Professional Mentors
Brighton Hill – Sophie Hallum-Barnard
From her second year of teaching Sophie has been involved in teacher training and has relished the opportunity to work with ITT students as mentor, Subject Board Tutor, Head of Faculty and Professional Mentor. She now also facilitates the NPQLTD to support other colleagues in Hampshire and Surrey develop their Leadership in Teacher Development. She has worked with many trainees of diverse backgrounds during her time Brighton Hill (2007–present), many of whom have gone on to become excellent teachers in the local area and further afield. Following promotion to Lead Practitioner with a focus on whole school curriculum, for the past few years Sophie has been an Assistant Headteacher at Brighton Hill Community School.
Crestwood – Yvonne Scott
Yvonne has always worked in education and has been lucky to have had the opportunity to work in a range of schools and roles. She is passionate about providing high class professional development for all, to ensure that students get the best educational experiences. Yvonne spent 5 years working as a LA mathematics adviser where as well as leading professional development sessions, she worked with teachers and leaders in their schools across all phases. Yvonne has been a senior leader in 3 schools (including 3 years as Head of School in a junior setting). Yvonne is currently part of SLT at Crestwood and head of the Mathematics faculty.
Eggar’s – Sarah Hopkins
Sarah is a History teacher (but also dabbles in Geography) and has taught in Hampshire schools for the past 6 years. Prior to this she has worked as an LSA, Cover Supervisor and taught English as an unqualified teacher in West Sussex schools since 2009. Sarah currently has responsibility for ITT at Eggar’s School and works with universities to deliver the PGCE course at Eggar’s as well as with three Teaching School Alliances including the Hampshire SCITT Partnership.
Harrow Way – Lyndsey Walker
Lyndsey is Curriculum Leader for Dance and Lead Practitioner at Harrow Way Community School. As part of her Teaching and Learning role she is professional mentor for the ITT trainees and also delivers whole staff CPD focusing on research based teaching and learning strategies.
Henry Beaufort – Andy Applin
Andy moved from Bristol to Hampshire in 2015 and has been part of the senior leadership team at The Henry Beaufort School since then. Currently Andy oversees CPD for all staff which involves working with the new staff. This includes being the Professional Mentor to the Hampshire SCITT trainees and also the Induction Tutor for the ECT programme also part of the HISP. Having worked as the Senior Line manager in the full range of departments over the past 7 years he is committed to ensuring students are supported effectively in all aspects of their education.
John Hanson – Natalie Solman
Natalie has been teaching in Hampshire and Wiltshire for the last 20 years and is currently in role as an Associate Assistant Head Teacher. She is also 2i/c in the English Faculty and has whole school responsibility for Student Voice. Natalie has been mentoring trainee teachers for 18 years as both a subject mentor and Professional Mentor. She is also the Induction Tutor for our ECTs and oversees all of the mentors within the school. Natalie’s passion lies not only in the teaching of students but also in the support and development of new and current teachers.
Mountbatten – Kelly Brooks
Kelly has been teaching for 20 years as an RE teacher; 17 of those at The Mountbatten School. As a Lead Practitioner, Kelly oversees/collates all of the ITT CPD at school as well as working with/contributing to all school CPD with the Teaching and Learning Team. Previously, Kelly has supported with the delivery of subject knowledge to Southampton University for their RE PGCE course.
Perins – Vicky Furness
Details to follow.
Robert May’s – Jenny Robinson
Jenny is currently Director of CPD at Robert May’s School and has enjoyed working there for the last 11 years. Jenny’s current role allows her to work both at RMS and at other school developing staff, NQT’s and trainees. Jenny has a real passion for leading and carrying out action research both within her own school and accross the county. Jenny teaches science and has spent the last 5 years being Head of Science at RMS having been in the department for 11 years. This involved nurturing more experienced colleagues and mentoring NQT’s and Trainees from a range of providers.
Romsey – Nick Chafer
Nick has been teaching in Hampshire for the past 24 years and has been a mentor for 21 years. Nick is a Senior Leader responsible for Modern Foreign Languages. In addition to being the Professional Mentor, some of Nick’s Senior Team responsibilities focus on the development of Aspiring Middle Leaders and mentoring Lead Practitioners.
Thornden – Mark Buckley
Details to follow.
Lead Subject Tutors
Lisa Willis: Art & Design
Lisa has been teaching Art and Design since 1995; she was Head of the Arts faculty at Slough and Eton School in Berkshire for 18 years, where she led an Outstanding Art department and was part of the Extended Leadership Team, working closely with Eton College to raise attainment for underprivileged pupils in surrounding state schools.
In 2016, following a move to Hampshire, Lisa joined Thornden School as a teacher, then SCITT trainer and has recently taken on the role of Head of Art once more. Lisa’s degree is in Visual Communication, and she has a real passion for drawing, becoming a published illustrator in 2021 after releasing the children’s book Musical Bones. Lisa is also a Trustee and admin lead for a local Boxing Academy on the south coast, a registered charity which she co-founded with her partner.
Keren Coles: Design & Technology
Keren has recently taken up the role of Head of the Design & Technology Department at Thornden School, leading a team of nine.
She began teaching in 1993 after studying at Loughborough University and has had 20 years of middle management experience in secondary schools in Surrey, Essex, Portsmouth and Hampshire. Keren has a proven track record of leading outstanding Design & Technology departments which achieve excellent results. Her specialisms in Design & Technology lie within Resistant Materials, Systems & Control and Graphics. She has been a GCSE examination moderator since 2000.
