Our People
Julia Jones
Julia joined REinspired as a volunteer in 2003 having left a career in recruitment consultancy. Julia is REinspired’s Project Director for Earley and East Reading and Team leader for Loddon, Radstock and Hawkedon primary schools. Julia worships at St Nicolas Church in Earley where she is a Church Warden, serving also on the Justice and Peace group and the gardening team. Julia has a passion for sharing what we do and training new groups who are looking to serve their own local schools as we do.
Sue Auty
Sue joined REinspired as a volunteer soon after she and her husband relocated to Reading in 2018, and became a Team Leader at the end of 2019 for Hillside, New Christ Church and St John’s primary schools. She started her working life as a bridge engineer, relocating to rural Ireland in the 1990’s where she helped run a church and community-based teens club and annual bible club. Sue worships at Lower Earley Baptist Church, where she also helps with the children’s and young people’s work. Sue enjoys being creative and plays clarinet in a local concert band.
Chris van Es
Chris has volunteered for REinspired in Earley and Woodley since 2017, becoming the Team Leader for The Bulmershe secondary school in Earley in 2024. 30 years as a software developer wasn’t the best preparation for this, but Chris has been active in children’s ministry in Sunday Schools, Beach Missions and Youth Clubs over that time. He worships at Woodley Baptist Church where he helps with the children’s work amongst other roles.
Carrie King
Carrie is our team leader for Maiden Erlegh Secondary School, and Jill Bird is temporary team leader for Maiden Erlegh School in Reading. Carrie is a trained primary and secondary school teacher. Carrie worships at Park United Reformed Church where she and her husband are both elders. She is very keen on using drama and other experiential techniques with the pupils to help them get ‘inside’ the Bible stories!
Sue Rees
Sue is our Team Leader for Earley St Peter’s, Aldryngton and Whiteknights primary schools in Earley and has been part of the REinspired team since 2003. She trained as a Secondary school Art & Design teacher and has been teaching part time. She worships at Greyfriars church in Reading where she is currently involved with supporting and mentoring the Youth and Worship teams.
Sarah Godwin
Sarah leads REinspired sessions at New Town primary school. She worships at Earley St. Peter’s, where she also serves as a Children’s Church leader. Sarah is passionate about helping children explore faith and understanding God’s love.
Sue Bruce
Sue is the new Team leader for Alfred Sutton and Redlands primary schools in Earley. She has been involved in REinspired in various roles since about 2005 – as a trustee and then as a volunteer and now as team leader. She trained as a primary school teacher – she worked at Loddon Primary, Alfred Sutton and The Ridgeway primary schools before retiring in 2022.She worships at St John and St Stephen’s church in Newtown where she is church warden and helps to lead the music and worship.
Carol Meunier
Carol joined REinspired in December 2014 and is our administrator and communications coordinator having moved from a corporate role using similar skills. Carol is keeping us connected as a team and sharing our news to our growing audience.
Revd Keith Wilson
Chair of Trustees
Keith has been the minister at Lower Earley Baptist Church since 2004. Prior to becoming a Baptist minister, Keith was a secondary school Geography and History teacher in Scotland. Keith is a local school governor and is passionate that education should be excellent, relevant and – above all – fun!
“REinspired is a brilliant way to explore the Christian faith. Each session is educational, interactive and a great way for everyone to learn together. Working with REinspired I’ve learned so much about other Christians and their traditions. I’d encourage people to get involved in what is possibly the most exciting educational project being developed by churches at the moment.”
Revd Russell Howes
Trustee
Russell started as a Trustee in 2025, after moving to become Minister of Lower Earley Baptist Church in 2023. Originally from outer London, he left the daily commute in 2006 to train for Christian ministry and went on to pastor a church on the Welsh borders for 14 years. During that time, he served as a Trustee for the local foodbank, where he led the Board through a process of transition from start-up project to long-term sustainability.
“REinspired has proven over many years that it can help local schools deliver the RE syllabus for their pupils accurately and creatively – at every stage of the curriculum. As a Trustee, I’m pleased to be able to support such a dedicated and experienced team drawn from across the breadth of churches in Earley and East Reading.”
Richard Bainbridge
Richard taught in schools in Papua/New Guinea and Nigeria and then worked in adult education for Christian Aid and for a lay ministry scheme in East London. After ordination he worked in parishes in South East London and for many years served as a governor of a church secondary school in Lewisham. In 2014 he retired to Reading and started to volunteer for REinspired. He is currently a Foundation Governor of New Christ Church CE Primary School.
“REinspired offers children and young people a chance to learn more about the Christian faith from people for whom that faith is a living commitment. For me it is a real privilege to contribute to this. The fact that it is ecumenical as well as thoroughly professional is a real strength. The staff are fizzing with good ideas- and it’s fun! I am sure this is a model that can be replicated, given good planning and skilled staff.”
Chris Greaves
Having worked initially in HR for British Telecom, Chris retrained as a Careers Adviser. He worked with young people in the Thames Valley, before taking on more responsibility as a qualified project manager and Assistant Director with Adviza Partnership. He now volunteers with REinspired, works with teenagers for careers guidance in schools and serves as a Licensed Lay Minister for Greyfriars Church, Reading.
“I have been so impressed with the vision, model and practice of REinspired. It is a joy to work with pupils as they discover more about the Christian faith in a context which meets both their learning needs and the school’s agenda”.
Emma West
Emma plays a vital role as REinspired’s treasurer and company secretary, she has volunteered in this capacity since its inception. Emma also volunteers for Churches Together in Earley and East Reading and the Albatross Diving Club, a Swim England accredited club. Emma is a qualified accountant and worked for British Railways Board for 11 years, went through privatisation with Gatwick Express as a franchise of National Express and then returned back to the British Railways Board.
“I became involved with REinspired, initially in the financials and then as a parent seeing and being involved in the organisation from my children’s perspectives. My own children have been engaged with REinspired sessions throughout their school years and have really benefitted from the creative approaches that have been offered. I have been privileged to be able to see the work develop both strategically and practically at both primary and secondary school levels.”
Patricia Brown
Board Secretary
Patricia worships at Wesley Methodist Church and spent most of her working life as an editor and proof-reader for a distance-learning college, dealing with study, research and publicity material, and helping to run short courses in the UK and Europe. Now retired, she volunteers with Christian Community Action in Reading, with Mission Assist (which supports overseas mission through various services), co-edits the magazine of her local residential association, and is involved in providing online worship on Wesley Church’s YouTube channel.
“When I first heard about this initiative, I thought, ‘This is exactly the sort of thing the Churches should be doing.”