Governors List
Rodney J Fox MA CMath FIMA (Chairman)
Rodney Fox was appointed to the Board in November 1999 and was elected its Chairman in June 2006.
He was educated at Brighton College and the universities of Edinburgh, where he read mathematics, and Oxford, where he studied education.
He later taught mathematics at Epsom and Brighton College before going on to become headmaster of King Edward's School, Witley, Surrey, from which he retired in 2000. He is a former chairman of the Eastern Division of HMC and is still a member of the HMC working group to promote links with Central and Eastern Europe. He now works part-time as a reporting inspector for the Independent Schools Inspectorate.
Rodney is an Anglican Licensed Reader responsible for overseeing the training of Readers on the Isle of Wight, and has interests in sailing, travel, reading and his grandchildren. He is a Governor of four schools.
He lives on the Isle of Wight and is married to Susan; they have two married children and four grandchildren.
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Guy Acland Bt LVO DL
Sir Guy Acland was appointed to the Board in June 2001.
He has had a distinguished career in the army with the Royal Artillery retiring in 1994 as a Lieutenant Colonel. He then became Deputy Master of the Royal Household responsible for domestic arrangements in the Royal Palaces.
He retired from the Army in 1994 and is currently administering the charitable arm of HSA a national health care mutual insurance company. Sir Guy is married to his wife Chrissie and has two grown up sons.
He lives on the Island and has interests in sailing, gardening, country pursuits and music.
The Venerable Caroline Baston
The Venerable Caroline Baston was appointed to the board in June 2007
Caroline has been Archdeacon of the Isle of Wight since 2006, a role which entails pastoral and legal oversight of the 54 Anglican parishes on the Island. As the senior cleric, she also has civic duties and responsibilities. The Island is part of the Diocese of Portsmouth and so she crosses the Solent several times a week and amongst her diocesan responsibilities, she acts as the Bishop’s officer for prisons.
Before moving to the Island, she was Rector of a two church parish in Winchester and Diocesan Director of Ordinands for the Diocese of Winchester. Ordained deacon in 1989, she served her title at St Christopher’s, Thornhill, Southampton and was one of the first women to be ordained priest in the Church of England in 1994.
Prior to her ordination training in Oxford, she was Head of Maths in an inner city comprehensive school in the West Midlands.
She was educated at Godolphin School, Salisbury and Birmingham University. Her interests include playing and watching sport; reading; walking; Monastic Spirituality and she is a member of the Third Order of St Francis.
Mrs Elsa Bladon
Mrs Elsa Bladon was appointed to the board in June 2008.
Elsa Bladon was brought up and educated on the Island and attended Upper Chine School from 1958 - 1961.
On leaving school, she studied music, later teaching on the Island and in Gloucestershire.
In 1968 she married Hilary Boden Bladon and for some years was a full-time wife and mother. Following the death of her husband in 1997, Elsa returned to the Island, finding herself living near Ryde School with Upper Chine.
As well as continuing with music, Elsa has trained in TEFL teaching, and greatly enjoys meeting many young people from the various countries which this involves.
By coincidence, Elsa’s father, Cuthbert Scott, was a founder pupil at Bembridge School when, initially, there were only about six pupils.
Ray Bradbury MA
Ray Bradbury was appointed to the Board in June 2005.
Ray was born in 1945 and studied at Manchester University and the University of London. He qualified as a teacher in 1967 and spent the next 38 years teaching in a total of six schools in the maintained sector. In 1984 he was appointed as Headmaster of King’s School, Winchester, a comprehensive school with over 1800 pupils. He was Headmaster for 21 years retiring in 2005.
He has recently been re-engaged by Hampshire County Council working at a school in Andover.
His wife Averil is a Classics teacher and they have twins attending Ryde School. Ray also has two older children in their mid-thirties who, after graduating, work in London.
Ms Cassandra (Rose) Clarke MA
Cassandra Clarke was elected to the Board of Governors in October 2007.
She originally comes from the Lake District and moved to the Isle of Wight on taking up an appointment in the School of Languages and Linguists, at the University of Portsmouth in 2002.