Keren has had whole school responsibility for developing the school’s NQT training, whole school Quality Assurance and she has developed and delivered CPD sessions both within school, to primary colleagues and to the Eastleigh consortium. Keren has also worked with the HIAS Design & Technology Inspector to facilitate training sessions within her department to demonstrate good practice to Hampshire Design and Technology NQT’s.
Hellen Smith: Drama
Hellen has worked as a Drama Teacher at Thornden School for eleven years and has been Head of Drama for the last two years. During her time at Thornden Hellen has enjoyed mentoring Trainees and NQTs from a variety of different providers and is a regular contributor towards CPD sessions for the LEARN SCITT Training Programme. Hellen has a passion for the arts and worked for several years as a professional actor before training to be a teacher.
Ali Kendall: English
Ali Kendall has worked in education since 2005, beginning her career at Toynbee School where she was Head of English for her final three years. After working at Peter Symonds Sixth form college, teaching AS and A2 English Literature, she moved to Thornden to accept a post as a leading practitioner in English. Here she has worked to develop the English curriculum and has taken on the role of Lead Subject tutor for the SCITT. She has many years’ experience mentoring ITT trainees and NQTs and is part of Thornden’s team of ECT mentors.
Nick Shepherd: Geography
Nick is the Head of Geography at Thornden school and has 5 years of experience in Teaching. He has a passion for leading a team that teaches inspiring and purposeful Geography that is rich in evidence based best practice. Previously Nick worked as a continuous improvement practitioner and coach for 10 years. He brings these reflective improvement approaches into the Geography department, Subject Lead Tutor and mentoring sessions. Having trained with the Hampshire SCITT partnership in 2017/18, he is closely aligned to and familiar with the ITT course. Nick is also the Early Careers Teacher Mentor for an ECT at Thornden. In these roles Nick ensures the development of student teacher is focused on evidence based best practice, with applied practice and reflection to the awe-inspiring disciple of Geography.
Helen Bramwell: History
Helen has been teaching for ten years and has responsibility within her History Department, but also as the Careers and Work Related Learning Coordinator at Thornden School. Before teaching History Helen worked as an unqualified teacher in a specialist unit for students with Autism Spectrum Disorders, which remains an area of interest. Helen has mentored and supported SCITT students and NQTs within her department for a number of years.
Martin Hole: Mathematics
Martin is an engineering graduate who spent the first 10 years of his career working in deep level mining based in Southern Africa; he was Chief Engineer at the world’s richest gold mine before taking up an appointment as group consulting mechanical engineer based in Johannesburg.
After relocating back to the UK Martin completed a PGCE in Mathematics; he has spent 21 years as a teacher. Previously Martin has managed maths and ICT departments at a large Hampshire comprehensive school. Martin has contributed to PGCE courses at local Universities. Ten years ago Martin became an AST and has extensive experience providing school to school support having completed outreach programmes at numerous Hampshire schools.
Martin has been a guest speaker at several national conferences and was fortunate to have been part of a fact finding team sent by government to Shanghai in 2014.
Liz Stillman: Modern Foreign Languages
Liz is a modern languages teacher who has taught French and Spanish for over 20 years in the Secondary sector and has also worked as a KS2 teacher in primary schools in Hampshire. Liz also worked in the adult and higher education sector where she co-planned foundation degrees in early education. As a secondary teacher at Thornden, she has developed close links with local primary schools and she provides whole school INSET programmes, advice and regular support to MFL primary teams in the area. Liz has mentored and supported SCITT students for several years as well as inspiring vast numbers of pupils in her secondary classroom.
Rorie Whybro: Physical Education
Rorie has 15 years’ experience in secondary education as a teacher and is currently Director of Sport at Perins School (formerly a Sports College) where he leads a team of 8 PE specialists, in addition to overseeing the delivery of physical education in feeder primary schools. He has extensive experience in school, supporting teaching, learning and middle management initiatives across the range of subject areas at Perins. He has been involved with ITT for over 14 years, working closely with Chichester and Southampton Universities to select and support BA QTS, PGCE and GTP trainees. Rorie leads a department which has a reputation locally and nationally for outstanding and innovative physical education practice. He has worked with the Youth Sport Trust on various initiatives and has delivered workshops at both local and national events. Rorie keeps up to date with the latest methodology in the world of sports coaching by working with the RFU to support its Elite Player Development Pathway.
Gill Heron: Religious Studies
Gill has 20 years’ experience in secondary education as a teacher and is currently Head of RE at Thornden School where she leads a team of 4 RE specialists and has responsibility for Citizenship and SMSC. She has extensive experience in middle management. She is on the county Steering Group for RE and has delivered workshops on good practice at the annual Hampshire Leadership Conferences. She is a member of the Hampshire SACRE (Standing Advisory Council for RE) and has provided school to school support in teaching and learning for RE colleagues from other schools. She has been involved in ITT teacher training for over 14 years, contributing to the training of PGCE students at universities in the South of England. She has completed Leadership Pathways.
Dan Baldwin: Science
Dan has been teaching at Thornden since 2011, after graduating from the University of Sussex with a degree in Molecular Genetics. During this time, he has had various roles within the Science department, including mentoring student teachers and has been the Lead Subject tutor for Science since September 2021. As well as this, he has been heavily involved with the pastoral aspect of Thornden, being an assistant Head of Year for 6 years.