Heads of Faculty

Hi,

My name is Justin Reece, and I am Head of Faculty for Music.This is a role I love. My day-to-day work involves encouraging and supporting music staff and students. A large part of this is co-ordinating Extra-Curricular Music and individual music lessons.

As a musician, I am a trumpeter and enjoy playing music of all genres. However, my main loves as a performer are playing Baroque Music, Jazz and Musicals.

I started Playing the trumpet aged 7 and found it to be a real escape from everything else.

I really enjoy teaching the students at Leventhorpe from Years 7 to 13 and feel incredibly privileged.

Away from school and music I enjoy family time with my wife Nicola and 8-year-old daughter Amelia. I have recently become an expert on My Little Pony and Princess Celestia is my favourite (Amelia made me write the last bit).

My name is Claire Male and I am Head of the Humanities Faculty at Leventhorpe. Together with the four Heads of Subject and team of 13 staff we intend to ensure the provision of a broad, balanced and relevant curriculum for all students from year 7 through to year 13. I work directly with the Heads of Subject in History, Geography, Religious Studies and Politics to ensure that all students progress well throughout the key stages, and I am committed to providing opportunities to our staff to develop and enhance their teaching practice. I work closely with the Assistant Head in ensuring that our Faculty is well managed and that we are following school policies and procedures. I am responsible for the management of our Faculty budget to ensure that are area is resourced to allow for students to have a great experience in their lessons, extra curricular clubs and trips with us. I feel privileged to work with a great team of experienced professionals and a wonderful student body- Leventhorpe is a great place to come to work each day!

My name is Mr Chittick, I’m Head of the Design and Technology Faculty. I’ve been teaching D&T at Leventhorpe for 14 years and Head of Faculty for 7 of those years. I got my degree in Industrial Design Engineering at Brunel University and then worked for several years in Tokyo, Japan teaching English before returning to the UK to get my teaching qualifications.

My role as Head of Design and Technology is very exciting as I get to work with a team of outstanding teachers, developing innovative and challenging projects for students to work on throughout their years at Leventhorpe. D&T is a broad Faculty covering everything from Food Preparation and Nutrition, Product Design, Fashion and Textiles and much more. We work with cutting edge technology such as 3D-Printers, Laser Cutters, Programmable electronics, as well as more traditional skills and techniques.

As Head of Faculty, I oversee the curriculum planning, health and safety policy, teaching and learning objectives, assessment strategies and make sure that we are spending our budget effectively, to get the best possible value for our students’ education.

I absolutely love Art and I love my job. I have been at Leventhorpe for 15 years.

I grew up in Bishops Stortford where I studied Art, Biology and Drama at A level. After leaving secondary school I did an Art foundation course in Cambridge and then went on to study Fine Art at Byam Shaw School of Art. From a child I actually wanted to be a vet, I love animals and at one point in my childhood I had 4 cats, 2 rabbits, 2 rats, a ferret, a dog and a horse. However, I discovered that my strength was art at school so decided to follow that path.

During my time as a student, I visited the cultural districts of New York, travelled across northern India, and had some exciting jobs including artists assistant to the Iranian artist Reza Derakshani, (we were commissioned to paint wall, ceiling and floor murals in Sting and Trudie Stylers London home) for a short time I was receptionist at the magazine the Spectator for Boris Johnson, I never imagined that he would one day become the Prime Minister!

When I graduated from university, I chose to do a PGCE at Greenwich University as I thought it would be a good idea to have a profession. As soon as I started the course, I realised how challenging, exciting and rewarding working in education is.

I was lucky enough to get a placement at Leventhorpe when Ms Jeffries was head of department here, I learnt so much from her and the rest of the team. We are lucky enough to say that we have all been working together for 15 years in the department with talented technicians too. The art department is a lively, creative and dynamic place that has been referred to as “Art Land”.

I continue my passion for animals through the organisation of the Leventhorpe Equestrian Team with help from very supportive students and their parents.

