Governors of King Edward VII School

Peter Dickson: Chair of the Governing Board

Peter works for the Local Authority’s People Directorate where he manages a service dealing with challenging school issues surrounding children, their parents and carers and works closely with head teachers and other governing bodies across the city. He is a very experienced governor, a Local Leader of Governance, and has of a breadth of experience of many governance issues. He is also Chair of Governors at a Sheffield Community Primary School. His particular areas of expertise are in child protection procedures, behaviour, inclusion, SEN, attendance and a wide range of difficult pupil issues. He is passionate about education and about developing the life chances and opportunities for all children and young people. Peter has a Doctorate in Education and away from work and school is keen to keep abreast of educational research and a wide range of educational issues.

Michael Williams: Teacher Governor

Michael Williams is Head of English/ He has taught at King Edward’s for over 18 years, was a year leader for six years, then the ITT mentor for English for four years, and then the School Training Manager. He has held the post of Head of English for two years. He finds teaching at this School very rewarding due to its great diversity and levels of achievement. He greatly values our treasured history which is unique in the region and only adds, in his view, to the flavour of the school, as well as underpinning our excellence in Post-16 provision within the City. He believes that the School is a truly remarkable environment in which to work and learn, and hopes to represent the staff’s vision of this in fulfilling his role as Teacher Governor.

Clare Allison: Support Staff Governor

Clare joined the School in January 2017 and then the Governing Body in December of that year. She graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2002 having studied French and Economics and spent her year abroad at the renowned École Supérieure de Commerce, Business School in Bordeaux. Since University, she has also gained A Level Spanish and is currently studying for an MA in Education. She manages the Adult Evening Class Programme and oversee residential visits abroad. She also teaches French as part of the School’s Adult Evening Class Programme. As Language College Project Manager, she leads on projects which support language learning across all key stages, including a city-wide project to support community language accreditation. Clare is a member of the working group on Fundraising in School.

Samantha Bailey: Governor

Samantha is a graduate of the University of Sheffield having obtained an honours degree in Social Policy and Criminology, Samantha works at South Yorkshire Housing Association (SYHA). She has a background in Human Resources and has recently completed her MA in Human Resource Management.

Emma Wilkinson: Governor

Emma Wilkinson is a freelance journalist specialising in health and medicine. In 2020 she co-founded Freelancing for Journalists to provide resources to help people make a success of working for themselves. She is also an associate lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University and vice-chair of the Medical Journalists’ Association. Originally from Bradford, Emma studied Biomedical Science and then Journalism at the University of Sheffield. She lived in London for a few years but the lure of Sheffield was too great and she moved back in 2007. Emma has a daughter at the school and two younger children at Westways Primary School. She believes strongly in the value of a broad comprehensive education with equality of opportunity and access.

Kate Williamson: Vice Chair of the Governing Board

Kate is a parent of a student at the School. She is very glad that her daughter attends, as she has seen her become an independent and engaged learner who enjoys what she does, most of the time, at School. Kate herself has taught for 25 years in a range of different secondary schools in various localities including inner city. outer London and Sheffield. Currently, she is director of technology and computing at Tibshelf Community School where she is responsible for most of the Progress 8 Bucket 3 vocational focus subjects. She was a governor for eight years at a nursery and infant school where she was variously chair and a member of the finance, curriculum and safeguarding groups. She believes in comprehensive education and equal access for all students. Kate is a member of the working group on Fundraising in School.

Dr Malik Refaat

Having gained a PhD in Psychology and taught undergraduate students in the school of Psychology, Malik moved to Sheffield where he taught at the University of Sheffield before joining the Open university as a member of Academic Staff. Malik manages teaching staff in Psychology as well as teaching himself. His academic duties include student support of a range of students from many different backgrounds and he was keen to join the governing board as so many of the values between the OU and King Edwards line up with his own.