She studied Politics and Sociology at the University of York and then read Linguistics for a Masters at Lancaster University. She speaks fluent French, having bought and renovated a small cottage in France over thirty years ago, and has a basic ability in Arabic. Cassandra has worked in the field of education for over thirty years, starting her career in rural Norfolk.
She taught and lived in Paris, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, before returning to Britain to teach at Thames Valley University in London in 1993. The nature of her work has involved her in a number of consultancies for government bodies such as the former OECD and ODA, in countries ranging from Yemen to Belarus and Mexico.
Her professional interests are related to technology, language and globalization, and is a regular presenter of papers at international conferences. Her interests include gardening, walking, cycling and local history.
Mrs Jenny Lees Spalding MA
Jenny Lees Spalding was appointed to the Board in July 2002 and lives in London with her husband Klaus.
Part of her education took place on the Isle of Wight at Upper Chine School before going on to St Anne's College Oxford where she read Botany.
Jenny has a distinguished pedigree in education having worked at a number of universities and has published several books, some of them jointly with her husband, on independent schools, careers and student guidance. She has also published several articles on education in The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph.
Jenny and her husband have two daughters just completing their university careers.
Chris Martin DPhil
Chris Martin attended Ryde School from 1972 to 1976.
He has a career in the finance and management of technology based businesses and is currently Chief Executive of Spirogen Ltd, a University of London spin out anti-cancer drug development company.
He is also Chairman of Sciona Inc and a non-executive Director of a number of fund management and technology companies. He has worked for periods in the USA, Africa, the Far East and Russia.
He has a first degree in Chemical Engineering, a DPhil in Engineering Science and an MBA. As a Sainsbury Management Fellow he has been involved in a number of initiatives to advance the quality of management training and experience provided to top engineering students and graduates in the UK.
Chris and his wife Tuula have two children at Ryde. Family interests include travel and sports including sailing and tennis.
Anthony McIsaac MA DPhil
Anthony McIsaac is the grandson of the School's founder and as such is the hereditary Governor.
He read Mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge followed by a doctorate in philosophy at Oxford. He has researched mathematics at Cambridge and computer science at Edinburgh and Oldenburg in Germany. He taught mathematics at Dulwich College and at Richmond-upon-Thames Tertiary College between 1980 and 1991.
Since 1994 he has been a consultant engineer in microelectronics based in Bristol. He has responsibility for external R&D partnerships and has led a team based in Bristol, Grenoble and Tunis responsible for verifying the correctness of designs of chips for the consumer electronics market.
Anthony lives in Stratford upon Avon with his wife Sheena and they have two sons.
He enjoys choral singing and playing the viola. His wife Sheena is a senior lecturer in applied linguistics at Warwick University.
Mrs Patricia Partridge MB ChB DL
Patricia Partridge was appointed to the Board in July 2002 and all her four children attended Ryde School.
Patricia qualified as a doctor in 1977 and has worked in general practice, accident and emergency, hospice care, family planning and in health screening since moving to the Island in 1981. She no longer practises medicine but is married to an Island general practitioner. She is President of Girl Guiding on the Isle of Wight.
Her interests include hill walking, classical history, cooking and her family.
Miss Caroline Pepys SRN RSCN SCM
Caroline Pepys joined the Board as an Upper Chine nominee in July 2003.
Caroline was educated at Upper Chine between 1955 and 1965 and remains a member of the Upper Chine Old Girls’ Association.
Having trained in London at Great Ormond Street and The London Hospital Caroline became a State Registered Nurse in 1970 specialising in maternity work. She became a State Certified Midwife in March 1972.
Caroline has worked in South Africa and on return to the UK worked at the neo-natal unit at John Radcliffe Hospital Oxford until retirement. She served on a number of committees, including the Oxford Health Region Neo-Natal Intensive Care Advisory Group, the National and local Neo-Natal Nurses Association Executive and on the Area Child Protection Committee. She was also a member of the Nursing and Midwifery Policy Board in Oxford.
Caroline’s interests include furniture restoration, sewing, and is a churchwarden of St Peter’s Church, Wolvercote in Oxford.
