Senior Leadership Team

Thomas McMorrin
Headteacher
I am overjoyed to be writing to you as the Headteacher of City Academy Whitehawk. I adore the school and its vibrant community and couldn’t be more proud to be here.
I remember writing in 2017 that it was a privilege to have been welcomed to the Whitehawk community as your Deputy Headteacher. I was thrilled to support Mr. Church and the team in my role, adopting the responsibilities for Teaching and Learning, Curriculum, Assessment and Behaviour; I am enormously proud of our achievements in these areas over the past five years. As your Headteacher, having navigated the community through the pandemic as safely and successfully, we entered the school’s next phase of development and continue to go from strength to strength. It is my responsibility to ensure that we are the very best school that we can possibly be and I look forward to achieving this, working alongside you, the children and my colleagues within school and across Aurora Academies Trust.
It remains my ambition for CAW to become a hub for exceptional teaching and learning. We’re incredibly proud of the quality of education we provide, day in day out, and we mentor and coach staff especially well to ensure that they are well supported to deliver the best possible learning opportunities. Our academic outcomes in recent years would suggest that we're well on our way to exceeding this goal.
We’ve enjoyed developing the school’s curriculum over the past five years and our newly appointed Assistant Headteachers will be working closely with our curriculum leaders and teaching staff so that everything is in place for our children to make as much progress as possible, achieving personal excellence.
Outside of school I love playing (and watching!) sport, riding my bike, listening to music, walking my dog and reading novels but most of all, sharing stories with my wonderful children.

Sally Singh
Welfare Manager
My name is Sally Singh and I am the Welfare Manager. My responsibilities include Designated Safeguarding Lead; managing the Learning and Inclusion Mentors; managing the Attendance and Community Officer and overseeing provisions for each. I am also responsible for family liaison, pastoral care, emotional well-being interventions and transition activities.
My role can be challenging but it is also enjoyable and fulfilling. This is a special place to work and every day is different. I am fortunate to work closely with children, teaching staff, families and the professionals who also support our school and community.

Russel Wood
Deputy Headteacher
Hello to everyone at City Academy Whitehawk! My name is Mr. Wood, and I started as Deputy Headteacher in September 2022. I am very proud to work on our 'Behaviour and Attitudes' and 'Personal Development' offer, ensuring all children in the school achieve personal excellence and are ready for the next phase of their education.
I was so excited to meet all of the brilliant children at CAW. I've been so impressed by how polite and hard working all the children and staff are. We're have so much fun learning together! I love reading and I love talking about books... what are you reading at the moment? I have three children and a dog called Blossom. Please do say "Hello" if you see me around the school.

Tina Reynolds
SENCo
I’m Tina Reynolds and I am the school’s SENCo. This means I have the responsibility for making sure that if your child has Special Educational Needs and/or a disability we all work together to eliminate the barriers to learning. I aim to work closely with the children, all staff, parents and carers and the range of appropriate professionals in order to make this happen. Please contact me if you have any concerns regarding your child. Generally I work all day Monday and Tuesday and Wednesdays.
I have taught some of the parents and carers when they were here but I’m not revealing my age! When I am not at school, I spend time working for Brighton University as a professional tutor and also get time to bake cakes. I’m not at the standard of Mary Berry but I am trying to improve!

Angela Dolan
Business Manager
I've been working at the school as the Business Manager since 2009. My job is to look after the school's finances, staff and buildings and I have seen many changes to the school in my time here. We are always looking at ways in which we can improve our school to make it a fun and exciting place for children to come and learn.
I consider myself very lucky to work is such a vibrant space with a great staff team and fantastic children. Many visitors comment on the warm welcome that they receive at the school and the great atmosphere that we have here. I'm very proud to say that I work at City Academy Whitehawk and enjoy seeing all the wonderful things that our children achieve.

James McAdam
Assistant Headteacher (Year 6)
I started at City Academy Whitehawk in 2016 after moving from Canada. Before arriving at CAW, I worked in a variety of schools in both in England (supply teaching throughout Brighton) and Canada (mostly Secondary). When the opportunity to work at CAW came up, I jumped at it! Since then, I have worked in Year 5 and 6, led on History, Geography and Maths and I absolutely love it.
I was really excited in 2020 when an opportunity to become an Assistant Headteacher came up, this role allows me to still be in class while being able to make decisions that influence the whole school. This is a really exceptional school with exceptional children!

Florella Scozzafava
Assistant Headteacher (Year 5)
I started working at CAW in September 2017 as a Year 2 class teacher and fell in love with the school, the staff, the children and the families immediately. During the pandemic, and in my role as Curriculum Development Leader, I helped the leadership team deliver a range of provision, resources and support to families. Although this was challenging, it inspired me to want to take on more leadership opportunities to further help my colleagues and CAW community. In 2020, I was appointed to Assistant Headteacher. In this same year, I moved to teach in Year 5 and got to teach lots of my Year 2 classes as Year 5s which I LOVED!
Over the years, I've taken on various subject and school roles but my favourite one is one of the ones I hold now; Reading leader! I am incredibly passionate about the power and sheer joy of reading for pleasure and work across the whole school to lead reading as a curriculum subject and as a pastime. I'm always keen to speak about reading in all its forms so please get in touch if I can answer any questions. My favourite book I read in 2021-2022 was When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohammed which is a graphic novel that beautifully tells the story of a pair of Kenyan refugee brothers and their quest for asylum. I'd recommend this to children and adults alike!
I'm eternally grateful for the support I get from all my colleagues, especially my year group team, Thomas and the leadership team. CAW is a special place to work and I look forward to what the future holds (and how many more books I can conceivably fit in our school library!)