Bob Harris,(left) deputy leader of Greenwich Council, is to chair the Association of London Government’s arts and leisure panel. Mr Harris sits on the boards of the London Arts Board, the Greenwich Millennium Trust and the London Heritage Trust.
Chris Tipple, Northumberland’s education director, will retire at the end of July next year. Mr Tipple, who has held the post for 15 years, was previously deputy director of education at Leeds City Council and joined Northumberland after a six-month secondment to the Audit Commission.
Sir Anthony Battishill has been appointed executive chairman of the Student Loans Company. He has spent his whole career in Whitehall starting at the Inland Revenue when he was 23 and fresh from the LSE. Sir Anthony retired as chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue last year and is a member of the court of governors of the London School of Economics. He succeeds Sir Ron Norman.
Dr John Harris, chief executive of the British Institute of Learning Disabilities, has been awarded an honorary professorship by the University of Birmingham. He was honoured for his work with children and adults with learning disabilities, culminating in the production of a series of materials on health issues.
Martin May has been appointed manager at Birmingham’s Teaching Company Scheme Centre for Small Firms. Mr May succeeds Geoff Hutt who has moved on to Aston University. Set up three years ago by the universities of Aston, Birmingham and Central England in Birmingham, the Teaching Company Scheme is a partnership between education institutions and industry to develop new products, improve quality and productivity by recruiting “tomorrow’s best business brains”.
The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music has appointedTimothy Leates as director of finance and administration. Mr Leates, a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, was financial secretarychief financial officer at the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. He succeeds Richard Humphries.
Barbi Hankinson-Parr (below), appointed head of Twyford Church of England high school in Acton, West London, will take up her post in January. An accomplished musician, she is currently senior deputy head of Stratton Upper School and community college in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire.
Tom Peryer, director of education for the Church of England diocese of Bath and Wells, has been appointed director of schools for the diocese of London. He replaces Rod Usher who retires next Easter.
Mr Peryer, 46, taught English at two inner-city secondary schools in London - Woodberry Down in Hackney and St Augustine’s in Kilburn -before becoming an education officer in the borough of Haringey and then moving to the Urban Learning Foundation in the East End as development director.
In the London diocese, Mr Peryer will be responsible for 151 schools with 4,000 heads and teaching staff and for liaison with 18 local education authorities.
David Cleaton, chief executive of Sussex Careers Services, is to chair a national working group to develop a new “skills competition” for schools to coincide with the millennial celebrations.
Budding plumbers, cooks, hairdressers and bricklayers - among others - will be encouraged to test their vocational skills against each other and will be judged in the light of current working practices and standards in their industry.
Schools interested in taking part should contact Hilary Jennings at UK Skills on 0171 543 7488.
Community Service Volunteers has appointed Lord Levy (left) as honorary president. The Labour peer has been appointed to help raise the profile of volunteers with politicians. Lord Levy has worked with charities in the education and voluntary sectors. He is also president of Jewish Care and patron of the British Music Industry Awards.
The London borough of Newham has seconded a head from a successful school to a failing school in its education action zone.
Michael Wilshaw, headteacher of St Bonaventure’s RC school, became acting head of Eastlea community school earlier this month and will remain until a permanent head is found.
Newham paid tribute to the retiring head, Maggie Montgomery, who had been in post since January 1997, but said it was time for the school to take a new direction. In March this year, a report by HM Inspectors declared the school to be in need of special measures.
Graham Lane, who chairs Newham’s education committee, said the exam results at St Bonaventure’s had improved “out of all recognition” under Mr Wilshaw’s headship and that it had also been the first school in Newham to seek technology college status.
