Staff & Governors

Prior to her retirement, Karan spent 44 years working in Health and Social Care. She spent 26 years as a Nurse, Health Visitor, Health Service Manager and then as the Designated Nurse for Child Protection. This was followed by 18 years with Children’s Social Care chairing Child Protection Conferences. Karan has extensive knowledge and experience in safeguarding practice and procedure and the roles of all the statutory agencies.  Karan’s four children are former Blue Coat pupils.

Karan joined the governing board in June 2004. She is Chair of the Safeguarding, Health and Safety Committee and she is the Designated Governor for Safeguarding. Karan was appointed Chair of Governors in January 2022.

Martin is Managing Director of Tyndallwoods Solicitors, Trustee of the OHMI Trust and the Limoges Charitable Trust & formerly a governor of a state primary school (10 years in post). His three children are former pupils and wife Judy was a previous Chair of the Association of Friends.

Martin is Vice Chair of the Board and Chair of the Awards Committee. He joined the governing board in 1999.

Guy is a graduate of Cambridge University and Trinity Theological College, Bristol. He is Vice-Chairman of Birmingham City Council’s Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education and a Governor of Broadway Academy, Aston. Guy’s daughters, Victoria and Alice, are former pupils of The Blue Coat School.

Michèle has had a long association with Blue Coat as she herself attended the School from 1983 to 1986. She is a former Deputy Head and previous editor of Prep School Magazine. Currently Michèle is School Chaplain at a Prep School in Glastonbury.

Elizabeth is a graduate of the University of Birmingham and has operated as a senior manager, specialising in collaborative commissioning, within the NHS for more than 15 years. More recently she has operated as a Consultant to various NHS organisations providing specialist advice in the area of service redesign and improvement. She is currently Chair of The BRANCH, an after school care and educational charity based in Sandwell and formerly Chair of the Blue Coat School Association of Friends. Elizabeth is married with two children, who are former and current BCS pupils.

Andrew is an Executive Director at Quilter Cheviot Investment Managers and has over 30 years’ worth of experience specialising in the management of private client portfolios, company pension schemes, charities, SIPPs, Court of protection Settlements, offshore bonds and trusts. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment and specialises in the management of Court of Protection Settlements in particular. He holds a BSc Honours degree from the University of Birmingham. Andrew became a Governor in June 2022 and is a member of the Finance and Estates Committee.

Parth works at the University of Birmingham and is a Consultant at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. He and his colleagues specialise in providing care to people with diabetes and also in researching causes and new treatments for diabetes. He is a graduate of King’s College, London and worked in London, Manchester, Bristol and Melbourne before finally moving with his family to Birmingham in 2005. Both his children Arjun and Alisha attended Blue Coat School and have now moved on to local secondary schools.

Steve is currently a Birmingham based partner in the accountancy firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

During his 30 years in the accounting sector he has gained significant experience in tax, accounting, legal and of a broad range of businesses operating in numerous sectors of the economy.

Both of Steve’s daughters, Melanie and Natasha, attended the School, with Natasha due to graduate from the school in the summer of 2019.

Steve is a member of the Finance and Estates Committee.

Anita has a marketing background, and worked for several Advertising and Marketing agencies before moving to the position of Brand Manager at MG Rover. As a former parent at the School, Anita was heavily involved in school life and was previously Chair and Vice-Chair of the Association of Friends (PTA). Her two sons were pupils at the School between 2005 – 2017. Anita is the Link Governor for both SEND and The Blue Coat School Old Scholars’ Association.

Stephen is a retired partner from the accountancy firm, Deloitte. He has gained significant experience on the financial operations of the education sector as well as charities during his career. A former trustee of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens (an educational charity) for 15 years, Stephen currently assists other not for profit organisations.  Stephen’s two grandchildren currently attend the School.

Stephen is  Chair of the Finance and Estates Committee.

Adrian is a Chartered Surveyor and Director of Pennycuick Collins Limited, based at Five Ways, Edgbaston. He has been in private practice in Birmingham since the late 1980’s and was previously a Partner with James & Lister Lea, undertaking a wide range of consultancy work from pre-acquisition surveys through to the project management of refurbishment and new build projects.

Adrian became a Governor in January 2020 and is a member of the Finance & Estates Committee.

Bernard practised as a solicitor in Birmingham for 37 years and was a Partner with the firm Lee Crowder specialising in commercial litigation. His three sons attended the School between the years 1988 and 1997.

Bernard joined the governing board in April 2013. He is the former Chair of Governors and is now the Governors’ representative on the Association of Friends’ Committee as well as chairing the Teaching, Learning & Curriculum Committee.

Currently Dean of Birmingham, The Very Reverend Matt Thompson has extensive experience as a school governor in a variety of schools, primary and secondary; church and community; maintained, voluntary aided, academy trusts and now the independent sector.

Noel joined The Blue Coat School in September 2016, taking up his third Headship, spanning over 12 years in both the Independent and state sector. He is a member of the National College of School Leaders, and an advocate of ‘learning without limits’. Noel moved up from his former school St. Peter’s Prep School, Lympstone, Devon, with his wife Jules and two children Bea and Jasper. His youngest is still a pupil at the school, while his eldest has now moved on to senior school.

