Staff
College leadership
Our College Leader is Miss Wendy Costin. Her role is to oversee the academic and pastoral development of Communication College students as well as ensuring that the curriculum is appropriate for all the Academy’s students’ requirements.
English Department Leadership
Claire Maybank is our Lead Teacher for English for Key Stage 3 and she has responsibility for the curriculum, assessment and progress in the first two years of students’ careers here at Thomas Deacon. She also works closely with Colin Baxter who has an overarching responsibility for Reading, Writing and Communications skills and Erica Brown who has responsibility for students’ language development in Achievement Support College.
Yvonne Ellis has responsibility for Key Stage 4, covering both GCSE English Literature and English Language together with oversight of controlled assessments, examination entries and any related issues . She also designs and runs our intervention programme for students. This provides another layer of support for students in an effort to ensure that as many of our students as possible leave Key Stage 4 with a grade C or above in English Language .
The English team
Miss Tricia Antonio
Miss Georgina Cook
Miss Wendy Costin
Mr Carl Deighton
Mrs Yvonne Ellis (Lead teacher for KS4)
Dr Hilary Faulkner
Mrs Leanna Hall
Mr Jason Hill
Mrs Anna Kirkland
Mrs Lisa Lloyd
Miss Claire Maybank (Lead teacher for KS3)
Mr Carl Niblock
Miss Maria Pinto
Miss Victoria Pope
Mr John Schwarz
Miss Michelle Stratton
Miss Veronica White
Miss Nicola Winstone
Mrs Lynne Yarham
Exam Specification
We follow the AQA specification for both GCSE English Literature and English Language and for A Level English Literature.
Modern Foreign Languages Leadership
Mrs Alison Ball is responsible for our Modern Foreign Languages Department. She has oversight of French, Spanish, German and Urdu at all key stages and, in conjunction with Dr Hilary Faulkner, works to create opportunities for students who have other languages as their mother tongue to study and gain qualifications in them.
The MFL team
Mrs Alison Ball (Lead teacher: German, French, enrichment Russian)
Mrs Annabelle Beavis (Subject lead: French, Spanish)
Mrs Pip Brimblecombe (Spanish)
Mr Francis Clark (French, Spanish)
Mr Colin Baxter (French, Spanish)
Mrs Sameena Aziz (Urdu)
We are also fortunate to have foreign language assistants for French (Emilie), Spanish (Martín) and German (Heike).
Exam Specification
All main curriculum languages follow the AQA specifications at both GCSE and A level.
Media Studies Leadership and team
Mr Dean Nicholls is our Lead Teacher for Media with responsibilities for all key stages .Teaching in this exciting area we also have Mr Carl Niblock , Mrs Lloyd and Mr Carl Deighton.
Students develop portfolio work as well as studying theory and are able to work on individual projects in a diverse range of media from magazine production to filming their own short creations. Analysis and theory supplement this practical work and students never fail to produce stunning and innovative work of which the department are quite rightly proud.
ESOL team
Dr Hilary Faulkner has the leadership of the teaching of ESOL and for the oversight of support for all EAL students and their progress. In her team there is also Miss Leila Naghibi Rad.
Student Achievement Leaders
Our Student Achievement Leaders are second to none and really bear out our belief that the development of the individual drives all that we do in Communications College. Our team is:
Year 7 and 8 – Mrs Anna Kirkland
Years 9 and 10 – Mrs Lisa Lloyd
Year 11 – Miss Michelle Stratton
Year 12 and 13 – Mrs Veronica White
Teaching assistants
We have an equally supportive Teaching Assistant in Mrs Maria Hamilton, who, along with our EAL staff, ensures that those students who may need a little extra help get that in an understanding and appropriate manner.
Administration Staff
Mrs Pamela Best and Mrs Sue Miller are our tireless administrative staff and deal with everything from absences to parental enquiries, students from year 7 to year 13, skinned knees, worries, letters home and general enquiries! They are the first port of call for parents and students and never fail to offer advice and support in equal measure.