Chris Berry Chair, Local School Board Chris feels privileged to have been appointed by SGS Academy Trust as a Local School Board member of Pegasus School.
Chris is a solicitor by profession. Until his retirement from private practice in late 2017, he was a partner at a global City law firm specialising in real estate finance. As such, he has first-hand experience of staffing, resourcing and strategic planning for the longer term.
Having relocated with his family to South Gloucestershire, Chris divides his time between working as an independent legal consultant, supporting young carers in the local community and tutoring maths in-school (though on a voluntary basis) to GCSE level. For relaxation, Chris enjoys walking, gardening, reading and cooking.
Deborah McClean Vice Chair, Local School Board Deborah is a secondary English teacher with over 10 years’ experience. Her secondary education was completed in Belfast Royal Academy in Northern Ireland, and her BA and PGCE in Queens University, Belfast. She has led whole school literacy and currently occupies a leadership role within the sixth form in her current post. She has worked with young people and their families in various sectors of the community for many years, and passionately believes that all young people should be challenged and supported in their education.
Deborah has a keen interest in staff and student well-being and development, the value of targeted and informed assessment, as well as an interest in how women can play a leading role in education. She feels privileged to be appointed to the SGS Academy Trust as a member of Pegasus Local School Board, and hopes that her extensive experience in education will enable her to make a valued contribution to the development of Pegasus School.
Deborah is married with two children, is a published writer and poet, and currently lives in Bristol
Karen Damsell Local School Board Member Karen has a son who was diagnosed with Autism 8 years ago and has since then undertaken substantial training in this area. As a parent, Karen has experienced Resource Base primary and mainstream secondary schools and uses her experience of the strengths and weaknesses of these provisions to support Pegasus School.
As a Support worker with post 16 learners, Karen has experienced first-hand, that if support is tailored to the needs of the learner, their outcomes and achievements are significantly improved. Karen is very passionate about children on the Autistic Spectrum being given opportunities to fulfil their potential and believes that children at Pegasus School will get the tailored support that they deserve.
Nicolette Jones Local School Board Member Nicolette has taught children with SEND for over 12 years in a broad spectrum of settings and has worked with autistic children in every single class that she’s taught. She has also worked closely with parents to improve life at home and to inform teaching in school, and this knowledge she now brings to the role of auntie to her nephew.
Nicolette’s most recent experience has been as a primary school SENDCO and Progress/Accreditation lead in a Steiner special school where she was a key part of the school’s self-evaluation process for Ofsted. Her Steiner school experience has brought her a new perspective on what education should be: holistic, rich and full of opportunities to engage with the world around us. She’s also learned that progress is not linear. The pupils she’s taught have exceeded all the expectations of the adults around them.
In all her work with children with special educational needs, it’s been clear that the most successful curriculum is founded in addressing sensory and language needs, something which she is excited to see growing at SGS Pegasus, and is looking forward to utilising her experience of the staff and pupils that she has worked with to the role of LSB member at SGS Pegasus School.
Dr Jane Andrews Local School Board Member Jane teaches and researches in a range of areas within the field of education and has a particular interest in multilingualism and learning. She teaches on the undergraduate programmes BA (Hons) Early Childhood and BA (Hons) Education, and supervises doctoral students, jointly leading the UWE EdD programme. Jane’s current research interests include children’s perspectives on being multilingual, researching multilingually and technology and learning.
I am delighted to be a member of the Pegasus LSB, to hear about and contribute to the excellent work taking place.
Rachel Peart Parent Local School Board Member Rachel and her husband have one son who has attended SGS Pegasus since it’s opening. Rachel moved to the area 23 years ago to gain her Nursing qualification. For 20 years Rachel was a Registered Nurse working in Intensive Care, a very demanding job both mentally and emotionally. As an Intensive Care Nurse, she has experienced a wide proportion of society and gained essential communication skills.
For the last 3 years Rachel’s career has taken her in a different direction; she is now utilising her life experiences to work as the Support & Activities Manager for JIGSAW Thornbury, a local charity that supports children and their families with additional needs. This job has given her insight into the pathways families have experienced both with the Local Authority and NHS.
Rachel feels honoured to have been chosen as a parent representative on the Local School Board and is looking forward to helping overcome challenges met in the role.
Debbie Lewis Parent Local School Board Member Debbie has a son who has recently joined Pegasus school for its secondary school provision.
Debbie works at the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE)in the Department of Applied Sciences (DAS). Having herself graduated from UWE and University of Bristol with an undergraduate degree in biochemistry and a postgraduate degree in molecular microbiology biology, followed by 13 years in microbiology research at various institutions she moved into technical teaching and support of practical classes approx. 8 years ago. This move into the technical team presented opportunities to get involved in supporting and delivering outreach to local schools and developing in-reach activities to support students whilst they study at university.
In recent years Debbie has become the Widening Participation Lead for DAS initiating, developing and evaluating ways to reduce the attainment gap for many of our disadvantaged students. Debbie is looking forward to working with Pegasus School and supporting them in developing pupils who can access higher education and employment opportunities when the time comes. Equally, as a local school board member, I hope to feed back to universities how we can extend our offer of support to our future students, to meet their needs and ensure they succeed if they choose to attend a university.
Jo Allman Governance Officer
SGS Berkeley Green UTC 
SGS Pegasus School 
SGS Forest High School 