Governance, policies and inspection reports

Nimble has been Chairman of the Governors for the past two years .

Following a legal career at Eversheds where he was Deputy Chairman and Senior Partner in Leeds and Manchester he has held a number of non executive positions. These included Chairman of N G Bailey Ltd,Deputy Chairman of Skipton Building Society and Deputy Chairman of the Institute of Directors.

In addition he has been Chairman of Leeds Metropolitan (now Becket) University and EUREKA and Deputy Chairman of Giggleswick school. Currently he is Non executive director of Rushbond plc and Chairman of Arch Resolution, a Harrogate based charity, as well as his small family firm in Darlington.

Both his younger son and grandson were at Aysgarth and both went on to Harrow.

Old Aysgarthian and a parent of two boys who attended Aysgarth.

Outside of Aysgarth, James is a Barrister specialising in Criminal, Regulatory and Disciplinary work, based in the North East working from St Pauls Chambers (www.stpaulschambers.com).

James is also Chairman of the Nevilles Workhouse Trust – a charity that provides educational grants for children in the parish of Well and Snape.

Robert graduated from Edinburgh University with a BScHons in Biological Sciences. He then worked for Ernst & Young and completed his ACA qualification whilst working firstly in corporate tax and then in the FSU and Eastern European department. This took him to Moscow for two years working for EY in tax consultancy after which he relocated back to London to work for Enron Capital Trade Resources. In 1997 he moved back to Yorkshire and managed a large development project for the family business and then worked from 2004 until 2018 as group CFO for Carclo plc, a small main listed global manufacturing conglomerate. Since 2018 he has been running his family engineering and textiles companies which have businesses in the UK, Australia and India . Robert is Chairman of the Aysgarth Foundation and  lives in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire. 

Claire is a strategy, business and marketing consultant, who has worked for and with a range of leading blue-chip organisations and corporations of all sizes.  Based in the Peak District, she is Chair of Derbyshire Dales Liberal Democrats, is a Trustee of Citizens Advice Derbyshire Districts and was a governor of a local primary school for 9 years.  Both of Claire’s sons went to Aysgarth.

Antonia Consett is a current parent and married to an OA. 

Antonia currently works in the financial industry as a senior investment manager for wealth managers, JM Finn.  She has worked in the financial industry for 23 years and is recognised as one of the Top 100 wealth managers in the UK.  She started her career as an investment analyst at London-based hedge fund Man Group, with subsequent roles being with JPMorgan Asset Management in London. 

She is currently a Trustee of the York Minster Fund and chairs their Finance Committee.  She has been a Board Trustee of the national children's charity, the NSPCC, and until recently sat on its finance committee. She is also heavily involved in local events for various charities, such as being on the local northern committee of the charity, UK Youth.  

David Faber is the Headmaster of Summer Fields in Oxford; he is also a governor at Harrow. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read Modern Languages, he began a career in politics after university and was the Member of Parliament for Westbury between 1992 and 2001; he held a number of posts during his political career, including Shadow Foreign Minister. He left politics to pursue a career as a writer and historian, and he still teaches and writes about 20th century history, especially the politics of appeasement. He has served for many years as a committee member of the MCC. 

David joined the Aysgarth governing body in September 2012.

Sarah's involvement with Aysgarth began as a mother of two boys, Digby and Robin, who attended the School from 2008-2013 and 2010-2015 respectively. Growing up in North Yorkshire, as did her parents and grandparents before them, she has, however, had a life-long connection with staff and pupils at Aysgarth.

Sarah worked for the NHS for over 20 years as a speech & language therapist with a specialist interest in working with adults who stammer and adults with functional voice disorders. 

Sarah was a governor at Aysgarth from 2011-2015 with responsibility for Health and Safety and was re-appointed in 2017 with responsibility for Pastoral Care and Boarding from 2018. She has recently been appointed onto the Bursary Committee.

Bennet Hoskyns-Abrahall, Chairman of the F&GP, Old Aysgarthian and Chartered Accountant.

Having qualified with Deloitte's in London he then ran venture capital funds in Ghana and the West Indies with CDC and returned to the UK and managed a small biotech company on Teesside through 2 private equity transactions.  He is now the Commercial Director of a fast growing M&E business on Tyneside.

