Full name: Jonathan Mark Shaw
Birth place: Stone, Staffordshire, but I grew up in the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire.
Marital status/children: Married to Katherine with two children, Amelia and William, who will be joining me at King’s Ely.
Education: Wycliffe College, Nottingham University and the Institute of Education (UCL).
Name of previous school and role there:
Elizabeth College in Guernsey, where I was the Vice-Principal with responsibility for pastoral care and the day-to-day running of the school.
Why King’s Ely?
King’s Ely is a school that is going places, managing the difficult balance of achieving academic excellence alongside the development of the whole person.
What are your main priorities in your new role?
My first priority is to get to know the whole community: pupils, staff and parents. I want to understand what makes King’s Ely tick and how we can make the school even better.
If you could have a superpower, what would it be?
Speed. Having watched ‘The Incredibles 2’ over the holidays, Dash seems to have the most fun with his Superpower (plus you would get an awful lot done!).
Name three things you would want with you if stranded on a desert island for a week:
- My running trainers; running clears the mind and keeps me fit.
- Surfboard: one regret from my 8 years in Guernsey is that I never mastered the art of surfing. My children put me to shame and time spent on a desert island (with good surf) would give me the chance to catch up with them.
- Viktor Frankl’s book ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’, as it helps keep things in perspective. It is a book that I would recommend to everyone. It chronicles his experience as an Auschwitz concentration camp inmate during World War II and the lessons he learnt about purpose and attitude. “Our greatest freedom is to choose our attitude” epitomises his outlook.