About the Governors
Mrs Maria Winter
Headteacher
Before training as a teacher at Thames Polytechnic, Maria worked for Southwark
Libraries and had intended to become a librarian. She decided to train as a teacher when
she realised how rewarding teaching could be whilst volunteering in her daughter’s year
1 class. After qualifying in 1990 she worked for the London Borough of Greenwich for 2
years before moving to Surrey, where she completed a number of post-graduate
qualifications. She has worked in a variety of management and subject leader roles, her
favourite being maths.
She has taught all primary ages from nursery to year six and was Deputy Head for a total
of 11 years in 3 schools before her appointment as Head Teacher at Datchet in
September 2012.
Mrs Sally-Anne Jarvis
Chair to Governors
With a short break, Sally-Anne has been a Governor for over 10 years. Married with no
children, she has worked with youth organisations and children in both professional and
volunteer capacities for over 30 years: Sally-Anne has had a varied life & career
background starting out travelling the world as a Forces Child. She continued to move
around until 1999 when she and her husband moved to the area: Her career
commenced as a PGCE trained teacher before moving into various Management roles in
Retail, Textiles and the Voluntary Sector . She embarked on a career in Nursing where
she specialised in Mental Health Nursing branching into Child & Adolescent Care, and
Trauma. Until a serious health problem forced early retirement, Sally-Anne’s last role
was as CEO of a Berkshire – wide Charity affiliated to a National Charity with whom she
worked on several national initiatives including the National Development and Strategic
Planning Group. She was also a Lay Inspector for LCJB’s. Alongside her professional life
she has managed to juggle her many interests and hobbies including love of Nature,
learning new things, singing, drama, crafts and reading.
Rev Peter Wyard
Peter has been Vicar of Datchet St. Mary’s Church since 2005. He has been a Governor of
Datchet St. Mary’s School for most of that time, and became Chair in 2010 until January
2015. Before ordination, he had two previous careers, first as a physics teacher and then
working for BT Research Labs. He is married to Patricia and has three children, the
youngest of whom was a pupil at the school. Peter’s main outside interests are mountain
walking, cycling, music and the arts.
Mr Steve Buckeridge
Steve has lived in Datchet village for more than ten years and has over twenty years
experience of children's activities in the voluntary sector. He is an active lay preacher at
the Gospel Chapel and takes assemblies in a number of local schools. Following
graduation in Economics from Cardiff Business School, Steve has worked at Heathrow in
a variety of business and management roles and is a member of two professional safety
bodies. Steve and his wife Judi have three children at Datchet St. Mary’s.
Mrs Kate Liddell
Staff governor
Kate is a non-teaching staff Governor who represents all of the non-teaching staff at
Datchet St Mary’s. She has been a member of staff since 2008 and her two children have
been through the school. Kate has a strong IT background after having spent nine years
working for DHL. Before that, she spent 15 years in the Air Training Corps, which has led
to her secret passion for military aviation and anything to do with the Royal Air Force.
Mr Chris Ronald
Chris has lived in Datchet for over ten years and has two children (Lilah and Ben) at
Datchet St Mary’s. He is a member of the Leadership team at Datchet St Mary’s Church
and is the Chairman of the Datchet Youth Worker Partnership. Chris works as the
Managing Director of a marketing agency.
Mrs Jane Simpson
Jane moved to Datchet in 1982 and her son attended Datchet St. Mary’s from 1992.
Jane’s interests are heritage, the environment, films and travel and being a member of
Datchet St. Mary’s Church’s Youth Task Group. Jane was asked to become a Parochial
Church Council Governor of the school in 2009 with responsibility for child protection.
Amy Lawrence
Amy grew up in the north of England and moved to the south to work for British
Airways where she has been for over a decade. Amy has always had a keen interest in
community affairs, leading her to work for a time as Corporate and Social Responsibility
Manager at BA. In recent years she has specialised in HR.
Amy and her family (Husband James, and three children) settled in Datchet in December
2012. She fell in love with the village during her maternity leave and wanted to find the
right way to volunteer with the village community. The role of Governor, enables her to
gift her HR expertise to the school.
Julia Oakley
Julia has recently moved to Datchet from South West London. She has spent the last 20
years working in the production of Music Videos at Production Companies and Record
Labels; she is now producing a Play for Theatre due for London Production in 2014. Julia
is married to Will they have three children the youngest being in year 6 at Datchet St.
Mary's.
Sue Phillips
Teacher Governor
Sue has been teaching in Lower Key Stage 2 at Datchet St. Mary’s since 2007. Previously,
Sue taught for three years in Egham. Sue decided to refresh her (unused) teaching
qualification in 2004 after a varied career in major higher education publishing houses.
The afternoons spent hearing readers in her son’s class, made her realise how
rewarding working with children could be. Sue is a member of Datchet St. Mary’s Senior
Management Team.
Smruti Naik-Jones
Smruti is a Director within the Public Sector practice at Deloitte, having worked in a
number of strategic and operational roles within the Big Four professional services
firms. More recently, Smruti has been advising a number of public sector, not for profit
and political organisations on changes in the sector and marketplace. Smruti lives in
Datchet with her husband and two children.
Nikki Hoffman
Parent Governor
Nikki’s children are in years 6 and 1 at St Mary’s, she has chaired the PTA for 2 ½ resulting in
in good relations with both families and the school. Nikki is keen to support staff to develop
and make relevant improvements under the guidance of the recent Ofsted report.
Toni Younger
Toni’s previous career in Media spans over 17 years and she comes with a wealth of
experience in Marketing, PR and business development. Toni took a career break when her
daughter was born in 2009 in order to concentrate on raising her during the early years.
When her daughter started school at Datchet St Marys, she returned to work and currently
works in education at a local secondary school. Toni lives in Datchet with her family and is
also a member of the Youth Work Task group at Datchet St Mary’s Church.
Mrs Claire Hathaway
Clerk to the Governors
Claire has been Clerk to the Governors at Datchet St. Mary's since March 2010. Her role
includes recording the process and outcomes of collective decision-making by minuting
Full Governing Body, Standards, Resources and Admissions meetings and she is also
responsible for storing governing body records and advising the governing body on
procedural matters to ensure that they meet their legal requirements.
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