What type of governor are you? Appointed by the sponsor, the London Diocesan Board for Schools.

Why are you a governor of St Mary Magdalene Academy? A while back, when my eldest son was five, I got involved in a campaign to establish a new church secondary school in Islington &150; I was thinking about where my kids would go to secondary school. The campaign took longer than I anticipated, and my kids are all now at secondary school, but it was such a good thing to be involved in that I never managed to quite move on.

Which subject at school did you love best – and why? Religious education, because even though the subject had a pretty dull reputation, the teacher was the coolest in the school.

What’s your favourite book of all time? Today my favourite books of all time are: Wishful Thinking (Frederich Buechner); Staying Alive / Being Alive (ed. Neil Astley); A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irvine); Gilead (Marilynne Robinson), The Polysyllabic Spree (Nick Hornby) and The Turning (Tim Winton).

Who was your most memorable / inspiring teacher at school? Andy Cooper. Combined friendship with authority, learning with wit. The best teachers don’t just teach you, they inspire you.

What’s your favourite: chocolate or ice cream? The one I’m eating.

What are your hopes for St Mary Magdalene Academy? I’d love it to be a place where children from across Islington discover their passion in life and how to become the person they were made to be. I’d love it to be a place where the story of faith is inspiring and not divisive, is inclusive and not sectarian, is a poem and not a prescription. I’d love students to leave feeling that they are equal citizens of God’s good world, eager to look after the planet and each other.

Back to the governors