Meet the Leighton Park Team

Becky Edwards - Director of Fryer - Years 7 & 8

I have been a teacher for nearly 20 years, after completing my BA in PE with QTS at Brighton University. I have had experience in teaching in a whole range of schools including state, independent, all girls, coeducational, day, boarding and international. Throughout my career I have taken on many different roles including Head of Girls' Games, Exams Officer, Head of Key Stage 4 and boarding Housemistress. I started at LP using my wealth of boarding experience the role of Housemistress of Reckitt House before becoming Director of Fryer in 2023.

Ross Poane, Head of Year 10 (2025-26)

Our leadership team for Years 9, 10 and 11 & Pre-Sixth is comprised of Sally Saunders (Assistant Head – Pupil Personal Development), Ross (Assistant Director of Sport) and Merion Taynton (English teacher). The team rotate their responsibilities each year so that they remain with the same cohort of students through their transition from Fryer into the Senior School or as they join in Year 9 and through the duration of their GCSE studies in Years 10 and 11, lending a consistency to the all important relationship between student, parents and the school. The integration of new Pre-Sixth students into Year 11 is supported by the Head of Year’s knowledge and experience with the current cohort enabling them to initiate friendships and organise successful social activities to ensure a happy and positive environment for all.

Merion Taynton, Head of Year 11 & Pre-Sixth (2025-6)

Our leadership team for Years 9, 10 and 11 & Pre-Sixth is comprised of Sally Saunders (Assistant Head – Pupil Personal Development), Ross (Assistant Director of Sport) and Merion Taynton (English teacher). The team rotate their responsibilities each year so that they remain with the same cohort of students through their transition from Fryer into the Senior School or as they join in Year 9 and through the duration of their GCSE studies in Years 10 and 11, lending a consistency to the all important relationship between student, parents and the school. The integration of new Pre-Sixth students into Year 11 is supported by the Head of Year’s knowledge and experience with the current cohort enabling them to initiate friendships and organise successful social activities to ensure a happy and positive environment for all.

Pam Carragher, Finance Governor

Pam is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and has broad experience in finance management across a number of sectors including telecoms, engineering and retail. She has worked for the last 14 years in management roles within education and is currently Head of Finance at St Piran’s School.

Pam is based in Reading, living close to the School, and is married with two children, the younger of whom is an Old Leightonian. While a parent at Leighton Park,  Pam acted as Treasurer to the PSC.

Eme Dean-Lewis, Chair of Governors

Eme is Research Director at the Independent Schools’ Bursars Association focused on strategy and professional development. Prior to moving into the Education sector, she spent 25 years as a technology industry professional developing strategic alliance relationships for leading global technology corporations. She holds an Executive MBA from London Business School and is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Eme is a trustee for a local charity, Smart Works Reading, which helps women who have been out of the workforce to succeed at interview. While a parent at Leighton Park, Eme was a founder member of the Leighton Park STEM Hub team and the PSC Book Group. Eme and her husband Tim have two daughters and a son – all of whom are Old Leightonians.

Lottie Dodwell-Williams (OL) (Q)

Lottie is a Quaker and an Old Leightonian. She holds a BA Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford, and an MSc Science Communication from Imperial College, London. Lottie works in the Museum and Heritage sector as an Interpretation Developer at the Natural History Museum, where she curates new exhibitions and galleries. Her most recent exhibitions for the Natural History Museum have opened in venues around the world, including: Dive in the Jurassic (Bahrain National Museum, 2019), Curiosities of the Natural World (La Musee de la Civilisation, Quebec 2019).

Previously she worked at the Science Museum and curated BepiColombo: Mission to Mercury (2018) and The Last Tsar: Blood and Revolution (2018).

James Gazet, SEND/Inclusion Governor

James was educated at St Paul’s School and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he studied mathematics. He has been a teacher since 1990 and worked at Eton, Westminster and St Paul’s, where he is now the Deputy Head Academic. He is also Vice-Chair of the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust and Chair of the British Mathematics Olympiad Executive Committee. He is married with two children.

Alex Hitchens (OL), Health & Safety Governor

Alex Hitchens is an Old Leightonian, having attended Leighton Park from 2008 to 2015, in Fryer and then Reckitt House, and received the school’s Jorge Hortal Award. He studied Chinese and Philosophy at SOAS, University of London, including a year living and studying in Beijing. After working as a business analyst in the technology sector, he went on to complete an MBA at London Business School, with a focus on strategy, finance, and technology.

Alex is based in London and will shortly join Bain & Company as a consultant. He has also published and peer-reviewed research articles in leading academic journals.

In addition to his professional work, he serves on the Board for the UK’s Association of Governing Bodies of Independent Schools (AGBIS), supporting and advising independent school governing bodies across the UK.

Chris Houston (OL), Governor

Chris Houston attended Leighton Park between 1975 and 1980. After a gap year in Paris, he read Anglo Saxon, Norse & Celtic and then History at Cambridge University. On graduating from Cambridge he joined the project finance team at Schroders. In the late 1980s and 1990s he advised on the financing and privatisation of many major infrastructure projects in Europe, Asia and Latin America. During this time he spent seven years living in Asia (in Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur). More recently he advised on financings, restructurings and acquisitions in the infrastructure sector in the UK. Over his career he held senior positions at Schroders, Citigroup, Lexicon Partners and Evercore.

Chris is married with three children and lives near Newbury. He is also a Governor of Elstree School.

