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 and Radstock Primary schools. She worships at St Nicolas Church in Earley where she is a Church Warden and is part of the team leading and mentoring the Church’s young people’s groups. 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 and New Christ Church 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.
Carrie King
Carrie is our team leader for New Town and St John’s Primary Schools in East Reading, and Secondary Schools: The Bulmershe School, Maiden Erlegh School, and 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.
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.
Fiona Monger
Fiona is our team leader for Redlands and Hawkedon Primary schools. Fiona is a trained Primary School teacher in one of our schools, and experienced REinspired sessions delivered to her class on numerous occasions. ‘My role within REinspired suits me perfectly as I am able to both use my teaching skills and share my faith. The ethos and purpose of REinspired excites me and enables me to engage with children in a fun, exciting and meaningful way.’ Fiona worships at Shinfield Baptist Church, serves as an elder and runs the children’s work for their fellowship. In the school holidays Fiona is also a supervisor at a local holiday club.
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.”
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.”
Revd April Beckerleg
April became a Trustee and volunteer with REinspired in 2020 when she became the vicar of St Nicolas Church Earley. Before being a vicar, April was a primary school teacher, and a school governor in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. April is an accredited Godly Play practitioner and has a passion for Forest Church and creative story telling.
“REinspired helps churches to connect with the community in a fun and engaging way. The content is carefully and thoughtfully constructed so that all the activities directly link to the delivery of the curriculum. Here at St Nicolas we love having schools visit us, and I know that the children enjoy coming and learning in a fun and interactive way. Our volunteers thoroughly enjoy being part of REinspired.”
Revd Jon Salmon
Jon has been a Trustee since 2010 and has been minister at Trinity Church in Lower Earley since 2007. He is also a community governor at a local primary school. Jon was curate at an inner city church in Bradford before moving to Reading and prior to ordination worked in international development for the UK government, living and working in Zimbabwe, Uganda and Tanzania.
“Three special things always strike me about REinspired: 1) it’s the local Christian community working together to nurture the children through creative and imaginative resources; 2) it’s brilliant that the aim is to reach all children; and 3) that REinspired builds relationships with the children as they move through the school.”
Revd David Shaw
David Shaw trained as a Secondary School science teacher before the call to ordained ministry. He has been a governor in 3 different Primary schools with a particular interest in Inclusion. He presently serves Wesley and Mortimer Methodist Churches with oversight of a wider group of churches from Reading to Basingstoke. He volunteers for REinspired and is a recent addition to the trustee team.
‘In over 30 years of working with schools as a Christian minister REinspired is the best engagement for the school and the churches that I’ve come across.’
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.”