Members

Ian Freeman

Chair of Governor

Co-opted Governor

Ian has lived locally most of his life and is passionate about the stewardship of the schools in the Federation. With Ian joining the Board of Governors and his children at Bushey and Oxhey Infant school and Bushey Manor Junior School, four generations of his family have now been involved in our two schools. 

Professionally, Ian is a Chartered Accountant, a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and a Director of a “Big 4” accountancy firm (KPMG) and so brings considerable financial and analytic skills to the Board.  He Chairs the Finance and Resources Sub-committee.

Socially he enjoys many sports although increasingly as a spectator rather than a participant!

 Ian has recently become chair of the Governing Body but previously held the position of chair of finance/ HR committee.

Dr Tony Breslin

Chair of Curriculum and Standards

Co-opted Governor

Tony is currently chair of chair of Curriculum and Standards.  Tony was Chair of Bushey Primary Education Federation since its formation in September 2015 but has recently stepping down. Prior to this he was Chair of the Governing Body at Bushey and Oxhey, having joined that Board in 2013.  Both of his sons previously attended Bushey and Oxhey Infant School and Bushey Manor Junior School. 

Tony hails from Harlesden in North West London but moved to Bushey in the early 1990s. A teacher by profession, he now works as an independent consultant in the education sphere. His report, Who Governs Our Schools? Trends, Tensions and Opportunities (RSA, 2017), has made a significant contribution to the national debate about the changing nature of school governance, while his books Lessons From Lockdown (Routledge, 2021) and Bubble Schools (forthcoming, Routledge, 2022) have been critically well-received. Tony holds a Doctorate in Education from the UCL Institute of Education and has recently been appointed as a National Leader of Governance by the Department for Education.

Mary Ann Cooper

Federation Headteacher

M.Cooper@busheyfederation.org.uk

Mary Ann has worked in mainstream, special schools and school support services for thirty years, mainly in the London Boroughs of Islington and Brent, and she has held a variety of roles and specialisms in areas such as EAL (English as an Additional Language), Autism and Inclusion. She has also spent several years in International school settings in both the USA and in Italy before making her home here with us in Bushey Primary Education Federation. 

Mary Ann holds a Masters degree from UCL, Institute of Education, with a focus on policy and provision for Inclusive education and multi-disciplinary working. She is passionate about ensuring that there is equity of opportunity for all children and that everyone feels welcomed and valued within the organisation and systems we develop within our Federation schools.  

Mary Ann has been a staff governor in many of the previous schools she has worked in and has an interest in effective school governance, policy and practice.  She is currently the proud Chair of Governors of another school in the London Borough of Brent. 

Having worked previously as Headteacher at Bushey and Oxhey Infant School, Mary Ann took up the post of Executive Federation Headteacher, with lead responsibility across both schools in September 2019. Her role is to develop our vision and educational practices across one cohesive, federated school community.  As Head, Mary Ann is active across the Board’s three Sub-committees and various working groups.  

Mary Ann does drop into conversation every now and then that she has taught the children of a previous Prime Minister and is looking forward to the day when she can proudly boast that she has taught the current Prime Minister (who will be a former pupil from Bushey & Oxhey Infants and Bushey Manor Juniors of course)!  Growing confident children filled with knowledge, wisdom and a strong moral purpose, rooted in kindess and compassion is what the wider world (and the British Political System) needs right now.  She's on it!!

Stephanie Cubbin

Co-opted Governor

Stephanie was a governor at Bushey and Oxhey Infant school between 2012 and 2015 and served as a founding member of the Federation Board between 2015 and 2018. After taking a break from governance twelve months ago, she re-joined the Board.  She is the previous Chair of the  Curriculum and Standards Sub-committee.

Steph is an experienced Head of Art at a central London Teaching School. She is also a National Specialist Leader of Education, working regularly to enhance Arts leadership in schools. In this role she has supported many Heads of Department in developing their curriculum, improving results and developing their leadership skills. As an experienced GCSE and A’ Level Moderator, she supports the Art moderation process alongside Heads of Department, developing their understanding of standardisation, and preparing for external moderation. 

She is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Art and Design and has recently completed her MA in Art and Design in Education. Steph worked with a teaching colleague to create A Window to the World, an advocacy film about the importance of rigorously taught arts subjects. The film was recently shown at Tate Modern, as part of the Art Is conference.

Stephanie has two children, one currently in Year 6 at Bushey Manor; her eldest has passed through both Federation schools and has just started his A'Levels. 

