New Staff Autumn 2020

We would like to extend a very warm Shiplake welcome to the following staff who have joined the College this term.

Mrs Kate Magee

Mrs Magee joins us as a Teacher of Sociology and Criminology. She will specifically be teaching Sociology A Level and the Level 3 Criminology Diploma.

Having previously only taught sixth form, Mrs Magee is looking forward to teaching her new Year 9 class.

She has been a teacher for 11 years, previously at Yateley School and Sixth Form in Hampshire, following a successful career as a journalist and features editor at the Reading Evening Post.

Mr Jamie Wheeler

Mr Wheeler joins us as a Graduate Teacher of PE. He left Loughborough in 2019 and completed a year at Berkhamsted School as a Graduate Sports Teacher before joining Shiplake. 

Outside of school, Mr Wheeler likes to travel to different countries to watch different sporting events.

Mr Charlie Littledale

Welcome to our new Science Teacher, Mr Littledale who joins us all the way from Bogota, Columbia, where he was teaching for the past two years.

Before he started teaching, Mr Littledale worked in Scientific Research. He is also a keen sportsman and plays football and cricket locally.

Mr Ed Bowden

Mr Bowden is our new Head of Athletic Development, as well as our Thinking Space Manager and Teacher of Psychology and Business Studies.

He comes to Shiplake from Harlequins Rugby Club where he worked with the Academy and Community Department. Before then he spent five years at Seaford College with the last two years of the role as Assistant Director of Sport.

Outside of work Mr Bowden loves to set himself a challenge and this year he set himself a target to run 2,020km during the year for charity. As part of this he ran to the 14 London Football Stadiums in 14 days covering 370km. He currently has 700km to go before the end of the year. In 2014 he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and more recently during lockdown he has re-started to learn the saxophone.

Mrs Maria Moir

Welcome to Mrs Moir our new HR Manager. Mrs Moir has extensive HR experience after working at Toys R Us for nearly 30 years, where she was Head of HR. Before she moved to Shiplake, she was Head of HR for a corporate veterinary group.

Mrs Moir is really looking forward to "supporting the staffing team in helping to grow future generations and to being a part of the Shiplake Community".

Mr Charles Hurtley

Mr Hurtley joins us as Interim Bursar working with the finance team and estates management.

He has been a bursar for the last 12 years and as a locum bursar he has helped a variety of independent schools, most recently Pilgrims' School in Winchester. 

Outside of work Mr Hurtley enjoys jogging in the Surrey Hills.

Mrs Laura Reineke 

Mrs Reineke joins us as Music Administrator this term, but she is already a well-known face around College as our Visiting Music Teacher in Violin.

Mrs Reineke trained as first study violin at Trinity College of Music, London and since then has been a freelance violinist, violin, ensemble and class music teacher. Twelve years ago she founded Henley Music School (HMS), a charity that provides music education to anyone regardless of age, ability, background or means and recently swam the channel as part of a relay in aid of HMS raising over £27,000. Her next challenge is a solo channel swim!

Mr Oliver Parker

Mr Parker is our new Graduate Teacher of Humanities. He joins Shiplake after having spent a year working for a charity running Christian summer activity holidays and before that reading Geography at Bristol University. 

Mr Parker will be teaching Geography and History to Lower School pupils and will be getting involved in sports coaching. 

This is not Mr Parker’s first time at Shiplake, when he was born, his father was Chaplain and he lived onsite!

Outside of school Mr Parker loves going on adventures and competing in endurance events. A particular highlight was reaching a summit of Stok Kangri (6,150m) whilst climbing in the Himalayas.

Miss Jessica Pye

Miss Pye joins Shiplake from LVS in Ascot. She will be teaching Psychology and Criminology and will be helping with girls' sport.

She is particularly looking forward to introducing GCSE Psychology at Shiplake and, of course, working with a fantastic department. Miss Pye is also a keen runner and can speak enough French to order a baguette with ease. 

Miss Emma Gregg

Welcome to Miss Gregg, another new addition to the Geography department. Miss Gregg previously worked at Didcot Girls' School after completing a PGCE at the University of Oxford.

Miss Gregg spends a lot of her free time trampolining and competes for the University of Oxford and judges at competitions. She is also a keen horse rider.

Miss Gregg is stepping in to cover Mrs Pomeroy, who has now started her maternity leave.

Miss Melissa Knight

Miss Knight joins the Learning and Development team this term from Wetherby Prep and is currently taking her dyslexia specialist qualification. She is also a speech therapist.

Before she became a teacher, Miss Knight was a musician and as part of her research in specialist teaching she is investigating the link between music and language learning in young children with autism.

