*** Welcome to the Bowsland Green Primary School Website ***

Michael Sell (Chair)

Michael is known best as being Alex’s dad. Whilst this has been the case for only the last six years it seems that what went before is now unimportant.

For his day job Michael works for Royal Mail and is responsible for 8 managers, 200 postmen and a building next to Filton airfield. Michael also likes to point out nearly 1.5 million items PER DAY get sorted on his shift.

When not as work Alex takes up most of his and his wife’s time. Football, Swimming, Reading at the library and Bike riding are just a few of the activities that they get up to. They also like travelling and have enjoyed trips to Croatia, Cyprus, Jersey and Wales as well as Liverpool and London.

Michael’s last claim to fame is that on a recent trip to school assembly he was voted the tallest person at the school!!

Liz Powell (Vice-Chair)

Clare has been working with children for 34 years as a nursery nurse, children’s nanny and teacher. Her teaching experience ranges from large inner city schools in East London and Bristol, a small village school in Wiltshire with only 3 classes, a private school in Washington DC, USA and now Bowsland Green.

She has taught all ages from 3 year olds in Nursery up to 11 year olds in Year 6 and enjoyed them all! Her specialist teaching subjects are literacy, numeracy and PE and she has worked her way up from class teacher to Headteacher, with the role at Bowsland being her second Headship.

Clare really enjoys her work because every day with children is different. In her spare time she likes hill walking, playing tennis, travelling and veging out in front of a DVD with a bag of cheese and onion crisps and a cup of tea!

Until December 2000 I was a Special Needs teacher in secondary schools in Bristol. I have been a SENCO and sat on Senior Management Teams in two schools. Following my voluntary early “retirement” from teaching I spent two separate times working for the LEA in the SEN section where I learnt to see it from the other side!

In 2001 I became a governor at Embleton Primary School in Bristol with responsibility for SEN. I eventually became Chair of Governors. I have been a governor at Bowsland Green since 2006. I have had training in SEN governance, standards information, child protection issues, exclusions, recruitment and being a Chair of Governors as well as the initial training for new governors.

Out of school I am involved with hockey serving on the West Hockey Association Council and Umpiring Committee as well as the local committees. I am a regional coach of umpires and a qualified Technical Delegate for national tournaments. Most recently I have learnt to play bridge and if I have a spare moment I act as secretary to a Charitable Foundation!

Clare Whitaker (Head teacher)

Sarah Drake

Sarah has worked in Social Care for the last 19 years. She has worked with children, adults with physical and learning disabilities and older people during this time. Sarah currently works as a Senior Practitioner for Bristol City Council.

Sarah is the Liberal Democrat Authority Govenor at Bowsland Green Primary School. This is a role she is very excited about as she is keen to be a part of the school and its day to day running.

She is also currently the Vice-Chair of the Filton and Bradley Stoke Liberal Democrats.

When not working, Sarah loves to keep busy by, spending time with friends and family, being out and about, playing skittles and taking care of her 2 guinea pigs.

Max Vindel

Max is Mia, Lucy and Evie’s dad. He has been a parent governor at Bowsland Green since 2007 and has a special interest within the school for science.

Although Max studied for his Aerospace Engineering degree in the UK he attended school in Spain and Australia and is very interested in the way that children are taught and schools are run in England.

Both of Max’s parents were teachers and it seems that he cannot stay away from school life (we suspect that he secretly wishes he had been a teacher!).

Max works at Airbus in Filton designing aircraft and enjoys swimming and cycling (especially with his daughters).

Amanda Nelson

I joined the Governing Body in 2006 as a Parent Governor and currently both my children attend Bowsland Green.

I was born in Essex (hence the non-Bristolian accent) and moved to Bradley Stoke from Cambridgeshire in 2005.

I work for the Ministry of Defence at Abbey Wood dealing with Parliamentary business and Freedom of Information Requests.

In my spare time (when not organising the children’s social activities) I go to spinning and zumba classes at the leisure centre. I also enjoy socialising with friends, listening to music and have been to the last two Glastonbury Festivals.

Anna Clarke

I qualified as a secondary mathematics teacher. However my reserved nature made it difficult to obtain a teaching job and I ended up in the world of pensions.

I am particularly interested in the teaching of maths and attainment of the individual child rather than the achievement of the year group overall. This is something that Bowsland Green is particularly good at tracking.

My other interests currently include watching motorsport, gardening and simply enjoying the outdoors.

I have four cats and some other small animals (usual house spiders included). I have a desire to become more musical when I finally get some time!