Naomi Iliff (Q), EDI Governor

Naomi is a graduate of Sidcot School, a Quaker school in Somerset. While at school, she became a Quaker. She went on to study Ancient History and Archaeology at Birmingham University. When her children were small she trained as a teacher of IT by working at local colleges of further education and Reading Prison. While working at Reading Prison, Naomi because increasingly interested in criminology. When an opportunity came up to take part in a Quaker introduced prisoner charity, Circles of Support and Accountability, that supported released prisoners in the community, she joined and was among the early volunteers. Naomi spent most of her working life in the IT industry and teaching. When she retired she went back to university to get an MSc in Attachment Theory. Now she spends her time supporting her Quaker Meeting, a member of Quakers in Criminal Justice group, still volunteering with Circles and teaching English to Refugees.

Bruce Johnson (Q), Vice-Chair of Governors

Bruce Johnson is a Quaker and an OL, whose time at LP gave him a springboard in music and drama that has since enriched his life in many ways.  Professionally, Bruce is an HR specialist who has spent the last 20 years working in Higher Education, both as a Lecturer and a Manager, while doing some consultancy work alongside this main career.  Most recently, Bruce has focussed more on his work in industry, setting up a training consultancy whose main mission is to help organisations improve performance by improving their people management practices.  Bruce is part of the core team, delivering Quaker Quest at Friends House in Euston every Monday night, where he regularly gives presentations on a variety topics to do with Quaker faith and practice.

Marion Mitchell - Governor

Marion was born and educated in Scotland. Since graduating she has worked and lived in London, Buckinghamshire and Yorkshire; finally settling in Warwickshire in 2015.

Marion began her career in the hospitality industry, working in operations and sales for a leading international hotel brand. She is a qualified and experienced Business and Economics lecturer, and particularly enjoyed teaching on the Warwick University Foundation Programme (WIFP). Marion was Director of Marketing at Ackworth School for 10 years and was responsible for improving domestic and international student recruitment and delivering the overall marketing strategy.

Outside work Marion is a keen walker, bell ringer and bridge player. She lives with her husband and has two grown up children (Ackworth Old Scholars), both of whom now work and live in London.

Andrew Nind (Q), Sustainability Governor

Andrew Nind trained in mathematics and economics, with degrees from Cambridge University and London School of Economics. For about thirty years, he has worked in the electricity industry, mainly as a management consultant specialising in the power sector in Britain and Continental Europe.  In recent years, this has meant spending most of his working time assessing the commercial prospects for new wind farms and solar projects, as well as electricity cables from Britain to the Netherlands, Norway, France, Ireland … and even (possibly) Iceland!  Andrew is very interested in how we can live more sustainably; and also very interested in less ‘worthy’ things such as maths problems and classical piano music.  He stubbornly pursues the lost cause of being any good at tennis.  He lives in Reading and attends Quaker Meetings there.  He is happily married to Christina and they have two daughters who are just beginning their careers in the post-Covid19 world.

Juliet Smith (Q), Governor

Juliet was born a Quaker in Brighton and raised in a theatrical family. She built a career in the educational world, working in both state and independent schools in senior management roles. For six exhilarating years she served as Deputy Head at Leighton Park, steering the school through to full co-education and thereafter she went on to serve as an ISI inspector and advise other HMC schools on coeducational matters, as well as school leadership. She has chaired a range of school boards and more recently completed eight years chairing Brighton’s Martlets Hospice.

Juliet served as a magistrate for 30 years and is currently President of the newly formed Sussex Magistrates’ Association. She was High Sheriff of East Sussex from 2015 to 2016, is currently a Deputy Lieutenant and Vice-President of Ditchling Royal British Legion, as well as  Patron of Children With Cancer Fund.

Leon Spence (Q), Governor

Leon has an MBA and a Bachelor of Science degree in International Business and Modern Languages from Aston University. He has over 15 years of experience in helping companies achieve digital and process automation transformation and IT change at various multinational companies in the UK and Europe and currently works as a Transformation Consultant.

He’s a lifelong Quaker and an active member of Reading Quaker Meeting and has a passion for developing and learning from the young Quaker community.

Gwenan Sykes (Q), Governor

Gwenan is a member of Ackworth Local Quaker Meeting and a trustee of Central Yorkshire Area Meeting. For many years Gwenan was school doctor at Ackworth School. Gwenan holds a BA(Hons.) in Humanities with Classics from the Open University and MBChB from Sheffield University as well as Postgraduate Certificates in Primary Care Education and Quaker Studies.

Gwenan is a retired GP and GP trainer. She sings in a choir, plays tuned percussion moderately badly in a brass band and is obsessed with most activities involving yarn and thread.

Matt Winkless (OL) (Q), Safeguarding Governor

Matt is a Quaker and Old Leightonian. He attended Leighton Park between 2009 and 2011. He studied Philosophy at King’s College London, before working for the NHS. In 2015, Matt studied a two year law degree at the University of Birmingham and is now training to be a barrister. Matt also volunteers with young Quakers at a week long residential event each summer, an event at which he was a participant as a young person.

Nick Wood (OL), Sports Governor

Nick attended Leighton Park as a Boarder between 1988 and 1995, in Fryer and then School House. After leaving school, Nick read European Languages and Law in Bristol (spending a year living and working in Paris) before finishing his studies at the College of Law in Guildford.

Nick is now a London-based Partner in global law firm CMS specialising in commercial and real estate litigation. Nick has handled domestic and international disputes across the globe, handling cases in the US, the Turks & Caicos Islands, Ireland and South Africa. Nick has been recognised by the legal directories as a leader in his field. Nick is also the global relationship partner for one of the biggest international hotel brands.

Outside work, Nick continues his passion for sport (developed whilst at Leighton Park) and is a keen triathlete. Nick lives in Hampshire with his wife and two children.