Mr Dan Safdari

Mr Safdari comes to us from King's College School Wimbledon and Godolphin and Latymer School in London, where he coached both girls and boys rowing to a national and international level. 

He joins us as Senior Girls' Lead Rowing Coach and Boatman. Mr Safdari has a degree in Strength and Conditioning Science from St Mary's University, Twickenham and is a keen sportsman. 

He enjoys trying his hand at new sports and recently rekindled his passion for cycling. All this activity builds up quite the appetite; he enjoys eating out particularly at American-style Diners and loves Afternoon Tea! 

Mr Safdari is very excited about the potential within the girls' rowing programme and hopes to qualify Shiplake's first girls' crew into Henley Royal Regatta.

Miss Nicola Jones

Miss Jones is our new Theology and Philosophy teacher and joins us after having previously taught at Princethorpe College in Rugby and Tudor Hall School in Banbury.

Outside of school, Miss Jones performs and helps to run a musical theatre company in Oxford and is an avid seamstress and makes some of her own clothes. She also enjoys walks with her corgi, Diggle.

Mrs Vicky Palli-Evans

Mrs Palli-Evans joins us as our new Learning Development Teacher and Orchard House Tutor. Originally from Greece, she started her teaching career teaching English as a Foreign Language. Since then she has taught in private and state schools and joins us from The Henry Box School.

Outside of school, Mrs Palli-Evans loves travelling, reading, going to the theatre and cooking Greek meals for family and friends. Her favourite city in the world is Helsinki, where she met her husband.

Mr Christopher Lloyd

Welcome to our new Head of Design, Engineering & Technology, Mr Lloyd, who joins us from Stowe School.

Prior to that, Mr Lloyd was with Wasps as a professional rugby coach for over 11 years in various roles including the senior academy but also as a 1st team, forwards coach for three seasons winning a European Cup and Premiership in that time.

Mr Lloyd is a passionate angler having grown up by the river Wye in Herefordshire and has fished all over the world, with the Thames at Shiplake his next target!

He is also the owner of a chocolate Labrador called Budleigh and a miniature Schnauzer called Podi.

Mr Lloyd said he “was attracted to Shiplake by the positive happy attitude of the students I met at the school and because I feel it is a place where inclusivity, individualism and inspiration are part of the culture and not just a logo.”

Mr Yannick Pfiefer

Mr Pfiefer joins us from Southern Germany as our new Science Teacher. He is also passionate about rowing and will be spending lots of time at the boat house helping with the rowing coaching programme.

A keen cyclist, Mr Pfiefer cycles to work every day throughout the year - even in winter!

Mrs Amanda Snow

Mrs Snow is Shiplake's new Estates Manager. She has worked in the education sector for more than 20 years, in a variety of roles including School Manager, Estates Bursar, Assistant Bursar and Business Manager. Eight of those years have been at Reading School, where she managed the construction of a Science Centre, Refectory, Fitness Suite amongst other projects. 

Mrs Snow loves singing and once sung in front of the Queen at the Reading Hexagon as a child. She loves refurbishing homes and has just started on a refresh of her son's house.

She also welcomed two granddaughters five days apart last December and has two Weimaraners.

Mrs Sally Pollington

Welcome to Mrs Pollington who joins us as Head of Computer Studies.

Mrs Pollington’s background is communications engineering and prior to teaching she worked for a range of broadcasters including the BBC, Channel 5 and Sony. 

She joins us from The Abbey School in Reading where she worked for the last eight years teaching Computer Science to Years 7 to 13.

Mrs Pollington has ridden a motorbike across North America, East Coast to West Coast and is a keen photographer - especially wildlife.

Mrs Claire Morais

Finally, we extend a warm welcome to Mrs Morais who joins us as our new School Nurse. Mrs Morais has extensive nursing experience, most recently in Kings College Hospital on the COVID ward during lockdown. She really enjoyed the team work and everyone pulling together in difficult circumstances. Her main role during this time was patient liaison.

Mrs Morais is really pleased to be starting at Shiplake after working as a temporary nurse with us last December.

Outside of school Mrs Morais loves baking and makes cakes for friends' celebrations. She also enjoys playing golf.

She has two cats and a hamster (who she spends lots of time keeping the cats away from), and she has an identical twin who is also in the medical profession!

Other Appointments 

Internal appointments include: Mr Sam Shaw as Assistant Head Academic; Mr Jack Cooper, who is the new Deputy Housemaster of Skipwith; Mr Ed Olhausen as the Deputy Housemaster of Orchard; Dr Gemma Prata as the new Boarding Activities Co-ordinator; Mrs Sally Bayley who leaves the Thinking Space to become Teacher of Business; Mr George Miller is the new Head of Football; and Mr Paul McCraw is the new Head of Cricket.