Who’s Who

The chair of the governing body is Mrs Liz Green.

You can contact the clerk by email at hheadon@lymmhigh.org.uk or telephone 01925 755458.

Foundation Governors:

Mrs Liz Green – Liz Green was elected as a parent governor in 2013, and is now a foundation governor.  Liz was appointed chair of the governing body in 2019. Previously, Liz was a governor at Ravenbank Primary School for 10 years, serving as Chair of Governors there for 8 years. In 2013 Liz was designated a National Leader of Governance. She has 2 sons both of whom enjoyed their time at LHS; one is now a history teacher in Manchester, and the other pursuing a career in acting. She has lived in Lymm for 23 years. As a Speech and Language Therapist in Salford for 19 years, Liz led a variety of government funded projects and staff, supporting children in schools and training education personnel. She has since published several resource books for teachers and parents. Liz is Youth Overseer at her church in Manchester and also Non Executive Chair of a small software company. Apart from family life, Liz also enjoys singing in a local choir.

Email: liz.green@pennineholdings.co.uk   Telephone: 01925 755058

Ms Rebecca Knowles – Elected as a parent governor in 2009, Rebecca is now a foundation governor and was recently re-appointed vice-chair of the governing body having held this position from 2012 until 2017.  She is a former pupil of Lymm Grammar School and lives in Grappenhall. All of her children were educated at Lymm High School.  She is a borough and parish councillor in Warrington and a non-practising solicitor. Her interest in school governance is longstanding; she has worked with other local schools since 1994 as a local authority and community representative.  Her other activities and interests mainly centre around music, politics and culture.

Fr Michael Burgess – Fr Michael was elected as a foundation governor in March 2023.

Mrs Liesl Hacker – Liesl joined as a parent governor in December 2019 and was appointed as a foundation governor in March 2023.  She has lived in Lymm for 16 years. Her sons attended Lymm High School. She is a qualified Chartered Accountant with over 20 years experience of internal and external audit and accountancy in the public sector, and currently works as Assistant Director of Finance at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust. In her current role Liesl is responsible for negotiating and monitoring contracts for existing and new clinical services with commissioning bodies, which requires high level negotiation skills and the ability to analyse complex financial, operational and clinical data.

Liesl is also a Committee member of Cheshire Wire Basketball Club, where she is Treasurer and Social Media Secretary. She is also a qualified British Cycling Level 2 Road and Time Trial Coach and Accredited Road Marshal.

Mr Gareth Neal – Gareth joined as a parent governor in December 2019 and was appointed as a foundation governor in March 2023.  He has been living in Appleton since 2012 having moved the family here after 14 years living in London. Gareth works as a commercial director for a national construction company and is a fellow of the RICS. During his career he has been involved in the delivery of numerous school building projects across the north west and further afield. Gareth has a child in year 12 and his eldest left LHS in 2023.  He became a governor as he is committed to making a difference in the community and wanted to support the school in its aims to deliver a first class education to its pupils. Gareth is a passionate rugby union supporter having played for 30 years and is currently head coach for Lymm rugby club’s U13 team, a role he loves doing as he has seen the team develop and realise their potential.

Parent Governors:

Mr George Bainton – George joined as a parent governor in January 2022. He moved with his family to Lymm in 2010, when both his children were very young, hence the whole of their education has been here. George has two children at the school; one in Year 11 and one in Year 13. George subsequently took early retirement some years later after they moved, primarily to enable his wife to pursue a career in teaching. Since that time, he has become quite involved within the community, which George certainly finds rewarding. Up until recently, he was a Governor at Cherry Tree Primary School, so has a small amount of experience with school issues. As well as this, he is Church Warden at St Mary’s Church, a Run Leader at Lymm Runners, and am also a karate instructor with Gen’Dai Martial Arts, who run classes in Lymm and at two of the local primary schools. Before taking on the infinitely more difficult role of house-husband, George had always worked as an Engineering Surveyor; firstly with Manchester City Council, then with Barratt Homes as Senior Land Manager, and then later with Network Rail as a Principal Technical Officer on the West Coast Mainline.

Mr Michael Clarke – Michael joined as a parent governor in January 2022.

Mr Mark Ransby – Mark joined as a parent governor in September 2024.

Mrs Laura Shaw – Laura became a parent governor in January 2022 after her son joined Year 7 in September. She is a solicitor with 20 years’ experience working in the construction and engineering sector, mostly in house. In her current role she is head of legal for the UK operations of a global engineering and maintenance contractor. Laura lives in Grappenhall with her husband and son and enjoys gardening and cooking, especially baking. In fact she proudly holds 2 showstopper baking titles from a previous work competition and the St Wilfrid’s Primary bake off challenge 2017! She has recently taught herself to crochet and is now busy making plenty of hats and scarves to keep her and her friends warm whilst spectating from the sidelines of a junior football pitch.

Ms Clare Somerfield – Clare joined as a parent governor in July 2023.

Mrs Lauren Thomason – Lauren has never served as parent governor before but has been involved in PTA activities at both Oughtrington Primary School and Lymm High.  Lauren has 6 years HR management experience at BAE Systems and a Masters CIPD qualification.  This has been underlined by an additional 14 years’ experience in other business functions within the engineering / defence sector.  Lauren lives in Lymm with her husband (an ex Lymm High pupil) and two children, the youngest of which is in Year 13.  Lauren has a love of travelling in warmer climes, a keen amateur historian and regularly attends at The Box.

Mr Ralph Tucker – Ralph joined as a parent governor in September 2024.

Staff Governors:

Mr Ross Dobson – Ross became a staff governor in December 2019.

Mrs Yvonne Poskitt – Yvonne became a staff governor in 2018. Yvonne has worked with young people with additional needs and their families for over 25 years, both in schools and in the voluntary sector and has also been a school governor at one of our feeder primaries for over 20 years. Prior to working in the LDD department at Lymm, Yvonne worked in two secondary schools where she served as staff governor during which she gained valuable experience and qualifications in Inclusion & Behaviour.  Yvonne not only sees Lymm High School as her place of work but also as her community school. It provided Yvonne’s three children with an extremely good start to their educational journey and Yvonne wants to ensure that it continues to serve her community well.

Mr Michael Rutty – Michael became a staff governor in March 2022.

Community Governors:

Mrs Anne Cleminson – Anne joined the governing body as a Community Governor in March 2023.

Mr Rono Mukherjee – Rono joined the governing body as a Community Governor in January 2022.

Miss Debbie Owen – Debbie joined the governing body as a Community Governor in September 2024.

Mrs Jane Rooney – Elected as a community governor in September 2023. Jane is the Head at Statham Community Primary School.

Academy Governor Appointed by the Academy Trust

Dr Kieran Walshe –Re-appointed as academy trust governor for term from September 2021 to August 2025. He was chair of the governing body from 2012 until 2019, and was a parent governor from 2005 to 2013. Kieran is a parent of four grown-up children, all of whom attended Lymm High School. He and his family have lived in Lymm since 2001, and he works as a professor in health services research at the University of Manchester. He is also a non-executive director of the Christie NHS Trust and chair of trustees of the Lymm Grammar School Trust, which is the school’s founding charity. He was a founding member of Lymm Runners and is a running coach, and his interests include ultramarathon running, and growing things on his allotment at Sowbrook.