Rachel Clift
Head Teacher
Rachel is the Head Teacher at Pondhu. She joined the school in January 2022 and is excited about the improvement journey that the school is on. Rachel has many years of experience in school leadership and has taught children across the primary age range in a variety of schools in and around Plymouth. She is passionate about giving every child the opportunity to achieve.
Simon Disney-Pollard
Chair of Governors
Simon is Head Teacher at Carclaze Community Primary School and is proud to be a member of the CELT team. He has many years of experience of leadership in primary schools and is passionate about closing the gap. He believes being a reader is the key to success in school and beyond so has an ethos of reading for pleasure at the centre of the curriculum. He also brings the experience of being Designated Safeguarding Lead.
Lisa Belcham
Parent governor
Lisa is a newly appointed Parent Governor at Pondhu Primary School. She is married to Rob, and they have a daughter called Piper, who is currently in Year 3 at Pondhu.
Having moved from Birmingham, Lisa and her family have been in Cornwall for 3 years.
Lisa is a Nurse Practitioner at the local Minor Injuries Unit, but also works closely with Pondhu Primary School, acting as Chair for the Friends of Pondhu School (FOPs), who raise money for the children.
Jonathan Palmer
Parent governor
Jonathan joined as a parent-governor in January 2024. He is a retired farmer and currently has two children at Pondhu. His focus area is health and safety.
Heidi Gray
Staff governor
Heidi is a newly appointed teacher governor at Pondhu Primary School. She has been a teacher at Pondhu for 12 years and has taught years 2 – 6 here. Over the last two years she has been a member of the senior leadership team, focusing on pupil premium. She is also teaching and learning lead, driving metacognition through the school, as well as science. She is a passionate teacher who loves to make learning fun and meaningful.
Paula Dunn
Staff governor
Paula has recently been appointed as a staff governor at Pondhu Primary School. She is currently the School Secretary at Pondhu, a position that she has held for the past 5 years. Paula works closely with the Headteacher to maintain a good level of attendance throughout the school. She also runs the School Parliament whereby pupils are elected by their peers to represent the views of all the pupils within the school.
Daphne Johns
Co-opted Governor
Daphne is very pleased to have joined the governing body of Pondhu School. She is also Chair of Governors at Poltair school.
Daphne started her teaching career in a large Primary school in Hampshire, before moving to Cornwall with her husband Philip. They have three daughters, Catherine who is a teacher, Alison who is a food scientist and Emma who is a physiologist. All three girls attended Carclaze school before moving on to Poltair.
Her first teaching post in Cornwall was at Carclaze Infants’ school. After seven years, there followed her three headships, at Grampound, St. Austell Infants’ school (forerunner of Pondhu school), and Trenance Infants school Newquay.
In 1994, Daphne joined Cornwall’s Education Advisory Service with responsibility for the schools in north Cornwall. She enjoyed visiting schools and observing the quality of education in our schools. Most of all, she enjoyed talking to the children. She does have some tales to tell! Finally, after several moves ‘onwards and upwards,’ Daphne was appointed Cornwall’s Chief Inspector of schools, a post she held until her retirement.
It is Daphne's firm belief that all our children deserve the best education possible and working with everyone at Pondhu school, that is what she would hope we would achieve.
In her spare time she likes travelling, cooking, family history and reading. When she is not engaged in any of those pursuits, she contributes to the activities of St Austell Soroptimists. Last but not least, Daphne is Church Warden at St Paul’s Church, Charlestown.
Geoff Brown
Trustee
Geoff was a Cornwall councillor for 14 years and was previously Cabinet Member for Communities, leading a nationally recognised “great fire service”. Followed by 4 years as the Duchy lead on Transport until 2021. Newquay born and married to Chris for 47 years, with 7 children, he knows the challenges that families face.
A former primary headteacher who spent over 30 years teaching in schools across Cornwall. He was awarded the Westcountry TV “Man of the Year” for his charity work. Geoff led the local Cliff Rescue team for 25 years and was twice awarded the Chief Coastguard’s Commendation. He dedicated 28 years to the RNLI both as crew and officer and together with his wife, they were recognised for their work to establish a teaching programme for secondary age students on the dangers of alcohol and sea safety which they delivered across the country.
Lucy Gambier
Lucy is the Head Teacher at Penrice Academy in St Austell. She started at Penrice in September 2009 and is pleased to now be able to work alongside Pondu as they transform as part of the CELT family of schools. Lucy has worked in three different secondary schools, teaching Art, Media and Photography, alongside working in teacher training and has extensive experience in school leadership at secondary level. Lucy is delighted to be able to support one of the key feeder schools into Penrice, to ensure that all students receive the very best opportunities that school can offer.
Rebecca Blizzard
Governor
Becks is an Assistant Headteacher at Brannel School in St Stephen, having joined the school in 2014. A large part of her current role is building stronger links with the wider community and ensuring equity of opportunities for disadvantaged students. Becks is delighted to be able to work with Pondhu Primary School as a governor and is looking forward to using her experience to support in the school improvement journey.
