Jo Heywood 

Community Governor 

 Jo is passionate about education. She has spent the majority of her career to date in both maintained and independent schools, teaching, mentoring and supporting children and their families.

In the early part of her career she worked in a large mixed comprehensive school in Surrey, teaching science, before moving to an all-girls school in Berkshire where she was quickly promoted to the pastoral role of Head of House. Here, she worked with girls and their families having an overview of their academic and pastoral needs. After three years she was promoted to Deputy Head at another school where she led the pastoral teams in the school. Whilst here, she successfully managed to navigate the merger with another school and the unfortunate death of a serving Headmistress. By the age of 37, she had been promoted to Headmistress.

Jo has an extensive knowledge of the leadership and management of schools alongside the challenges facing those in education today. She has gained a privileged view of the child and their unique family set-ups which has helped her to understand the different experiences that each child brings to the classroom. This allowed her to ensure that all who learned in her school were able to the very best student that they could be. 

Jo now owns and runs her own consultancy company, working with schools and individual families to navigate the choppy seas of challenging situations. Most recently she has qualified as an accredited mediator and looks forward to adding this new-found skill set to her consultancy portfolio.

In her spare time, Jo enjoys hiking in the mountains and spending time with her family and friends.