sons.

  Tim is a trustee for a charity that runs residential holiday camps for children and young people and is an enthusiastic sportsperson.

• Terence McDonald
  Member
  Terence McDonald

  Terry is one of the founding Trustees of SESSET, serving from 2016 till 2024. He was a parent governor at The Ashcombe from 2011 to 2020, the last five years as Chair. He is also a Trustee of The Ashcombe Trust charity. His Academic qualifications are a First class honours degree, an M.Phil from Oxford and a PgDL in Law. Terry has much general commercial experience including management, planning, budgets, staff and legal issues and has accumulated a total of 13 years of experience as a director of various companies.

  He was Senior Business Manager for the Performing Rights Society for 8 years, managing 25 staff with responsibility for an income stream of £125 million. Since 2004 he has run own successful business as an independent consultant to the Music Industry.

• Ben Mearns
  Member
  Ben Mearns

  Ben moved from Liverpool in 1993 to study Medicine at St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London. Qualifying in 1999, he has been an NHS hospital doctor ever since, joining Surrey & Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust as a Consultant in 2008, specialising in Acute and Elderly Medicine, and has been Chief of Medicine for the past 9 years.

  He was a Governor of the Warwick (now Carrington) school in Redhill for many years, including the role of vice-chairman, and all his children have attended the school. He was a founding Trustee of SESSET in 2017 serving to 2020. Ben was a Councillor representing Earlswood & Whitebushes ward on Reigate & Banstead Borough Council from 2004 to 2008 and has subsequently held several officer positions in Reigate & Banstead Conservative Association, as present in his fourth term as Chairman.

  Ben is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, and a member of the Society of Acute Medicine and the British Geriatrics Society. He has lived in Redhill since 2002, and enjoys walking, cinema and travelling.

• Tim Poole
  Trustee (Audit & Risk Committee)
  Tim Poole

  Tim Poole has spent his entire career in the field of education. Two years teaching Languages in the only state secondary school in St Lucia, as a VSO volunteer, and then teaching in inner city Birmingham. Moving to Surrey he was asked to set up a Modern Foreign Languages Department in what was then a secondary modern school shortly to turn comprehensive, followed by 32 years as the Senior Deputy in a large Surrey 12 - 16 school.

  Since 1991 he has been very involved with charity work in Romania including encouraging Roma families to send their children to school and the financing of the rebuilding of all the homes in one Roma village, enabling the provision of water and electricity to each house, for which he was awarded MBE. For 12 years following retirement Tim was a Governor at Therfield School and then one of the founding Trustees of SESSET before becoming Chair until October 2024. He is married with 2 adult daughters, one of whom is also a teacher.

• Andrew Potterton
  Trustee (Chair and Audit & Risk Committee)
  Andrew Potterton

  Andrew was a governor at The Warwick (now Carrington) School for over a decade until 2015. He became one of the founding SESSET members, then took the opportunity in 2020 to increase his participation with the Trust by moving to join the Trustee Board. He has been Chair of that board since October 2024. Andrew is retired after almost forty years in life and health insurance, for the most part as chief underwriter and then proposition development head at a local firm.

• Kirsten Riensema
  Trustee (Audit & Risk Committee)
  Kirsten Riensema

  Kirsten joined as a SESSET Trustee in December 2021 and serves on the Audit and Risk Committee. Kirsten has 30 years’ experience in the aviation industry, starting her career with British Airways in the USA and UK. She has been with the UK Civil Aviation Authority for 15 years and spent three years working at the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation in Montreal, Canada. Kirsten has extensive experience in safety risk management, corporate governance and strategy, and leadership.

  Kirsten has mentored and coached young students and professionals for many years as a STEM Ambassador and through various mentoring platforms. She is passionate about helping young people in her local community reach their potential.

• Clive Roberts
  Member
  Clive Roberts

  Clive worked for Royal Mail for 35 years as a senior manager with operational responsibilities. This included experience in introducing Total Quality Management into the mainstream business and all the supporting functions. Since retiring from Royal Mail Clive has operated his own local chauffeuring business for the past 20 years. He became a Governor at The Ashcombe School in 1981 and during his time as Governor he served as Chair of the General Purposes Committee, and as ViceChair. He resigned as Governor in 2016 and became a Member of SESSET.

• Simon Ward
  Trustee (Link Trustee Governor for Therfield School)
  Simon Ward

  Simon is a trustee and a governor of Therfield School. Simon is the Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Entomological Society and has worked in the life science and environmental sectors since graduating. He has a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Biology and MRes in Ecology & Environmental Management. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology.

  Simon is also a trustee for the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom, a national charity supporting schools and organisations provide learning experiences beyond the classroom.

• Ian Wilson
  Trustee (School Improvement)
  Ian Wilson

  Ian is the School Improvement Trustee for SESSET (and was one of the founding Trustees) and is also Chair of The Howard Partnership Trust. He is an education consultant, National Governance Association (NGA) consultant, and a DfE External Expert. As a former Principal Consultant for Schools in Surrey, with prior headship experience in the secondary phase, Ian led many courses for Babcock 4S and other organisations on issues ranging from the use of data to leading teams. Formerly a member of the Education Committee of the Royal Society, Ian is currently a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and of the Royal Society of Arts.

  Highly experienced in supporting and challenging secondary and primary schools, ranging from those with outstanding practice to those causing concern, Ian has carried out many reviews of leadership and of teaching in both phases. His work outside Surrey has included projects advising the Isle of Wight and Bedfordshire on school re-organisation, and extensive school improvement work in Reading.