The Judges

The judging panel is chaired by Shane Rutter-Jerome, who is a retired Brigadier after 30 years in the army, a former general secretary of the Association of Governing Bodies of Independent Schools, and he was bursar of Cranleigh School. He is a governor of Dauntsey's School.

Graham Able is the former master of Dulwich College and is a former chair of the HMC. He is now CEO of Alpha Plus Group. He is a graduate in natural sciences from Trinity College Cambridge. He has co-authored two books on headship. He is also a trustee of the English Cricket Foundation.

Jill Berry is a National College independent sector advocate. She is the former head of Dame Alice Harpur School and was president of the Girls’ Schools Association in 2009. She has taught in a variety of schools, maintained and independent, comprehensive and selective, since 1980, with English as her specialist subject.

Anne Evans OBE is chief executive of HTI. She has wide-ranging experience of leadership and management in the public, private and voluntary sectors. She is a trustee of the Teaching Awards Trust. She sits on the Education and Employers Taskforce and JACQA’s Wider Reference Group. She has a regular leadership column in the weekly magazine SecEd. She has also been a class teacher, subject specialist, vice-principal and headteacher in a variety of secondary schools.

Prof Malcolm McDonald is a former Professor of Marketing and deputy director, Cranfield University School of Management. He is now an Emeritus Professor there as well as being an Honorary Professor at Warwick Business School. He was marketing director of Canada Dry. He is currently chairman of Brand Finance plc and works with the operating boards of the world’s biggest multinational companies. He has written forty-three books, including the bestseller Marketing Plans.

Nick Shryane is the bursar of the Harrow School Foundation (since September 1997). Until 2010, he had been a governor of Edge Grove Preparatory School for more than 10 years (the last five years as chairman). He has a particular interest in strategic, financial and resource planning.

Jeremy Herrtage is the bursar of St Ives School, Haslemere. Educated at Harrow and Sandhurst, he worked in the City for five years before serving in the Army (14th/20th King’s Hussars and RAPC) for 20 years. He is a qualified chartered secretary. He has also served as an LEA governor at the Slade School, Tonbridge for five years.

Yvonne Fleming is the national officer for the school leadership section of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, which is in partnership with the Association of College Managers. She taught for 32 years in a variety of settings, including three independent girls' schools in deputy and headship roles. Her current role involves working with government departments on changes to educational policy as well as being a member of several working groups for the National College, developing programmes for school leaders.

Andrew Maiden is the editor of Funding for Independent Schools and School Enterprise. He also edits the Independent School Governor's Handbook. He was a governor of a school for four years (two as chair of the finance committee). He writes widely on school strategy and enterprise.

Roger Peel began his teaching career at a grammar school in Nottinghamshire. In 1987 he became head of Kimbolton School, before taking a career change as membership secretary of HMC in 2002. His portfolio included: the Inspection Steering Group, sports, junior schools, Conference and Common Room (HMC's magazine) and membership.

Deborah Leek-Bailey is head of Babington House School and chair of the Cross Association Leadership Group of the National College. She is the former chair of the ISA and is currently a member of its Executive Council. She sits on the government-appointed independent partnership forum and is a school inspector. She has taught in both the maintained and independent school sectors.

Conflicts and other policies for judges

There is no prohibition on nominations for an Independent School Award from schools with whom a judge is or has been associated in some way. The particular judge will not be part of the judging process for that or those awards. If a school has been nominated in all categories, the judge will stand down from the panel.

The judges may decide that a submission is more suitable to a different category than that indicated by the applicant. Judges also have the discretion to invite an application to an award category after the deadline, but only if they consider the quality of applications received not to be worthy of an award.

The organiser’s decision is final.

Site developed by Ludwood Interactive