Martin Lavelle has become head of Whitefield School in Cricklewood, Barnet, this term. He comes from Longdean School in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, where he was headteacher for six years. His first job was as a history teacher at Haling Manor High in Croydon. Later he joined the Compton School, Barnet, where he was head of history and religious studies.
Ahson Mohammed has been appointed head of Holly Lodge Foundation High School in Smethwick, Birmingham. Mr Mohammed joins the school from Billericay School, Essex, where he is deputy head. He also works for Ofsted as an additional inspector. Mr Mohammed joins the school as its Building Schools for the Future project gets under way in September. Meanwhile, Julian Souter, Holly Lodge’s retiring head, will work with academies on the rebuilding programme.
Catherine Clark has taken over as head of development at the Royal School of Church Music, a network of organisations and schools committed to the use of church music in worship. Before joining the education charity, Miss Clark was director of institutional advancement at the YWCA Boston and interim director of development at the Jewish Women’s Archive. She will be fundraising and leading the charity’s communications, marketing and development team.
Philomena Hogg has been appointed head of Falmer Academy, the first such institution in Brighton and Hove. She will take up her post as principal designate in September and become principal when the academy opens in September 2010. Mrs Hogg is the head of Woodhouse College in Tamworth, Staffordshire. Meanwhile, Stuart McLaughlin, Falmer High’s current head, will leave at the end of this term to become head of Portslade Community College, Brighton, in September.
Dave Clarke, an ICT teacher from Thornleigh College in Bolton, has been selected for the fourth time to represent the UK in the World Transplant Games on Australia’s Gold Coast in August. The federation exists to raise awareness about organ donation and Mr Clarke, who had a quadruple heart bypass in 2000 and a kidney transplant a year later, is aiming to retain his doubles badminton title and improve on the bronze he won in the singles in Bangkok two years ago. He represented Wales up to the age of 18, then played professionally for Oldham from the age of 23 to 31, when he had a heart attack.
Steve Carroll, head of Mapledown School in Barnet, has been picked as a national leader of education by the National College for School Leadership. His school has been designated as a national support school. Mr Carroll’s role will provide additional support and guidance to struggling special schools.
Alex Kingston
Teachers often complain about having to act as parents to their pupils, but ‘ER’ actress Alex Kingston says she would like to be a teacher because she has a “strong need” to mother.
Ms Kingston, who also starred in ‘Moll Flanders’ and ‘Boudica’, says she finds it hard being over 40 in Hollywood and has contemplated a radical career change.
“I have thought of retraining as a teacher because I definitely have a strong need to mother. But I don’t know whether teaching would satisfy that need,” she told ‘You’ magazine.