Dan Hall

 Governor

Curriculum and Standards Sub-Committee 

Dan was originally elected as a Parent Governor to the Bushey Primary Education Federation in September 2015 having spent the previous two years as an elected Parent Governor at Bushey and Oxhey Infant School.

Dan is Director of Information Technology Services for the Girls’ Day School Trust, where he is responsible for delivering IT services to 17,000 students and 4,000 staff. Dan is also Chair of the Board of Trustees for the charity, Charity IT Leaders.

Brought up in North London, he moved to Oxhey Village in 2003 after living in London and Liverpool. Dan is father of two children, who have both graduated from our schools.  He lives with his wife and children in Oxhey Village.

Dan is very keen on ‘wild’ camping and often leads groups of children in camping adventures across the UK as part of Forest School Camps and Woodcraft Folk. In this context, he especially enjoys cooking for the children and their leaders on an open fire.

David Winston

Staff Governor

Finance and Resources Sub-Committee

David was a solicitor in private practice (and a New York Attorney and Counsellor at Law) for 25 years before seeing the light and career changing into teaching. David has relished the challenges that this has brought and enjoyed the opportunity to have a second career, both careers having their particular rewards, albeit in different ways!

David joined Bushey Manor in 2020 and was then elected the staff governor in 2021. 

David is from Sheffield although has lived in London since the early 1990s. He has two children, both of whom are at university.

David enjoys most sports, in particular football (being a Sheffield Wednesday fan) and cycling, and has taken part in races both in the UK and Europe, including (as an amateur) stages of the Tour de France.

Sarah Morgan

Co-opted Governor

Finance and Resources Sub-Committee

This is Sarah's sixth year as a school governor and a member of the Board. She has two children, the eldest of which attended the Federation schools and is now in the Sixth form locally; the youngest is a student at Queen's School. 

Sarah would describe herself as passionate about the health and welfare of children and has a particular aim to educate children in the Federation schools about cancer prevention from an early age. Sarah works in the NHS as a Matron and has a background in cancer care. Her role is both clinical and managerial and she is able to draw on this experience of strategic leadership to benefit the Federation in her role on the Governing Board.

Sarah is a member of the Human Resources and the Finance and Resources Sub-committees. She also volunteers in school on a regular basis, finding this both rewarding and insightful.

Helen Shirley

Staff Governor

Curriculum and Standards Sub-Committee 

Helen has been a member of staff at Bushey and Oxhey Infant School for over twenty years. During this time, she worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Early Year Foundation Stage (Reception), and across Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2), having completed her Specialist Teaching Assistant course at the University of Hertfordshire. More recently, with the formation of the Federation, she has taken on the role of Pastoral Lead across both the infant and junior schools. 

Helen has been a staff governor for several years and is a member of the Curriculum and Standards Sub-committee. She is a qualified nurse and specialised in Oncology before leaving the profession to start her family. Helen has three children and two grandchildren. 

Along with a friend, Helen ran a very successful local Brownie Pack which over the years included many of the pupils from Bushey Manor. 

Alexander’s respect for the teaching staff redoubled during the pandemic and associated lockdowns and he committed to finding a way to help the Federation. He was thrilled to have the opportunity to do so when elected as a parent governor.

Professionally Alexander is Chartered Business Security Architect. This is essentially a risk management discipline which involves designing and implementing controls to help organisations operate effectively, securely, and legally.  He has experience working in government, with charities and in the financial services sector.

Currently he’s employed as the Head of the Insider Risk at a global bank

Crispin Hayhoe

Co-opted Governor

Finance and Resources Sub-Committee

Crispin is a barrister and accountant.  He used to be an insolvency practitioner. On leaving St Andrews University, he joined what was to become PriceWaterhouseCoopers and specialised in insolvency.

In 1999 he became the Finance Director of an internet company specialising in the music business.

After an exciting and turbulent few years he then undertook a postgraduate diploma in law and completed the professional training to become a barrister.

Since 2005 he has been in practice doing a wide range of cases and now brings his legal and financial expertise to the Governing Board of our federation schools.   Crispin is also the Finance Director of the Enterprise Forum, a not-for-profit organisation promoting discussion between business leaders and government, and he supports our schools each year in an initiative linked to employablity and enterprise, the annual Careers Day. 

Crispin presently has three children in our Federation schools. 

Since September 2023 Crispin is the chair of the Finance and Resources sub committee.

Faisal Mir

Local Authority Governor

Finance and Resources Sub-Committee