Meet the team

Committee

Melissa Smith

Melissa Smith

Melissa is mum to Fraser, as Fraser will be the last of her five children to attend Hagbourne Preschool, Melissa wanted to join the committee this year to help give back and say thank-you for everything which they’ve done for her children over the years.

Melissa lives in the village, and works locally for her family business providing printed and embroidered clothing.

Eve

Eve

Eve is a committee member whose daughter currently attends our preschool and is keen to be involved in helping it thrive. Eve’s main role is to help support the other committee members with their duties as well as contribute to the running of the preschools events. Eve has a background in mental and physical healthcare and is passionate about the well-being of others.

Sophie Garland

Sophie Garland

Sophie joined the committee as chair in September 2022 when her son was attending our pre-school, he is now at Hagbourne Primary School.

Sophie has experience in leadership and management, working at the frontline of clinical care as part of the operational management team in the NHS. Sophie is passionate about innovation, improvement and safety so more recently moved into a corporate improvement team to continue to support with improving patient care, staff wellbeing and education. Sophie is enjoying assisting the pre school and is supported in this role by Sarah, Vice Chair and the rest of the committee.

Sophie is the nominated person for Ofsted and can be contacted via chair@hagbournepreschool.org

Jess Wells

Jess Wells

Jess is our Billing Administrator. Living locally, Jess's son currently attends our pre-school and her daughter also has previously attending our setting and is now at Hagbourne Primary School.

Jess wears many hats as our Billing Administrator however the main elements of her role include handling and responding to any billing enquiries, invoicing parents/carers for fees and payments, liaising with the pre-school manager on admissions as well as responding to emails sent to our enquiries inbox. You can contact Jess via billing@hagbournepreschool.org

When not super busy with her two children or with pre-school, Jess is passionate about helping others and is a Paediatric Nurse, working at local hospitals.

Cheng

Cheng

Cheng is Ethan’s mum and the Treasurer of the Committee. Her responsibilities include bookkeeping, cash and bank account management, payroll management and financial reporting. She is also responsible for working with the independent auditor to ensure true and fair representation of our annual return to the Charity Commission.

Cheng is an ICAEW Chartered Accountant and has over 8 years’ experience in the audit of both public and private sectors.

Sarah Williams

Sarah Williams

I’m Sarah and I’m mum to Beatrice (Bea) and Edith who both attend Hagbourne Primary School before they joined Hagbourne Primary School. I joined the committee in June 2022. We live just outside of Hagbourne in Didcot with my Husband Jeff and our very fluffy dog, Flossie.

At the moment I’m a full time mum to both of my girls and carer for Edith who has complex medical needs and a physical disability. Prior to this I have been a Primary school Teacher for the 15 years specialising in Early Years. For the last six years of my career I was in Senior Leadership at a large village primary school and as a Deputy Head in a new town based Primary school locally. During my 15 year career I have also worked as an Early Years advisor for the County Council, supporting local schools to improve their Early Years provision, as a Phonics improvement lead and as Maths Specialist Teacher where I lead CPD and Maths focussed school improvement.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time on the committee so far, it’s great to use the skills I’ve gained working in Education to support Preschool and help it to continue to flourish and grow alongside the amazing staff.

Natalie wood

Natalie Wood

Natalie is our Secretary and joined the Committee back in 2020. Living locally with her husband and two children, Natalie's son attended our pre-school previously and is now at Hagbourne Primary School and now her daughter attends our setting. Passionate about helping the pre-school succeed, Natalie's main roles as Secretary include dealing with correspondence on behalf of the committee, arranging venues for meetings, collating and ensuring minutes of committee meetings and AGMs are circulated, updating staff contracts and job descriptions following committee reviews and assisting the chairperson to maintain staff and committee records.

Natalie is a Digital Marketer with 12 years' experience. She works locally and has a passion in her working life to help and support small businesses get their businesses online.

Upcoming committee meeting dates.

We would love for more parents/carers to join us. Please email us if you would like to join us at one of our upcoming meetings.

The dates for our committee meetings 2023-2024 are:

  • Tuesday 16th April
  • Tuesday 14th May
  • Monday 10th June
  • Monday 1st July