Meet the Team
Established for over 30 years, Meadowbrook school is run as a limited liability company by company director and School Business Manager, Steve Byron. Steve is supported by Headteacher Sarah Warner.
Steve is responsible for all non educational matters relating to the school whilst Sarah the Headteacher maintains Meadowbrook’s well-established aspirations and values, striving to ensure that the motto of ‘Excellence in Education’ is embedded in every element of day-to-day practice.
Management and Administration Team
Steve Byron - Proprietor | School Business Manager
Steven Byron is a retired Fellow Chartered Certified Accountant. He has over twenty years of experience in UK business and private sector organisations. His roles involved the financial management of large and small entities; including management reporting and controls, planning, strategy and process developments. His experience of the education sector includes being a University Lecturer.
Sarah Warner - Headteacher, Year 1 and Year 2 Teacher
In 1995, Sarah began her 3-6 Montessori studies with the Montessori Institute at Meadowbrook.
After working in the Pre-Primary department for 5 years, she moved to the Primary department and began her 6-9 studies with the Centre for Montessori Education (CMTE) in New York. Since then, Sarah has worked in both Lower and Upper Primary and is currently a teaching Head with responsibility for running day-to-day matters and teaching Key Stage 1 in Lower Primary. Sarah is also the Designated Safeguarding Lead at the School.
Sarah has a passion for history and has studied for a BA (Hons) in History with the Open University. She is currently embarking on an exciting adventure with the RAF, and is about to begin training to become a corporal with air cadets, specialising initially in firearms training!
Joy Hughes - School Administrator
Joy first became involved with Meadowbrook School as a parent in 1999, with her eldest daughter graduating from Meadowbrook in 2006. Joy returned again as a parent in 2013 with her younger daughter. In 2016 Joy became a Trustee of FOMM (Friends of Meadowbrook Montessori) and has been involved in a variety of fund-raising initiatives for the school over the years.
Her background is in Human Resources in the Financial Services sector and is fully CIPD qualified. Joy works closely with Meadowbrook’s Senior Leadership Team and also takes the role of Deputy Safeguarding Lead at the School.
Teaching Team
Wendy Day - Pre Reception & Reception Class Teacher
Wendy has been working with children of all ages for the past 25 years. She has a Montessori International Teaching Diploma (3-6yrs) from the London Montessori Centre and after working at various schools in the U.K. then built on her experience covering for teachers in a few schools in Sydney, Australia.
Barbara Barnfield - Year 1 & Year 2 Teacher
After growing up in Northern Ireland, Barbara completed her BA Honours degree in Primary Education with Qualified Teacher Status in the Lake District as part of Lancaster University. She taught primary age children for seven and a half years before starting a family of her own and moving to America for four years. When she returned to England she became a Learning Support Assistant and lunch time controller in her son’s school before accepting her position at Meadowbrook. Barbara moved on to be an HLTA, and is now returning to full time teaching as our Year 1 & Year 2 Class Teacher.
Sarah Jane Hogg - Year 3 & 4 Teacher
Sarah Jane has worked in a variety of education settings over a 6 year period and during that time and has had the opportunity to work with a range of children, from their interests and abilities to their culture and lifestyle. She graduated with a BA (Hons) in Performance Art in 2013 and decided to work as a Teaching Assistant before deciding to embed her drama training into teaching. It was then that she continued her studies, to become a fully qualified Primary School Teacher. Using her passion for performance, she is able to bring great creativity to her teaching, ensuring that the engagement, challenge and subsequent progress of the children is her focus.
Sarah is also a member of her local church choir and band and enjoys day trips out and visiting friends and family. She also participates in local Charity Events; her latest ones being: a big community litter pick and sleeping outside to raise money for the homeless.
Julie Miles - Year 5 & year 6 Teacher
Julie has been at Meadowbrook for over 19 years, mainly teaching the older age groups. She is a local girl, who was born in Windsor and grew up on an arable/dairy farm.
Her first career path took her into herbicide research and then overseas for a period of eleven years. Julie worked with UNHCR and the Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong for 3 years and considers this a turning point in her life. She found Montessori in Hong Kong and trained in London at the AMI. She then returned to Singapore to work in a Montessori Pre-School for 5 years.
As a qualified Forest School facilitator, Julie delivers Meadowbrook’s Forest School programme. She has also completed her OCR training in teaching children with dyslexia and other learning needs.
Specialist and Support Staff
Helen Bunn - Specialist Teacher / SENCO
Helen started her teaching career as a primary teacher, specialising in maths and science and as time went on, became interested in the fact some children appeared to be able to learn new concepts easily, whilst others found it more difficult. She became particularly interested in the area of specific learning difficulties and attended a few courses to try to understand the reasons children learned in different ways. Initially, Helen completed the Ruth Miskin Read Write training and started to use it with underachieving children in her own class, achieving incredible success and going on to become a leading teacher in this area. Helen started her teaching career as a primary teacher, specialising in maths and science and as time went on, became interested in the fact some children appeared to be able to learn new concepts easily, whilst others found it more difficult. She became particularly interested in the area of specific learning difficulties and attended a few courses to try to understand the reasons children learned in different ways. Initially, Helen completed the Ruth Miskin Read Write training and started to use it with underachieving children in her own class, achieving incredible success and going on to become a leading teacher in this area.
