Senior Teachers

Ms M McQuilkin BA

Head of Art

Ms McQuilkin displays a wealth of experience and enthusiasm for her subject. Her greatest pleasure is in seeing her pupils improve and expand their knowledge of the subject under her guidance. During her stewardship her students have regularly achieved a very high level of passes within her subject. Her curriculum is expansive, covering painting in all media along with sculpture, printing and textiles. Her personal interests are travel, gallery visits, music and producing her own artwork

Mrs J M Drakeford BSc

Head of Biology and Chemistry Teacher

Mrs Drakeford has been at the school for 14 years, before which she was second in charge of the science faculty at Weavers School where she taught all 3 sciences to GCSE and Biology to A-level.

Mrs Drakeford enjoys teaching Biology as it is a subject which allows pupils to find things out for themselves through the experiments that they do; she especially likes teaching it at Pitsford because the class sizes are small and this means that everyone gets an opportunity to be fully involved. “I never get tired of the enthusiasm of children when they see something for the first time,” she explains “for example when the year 7’s look at onion cells!”

The Senior Gardening Club is run by Mrs Drakeford, which she loves because “I get to spend a lot of time outside and its really great to grow vegetables as they taste more delicious than the ones you can buy in the shops. This year each member of the group will have their own small patch of garden to grow some vegetables of their own choice.”

Out of School, Mrs Drakeford also works for OCR and CIE as a reviser and setter of exam questions for GCSE and is involved in writing the mark schemes used in Biology at GCSE.

Mrs A Cowling BSc Hons

Biology and Chemistry

Mrs Cowling joined Pitsford School in September 2014, from a local independent school, where she was teaching Biology and Games. Previously, Mrs Cowling has worked in South Korea for a year teaching English.

Before doing her PGCE at the University of Leeds, Mrs Cowling cycled 3,000km across South East Asia

Miss S M Jackson

BSc Head of Chemistry

In addition to being Head of Chemistry, Miss Jackson directs the annual Senior School Musical, which is always very popular amongst pupils and attracts a large audience each night. Visit Pitsford School’s YouTube Channel to see video footage of recent productions

Dr J Ewington BSc MSc, PhD

Assistant Head and Head of Physics

Mr A Templeton BSc MSc PhD

Physics Teacher

Mr Templeton has taught Physics at Pitsford School for 5 years. He thoroughly enjoys working at a school where Physics is a core subject and is not combined with other sciences. After School, Mr Templeton runs the Physics, Football and Table Tennis activities.

Mrs C Whiting BA Hons Cert Ed (FE)

Head of ICT/Computer Science

Mrs Whiting has a first class honours degree in Information Systems and has been teaching ICT for 25 years, initially in Further and Higher educational establishments and for the past 11 years within a school environment. She is an examiner for OCR and a fully qualified Yoga teacher

Mr J Smorfitt BA

Head of Economics

Mr B Harrison MA

Assistant Head and Head of History

Julie Sayers

Mr C L Stoner BSc MSc Dip CEG

Head of Mathematics

As well as heading up Pitsford School’s flourishing Mathematics Department, Mr Stoner also runs the Fantasy Games Club after School. He is a self-confessed Dr Who fan and loves all Action Heroes. He is the Quiz Master at the School’s annual Quiz and Chilli Night.

Mrs F Care MA

Mathematics

Mrs Care initially trained as an Accountant but found she had a calling to teaching and since gaining her PGCE at Oxford University, she hasn’t looked back.

Mrs Care is actively involved with Duke of Edinburgh at Pitsford School, she is also the School’s Exams Officer and in her spare time she enjoys walking and reading.

Mrs J M Leeke BSc

Mathematics

After graduation Mrs Leeke set out on a career in accountancy however she found she missed maths too much and so took her PGCE and started to teach maths. When asked why she loves maths she explained “it is an exact science and you know when you are right. I love problem solving.”

When asked why she likes working at Pitsford School, without hesitation Mrs Leeke replied “I like seeing enthusiastic children and I like it when children learn something new, in addition it is always peaceful and beautiful here and there is always an air of calm around.

Mr F Vié, Licence d’histoire, PGCE

Head of Modern Foreign Languages

Mr Vie joined Pitsford School in September 2015 having previously been Head of Languages at Boston High School and then Languages Teacher and House Parent at Stamford High School.

Having worked in education since 1998, he particularly enjoys working with small class sizes because it allows him to work to the strengths of individuals and support areas that pupils find challenging, and this is one of the reasons he joined Pitsford School. Mr Vie is also an enthusiastic football coach and has been an important part of bringing football to Pitsford.

He aims to make learning languages fun for pupils using a variety of means including the internet, songs and quizzes as original ways to learn new vocabularies when studying French, German and Spanish.

In his spare time he enjoys reading, watching films and travelling, especially skiing or walking holidays.

Mrs L M Lyon BEd

Modern Foreign Languages

Mrs J Middlewood BA

Spanish

Mrs E Gant BMus Hon

Director of Music

Mrs Gant has been Director of Music at Pitsford since September 2013. She is passionate about music education and believes that the best way to be inspired by music is to just have a go at it! Practical work forms a large part of class music lessons at Pitsford. Having played the violin and the piano from a very young age, she spent her school years at the Purcell School, a music specialist school. It was during her Music degree at Roehampton University that she discovered a love for jazz singing and vocal coaching. Mrs Gant previously taught at Oakham School before coming to Pitsford. She teaches academic music to pupils in Year 7 - Upper 6th, directs the school choir and string ensemble, is the Musical Director for the annual school musical, and also leads the school’s weekly hymn practices.

Mr R Edwards

Music Teacher

Mrs L A Chacksfield Bed

Director of Sport

Mrs Chacksfield is Director of Sport at Pitsford School and she teaches PE enthusiastically to A-level.

In her spare time, Mrs Chacksfield plays hockey for Northampton Saints Hockey Club 1st Team. She is the fifth member of her family to have represented England on the hockey field as a player or a coach. She is currently in training for the European Championships in London later this year and the World Cup in Australia in 2016.

Mr M Kefford BA

PE & Games

Mr Kefford initially worked at Pitsford School as a Rugby Coach before going on to complete his QTS through Bedford University and having the wonderful opportunity to complete his teacher training here at the School. He can often be found enjoying Pitsford’s picturesque grounds, taking sport sessions. He works in both the Junior School and the Senior School teaching P.E. to all ages.

Outside of School Mr Kefford still keeps up his coaching, in charge of a local Rugby side and is also appointed as Head Coach at the helm of the East Midlands trying to lead the region in the County Championship.

Mr Kefford was also very proud to organize a tour of South Africa, delivering coaching and equipment into townships to 100s of deprived children.

Mrs S Ellis