This year’s Master, Caroline Haines CC, has been an elected member of the Court of Common Council of the City of London Corporation for the Ward of Queenhithe since 2017. She Chairs the City of London Education Board, the Natural Environment Board (previously Open Spaces) & West Ham Park, the London Careers Festival and the Board of Governors at the Ofsted Outstanding Newham Collegiate Sixth Form College.  A Trustee of COLAT (the City of London Academy Trust) she also sits on the Board of Governors at King Edwards School Witley, where she is a Bridewell Fellow. Having recently completed a four year tenure on the Board of the City of London School she also chaired the City Grants Education Spending Review, following which she was elected to the Policy and Resources Committee. Her other committees include Culture, Port Health and Epping Forest. She has previously served on Finance, Children and Community Services and Benefices and was Chair of the Queenhithe Ward Club 2009-10.

A recently appointed ambassador for FED (Foundation for Education Development) Caroline is a life-long educator with a focus on 16 – 19 provision, entering the profession immediately after graduating from Cambridge. She progressed through the phases of classroom practitioner, middle and senior management in London and Essex mainstream schools before leading a 16 – 19 consortium college in North London. Committed to social mobility, equality of opportunity, diversity and inclusion, she has advised on access to and increasing diversity at Oxford, Cambridge and other Russell Group universities, devising Post 16 Frameworks, supporting the secondary years skill based & employability curriculum and enabling educational marketing, media & communication and development projects. A past GCSE and AL examiner and author of two AL Study Guides, involvement over the years with troubled youngsters and their families led to a spell on the IMB at Belmarsh HSP, her appointment as Patron of a support centre linked to East Sutton Park Women’s Prison, the Windsor Fellowship, the Jack Petchey Foundation and other social inclusion schemes. Over the years she has been active in raising funds for a variety of charities including the Salvation Army, the Bobby Moore Fund for Bowel Cancer Research, the Red Cross and various Lord Mayor’s Appeals. In 2022 she is helping co-ordinate the planting of hundreds of trees across the City’s open spaces as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy in honour of Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee, in partnership with the Royal Commonwealth Society.

Admitted to the Guild of Educators in its early years, Caroline served on the Fundraising Committee and as a judge on our Inspirational Educators Awards for the last decade. Since being elected Lower Warden, she has chaired our Engagement Committee, being a passionate advocate of our Special Interest Groups.

Married to Gordon Haines MBE JP (Alderman in the City of London 2004 – 16 and currently Chair of Corporation USP College) Caroline has been Mistress of two other Livery Companies: Painter-Stainers (2013) and Horners (2018). Both she and her husband share a passion for West Ham United, gardening, travel and their restored medieval Essex guild hall family home.

In borrowing her theme for her Master’s year from the 2012 London Olympics a decade earlier, Inspire a Generation reflects her passion for how inspirational educators enable our young people to aim higher and dream bigger whilst her Seminar Series  ‘Educating the City: Learning through Inspirational Partnerships’  aims to shine a light on the vast range of learning opportunities available in, and emanating from, the City of London – the world’s global destination for learning.