This Saturday, the Dragon community celebrates Gill Wilson’s extraordinary 30 years of service to the School, as she steps down as Dragon School governor. Appointed on 17 November 1990, Gill was previous Chair of the Purposes Committee and member of the Property Working Group. She is a past Dragon parent, mother of four, three of which are Old Dragons, and she is an advocate for all things Dragon. In her time as governor, Gill has shown particular interest in Early Year’s education and boarding.

Gill was not only a member of the Blackbird Academy Trust (BAT) Governing Board from its inception, but inspired and encouraged members of the Dragon teaching staff to do the same, and personally commit by becoming Governors at the three different schools. She used her knowledge and experience to focus energies on early intervention and family support. She has subsequently contributed to many local primary schools as part of the BAT, in addition to her work supporting the Dragon.

Gill has been the passion and drive behind building the School’s parent volunteer (or PODS – Parents of Dragons) programme into the thriving support network that they are today. What started as a project to support children who seemed to be slipping through the net when developing early reading skills, quickly grew. The programme was so successful that it expanded into new and exciting areas such as speech and language support, alongside providing individual music lessons for children at Windale and Orchard Meadow schools.

The School flag will fly this Saturday, 28th November, by way of a celebratory thank you for all that Gill Wilson has done for the School, as she steps down following her 30 years of service to the Dragon community.