Since joining BCS, Noel has introduced the multi award nominated BCS Blue and has seen The Blue Coat School shortlisted as the Times Prep School of the Year for three consecutive years. He has successfully navigated the School through the COVID-19 pandemic ensuring that continued standards of excellence were maintained both online and offline. The School remained open for up to 200 children of key workers and a bespoke online Distance Learning Programme ensured that pupils having to remain at home were still able to access the very best teaching and learning. Outside of School, Noel, himself a keen sportsman, relaxes by supporting his rugby team – The Exeter Chiefs!

Following a career in the Royal Navy as a Logistics Officer, Gareth joined The Blue Coat School having been the Bursar at King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys for the past 3 years.

Robbie grew up just a stone’s throw away from the Blue Coat campus and has always had a strong understanding of the School’s history and reputation. He worked at Wells Cathedral Senior School for his first 8 years in teaching, enjoying a number of roles that included Master in charge of Cricket and Academic Head of Sixth Form.

As Head of Boarding and Director of Co-Curricular at St Peter’s Prep School in Devon, Robbie found expanding the extra-curricular programme especially rewarding.  Since joining Blue Coat, he has extended the opportunities for pupils by widening their horizons through additional clubs and activities. The extensive programme he has put in place will encourage the children to develop into well-rounded individuals who are able to take advantage of everything that life has to offer them, both at senior school and beyond. Robbie oversees the pastoral care in Prep.

Robbie is married to Clare who teaches Modern Foreign Languages at the School and has two daughters who are currently in Prep.

Helen has 20 years of teaching experience spanning the Early Years Foundation Stage, Key Stage One and Key Stage Two.  As part of the Senior Leadership Team, she leads the school’s academic curriculum ensuring it is carefully balanced, well sequenced, ambitious for the pupils and forward thinking in its approach.  She also took a lead role in creating and implementing the School’s bespoke assessment tool, The BCS Blue.

Helen ensures that the highest standards of teaching, learning and academic attainment are consistent across the School. She is extremely passionate about raising standards and she continually strives to cultivate curiosity in pupils, enriching the curriculum with ‘wow moments’ that captivate the pupils.

Helen is married with a daughter who currently attends the School.

April joined The Blue Coat School in August 2022, from the University of Birmingham where she was Head of Sport Marketing, Communications and Business Development. Throughout her time in this role, April worked on the opening of the University’s £55 million sports centre, the Rugby World Cup Training Camp, the Jamaican Track & Field World Athletics Championships Training Camp and the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. April also has experience working in the charitable sector as she has previously worked at Nottinghamshire YMCA.

April’s experience in marketing and communications spans strategic change, branding, digital innovation projects, internal communications, PR, alumni engagement, events and campaigns for a multitude of audience types. She is hugely looking forward to using this knowledge and experience to strengthen the marketing and communications output for the School.

Sacha has many years of teaching experience in both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. She is passionate about children achieving their full potential and understands the importance of personal-social education and promoting the welfare of children to enable them to succeed. Sacha values the importance of giving children the tools they need to help them to develop into creative, resilient, independent learners.

Lindsay has more than thirty years’ teaching experience and has taught children from Year 1 through to Year 8. She has been part of BCS since 2000, teaching in both Prep and Pre-Prep, and her children, Lizzie and Aled, are old scholars. As a former Head of English, she loves keeping up to date with new children’s fiction, and engendering a love of reading. Lindsay is committed to continuing the strong pastoral care at The Blue Coat School by embedding kindness and respect in all that the school does, and enabling BCS children to develop in confidence and resilience.

Clare strives to ensure all pupils have access to a quality education. She works with pupils, teachers and senior leaders – in the maintained sector and the independent sector – to improve teaching and learning outcomes, whilst supporting school leaders. Throughout her teaching career, Clare has taught the breadth of the primary curricula (Nursery – Year 6), gaining a sound understanding of the related pedagogies.

As a senior consultant, she works with teaching staff within and across schools to implement coaching programmes to support teachers, curricula revisions, assessment, and the development of policies and procedures.

Clare strongly advocates that all pupils should have an opportunity to build confidence, to be inspired and to be challenged. She endeavours to develop safe, stimulating and inclusive learning environments to nurture pupils and teachers as they encounter a lifelong journey of limitless learning.

A former pupil at The Blue Coat School, Rena has a strong understanding of the School’s history and reputation. She re-joined Blue Coat in 2009 as a form tutor and English teacher across the Prep school. Shortly afterwards, she became the Head of English, leading the large and thriving English department for five years. As Assistant Head Academic Development, Rena then developed the Learning Success programme across Prep and Pre-Prep, focusing on enhancing provisions for children with SEN, EAL and AG&T. She also established our Outreach programme. Rena believes in making a difference for every child. She now has responsibility for furthering the Able, Gifted & Talented provisions and has a particular focus on increasing attainment across the school in both core and non-core subjects.