Local School Committee

Des is a Chartered Management Accountant of 30 years standing, most recently serving as Finance Director of a local Academy Trust .

Prior to this he was Finance Director of Pitney Bowes Australia & New Zealand and enjoyed living in that region for the duration.

Midway through his career Des established a successful medical recruitment business which he sold after 17 years.

He is committed to road safety and serves as Chair of The Institute of Advanced Motorists (Chelmsford) and is also a qualified National Observer (Mentor) for prospective advanced drivers

Des is married to Theresa and they have two children both currently at St Martin's.

John has more than 25 years’ experience of senior roles working in the broadcast and media sector.  He is currently CEO of RaceTech, a sports production company primarily working in the Horse Racing sector.  Alongside this he is Chair of the Board of Trustees for Emmaus SLC, a charity working in the homeless sector.  He is also a governance committee member for Racing Welfare. 

As well as holding a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA), John is an Engineering graduate from South Bank University.

John is married with two children.  His daughter has just finished her first year at St Andrews University in Scotland and his son is in year 11 at St Martins.

His hobbies include watching West Ham, running to keep fit and the odd game of Golf.  He also runs a local u16 football team.

Cynthia is a midwife with over 14 years' experience. Cynthia's passion for education lead her to pursue a Masters in Practice Education.

Cynthia's educational experience has been mainly pre- and post-registration midwifery and medical education but more recently multi-professional education.

 Currently Cynthia is the Education, Training and Workforce Lead for the North Thames Genomic Medicine Service, leading key educational initiatives to support the embedding of genomics into mainstream healthcare.

Cynthia is committed to improving standards thereby enabling the highest quality of education across all age groups. 

Rahim is an audit partner at KPMG and has more than 16 years of audit experience with banks in London, Singapore, and the US. Rahim's current portfolio includes a large variety of clients in Financial Services. Rahim was seconded to KPMG US in 2015. Based in the Silicon Valley for three years, Rahim has also gained a first-hand experience of auditing challenger institutions and Fintech clients. Rahim was appointed as a Governor on 13 May 2021.

Jamie joined the trust in 2000 as a newly qualified teacher.  Having taken on different roles at St Martin’s school and leadership secondments across educational sectors, Jamie was ideally placed to support Chase High School that moved into the Trust in 2015.  In 2020,  Jamie took over as Headteacher and secured the school’s first ‘Good’ Ofsted judgement in its 30 year history.   In September 2023, Jamie returned to where it all started for him, back at St Martin’s as Executive Headteacher.

Amanda has over 20 years' experience working in central and local government, with senior leadership roles in Essex County Council and in the Department for Work and Pensions.

She is passionate about ensuring that every child feels valued and supported to reach their full potential and, as a parent of a child with Special Educational Needs (SEN), she is committed to ensuring that all children have the best possible education and opportunities.

An advocate for parents’ voices, working closely with other Governors, staff, and the wider community to ensure that the school continues to grow as a place where every child can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.

Amanda loves travelling, gardening and long walks with the family dog.

Having taught for over 24 years and held various managerial positions, Jennifer is now in her second year of her Masters Degree in theatre. Over the last 10 years Jennifer has been involved with Essex Initial Teacher Training, where she has mentored trainee Drama teachers and led Drama subject specific training days. During her career Jennifer has been fully committed to her role as a teacher and educator and in 2015, she was awarded a Jack Petchey Award for her creative commitment to the school both in and outside the classroom. After many years of being a working mum, Jennifer has developed strategies to manage her time effectively to ensure that neither her work nor her role of a mother suffered. A greatest personal achievement of Jennifer’s was being able to lose 5 stone of weight over eighteen months and to still have maintained her goal weight years later. My love of theatre has influenced both her children’s future, who have both successfully gained places at top acting universities, with her son just completing his final year at Guildford School of Acting and her daughter gaining a place at Rose Bruford both studying Actor-Musicianship. Jennifer is currently on the NPQSL course in the hopes to take on a senior leadership role in the future.

Originally from South Africa, PJ has lived in the UK for over 23 years and has over 17 years’ experience in primary school leadership, working as a Deputy Head in the London Borough of Newham and as a Headteacher in Waltham Forest.

Throughout his career, PJ has worked extensively within primary curriculum development and implementation, qualifying as a Local Leader of Education (LLE) in 2018. During this time, he was commissioned by the DfE to support schools in Norwich with curriculum delivery.

Currently, he works for Essex County Council Education Directorate as a School Effectiveness Partner, mainly supporting schools in Harlow, Uttlesford and Epping Forest.

PJ is married to Bethany, and they have two children who attend primary school in Essex. On weekends he coaches u/10 football in Southend.

Having worked in Paediatric research prior to training as a teacher, Gaynor is now in her 47th year of service at St Martin’s.

Although she has held various roles over the years, her passion lies in Pastoral, helping to develop a number of initiatives shared with many local schools within the Brentwood BAP, which she attends as Vice Chair.

As part of the school’s involvement with the wider community, she represents the Brentwood BAP schools at both the Brentwood Startwell group and Community Safety Partnership; identifying priorities as well as funding recommendations for future schools’ projects.

She has led on Mental health initiatives prior to qualifying as the senior mental Health Lead for St Martin’s alongside her responsibilities as DDSL, (Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead) and has recently qualified as a MHFA England trainer, in order to promote further mental health training, for staff and students across the trust and for local BAP schools.

In her spare time she runs a Youth award winning theatre group, ‘BOSSY’ and enjoys cooking and baking.