Ivor Rawlinson MA OBE
Ivor Rawlinson was appointed to the Board in June 2005.
Ivor was at Ryde School from 1953-1959 when he was captain of cricket, rugby and Head Boy. He later attended Christ Church, Oxford where he read English.
He joined the Foreign Office in 1964 serving in Poland, Barbados and Paris (where he met his French wife Catherine). He has been private secretary to Ministers of State and was Commercial Secretary in Mexico City and Consul in Florence before returning to the Foreign Office as an Inspector. He was Consul General in Montreal from 1993 to 1998 and ambassador in Tunis from 1999-2002 when he retired. He currently heads the Foreign Offices’ Career Coaching and Outplacement Unit.
Mark Rhodes FRICS
Mark Rhodes was appointed to the Board in June 2005.
Mark was born in Sheffield and his parents moved to the Island in 1962 when they bought a hotel.
Having been educated in the maintained sector on the Isle of Wight, Mark qualified as a Chartered Surveyor and is now a Fellow of the Royal College of Chartered Surveyors. He has worked for Netten and Netten in Cowes, Watson Bull and Porter, the Prudential and is now a founder partner of Hose Rhodes and Dickson, which he established in 1990. The firm employs 50 people on the Isle of Wight. His current role in the firm is mainly in the
commercial field.
Mark lives on the Isle of Wight.
His interests include classic powerboats, cycling and enjoying food. Mark has also been Chairman of the Ventnor Regeneration Forum and is secretary of the County Club in Newport.
Mr Richard Scarratt LLB (Hons)
Richard Scarratt was appointed to the Board in 2007.
He was educated at Ryde School and was Head Boy in 1974. His three siblings were also educated at the school between 1968 and 1980. His parents farmed at Billingham and his formative years were spent on the Island.
Richard graduated from Birmingham University in law and was called to the Bar by Lincoln’s Inn in 1979. He practises from 1, Garden Court Family Law Chambers in the Temple, London, where he specializes in family law in all its forms.
In 2002 he was appointed a deputy judge of the Principal Registry of the Family Division of the High Court and in 2005, he was made a Recorder on the Western Circuit, which includes the Isle of Wight.
Richard is married to Sarah and they have three sons. They live in London and enjoy their holiday house in north Cornwall, where Richard enjoys sailing, walking and the occasional surf. He enjoys playing the piano to relax, as well as going to the theatre and opera when he can.
Patrick Tobin MA FRSA
Patrick Tobin was appointed to the Board in July 2001.
Patrick Tobin, educated at St Benedict’s, Ealing, and Christ Church, Oxford, was a teacher for 37 years, the last nineteen as a headmaster. He was Headmaster of Prior Park College, Bath, from 1981 to 1989. He moved to Edinburgh to become Principal of The Mary Erskine School and Stewart’s
Melville College - the largest Independent school operation in Britain (2,650 pupils).
From 1992 to 1997 Patrick was Chairman of the Professional Development Sub-Committee of HMC and he was elected Chairman of HMC for 1998. Since 2003 he has been Administrator of HMC Projects in Central and Eastern Europe. He became a governor of Ryde School in 2001 and he governs five other independent schools. In 2004 the Memoir Club published his autobiography, ‘Portrait of a Putney Pud’.
Patrick and Margery, who have four grown-up children, have lived in the Isle of Wight since 2000.
Hugh Verey
Hugh Verey joined the Board as an ORA nominee in July 2003.
Hugh was educated at Ryde between 1967 and 1978 and was Deputy Head Boy leaving to gain the National Diploma in Commercial Horticulture at Writtle College, Essex.
He is a director and co-owner of Bridgeguild Limited and Wight Salads Limited the former being the largest producer of cherry tomatoes in Europe and the latter the largest UK producer of specialist tomatoes and organic tomatoes in Europe. He is Chairman of the Isle of Wight Horticultural Branch of the NFU and of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Tomato Study Group.
He and his wife Sally have three children, two of whom are at Ryde. His interests include cycling, surfing, walking and travelling.
