Dear All

I would like to start by saying a huge thank you to Mrs Pedder for her inspirational leadership over the last ten years, it has been an absolute pleasure to work alongside her. Mrs Pedder will be leaving our school in a very good place, and I am sure will be be greatly missed.

As you are aware from the Parentmail sent out earlier this week, our new Headteacher has already been into school to meet Mrs Pedder and some of the children.

It gives me great pleasure to let you know that Mrs Louise Woods is going to be officially joining St James and St John Church of England school in January as our new Headteacher to carry on the amazing journey we have been on with Mrs Pedder.

In order for this to take place with the minimum disruption to you and your families, a very comprehensive handover will be taking place between Mrs Pedder and Mrs Woods over the next couple of months.

Mrs Woods will be meeting staff and parents and she will also be joining our governing body meetings. The dates of the parent meetings will be shared in due course so that you will have the opportunity to meet her prior to January.

I know many of you will wish to know a little bit more about Mrs Woods, so we asked her to share an introduction to you all which follows below.  We are very excited to welcome our new Headteacher into our school and the governors are very much looking forward to working with Mrs Woods.

Finally, I would like to thank Mrs Pedder for her help in making this transition a very positive experience for all of us.

Kind Regards

Joanna Coxall

Chair of Governors

It gives me great pleasure to introduce myself as the new Headteacher of St James and St John Church of England Primary School. I feel very privileged to have been appointed by the governors and I can’t wait to start in January 2022. Every time I have visited your wonderful school I have been made to feel very welcome and I love the caring, nurturing ethos of the school.

I have been teaching for 20 years and am currently working at Portfields Primary School in Newport Pagnell. My favourite part of teaching is when children have ‘lightbulb moments’ – when things just click and they get something they have previously found difficult. My favourite subject is Mathematics and I love reading.

I am married and have two amazing teenage children; one is super sporty and one is very creative. We have a black Labrador who I love taking on walks through the woods.

I am looking forward to working with the school community to provide a nurturing, stimulating and challenging education at St James and St John School where every child receives the best educational start in the ever changing world.

I will be coming into school and attending some school events in the upcoming months to get to know the school’s wonderful children, staff and governors. I will be hosting some meet the Headteacher events for parents in November, (dates to follow) and I am looking forward to meeting everyone so we can work together to continue with the school’s successes.

Mrs Louise Woods