Later, Helen was appointed as a cognition and learning teacher with the local authority, where she completed the level 5 qualification in teaching and assessing learners with SpLD.
As part of this role, she visited numerous infant, primary, middle and secondary schools in order to train and advise teachers and support staff as well as teach pupils.
Helen has also completed the postgraduate certificate in coordinating special educational needs at University College London and advised and trained the learning support assistants and teachers in suitable intervention strategies across many different settings. Helen’s previous role was as SENCO at Holyport College. Which is how she first came to our attention!
On a personal level Helen is truly committed to supporting pupils with special educational needs so that they are able to fulfil their potential, possessing great sensitivity to their aspirations, needs and self-esteem. She has also just completed further courses on mental health, sensory processing disorder, motor skills, safeguarding, whole school SEND and PREVENT DUTY.
Viv Baines - Art Teacher
Dawn Farrey - Gymnastics
Dawn holds a level 4 Artistic Gymnastics Coach qualification and is a full member of the British Gymnastics Association.She is currently employed by Pinewood Gymnastics Club and is responsible for the development of talented young children who hopefully will continue in the sport to compete at Regional and National Level.
Dawn found a love of gymnastics at the age of ten and managed to achieve international standard, including competing in the 1986 Commonwealth Games. Since retiring from competitive gymnastics she went on to coach for many years at one of the Uk’s leading London gymnastics clubs. This has allowed her to gain a vast amount of experience working with children of all ages and abilities.
Steve Lee - Sports Coach
Steve is Meadowbrook’s designated sports teacher through a company called 360 Sports Education. Steve became a full-time Primary Education Tutor with 360 in early 2020. After graduating from William Penn University (IA, USA) on a football scholarship in May 2018, with honours in Exercise Science, he returned to England for his long-term career. He firstly worked full-time as a Cover Supervisor assigned to the CAPA (Creative and Performing Arts) department at Collingwood College in Camberley in combination with part-time work for 360, before moving into a full-time role as a Primary Education Tutor.
Both of these roles as well as previous work with SCL and Elite Preparation Centre and a passion for sport have served as a great platform to develop his skills and further enhance his experience.
Rebecca Peake (MFL) Modern Foreign Language Teacher
Becki Peake is a qualified linguist with a BA Hons degree in French, Spanish and European Studies. She has lived and worked abroad in various locations in France, Spain and Germany, both in the education and commercial sector. Initially starting out her career in language recruitment and managing a large multinational team and office, she has more recently and for the last 7 years run her own business providing peripatetic language classes to predominantly primary-aged children in schools and beyond. She is fluent in French and Spanish, with advanced German and specialises in providing lessons to children at primary and EYFS level.
Barbara O'Sullivan - Supply Teacher & Holiday Club Manager
Barbara’s first association with Meadowbrook Montessori School was in 1995 when she joined the first group of students to undertake the Montessori Early Years teaching qualification (Mont.Dip 3-6) through the Montessori Institute teacher training college which ran at Meadowbrook Montessori.
Barbara led Meadowbrook’s former Pre-Primary department through three successful Ofsted inspections and three Montessori Schools Association (MSA) accreditations. She previously supported the school as primary deputy head and most recently worked as Reception Class teacher until her retirement in 2020.
Barbara now runs her own holiday club which runs out of Meadowbrook each school holiday. She also continues to offer cover teaching in the Early Years when we need it!
Lunchtime Supervisors
- Linda Edwards
- Lenka Moir
- Debbie Atkinson
- Sarah Brill
All of our lunchtime supervisors are highly experienced with primary children and being mothers and/or grandmothers themselves, understand the needs of this age group well. Support staff receive regular training in associated skills such as 1st Aid and Child Protection to enable them to carry out their jobs with diligence.
John Jacobs - Caretaker and Groundsman
Much of John’s early career was spent in Germany with the British Army, followed by several years working on Cruise Ships. Never happier than when inventing and making something, from bespoke games to gadgets, benches, trenches and fences! In his spare time John fly’s drones for aerial photography and does metal detecting, his photos of the school have been amazing – from sunrise to sunset, along with photos of the wildlife that regularly visit our lovely site. John prefers to be outdoors and loves to see the Meadowbrook looking its best throughout the year with its seasonal challenges.
Some of John’s creations and photographs can be seen below.
Meadowbrook School
01344 890869
Malt Hill, Warfield, Berkshire, RG42 6JQ
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