Academy Council

Graham is semi-retired but keeps busy with a number of education projects centered around a focus on improving lives through learning, particularly in disadvantaged areas. He is Vice Chair of the London Learning Consortium, an FE training provider based in South London and Sussex.   Graham is also a Trustee at the Schoolsworks Multi Academy Trust which operates eight primary schools in West Sussex.

Graham has extensive experience in both Executive and Non-Executive Director roles, having previously served as Chair of the Board of the American Chamber of Commerce in Kyiv and as Vice Chairman of the Board of the International School of Amsterdam.  Graham worked for >30yrs in the energy Industry with a career that spanned Europe, Middle East & Africa including senior leadership roles such as Country Manager as well as head of Strategy for a large business unit.

Married with four adult children and one grandchild, Graham and his family have been based in Littlehampton for nearly two decades. Graham’s other passion is for live music, regularly attending concerts in London and Brighton.  He has also turned this into a side-business as co-founder of a local event production business providing event production services.

I am 52 years old and have lived in Littlehampton since 2004. I was born in the Netherlands and lived in The Netherlands, Germany and Hong Kong for most of my childhood and teenage years, only permanently residing in the UK since I was 19. This varied upbringing exposed me to vastly different cultures, and ways of life, including education systems. English was not my first language, and it’s partly my exposure to other cultures and languages that prompted my use of the name Jon, rather than Jonathan.

I am a serving Sussex Police Officer, having joined the force in October 1995. I currently hold the rank of Chief Inspector. In my nearly 30 years’ service, I have worked in several different disciplines across the combined county of Sussex. My current role is that of “Force Silver”, where I am responsible for the deployment of resources across the entire county, to provide an effective response to calls for service. As part of that role, I assess the threats and risks in a significant number of incidents, and make critical decisions about how they should be dealt with. One way of describing my policing role is that of professional risk manager.

Prior to my current role, I have also been the force strategic lead for missing persons, and the police district commander for Arun and Chichester. This latter role has given me a strong insight into the local community, in a way that just living here probably would not have done.

I have secondary skills as a tactical firearms commander, tactical public order commander, tactical commander in the response to the use of Chemical, Biological, Radiological or Nuclear weapons (CBRNe), and am also a Counter Terrorism Security Coordinator. Whilst much of the work that I do in those fields is sensitive and can’t be discussed without the relevant security clearances, I can say that from these, I have commanded the police response to some of the highest profile and highest threat and risk incidents that happen, or have happened, in the County and elsewhere. 

Sadly, in my nearly 30 years of police experience, I have all too often seen the impact that can be caused by the combined effect of parenting and education systems that haven’t supported young people in the way that they perhaps could have. This experience has ignited in me a passion to work with schools to provide that support to young people. Unfortunately, the nature of policing has meant that until now I have been unable to engage in a formal role such as this, but now that I am able to do so, I am very keen to be involved.

I have previously been a trustee for a charity that supports police officers and staff, and in that role was responsible, with others, for scrutinising the work of the officers of the trust, ensuring that the aims and objectives of the trust were being delivered, ensuring that the financial management of the trust was sound, as well as being on a panel to decide whether or not individual cases would be supported.

I have previously been the elected chair of the Inspector’s rank board for the Sussex branch of the Police Federation, and have also performed a similar scrutineering role as described above in that role.

As the district commander for Arun and Chichester, I was an integral part of the local crime and disorder partnership, and would work with key stakeholders and partners, both statutory and non-statutory, to identify threats and risks to community safety and then develop strategies and tactical plans on how to mitigate or minimise those threats and risks. I would also regularly attend full Council meetings of the two district councils to address elected members on policing issues, and take questions from them, and also doing the same for smaller town and parish council meetings.

I am married to Claire, who is a non-warranted member of Sussex Police staff, and together we have one son, who is a pupil at the Littlehampton Academy. I also have a dog, initially destined to be a police working dog, but unfortunately failed his assessments, and can regularly be seen walking (or perhaps more accurately being dragged) round Littlehampton with him.

Innocent Chimonyo started his career as a teacher in Zimbabwe both in the mainstream and special needs learning areas. He rose through the academic ranks in Zimbabwe to become the Director of the Education Coalition of Zimbabwe where he was instrumental in coordinating education activities of private sector education players in collaboration with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education at National level. He was therefore deeply involved in the development of the 5-year Education strategic plans of the Ministry in partnership with UNICEF country office Zimbabwe, FCDO country office Zimbabwe and other partners in Education. He was also part time Tutor with the Zimbabwe Open University responsible for the training of teachers in special needs education and Counselling in Education. He is a holder of an MSc in Strategic Management, MSc in Counselling, Bachelor of Education in Special Education, Diploma in Special Education and Diploma in general education. Believing that these broad attributes will come as a key contribution to the TLA.

Becca is 49, married to Tim and a mum of four children, all of whom have been at The Littlehampton Academy. She is the leader of Arun Church which is a church of 400 people who meet at TLA and also own the Wickbourne Centre in Littlehampton, which includes two nurseries. Becca is passionate about the community and loves the Academy and being part of the Academy team on the Council. Becca appreciates seeing first-hand what an amazing, inspiring school TLA is.

Matt started his career in education in 2012 as a Cover Supervisor at The Littlehampton Academy. He became familiar with the role before being asked to teach English to KS3. This experience led him to pursue a teaching career, culminating in completing a School Direct course with the University of Brighton at The Holy Trinity School in Crawley.

