Deputy Head Pastoral Appointed

We are delighted to announce that we have completed the Deputy Head Pastoral recruitment process, for which we received an overwhelming number of applications, and that Mrs Sally Elliott has been appointed. She will succeed Mr Nick Brown who retires at the end of this academic year after 24 years at Shiplake College.

Mrs Elliott is currently Assistant Principal at Reading Girls’ School where she is responsible for safeguarding, inclusion, personal development and behaviour and attendance. As Designated Safeguarding Lead, Mrs Elliott has a wealth of experience in a wide range of challenging scenarios and as a result has developed strong relationships with local authorities and their designated officers (LADO). With a background in developing and designing induction and transition courses for Year 7 pupils whilst they are still in Year 6, Mrs Elliott will be a strong asset in helping pupils who join us in Year 7 to settle in, which this year includes girls for the first time. Mrs Elliott is a firm believer in the power of pupil leadership and voice and has led prefect teams and student senior leadership teams as well as training pupils as antibullying/mental health ambassadors and LGBTQ+ leads. Mrs Elliott believes that wrap-around personal development programmes are the key to successful engagement with pupils and families, and this approach has been highly commended as outstanding by Ofsted at her previous school. 

The Headmaster, Mr Tyrone Howe, comments "Mrs Elliott impressed all of those whom she met during the rigorous interview process, which included the Chairman of the Governing Board and two governors at the final stage of the process, and her depth of knowledge around pastoral support and safeguarding is outstanding. I am really looking forward to having Mrs Elliott join the Senior Management Team and benefitting from her expertise, passion and drive around pastoral matters."

Having grown up in Italy, Mrs Elliott is a fluent Italian speaker, teaches MFL, has experience in delivering many co-curricular activities such as football, running, trampolining, Italian Film Club and student senior leadership groups. Mrs Elliott has a black Labrador who coincidentally is called Ernie, but I can assure you that this had nothing to do with our decision making!

We look forward to welcoming Mrs Elliott to Shiplake in September.