Meet our Trustees

If you would like to contact the Trustees for Carwarden House School please email clerk@carwarden.surrey.sch.uk. They will be able to help you with any queries and direct you to the correct person/place.  

Chris Hamilton - Chair of Trustees 

I worked in scientific publishing, research and training for 20 years, then went on to manage public services for three local authorities before taking early retirement. Since then I've combined paid project work with voluntary roles in arts education, disability support and environmental protection.

I joined my first governing board in 2009 and have been a governor/trustee of six schools.  I currently Chair the boards of both Carwarden and Portesbery Schools and serve on the Surrey Schools Forum and Surrey's Education Working Group dealing with the implications of council reorganisation. I've helped plan school buildings and moves, recruited headteachers and worked with schools on cultural change.  Every school is different and there are always new things to learn, good ideas to share and interesting challenges to deal with - as well as some fantastic staff and students.

In my spare time I enjoy campaigning on planning issues, gardening, keeping tropical insects (I'm a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society), exploring new technology, reading, travelling to the Arctic Circle where my son lives, and walking with and without my two very bouncy dogs. I’m also a volunteer at RHS Wisley where I help with schools visits, lead guided tours and drive visitors around. I like to be busy!

contact: chair@carwarden.surrey.sch.uk  

Karen Cummings - Vice Chair

I live in Bracknell with my husband and our daughter who is a student at Carwarden. We are family orientated and enjoy visiting National Trust properties and having picnics.

I was a Primary school teacher for 15 years, I joined Bearwood Primary School in Winnersh, Wokingham, as an NQT and never left! During my time at Bearwood I had a number of roles. My roles spanned from class teacher to Literacy and Assessment lead and Key Stage 2 Leader.

Over the 15 years I gradually reduced my working hours, mainly due to wanting to have more time with our daughter. Before I left teaching I worked 1 day a week, I covered staff’s PPA time throughout the school, I taught children in the Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.

My main interests are in the Creative Curriculum and assessment and have experience in both areas within education. I am hoping I can bring my experiences from being a teacher to the Carwarden Trustee Board and can be an asset to the school community. I feel I am able to contribute as an ex-teacher and a parent of a child with special needs. I will serve on the Student Progress Committee.        

Carole Blunden-Lee

Carole has spent her whole married life living and working in the Camberley, Farnham and Crowthorne area. She diversified from classroom teaching 30 years ago and has trained and specialised in working with pupils who have specific learning difficulties. Carole retired from teaching at Wellington College where she had been since 1990, latterly as Head of Academic Support, and has moved on to focus on Carwarden and special educational needs provision in school. 

Carole is currently Chair of the School Improvement Committee of a primary school in Crowthorne that has a recently been awarded Good by Ofsted. She knows how important it is to be a ‘critical friend’ and ask the appropriate questions in order to ensure all pupils’ needs are met.

Carole has a great zest for life and believes everybody has a talent which needs to be developed and nurtured. She enjoys travel, reading and more reading [originally an English teacher], entertaining and being entertained.

Debra Bratt

Debra joined as a Parent Governor in 2013, wanting to support to school where one of her three children was attending, and continued as a member of the Academy Trust Board following the school’s conversion in 2014 . Debra was chair of the audit and resources committee for several years helping oversee the academisation process. She currently sits on the student progress committee and the headteacher’s performance review panel.

With experience and qualifications in business and finance, Debra was previously a civil servant working for HMRC in various locations across the country. She spent time working in the technical aspects of taxation and latterly as a manager. She was involved in local re-structuring and managing the change process with staff.

Debra has a keen interest in ensuring that services for children are as good as they can be and strongly believes in the voice of parent/carers. She helped set up Hampshire Parent Carer Network, a parent/carer forum, and became their treasurer. She was also a trustee of a local Down Syndrome Support Group and helped create a new pathway for secondary aged children moving into adulthood. Debra is keen to put young people at the heart of everything we do and her training in person-centred practices supports this.

Currently Debra works as an independent advice and support worker in Hampshire for a local charity, supporting families with their EHCPs and other educational difficulties. She’s recently completed her level 1 & 2 IPSEA Legal Training.

