Governors

CLHS Local Governing Body

Alexis Holden started at UCLan in 1992 as a Lecturer in Analytical Chemistry, after completing a PhD at Strathclyde University and a BSc (Hons) in Medical Sciences and Chemistry at Leicester Polytechnic.

She was a frontline academic for 10 years performing research, teaching, and administration. During that time, she was an active member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), Honorary Secretary of the Analytical Division of the RSC, and a Trustee of the Analytical Chemistry Trust Fund.

At the start of 2021, Uclan merged Research Services with the Innovation and Enterprise Service and Alexis took on the role as Director of the new Service. In this role she leads a team of approx. 120 people. She is responsible for developing and delivering the university research, innovation and enterprise strategy, by managing and leading a Service which is skilled and knowledgeable and supported.

In any spare time, Alexis enjoys pottering in the garden, swimming and supporting family life with her son who attends Central Lancaster High School.

After a career in retail, Helen qualified as a teacher of mathematics in 2005 after studying for a BA (Hons) in Pure Mathematics at Lancaster University as a mature student. She has taught in two secondary schools and two primary schools, including as a Head of Department and Subject Lead. In 2018 she left the classroom and is currently the Maths Hub Lead for the NNW Maths Hub serving Cumbria and North Lancashire, a part-time post. Alongside this she works for the National Centre of Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) leading on all work with Early Career Teachers in secondary, and supporting or co-leading various professional development programmes for teachers of mathematics in all phases. 

She is a trustee for the Assosciation of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM) and until recently also lectured part-time at the Unversity of Cumbria on the PgCE Secondary Mathematics. Helen's son attends Central Lancaster High School.

Victoria joined Central Lancaster High School in 2008 as a Dance Instructor where she supported the Performing Arts department with dance and drama teaching and bringing to the school a range of extra-curricular opportunities directing a number of school whole school musicals including ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘Oliver’. In 2013 Victoria led a performance visit to Sadler’s Wells theatre in London. Two further visits for pupils to perform we arranged to The Royal Albert Hall in 2014 and 2016 where pupils from Central Lancaster High School joined South African pupils from partner school, Stirling High School East London, to perform in one of Europe’s largest performance spaces – a truly incredible opportunity for all pupils

Victoria qualified with a first class honours degree from Buckinghamshire University and qualified as a teacher with the University of Cumbria. Victoria joined the Senior Leadership Team at the school in 2020 and took on the role of Acting Headteacher in September 2024.

Sharon Asquith is a serving headteacher at a Lancashire secondary school.  She qualified as a teacher in 1988 and worked as humanities teacher at Penwortham Priory High school before moving on to head of RE at Carnforth High school.  She gained her master’s degree in religious and Moral Education in 1996 from Lancaster University and achieved the NPQH in 2000.   Sharon moved to Fleetwood High School in 1999 initially as SENCO, achieving promotion whilst at the school to Deputy Headteacher.  During that time, she was nominated for an excellence in special needs award through the Teaching Awards Trust, and was the North West Regional winner of this category. She moved to her current school in 2005 to the post of deputy headteacher and was promoted to headship at the school in 2013.

She is an Additional Inspector with Ofsted 2019 to the present day.

Laurie Ibbs is a highly skilled technologist. He earned his first-class degree in Computing and Mathematical Sciences from the Open University. With a passion for technology, Laurie has led development teams and contributed to cutting-edge projects, including his recent role as Lead Developer at Relative Insight, where he spearheaded the implementation of new features for their SaaS platform utilizing natural language processing. Currently, Laurie is focused on security risk assessments for European projects, leveraging his extensive experience to address emerging cybersecurity challenges. His expertise spans infrastructure and platform engineering, product development, and enhancement, acquired through hands-on involvement in various innovative initiatives. Beyond his professional pursuits, Laurie is also an accomplished guitarist and musician. He recently achieved IPC accreditation in soldering, reflecting his growing interest in electronics.

Anne has taught for 35 years, although she has predominantly worked in 11-18 comprehensive schools, she has also taught in both primary and special schools as well as delivering modules to both post graduate and under graduate students.

Initial trained as a Specialist PE and Special Needs teacher, her teaching career began teaching PE and Outdoor Education, before she moved into pastoral leadership as Head of Year 7 and Primary Transition. She has spent the last 15 years in Special Needs working as a Specialist Teacher for Dyslexia and SENDCo.

Anne retired from teaching in July 2021, however she continues to work freelance as a Specialist Teacher and Assessor assessing and tutoring children in the local area. She is also working with the Bay Learning Trust as a Special Needs Consultant supporting two new SENDCos develop their skills and expertise.

Outside of work, Anne enjoys spending time with her family, walking her dog either locally or on the fells and horse riding.

Paul Young is a senior climate specialist for JBA Risk Management and a visiting researcher at Lancaster University. His work and expertise embraces climate change, air pollution, and the ozone layer, and has experience teaching high school-level maths to first year undergraduates and climate science to masters students in his former role as a Lancaster University faculty member. 

He grew up in Portsmouth, completed degrees at Bristol and Cambridge Universities, and lived and worked in Colorado for four years before moving to Lancaster in 2012. He lives with his wife Joanna in Heysham with their three children, two of whom attend Central Lancaster High School.