Ruth Rosewell 

Ruth is the Trust’s Founding Director and a Director of a fast growing mobile software business. As a  Secondary school  teacher for 8 years, Principal Examiner and mother of two young children (not requiring places at The Heights), Ruth has been passionate about education and the quality of learning for young people in both a practical and demonstrable way. Reacting to the plea for help from RBC to the local community to demonstrate the need for a new Primary school via the Free School process, Ruth was keen to see if Caversham would indeed be able to obtain the much needed educational places it has been seeking for over 20 years, and therefore was keen to get involved.

Polly Grove

Polly is a founding member, has a consultancy, teaching and lecturing background in mathematics and statistics. Polly used this experience to develop the Evidence of Demand section of the initial bid.  Polly was also involved in the Heights marketing and communications activities. As a mother of three pre-school age children and living in the combined Emmer Green and The Hill catchment area, Polly got involved because once aware of the shortage of primary spaces in Caversham Heights combined with the geographical distance of primary schools from her neighbourhood, she believed a new, truly local primary school would vastly enhance the community and would be a lasting assest for the future. In addition, she was excited by the opportunity to be involved in shaping the school’s early vision.

Susan Jones

Susan has over 14 years’ experience in the public and private sector as a project manager, leading projects on behalf of the Department for Energy and Climate Change and a major energy consultancy. She attended the CADRA meeting on 22 October 2012, aware of the growing issue of lack of primary school places.  Living in the dual Emmer Green / Hill catchment she knew her neighbourhood was the most affected within Caversham.  She’s a firm believer in state education and put her issues regarding the free school process aside, having been given the opportunity to tackle this problem.  She looks forward to the day that she can walk her daughters to school, meeting their friends and neighbours along the way.

Matt Gale

Matt is a Community Governor at a Primary School in South Reading. He took the lead on setting up the governance structure for The Heights Primary and establishing the Board of Governors. Matt was supported by Councillor Isobel Ballsdon, who represents the Mapledurham Ward and is also the Chair of Governors at the Avenue Special School.  Matt is the only member of the Trust who currently sits on The Heights’ Governing Body.

Daniel Pagella

Dan is  a Chartered Surveyor with over 18 years’ experience in the master planning and development of large scale employment sites across the UK.  Dan is a parent of two. With a keen interest in education, Dan attended RBC’s consultation events in 2012 before his eldest child had turned 2. Having listened to RBC’s concerns about the anticipated pressure on school places and the case to establish a new school he decided to get involved to help improve the provision of primary education across Caversham in general and more specifically help address the east-west bias by establishing a new school for Caversham Heights.

Sean McCarthy

Sean runs his own consultancy as a Actuarial Consultant with 10 years’ experience in the public and private sector assessing and projecting financial costs.  Sean had overall responsibility for the allocation and control of The Trust’s funding resources, working closely with all other team members. As a father of three living in the combined catchment of The Hill and Emmer Green, Sean got involved because he was aware of the challange Caversham was facing for school places having gone through the stressful admissions process first hand and he wanted to help shape a truely local school that could benefit the future generations of Caversham Heights.

Zoltan Markella

Zoltan is a founding member, with 14 years of experience working in telecommunications in a variety of positions.  Zoltan took the lead on the school’s IT provision and procurement and continues to support the school’s IT team on a near daily basis. As a father of two living in the “black hole” of primary school provision to the west of the A4074, Zoltan got involved to help provide a permanent solution to the worsening situation of primary school provision in the west of Caversham.