She met her husband in her native West Midlands and moved to Hampshire where they’ve settled with their 3 children. Debra’s a keen netballer and still plays competitively although she’s starting to feel her age! She enjoys playing tennis when she gets the time and skiing but accepts she’s not very good at it.

Shaun Macdonald 

Shaun has lived in the area for over 35 years, attending a local school and college before university, and then returning to make a family home with his wife, a NHS paediatric clinical psychologist and now 2 adult children, both with Carwarden connections. A Chartered Chemical Engineer and company director by background, Shaun worked in oil & gas production, industrial and medical gases distribution and off grid energy suppliers, which allowed him to explore many parts of the world and gain a knowledge and understanding of different people and cultures, whilst managing large teams. An active mentor and talent developer throughout his career, to those with qualifications and without, Shaun believes in opening opportunities to develop not putting up boundaries on achievement.

Shaun is an active member of a local church, where he has worked with young people as a catechist, as well as supporting large numbers of them in their development as a hockey coach, manager and umpire. 

When not leading a local borough council, or responding to local ward residents needs, Shaun plays vets hockey, cycles here and there, dabbles with golf, labours in the garden and loves to walk far and wide.

Shaun brings Carwarden experience of complex project management, strong governance processes, active risk management and implementing strategy.

Matthew Rees

Matthew is a parent trustee with considerable experience as a school governor elsewhere and he is also a member of KITE Academy Trust, a MA with nine mainstream nursery, infant and primary schools in Surrey and Hampshire.

He is a qualified accountant with over 20 years experience in a variety of roles and projects, specialising in system and business transformation and bridging the gap between finance and technology as well as other areas of a business.

Matthew has experience in migrating companies onto large systems such as Microsoft D365. He has years of experience sitting in between technology and finance teams. providing guidance as to any relevant change that is necessary/ 

 

Oliver Rigby

I’ve worked at Wellington College since September 2023, where I teach Economics and Business to A level and IB students. I’m also a deputy housemaster of a co-ed 6th form boarding house, chair the students’ Femsoc committee and coach and run a number of sports teams across the year.

I have a good understanding of the challenges many of Carwarden’s young people face as I have a sister with Down’s Syndrome and a son with autism. As a result I have first-hand experience of what providing the right support and the right learning environment can do to transform the life and outcomes of a young person.  With this in mind, the values and ethos of the school align closely with my own, which are centered around everyone being given access and opportunity to achieve their potential.

I have a high level of finance and business experience at a Board/Director Level and am also an ACA qualified accountant. As a result of my switch to a career in teaching over the last few years, I now have capacity to make use of some of these specific skills.  I bring experience of all things finance related, vision setting, strategy and decision making, as well as change management.

I am aware of some of the decisions that need to be made by the Trustees around joining a larger academy trust.  Having been involved in over 20 acquisitions and mergers as well as subsequent integrations I have a lot of experience of the challenges and opportunities that moving ahead with this may bring.

Ed Venables

After university, Ed worked in the City for twelve years in various equity and credit research roles before moving to a private equity hedge fund. Then, around the time of the financial crisis he decided to move his family to Crowthorne and started a completely new career as an Economics and Business teacher at Wellington College. Over the years he has been a head of department, a housemaster, the director of admissions and a member of the executive leadership team - and is now Head of Eagle House Prep School. Ed has a wife, three sons and a cockerpoo! Holidays are spent at their house on Anglesey in North Wales.

The best times of Ed’s career were working with Maria Ramsay to establish the link between his boarding house at Wellington and the Carwarden Sixth form. It has been a project full of joy and learning and one that has been beneficial to everyone involved. Winning a TES Independent Schools award for the link was a very special moment and seeing it continue to grow and flourish makes him incredibly happy. Since moving out of the boarding house Ed missed the Carwarden students immensely and so being involved at Trustee level is so exciting.

 

Rebecca Lee – Governance Professional 

 Rebecca is a highly experienced governance professional, part of the Governance Connected network, and provides virtual clerking services to a number of schools and Academy Trusts including Carwarden.