News

Congratulations to Simon Mundy, who has been awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours. Claire Robins OBE, CEO Scholars' Education Trust, conveyed the absolute delight of the entire Sir John Lawes School and Scholars' Education Trust community on hearing he has received this richly deserved honour.

Simon Mundy was a long serving govenor at Sir John Lawes School and for a significant number of years was also Chair of Governors, being a tremendous support to Ms Robins (then headteacher) and to the school.

Simon started his working life as a scientist, took the opportunity to retrain as a solicitor and now works for the Government Legal Department, working as a lawyer at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, receives the same award for public and voluntary service.  The Government Legal Department said that Simon "has changed the face of environmental legislation and policy in the UK for a generation. He has served in the Civil Service for 30 years both as a lawyer and (originally) as a chemist where he has designed and delivered some of the most significant UK environmental reforms in history, whilst simultaneously undertaking charitable work in his local community as a school governor for over 20 years."

Simon said of his time at SJL "After 4 years as a governor at a rapidly improving multi-cultural primary school in St Albans, I jumped at the chance to become a governor at SJL. I recently stepped down from the role of Chair of the Governing Body, which was a challenging and always interesting 4 years! Prior to that, I spent a dozen years as governor and then Vice-Chair. While SJL has seen some changes over that time - becoming a Foundation School, then an Academy and finally establishing a Multi-academy Trust, SJL's core values and ethos are unchanged in the form of the SJL ACE. I continue to be amazed by the dedication of our staff and the hard work and enthusiasm of our students."