Governor Profiles
Rob Sherington
Rob has had a successful teaching career for nearly 40 years. He was Headteacher of Holbrook High School from 2005 to 2009 (judged ‘Good’ Ofsted Feb 2009), and then Principal of Cliff Park Ormiston Academy from 2009 to 2016 (judged ‘Good’ Ofsted Sept 2016). Prior to this, he held senior positions in several other Suffolk and Norfolk secondary Schools / Academies.
After retiring from teaching in 2016, he set up his own business providing Maths Intervention Support to small groups of Year 11 students and is currently providing support to nearly 200 students in 6 different Suffolk secondary schools.
Rob has 4 daughters, 2 of whom live locally and 6 grandchildren with whom he enjoys spending his time. He is currently Captain of Halesworth Golf Club and still actively plays squash and tennis on a regular basis.
Kathy Ramsden
Kathy has worked over 40 years in the education sector as a successful mathematics teacher, the majority of this time at Copleston. She has held various roles in this time namely Head of Mathematics, Learning Director and Assistant Principal. She retired from teaching in 2015 and has worked subsequently within the Trust in Performance Management and Data collection roles.
She has lived in Ipswich for 38 years and has two children, both of whom were Copleston students in the late 1990s, early 2000s.
Outside of work she enjoys jogging and swimming.
Khawar Asif
Khawar graduated in 1990 with an honour’s degree in Astrophysics from the University of Hertfordshire. He has previously worked in retail management (for McDonalds, Shell UK, and Wendy’s) and in IT (for ATKINS, QVC and Euromoney).
For the last 8 years he has worked for a global telco company in their EMEAR Sourcing Team as a Project Buyer. His role is to support their pre-sales teams when bidding for large contracts.
He works from home, which is very convenient – having moved to Ipswich in February 2021.
He is a keen car enthusiast and enjoys tinkering with his car. He also enjoys walking, cycling and running (though not so much lately).
Sarah Anderson
After a first degree in Learning Disabilities, Sarah trained as a Nurse and then a Health Visitor. Over a thirty year career she held various posts within Health Visiting including a role in Child Protection before moving into a role managing Health Visiting, Children’s Centres and School Nursing in Ipswich.
She is currently developing her skills in Brief Solution Focused Therapy.
She has two children at Copleston. Previously a synchronised swimmer, she now challenges herself with Open Water swimming.
Joe Bowen
Joe grew up in Suffolk and recently moved back to Ipswich having worked abroad for 8 years. He graduated university with a degree in Geography and has since worked in sales, insurance, events and for the past 10 years in education. He has held a range of roles including teaching, managing and training of staff and student support. He now works in Higher Education outreach, providing education and careers guidance within schools.
Joe lives with his wife and daughter and enjoys spending time with his family. He also enjoys running, and works on his creative side with photography, drawing and woodworking.
Meral Bence
Meral became an Appointed Governor by the Trust in October 2022 and has a daughter currently at Copleston.
She is a firm believer in involvement and contribution and is looking forward to her Copleston governor term, following straight on from her 8 years as a governor at Broke Hall Primary where her daughter previously was.
Meral has been at BT for just over 20 years having joined as a graduate straight after her degree and masters. Throughout her career to date, she has had a successful record of programme/project management, data analytics and insight, team leadership and coaching, product development and deployment, change management, business management and external relations, and recently lead on the creation of the £9.8m DigiTech Centre at Adastral Park with the University of Suffolk.
Outside of work, Meral enjoys spending time with her family, walking and travelling.
Heather Bush
Heather lives in Ipswich with her husband where they have lived since moving here over 19 years ago. They have two children, one of whom is currently at Copleston. Heather works for the Electoral Commission as a Regional Manager where she works closely with electoral administration teams in local authorities across the Eastern region to support them in the delivery of elections and electoral registration.
Prior to her current role Heather spent over 20 years as a fundraiser working mainly in the heritage and education sectors, before moving into recruitment where she supported charitable organisations to recruit senior fundraisers.
Outside of work Heather is a keen runner, and also volunteers with Ipswich junior parkrun where she is Co-Event Director, and with Rendlesham Forest parkrun where she is on the core volunteer team.
Amanda Sandilands
Amanda has worked in education for the past 18 years in a variety of roles, including Special Educational Needs Coordinator, Assistant Headteacher and Acting Headteacher. She currently works as a Teacher of the Deaf for the local authority and is passionate about inclusion, having recently completed a post graduate degree in special education.
Amanda lives in Ipswich and currently has one child at Copleston. Outside of work, Amanda enjoys spending time with family and travelling.
Haifa Irshad
Haifa has lived in Ipswich since 2020 with her husband and daughter.
Haifa holds an MA in Public Administration, a BA in Political Science and a BA in Library and Information Science.
She has worked at the Central Secretariat Library, Government of India, in the Practical Training Library at Indira Gandhi National Open University and also as a School Librarian and Teacher at The Scholar School in New Delhi. She is currently working as an Exam Invigilator at Copleston.
Roger Smith
Roger began his working life as a student apprentice at Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies gaining qualification as a chartered engineer. After many years as a design engineer, he moved into personnel management and was subsequently promoted to Director of Personnel. During this period, Roger spent a considerable time working with Suffolk schools, setting up the Suffolk Education Business Partnership. Roger was awarded the MBE for services to Suffolk education/business.
Roger left Ransomes to take up the post as Director of the Engineering Employers Federation (East Anglian Association). He retired in March 2003.
Roger was first appointed a School Governor at Holywells before joining the Board of Governors at Thurleston, and serving as Chair. He moved to become a governor at Copleston and then became a Trustee of Gippeswyk Community Educational Trust. He stood down as a Trustee in August 2024 and has now re-joined Copleston Local Advisory Board.
Andy Green
Andy is the Principal at Copleston High School. He is in his 10th year at Copleston, having been appointed as Vice Principal in January 2010.
Andy also completed the role of Head of School between September 2017 and August 2019.
Prior to this, he was an Assistant Principal running a large Sixth Form in an Outstanding Norfolk High School and has been on the Senior Leadership Team at 3 different schools.
Steve Lloyd
Steve moved to Suffolk to teach Chemistry over 20 years ago after completing his teacher training. He joined Copleston in 2011 on a part-time basis and by the end of the year was full-time.
Prior to this, he took a break from teaching and became a qualified ski instructor. He lived in the Canadian Rockies working as an Assistant Ski School Director.
