Members

Bob gained a B Ed degree from Oxford University.  He was a teacher at Cippenham Middle School and Deputy Headteacher at Wexham Court Middle School and Lynch Hill Combined School in Slough before becoming Headteacher of Tylers Green Middle School in Buckinghamshire for eighteen years. 

Bob became a governor of Lynch Hill Combined School in 1992.  He has served as Vice-Chair of Governors, Chaired the Curriculum, Personnel and Pay Review Committees and was a member of the Finance Committee. He continued as a trustee when the School became a Primary Academy in 2011 and chaired the Trust Board for two years after it became a Multi Academy Trust in 2014.

In retirement Bob continues as a parish councillor.  He is Vice-Chair of Farnham Royal Parish Council, a volunteer librarian at the local community library and a fairly frequent traveller to California and Australia where he has family.

Mike Allen has always worked in the not-for-profit sector, from Adventure Playgrounds in Portsmouth in the 1970s, and promotion through Youth Work qualification and management, into Community Development roles.
Progressing to Chief Executive of medium-sized charities in the Midlands, he’s also been a voluntary trustee of several other charities since 1994.
Briefly Chair of a Children’s Trust in Staffordshire, he obtained an MBA focused on ‘social capital’ at the University of Birmingham and returned south of the Thames in 2012 to take on the role of CEO of a Berkshire-wide charity for older people.
Since retiring from that full-time role, he now works part-time for a Berkshire charity which supports other charities by recruiting and training trustees, as well maintaining his own trusteeships: until 2025, as Chair of a Surrey-based children’s charity and since as a trustee of a large Buckinghamshire Care Home, where he sits on their Finance Subcommittee.
Outside of paid and voluntary work, he mostly-successfully wrangles an overgrown garden in Bracknell.

Jon Reekie retired from a long career in banking in the late 1970’s. He has been a Governor of Baylis Court School and Herschel Grammar School since 1989 where he chaired the Finance Committee and was Vice-Chair. He worked for the Medical Research Council in London in 1993. In 1995 he was appointed Business Manager at Herschel Grammar School until retiring from the post in 2009. During all of this time, he remained a Governor and Chair at Baylis Court School and in recent years took the school to Academy status and, in 2015, to Multi Academy status and chairs the Trust Board. After his retirement, he has been asked to be a member of governing bodies in Slough where there has been a need to strengthen governance. Among those have been Willow Primary School and James Elliman Academy, both of which he is no longer a governor of. Jon is also a member of the Board of Slough and East Berkshire Multi Academy Trust where he chairs the Trust Finance Committee. He also chairs the governing body at Wexham Court Primary School. Jon is a member of the Slough School’s Forum which is a body that deals with school finance for all schools in Slough.  Outside of education, Jon is a Trustee of Maidenhead Waterways Regeneration Group. He now has three grandsons and a step granddaughter and enjoys relaxing holidays in his caravan and cruises to various overseas countries.

Jo joined TLT in 2021, and is currently a trustee at another MAT for children with special educational needs. Jo is delighted to be part of The Thames Learning Trust as she is a Baylis Court Alumni. Leaving in 1982, she trained as a Nurse for people with a Learning Disability and worked in the NHS, Prison Service, Private Voluntary and Independent sectors. Jo moved into Higher Education and is now based at The University of Winchester, presenting the Nursing Programme. Jo is also an External Examiner at other universities around the country and is an associate lecturer role for The Open University.  Jo is involved in working with and advocating for people who live with a learning disability and promotes inclusion though National Networks. Jo has been involved in the Guide and Scout movements for many years and loves nothing more than treading the boards in Amateur theatre productions, having played Jack in Puss in Boots most recently.