Leventhorpe is a wonderful place to work and has been particularly lovely to have both my daughters here too. We want the Art department to be a hub of creativity and independent thought, we welcome all to continue their creative journeys with us and hope that it is a space that students feel they can express themselves and communicate through a variety of medias.

I am Head of Faculty for Social Sciences, which is a sprawling faculty that includes Economics, Business, Enterprise, Finance qualifications as well as Sociology and Psychology where I am ably supported by Mr Chester and Mrs Chahal. I love the fact that we teach subjects that relate to real-world experience and can bring in so many well-known examples from everyday life into our teaching. In some senses, this is an easy faculty to manage because staff are experienced, committed and very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the subjects they teach!

My name is Mr McGee and I’m the head of languages here at Leventhorpe and am entering my 5th year.

So, what do I do? Essentially, I oversee a fantastic team who cover all things languages. First and foremost, I am a classroom teacher, and this is by far the best part of my job. I love teaching. I love being in the classroom, watching students’ progress and hopefully passing on my passion for languages.

Lessons, trips, clubs, progress, and curriculum are many of the things we do in the MFL faculty. On a typical day I may have 3-4 lessons. This could range from year 7 right up to year 13. When I am not teaching, I walk around the faculty to make sure students are engaged in their learning. I keep an eye on the presentation standards. I get to see the superb languages lessons put on by our team. I have the fortunate (and misfortunate) role of contacting home for any successes (or concerns) in relation to our students. In the evenings we often discuss student progress and how we best design our curriculum so that students get the most valuable language learning experience.

We organise trips, we organise clubs, we organise school events such as the European week of languages. There is a long-listed things we do in the languages faculty but hopefully that gives you an idea of my role at Leventhorpe.

I am Mr Robertson and I’m head of the English and Drama Faculty. You can usually find me somewhere between the English office and Room D13 on the upper floor of D Block. I will be the one with grey hair, a blue water bottle and a black shirt.

I have a pretty big team to manage; including me, there are currently sixteen members of staff who regularly teach either English or Drama. They’re a talented bunch and most are far better read than I am.

I have classes in Years 8, 9, 10 and 11 and I tend to teach English Language at A Level as opposed to literature. I especially enjoy Macbeth, which students' study at GCSE Level, and A Level Language Investigations, of which there are a really good mix this year, covering everything from football commentaries to Married First Sight.

A long-time fan of the show, I also run a Countdown club on Tuesday lunchtimes in D13. Do pop in if you fancy a game!

My name is Gemma Nicholson and I'm the Head of Maths here at Leventhorpe. This is my third year here after moving from a school in Bishop's Stortford, and previous to that I worked in the British School of Milan, a national school in Abu Dhabi, and a state school in Northwest London.

I'm not from Hertfordshire originally and I moved a lot when I was in school, sitting my GCSEs and A Levels at the British School of Brussels, Belgium.

I studied Sports Engineering at Loughborough University and then after spending a year travelling, I decided to try teaching. And I absolutely loved it from day one.

I'm very passionate about Maths, but I also love sport too and I play a lot of tennis outside of school where I have managed to be Hertford's ladies singles and doubles champion for two years.

We have a fantastic faculty here in Maths which is going from strength to strength, and my role is to manage it - that being staff, curriculum, behaviour, communication - to ensure that students are receiving the best Maths education they can.

My name is Mrs Chittick and I have a Degree in Biology and Psychology. I have always enjoyed science and wanted an active job involving people, so I decided to become a teacher.

I did part of my teacher training at Leventhorpe and started working here full time in September 2012. I became Head of Biology in 2014, followed by Assistant Head of Science in 2016 and I took on the role of Head of Faculty at the beginning of this year.

My role involves working with a group of fantastic teachers to plan and deliver an exciting science curriculum. Ensuring students have a positive teaching and learning experience is really important, as well as overseeing assessment and making sure everyone is working safely in the labs.

I’m very excited to be in my new role and I have lots of ideas for promoting STEM careers and new extracurricular activities which I hope more students will become involved in.