The Board of Governors of Epsom College is delighted to announce the appointment of Emma Pattison as the school’s 14th Head. Emma will lead the school from September 2022, taking over from Jay Piggot who steps down from the College after 10 years as Headmaster.
Emma will become Epsom’s first female Head, and joins following six years as Head at Croydon High School GDST. Prior to that, she was Deputy Head (Academic) at St John’s School, Leatherhead.
Emma will live at the Head’s House, on the College grounds, with her husband George, a Chartered Accountant, and their six-year-old daughter, Lettie.
Emma said: “I am delighted and honoured to have been appointed Head of Epsom College. It is a school I have long admired, with an enviable reputation, and George and I can’t wait to meet the pupils, parents and staff and to become part of this wonderful community. It is my aim to ensure that Epsom continues the upward trajectory on which it finds itself thanks to a decade of transformative leadership from Jay Piggot. I am grateful to him and his wife Poppy for leaving me with a school of so many talents and strengths, and for making me and my family feel so welcome. It is our intention to make our home and our school equally as welcoming in the months and years to come.”
The Chairman of the Board of Governors, Dr Alastair Wells, began the recruitment process in August 2021, intent on finding a candidate with the requisite qualities to maintain, and build upon, the excellent educational standards already in place at the school.
“Emma emerged from a strong field as a most impressive candidate,” said Dr Wells. “She excelled and excited the Governors with her vision for the College. Epsom’s pupils were similarly impressed; at the final interview Emma taught a class for 30 minutes on a topic of her choice, which was ‘identity’. The lesson was of such outstanding quality it concluded with spontaneous applause from the pupils.”
Emma graduated from the University of Leeds with a BA Hons in French and English Literature, and from the University of Warwick with a PGCE. Her teaching career began in 2002 at Lutterworth College as a teacher of French and Spanish. In 2005, she joined Caterham School teaching French and Spanish and became Head of Year 8 there one year later.
In 2012, after four years as Head of Modern Foreign Languages at Guildford High School, Emma was appointed as Assistant Head of Professional Development at St John’s School, Leatherhead, and promoted to Deputy Head (Academic) in 2013. Three years later, Emma was appointed to her first Headship at Croydon High School GDST.
“I have loved every minute of my first Headship at Croydon High, GDST,” Emma said. “It is a very special school with wonderful pupils, staff, alumnae and parents who have greatly inspired me. I will treasure the memories and carry with me everything I have learned at the school as I embark upon this exciting challenge.”
Dr Wells said: “In announcing this wonderful news, I should also like to take this opportunity to thank Jay for his total and professional support to the Governors during the recruitment process, along with his outstanding skills of leadership and management in establishing Epsom College as one of the leading schools in the UK. We would have struggled to attract interest from the very best candidates had the school not enjoyed its current standing.”
Categories: Epsom College School News
