Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope you have had a good start to The New Year.

I joined the Governing Board at The Hills Academy in 2018. I am also a parent of two children currently at The Hills. Over the last ten months the world around us has changed, in line with these changes we have all adapted to a new way of learning too.

I am sure you may agree that our school’s remote learning efforts in the New Year have been fantastic. I have experienced it first-hand as a parent and, having spoken to quite a few other parents, I believe our teachers have been passionate and forthcoming in planning, organising and running these remote learning classes and at the same time supported the children that have been attending school.  

It is far from a normal day to have around thirty children being taught virtually, with sound and video disturbances, occasional interruptions and connection delays, I must say we should all be extremely proud of what our children and teachers are achieving together.  

Behind the scenes, the senior leadership team have continued to lead, monitor and develop teaching and learning, the support staff have been supporting the teachers in class and children attending school, office staff have continued their ongoing administrative duties and staff in the kitchen have been working for children attending school and even packing food parcels, it has been an excellent team effort.

The ongoing support of parents/carers is much appreciated too during these unprecedented times.

 I am sure children learning at home, like mine, miss the interaction that comes with attending school in person but with the assurance of vaccines being rolled out and cases on a decline, we hope that all children will be attending school in person soon.

In this new academic school year, three new Governors have been appointed and on behalf of The Governing Board I would like to welcome them:

Saquib Ali:
Saquib was a Finance Governor and vice Chair at two other Bedfordshire schools before joining us in September. He is a qualified accountant of 27 years, holds an Exec MBA and 3 years ago retrained as a secondary science teacher, doing a PGCE from University of Bedfordshire. After 4 terms of teaching, years 7-13, Science, Biology, Maths and Business Studies he returned to a Finance role last year. Additionally, he is Chair of Audit and Governance at NHS Bedfordshire CCG as a Non-Executive.

Brigitta Paterson
Brigitta has worked with children and adults with special needs, in multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary teams, for over ten years in various special needs settings. In this time, she has worked with people with Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, Head Injury, Parkinson Disease, rare genetic condition, those with varying sensory and behavioural needs, as well as children with autism and autistic traits. She has also gained experience working in a mainstream primary school where she led a Y3 class and later become an Assistant SENDCo and EAL Lead. 


Sam Ashby
Sam is a policy civil servant within the Home Office, and currently the Head of Governance for a public inquiry.  He was previously a School Governor at a local primary school for over five years.  At various points during his tenure, he was a member of the Welfare and Standards Committee and the Finance Committee and also saw the school through a successful Ofsted inspection.

Finally, on behalf of The School Governors, I would like to wish you a Happy and Prosperous 2021.

Best Wishes,

Yours Truly,
Meherwan Bozorgi

Mbozorgi@thehillsacademy.co.uk