Matt was successful in roles such as KS3 coordinator of English and Literacy co-ordinator which led to OFSTED praising the progress made in English, specifically with disadvantaged students. As a member of the Extended Senior Leadership team, Matt has worked on whole school strategies with groups such as High Achievers, Pupil Premium and English and Maths crossover. Matt has also worked as a Leader of the English department and in pastoral roles. Previously, Matt has been a governor for a Worthing-based primary school as well as a staff governor in his previous school.

Matt also enjoys playing an active role in his church, leading services and preaching regularly, as well as being involved in youth ministry. He is a keen reader as well as a fan of football, cricket and fine-weather sea fishing.

Stephen grew up in Littlehampton and has family and wider family in the area. He has had children attend the academy and his youngest child still does. He wants to be able to bring some of his life experiences and work experiences to the role of school counsellor. He has worked in the NHS for over 10 years and specifically mental health services as a RMN. He enjoys music, cinema, martial arts and holidays with the family.

Dan works in the London Insurance Market, as the Real Estate Underwriting Manager for Ecclesiastical Insurance. Within this role, he is responsible for the management of the whole London Book of Business and ultimately the bottom line to deliver a profit. He is a member of the Chartered Insurance Institute and has the Certificate in Insurance (Cert CII) qualification.

Dan is married to Carly, they have two children, with the eldest at The Littlehampton Academy and they have lived in the area since 2014. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his family, loves a quiz and most sports.

Axelle has been working in Higher Education for more than 20 years, currently lecturing in Psychology at both the University of Portsmouth and the Open University. She has been responsible for designing and delivering teaching materials for MSc and Professional Doctorate degrees. Other aspects of her job include managing staff, as well as conducting and supervising research. Over the years, she has specialised in distance education, and she has played a significant role in helping her colleagues to make a swift transition to online teaching during the pandemic. Her teaching ethos centred around equality, diversity, and inclusivity, as well as decolonising education. Her research interests include child protection and safeguarding, cybercrime, witness memory, and discrimination/prejudice against minority groups.

Axelle is married to Stephane, and they have two children. She also volunteers at the Littlehampton Community Fridge, to help save food from being wasted and to redistribute it to the local community. In her spare time, she enjoys walking and being creative. 

Kevin recently retired having worked at TLA since September 1996 as a teacher of mathematics. During that time, he saw many changes and worked with many families in the Littlehampton area. Having been a tutor, he worked hard to help prepare the students for the real world, involving himself in the pastoral side and was also a leader in this important part of the school. As well as teaching the KS3 and KS4 curriculum, he was an A-Level teacher specialising in statistics. He has in the past been Head of Mathematics, taught “work-related” students and worked closely with the primary schools to help with their numeracy skills. In his past life, he worked as a project engineer for Sainsburys and is a qualified football referee. He enjoys the challenge of a music quiz, northern soul and has travelled across 5 continents.

Carlie worked at TLA from 2008 until July 2019. Her roles included working in the classroom, as a Cover Supervisor, experiencing and dealing with the challenges of whole class behaviour management along with engaging young people in their learning. She has been a member of pastoral staff since September 2013, first as a Pastoral Assistant and then as a more senior member of support staff in her role as Chapter Manager and Year Leader. The latter roles saw her gain experience of the many challenges that face some of our students, both physically and mentally. She sees the importance of school within these young people’s lives and holds safeguarding and education at the centre of her practice.

Carlie joined Durrington High school September 2019 as Pastoral Manager, promoted to Deputy Company Leader and then onto a more senior role of Company Leader, and then onto Inclusion Manager, which extended her knowledge of the SEND Framework, alternative provision, Inclusion Framework, developing and supporting interventions and responsible for Internal exclusion and removal rooms. Time at Durrington High has given Carlie experience of another education setting in the West Sussex area.

Carlie re-joined TLA April 2024 as Compass Manager, to support our most challenging students, to teach behaviour and create a behaviour curriculum to address the needs of students that need an alternative learning  approach to remove barriers, whether they be academic, wellbeing, environmental or emotional, meeting their full potential, this involves interventions, sourcing outside support creating plans, understanding the behaviour and how we teach students expected behaviours to allow them to achieve.

Carlie has lived and worked in Littlehampton for the past 19 years and has a good knowledge and understanding of the community and area. Carlie has two children, who both attended TLA, both have gone on to be successful in their chosen professions, her 23-year-old daughter being a multi award winning dog groomer and currently owns her own business, her 19-year-old son is a qualified bricklayer with aspirations to own his own business in the future.

Carlie loves sports, reading and her beloved English bulldog Bruce.

Sian is a semi-retired ex School Principal who now runs her own educational consultancy. She offers 25 years of experience in learning environments, with over 15 years of leadership, including executive level.

Sian grew up in West Sussex and has lived in the county for most of her life. She moved to Chichester in 2013 when she became the founding Director of Teaching and Deputy Principal of Chichester Free School.

Sian has worked nationally and internationally with WomenEd and ASCL and has met with the Special Advisor to the Secretary of State to discuss the green and white Education papers.  She is committed to improving education for all; supporting the profession to ensure that those who work within it, are respected and acknowledged for the role they play in society.

As a leader she believes that: ‘Getting the best from everyone means raising their aspirations; challenging children and adults alike to do things they never thought possible.’

Sian is a keen runner and loves spending time with her family, especially her two grandsons who keep her up to date with all the latest trends and music!