Dr Rupert Evenett, MBE

It is an honour and a pleasure to be Chair of The John Wallis Church of England Academy and Nursery. And excitement because of what the Academy is about.

Excellence is at the heart of everything we set out to do and in all our strategy. Excellence is giving our students, wherever they start from, the best learning each student can get from outstanding teaching and experiences, to give them the widest choices and opportunities when they leave The John Wallis. Excellence is about always trying to be better in a school which is a community and which is rooted in the community it serves and which supports everyone always trying to be better.

As a Church of England Academy, our values are also central to everything that we are – our LIGHT values of Love, Integrity, Generosity, Hope and Tolerance. These are actionable values shaping how we behave and think. We are an inclusive Academy. We want everyone to succeed and to succeed together.

To my role as Chair, I bring a successful career in finance, advising companies on financial strategy and fundraising, a follow-on career in the civil service and in extensive governance leadership roles in the education and charity sectors, plus study at Oxford and research at the LSE. In my governance and leadership roles I have been a school governor at four different schools for over 20 years and a chair of governors now at three. I was chair of a national environmental and volunteering charity, was chair of finance and audit at a university, at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich and at major scientific research charity Alzheimer’s Research UK. My aim is to use this experience to give my best advice and support to the Academy for all its students and staff.

The John Wallis is a multi-sponsor Academy with four great sponsors which each bring different strengths and perspectives. I think what excites me most about The John Wallis comes back to the continuing clarity of ambition for our students. Our job is to carry on making that deeds not words.