Our Staff

& Governors

Matthew Smith is a journalist, writer and designer who has worked with the independent schools’ sector for 25 years, advising clients on marketing, communications and strategy, and for 15 years as Editor of Attain magazine. Launched in 2006 to provide parents with a trusted guide to navigate the maze of independent schooling, he grew the title to become the leading magazine for the sector, with its content regularly featured by the national press. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Journalists and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Kate Mitchell was Head of Wimbledon High Junior School GDST from 2003 until 2019. With a BSc Hons from Warwick and an MA from York, she has spent thirty-five years in education, teaching in Stamford School, Ashville College and Alleyn’s Junior School. She has experience in boys, girls and co-education, boarding and day schools, and was an independent schools’ inspector. Having attended Wells Cathedral School, she has a particular interest in music. Working for the GDST since 2003, she is passionate about girls’ education and enabling young ladies to go out into the world to make a difference.

Caro Godlee was educated at Bedales School, and qualified in medicine from Trininty College, Cambridge. She worked for twenty-eight years as a GP at Summertown Health Centre, Oxford (latterly as Senior Partner). The practice covered four local boarding schools, and Caro was the Oxford High School doctor for fifteen years until her retirement from general practice in 2015. She is the co-author of two medical textbooks and is particularly interested in adolescent and women’s medicine. She now works as a coach and mentor and is a Council member of Wycombe Abbey School. One of her daughters attended Oxford High School and went on to study History at Cambridge.

Dr Alexandra Lumbers studied history at Southampton for her BA and MA before undertaking a doctorate at the University of Oxford. On completing her doctorate she taught history, before moving to St Peter’s College, Oxford, to take up the post of Deputy Registrar. She was then appointed as Research Facilitator in the Humanities Division and subsequently as Senior Development Officer for Humanities. She joined Jesus College in May 2009 to take up the full-time position of Academic Director, which incorporates the roles of Senior Tutor, Tutor for Admissions, and Tutor for Graduates. She is a member of the Governing Body and is responsible for all academic strategy and policy, Student Outreach, Admissions, all on-course students including welfare, and the recruitment to all academic posts.

Helen Small (FBA) is Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Merton College, Oxford. Helen writes about the connections between literature, intellectual history, and philosophy (especially moral and critical philosophy), primarily since 1830. Her book The Value of the Humanities (2013) is a critical account of the claims standardly employed to defend the public value of the humanities. Her previous book, The Long Life (2007), explored the view that to understand old age we have to consider more fundamentally what it means to be a person, to have a life, to have or to lead a ‘good’ life and to be part of a just society. The Function of Cynicism at the Present Time (2020) is her most recent publication –  exploring why even non-cynical people often resort to cynicism in public debate. Helen also writes regular essays on Victorian fiction, poetry, and public moralism and she is the editor of several nineteenth-century works including Vanity Fair, Wuthering Heights and The Lifted Veil. She teaches Victorian and later literature and critical theory at Oxford.

Clare Stephens has taught in countries as diverse as Nigeria, Malaysia and China (HK) and studied in the UK, Canada and France.  She holds Master of Arts degrees in Applied Linguistics and Social Anthropology both of which have informed her academic career as Senior Lecturer and Programme Director for Foundation Programmes at the University of Reading and Oxford Brookes University.  Clare was seconded to the University of Reading’s nascent Malaysia campus in 2013 to establish the Foundation Programme there. She grew the programme from 11 to 150+ students over the course of her secondment.

Clare is currently the Subject Expert for the International Foundation Programme being run at Chengdu Institute of Technology in partnership with Oxford Brookes University.  Clare’s interests include the teaching of critical thinking, team working, student academic welfare and inclusivity & diversity.

Simon Aumônier was the first pupil at Haberdashers’ Aske’s School, Elstree to study the combination of Biology, Geography and History A-levels, from where he went on to gain broadly ecological BSc and MSc degrees at Exeter and Manchester Universities.  Simon spent the early part of his career in government-funded research & development in the radiological protection, renewable energy and waste management fields, specialising in environmental modelling, before moving into sustainability consulting.  In 24 years at global consulting business ERM, Simon advised government and business on a wide range of sustainable product and energy policy and strategy matters, supporting changes in the way materials and wastes are managed, the emergence of carbon footprinting and the imperatives of the low carbon transition.  Simon left ERM in 2022 to pursue a more diverse work pattern, including volunteering and study of prehistoric archaeology.  He was awarded an Advanced Diploma in British Archaeology from Oxford’s Continuing Education Department, writing a dissertation on the first uses of gold in Britain and Ireland.  He combines further study with continuing to practice as a freelance sustainability advisor and coach, in particular concerning low carbon healthcare.  Simon’s daughter attended OHS from 2017 to 2024, and his son is an alumnus of Magdalen College School in Oxford, their experiences confirming Simon’s enthusiasm for students to be presented with the widest possible range of opportunity in their secondary education.  His other interests include live music, theatre, swift conservation and sports photography.

Dr Milette Gillow completed her PhD in pure mathematics at the University of Leeds and her MA in opera performance at the Royal Academy of Music (career highlights include Dido, Dido and Aeneas and Zlatohřbítek, Příhody lišky Bystroušky with Hampstead Garden Opera, which won a 2023 Off West End Theatre Award). As a former VC and university lecturer, her work with startups has taken her to Hong Kong, Berlin, Paris, Dublin, and Amsterdam, most recently as a Talent Investor and later a founder-in-residence with Entrepreneur First. She is an EY Enterprise Game winner 2014, a Startup Weekend HK runner up 2016, and a Kathleen Ferrier Semifinalist 2023. Milette has worked extensively on projects centering women throughout her career, from hackathons to panels to concerts, and currently runs The Tech Bros, a social enterprise with the aim of building more female-run tech startups.

Miriam is Deputy Director for International, Resilience and Regulation on Space in the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), jobsharing with Tania Celani. After completing her BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Durham University, she worked at Goldman Sachs before becoming a Civil Servant in 2011. Her career has focused on steering international strategic policy, including overseas postings in Brussels and Abuja, and advising on policy from nuclear energy to intellectual property. Miriam is a passionate champion for diversity and inclusion, advocating for action on equality at all levels. She recently completed the Oxford Women’s Leadership Development Programme and is writing a book on the systemic power of jobsharing. She served as a Governor for two London primary schools for four years and has a five-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son.