Meet the Governors

Headteacher:  Jeanette Lovejoy

Clerk: Sharon Lee (Contact: sharonlee@warwickshire.gov.uk)

SBM: Lydia Mortimer (Co-opted Governor)

Lydia joined the AFI Governing Board in 2019 as a co-opted governor and has just began a second term of office.

After successfully completing her university education, Lydia undertook a Certificate of School Business Management (CSBM) qualification, in order to become a school business professional.

Lydia is currently employed at Abbots Farm Infant School as the School Business Manager and has worked in the primary education sector since August 2012.  Her job role covers a range of areas including financial management of school resources, health and safety, human resources, managing school administrationand site management. She also provides comprehensive support to the Headteacher to ensure the smooth day-to-day running of the school.

Her motivating factors for being a governor are to provide challenge and support to the governing body and senior leadership team, so that the strategic goals of the school can be achieved.

Lydia is kept busy outside of work managing three sons, two dogs and a husband! In her spare time she likes to read, spend time with family, meet up with friends, cook and watch films.

Contact: mortimer.l1@welearn365.com

Nick Morrott – Chair of Governors

Nick has been a co-opted governor at Abbots Farm Infant School since September 2019. In September 2020 Nick became Chair of Governors, and is a member of the Head Teacher Appraisal and Pay Committee.

He has a strong STEM background and has worked for global and UK-based companies in Technology Assurance and Business Technology Consultancy. In addition to being a STEM Ambassador in the West Midlands, Nick runs weekly Code Club sessions at Rugby Library as part of the national Code Club initiative. These sessions provide an introduction to computer programming for children aged 9-13 from across Rugby, using Scratch, Python, the Raspberry Pi, and HTML/CSS. As a volunteer at The National Museum of Computing (TNMoC) at Bletchley Park, Nick has worked to restore exhibits to working order.

Nick promotes the adoption of Open Standards, Open Source Software, and Open Data, and sees great potential for their use in education. In addition to contributing to various software projects, he is a Debian Developer and since 2009 has organised a monthly technology user group in Rugby which meets to discuss all aspects of Linux and FOSS.

As a result of his employment and volunteering experiences, Nick continues to develop skills which include software development, technology integration, project/event management, and financial/data analysis.

Nick is married with two children, and lives locally.

Contact:  morrott.n@welearn365.com

Laura Meldrum-Carter – ViceChair (Co-opted Governor)

Laura joined the AFI Governing Board in 2019 as she wished to volunteer some of her time locally and has taken on the role of SEN Governor due to her career experience. In her professional life she is a freelance Educational Psychologist working to help children, schools and families across the Midlands. Before her doctoral training she was a primary teacher in London, Cornwall and Ecuador, with a special interest in Early Years. She is used to analysing information, data and problem-solving a wide range of situations relating to education. As well as interests in coaching and emotional wellbeing, she has significant experience supporting staff and school systems and fully appreciates the importance of a positive school culture in offering high quality learning for all our children.

Laura lives in Hillmorton and is married with two sons, one at AFJS and a toddler, both of whom keep her very busy!

Contact:  meldrum-carter.l@welearn365.com

Shuchi Agarwal – Co-opted Governor

Shuchi joined the Abbots Farm Infant School Governing Body in May 2021 as a co- opted Governor. She recently moved to Hillmorton with her husband and two daughters, younger one is currently at Preschool and will be starting full-time school in September 2021 and the older one is at Paddox Primary School.

Shuchi is currently working at Network Rail as a Performance and Reporting Analyst. Previously she has worked with National Grid as an Analyst within Health and Safety and completed her NEBOSH training. Health and Safety has been and will be most important to her and drives her every single day of her life. She takes Health and Safety with her wherever she goes and tries to drill the same into her children and whosoever she can simply because it can save lives, what else can be more important! She is also passionate about Mental Wellbeing and has been trained and signposted for the same.

Shuchi loves good company, a plate of good food and a cup of great coffee.

Serginho Samuel – Co-opted Governor

Serginho Joined as a school Governor having learned about AFI’s vision and values. He moved to Rugby from Croydon, South London in 2017 with his wife and 3 year old son. He embarked on a Housing Career after graduating from University in 2009 where he studied Sociology and Politics at Goldsmiths University (London).

He is a manager at one of the largest Housing Association’s in the country , which covers the Midlands, East England and the South of England. He has a keen interest in Welfare Reform and Local policies that  impact the community.

