Governors’ Biography
Rob Murrow
I am a Local Authority Governor at Blanche Nevile
School. I was appointed to the School’s Governing Body
in October 2012. I currently serve on the Resources
Committee, of which I am the Chair.
I am a practising Solicitor specialising in financial
services and investments.
I am a parent of two children of school age, one of whom has Special Educational Needs and
thus have experience of special needs education from a parent’s perspective.
Michael Modell
I am privileged to have been a community governor
at Blanche Nevile for the past 6 years, and vice-chair
since the beginning of 2012. I also have special
responsibility for Safeguarding and Child Protection
and am a member of the Curriculum Committee.
My work background was medical academia. I was a
member of the Department of Primary Care at University College, and a general practitioner
for thirty years at the James Wigg Practice in the Kentish Town Health Centre.
After I retired I first became a governor at a secondary school for boys with behavioural
difficulties and later joined two charities dedicated to providing support for carers who look
after a relative or friend at home.
My wife and I have lived in the same house in Haringey for nearly 50 years, now sharing it
with our daughter and her family. This has meant that two of our grandchildren went to the
same school (Highgate Primary) as did our children in the 1970s.
Tom Davidson
Kathy Riddle
I am a Local Authority Governor and was appointed in
October 2012. I am a member of the Resources
Committee.
I studied Science at University and have worked in
university research and industry. I have also run a wine
shop. I currently do gardening and garden design.
I have done voluntary adult literacy work, helping adults of all ages (including those with
learning difficulties) to improve their literacy skills/learn to read.
We have an allotment and I am the Treasurer of our Allotment Society.
Jonathan Duff
I have been a Community Governor at Blanche Nevile School since
July 2014.
I joined the civil service in 2001 and have spent most of my career
in the Department for Education. I am currently responsible for
delivery of the Academies programme in two of the eight Regional
Schools Commissioner regions: South-east England & South
London; and North West London & South-central England (note:
neither of these regions include Haringey local authority or Blanche
Nevile School).
Previously, I worked on reforms to legislation and support for young people with special
educational needs, as part of the 2014 Children and Families Act. My experience of working
in this area made me want to stay involved in specialist educational provision and I
volunteered to become a governor through a charity called SGOSS (www.sgoss.org.uk).
I have also worked on reforms to teachers’ pay, qualifications delivery, policy relating to the
Citizenship curriculum and in roles directly supporting Ministers. Before joining the civil
service, I worked in local government.
I joined the governors’ Curriculum Committee in January 2015.
Emma Iliffe – Staff Governor
I have been a sign language tutor for over 25 years. I
originally trained at BSLTA (British Sign Language
Training Agency) at Durham University in 1987 while
I was BSL Tutor Secretary in the Oxford Deaf Club.
During motherhood I became an illustrator for Deaf
children’s’ books, and for the BBC Hands Up series.
As my children got older, I updated my tutor
qualifications at the City Lit where I achieved an STTC, City & Guild 7307, 7407 Stage 1 and 2,
and worked as a BSL tutor at Southgate College, London. I also became a qualified A1
assessor and attended City University to gain a BSL Production Skills Assessor for aged 4 to
11.
For the past nine years, I have been teaching at Blanche Nevile School. My role involves
teaching and assessing Deaf children, parents, and both specialist and mainstream staff. I
am on the committee for Deaf Studies Curriculum for KS1 to KS4 and ABSLTA (Association
British Sign Language Tutors & Assessors).
I am delighted to share my experiences with the school governors.
Jo Allen – Staff Governor
My role on the Governing Body is as a teacher
governor. I was elected by the staff in November
2013.
I currently teach science at the secondary department.
Previously I taught Science in Fortismere School – our
partnership school.
Naheeda Syed – Parent Governor
Naheeda is one of our parent governors and currently has a
daughter in Blanche Nevile and recently had 2 sons in one of our
partnership schools.
After obtaining her Master’s Degree at the London School of
Economics and completing various postgraduate professional awards
in teaching and career counselling; she has occupied a variety of
positions within the field of education working in teaching and
careers guidance/ counselling and more recently managing a private
supplementary school.
Naheeda is an active member on both the Blanche Nevile and Fortismere PSA committees
and is also a committee member on the North London Deaf Children’s Society. She is a keen
event participant within the national deaf community.