Alastair Land, Head Master of Harrow School, read Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was President of the College's Students Union. After completing his PGCE at Cambridge, he began his career at Eton as a teacher of Biology. There he became a Deputy House Master and held several extra-curricular responsibilities. Alastair then spent nine years at Winchester, where he became Master in College and a member of the Senior Management Team. Alastair was Deputy Head Master at Harrow for three years from 2012, before he moved to Repton as Headmaster. He returned to Harrow as Head Master in April 2019.

Anne, Deputy Admissions Registrar at Rugby School, enjoyed 4 years at York University where she read Music and was a member of the Yorkshire Bach Choir. After completing her PGCE in Music and Drama, also at York, she went on to teach Music and History at Archbishop Holgate’s School for 13 years, where she became head of the History department. At the Dragon School, Oxford, she was introduced to Co-Ed boarding and she loved throwing herself into the extra-curricular life of the school.

Anne moved on to teach History to years 7-11 at Rugby School 24 years ago. After three years as Deputy Housemistress of the sixth form house, she opened a new 13-18 girls’ boarding house in 2005. During her 12 years as Housemistress of Griffin, amongst other responsibilities, she was producer of the annual Arts Festival – a three-day whole-school event held at the end of every summer term. Anne now enjoys her role on the Admissions team where she continues to be fully involved in the life of the school although, of course, her heart will always be in Yorkshire.    

Justin Nolan is currently Director of Communications, Engagement and Development at Eton College.  He has been at Eton College since 1991 with a spell between 1996 and 2000 working at Societe Generale, the French Bank, in Asset Management.  Justin has a wide experience in schools having been a Head of Department, House Master and Deputy Head before taking on his current role.  He is also a highly experienced School Governor having acted in that role for Wellesley House, Summer Fields and now Aysgarth.  Justin’s current role sees him managing Eton’s outward facing functions including fundraising and communications.

Having originally trained as a technology focussed management consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Chris went on to co-found 6point6 in 2012. The company provides technology, data and cyber security advisory and consulting services mainly to the UK public sector, including the Home Office, the MOD and security services, DEFRA, the Cabinet Office and the Department of Work and Pensions. 

Chris was a major shareholder, board director and was materially involved with growing the company from 2 to 400 people over 11 years. Having taken Private Equity Investment from Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) in 2021, 6point6 has just agreed a deal to seek 100% if it’s shares to Accenture. 

Since departing as employee in August 2023, Chris has taken on the part time role of Chief Technology Officer at Auca, a motor trade related tech startup. As of November this year, he also became a governor at Aysgarth. 

Bill worked in the retail industry for nearly 30 years in senior leadership and board level roles for Pick ‘n Pay, Safeway, Morrisons and Poundworld.  These roles included a wide range of positions across operations, marketing, trading and strategy development.   

More recently Bill has gained experience in the leisure and tourism sector, having been the Managing Director of one of the top attractions and historic gardens in The Lakes.  

Bill is currently a Board Trustee of Dementia UK and is also a Director of Dementia UK Trading Limited.  As well as advising an estate and sitting on the board of their commercial business.

Victoria is a non practising lawyer having public international law and general commercial law experience. As a lawyer at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office she conducted domestic litigation, negotiated multilateral treaties and UN resolutions and represented the UK at international conferences. She practised in areas such as counter terrorism, sanctions, diplomatic immunity, human rights and law of the sea.  Prior to that she was a solicitor at Eversheds, Paris and was part of a team which represented States in investment treaty arbitrations, in the Iran- United States Claims Tribunal and in the International Court of Justice. Having practised as a barrister at 3 Verulam Buildings at the start of her career, she also has experience of general commercial law. Victoria is a mother of 3 boys, 2 of which are currently at Aysgarth and lives in the North York Moors. She has also recently been appointed to be a trustee for another family trust and a small charitable trust, is on the Yorkshire Historic Houses committee and is on a Macmillan Yorkshire committee as a volunteer.

Christy York enjoyed five years at the school in the late 1970’s. After leaving secondary education he joined the British Army and then spent 20 years working in financial services in London. On returning to Yorkshire in 2014 he took over the management of a diversified farming business which also involves supervising commercial and residential lettings and a holiday homes operation. He has been a Governor of Aysgarth since 2015 and has put three sons through the school. As well as sitting on the main board of Governors, Christy is also part of the Finance and General Planning Committee