His other interests are health and wellbeing in addition to Equality and Diversity, Serginho believes that children should be able to learn in a happy, safe and thought-provoking environment which contributes to their character building.

Hemma Sandhu-Gajjar – Parent Governor

Hemma joined the Abbots Farm Infant School Governing Body in January 2021 as a co-opted Governor. She lives in Hillmorton with her husband and two children; her son is currently in Reception at Abbots Farm and absolutely loves it! The family welcomed their daughter into the world in September 2021.

Hemma currently works at EY as a Diversity & Inclusiveness Consultant where she strives on her passions for equality and wellbeing – she has been with the firm for nearly 10 years and during this time has had a varied and rewarding career starting off in the UK in Student Recruitment, then moving to the Middle East region where she spent 4 years working on Talent Change Management before moving back to the UK in 2018.

In her spare time, Hemma enjoys spending time with her family, reading, cooking and gardening. She is also very passionate about the environment and ensuring future generations grow up learning about the importance of sustainability and preservation and champions equality & wellbeing in the workplace and community.

Alice Ong – Co-opted Governor

Alice Ong was co-opted onto the Governing Body of Abbots Farm Infant School in December 2022, taking on the role of Safeguarding Governor.

In her youth Alice attended local state schools, and after University started working as a doctor for the NHS in 2004. Since then she has accumulated a wide range of transferable skills from the Health Sector including research and hopes to bring this to her new role as Co-opted School Governor in 2023. She has a life-long passion for education and is involved in both Undergraduate and Postgraduate Medical Education. She believes that improving education for all children will help to create better future for everyone. In her spare time she enjoys drinking tea and eating chocolate!

Jo Jones – Staff Governor

Jo has been a governor since October 2021. She has 2 children – 1 of which still attends our school whilst the eldest moved over to AFJS in September 2021.

Jo is a teaching assistant at Abbots Farm Infant School but has previously been a nursery practitioner for a private nursery after working and volunteering for the school since 2017. She hopes to use the skills learned from her experience in the school and her private nursery experience to help enhance and maintain the early years provision offered at the school.

Jo’s passion is to help others around her, and she campaigned late 2020/early 2021 for a community defibrillator to be installed on the external fence which now provides support for our wider community. Since summer 2021 she has also become an ambassador for Frolo which is a nationwide single parent organisation which helps support single parents through advice, friendly encouragement and local meetups.

Sharon Harris – Co-opted governor

Sharon was co-opted onto the Governing Body of Abbots Farm Infant School in September 2023.  She is an experienced governor and chose to volunteer some of her time taking on the role of Early Years Governor.

She has significant experience supporting staff and school systems at a strategic level and fully appreciates the importance of building strong foundations for lifelong learning. She is used to having strategic oversight,
analysing information, data and problem-solving a wide range of situations relating to education, with a specialist interest in Early Years.

In her professional life, she works with schools and social workers to improve the life chances of some of the most vulnerable children in society by promoting high aspirations for attendance and attainment.

Rob Sandercock – Parent Governor

Rob joined the Governing Body in October 2023 as he felt his skills and experience suited those desired at that time, he had hoped to volunteer some of his time to the school since his daughter started in Reception.  He hopes to put his skills and knowledge to good use in helping the school to reach its goals.

Rob has an engineering background, studying Aeronautical Engineering at University and working since 2006 in a large public transport organisation in the field of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering.  Rob became a Chartered Engineer in 2012 and has since helped and mentored others as they develop and achieve their own professional qualifications.

Rob has a passion for environmental sustainability and has particular experience in energy efficiency of buildings.  He has vast theoretical and practical experience of project works in this area which he hopes will be of use to the school.

Outside of work Rob enjoys putting his practical skills to use doing DIY and working on cars.  He also enjoys watching sports and particularly follows the MotoGP and domestic and international Rugby.  Rob also helps his mother look after an allotment where they grow various fruits and vegetables organically.

Rob lives locally with his wife and daughter.

Ha Duong – Co-opted Governor

Ha has been a co-opted governor at Abbots Farm school since January 2024 as he wished to volunteer to help support the school.

Ha is currently working in the technology industry for a global company and has a passion for design system and programming. With research background, he is very passionate about finding and applying a new approach from operation research, AI and new algorithms. He hopes with his background he can contribute toward the IT related policy such as GDPR.

Other than his job, Ha lives in Rugby enjoy spending time with his family with two children, one at AFJS.

If you are interested in becoming a school governor, please complete the application from below and email it to our Chair of Governors.

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