CHESS is run by a small team who are home educating or have home educated their children.  They have a wealth of knowledge is many areas of home education and are always on hand to help answer your questions.  Being a small team with a BIG vision there is always room for new committee members, so if you have a passion for home education please drop us a line at admin@chessuk.org

Esther Brombley - Holiday Co-ordinator

Esther is originally from Northern Ireland, married to an Englishman, Jonathan, living near Glasgow. They have five adult children, two daughters and three sons and one daughter-in-law. While now officially finished their home-education journey, they have always home-educated (although the oldest three had a year in a Spanish school when the family was living in Madrid for a couple of years and also went to school for a year to complete Scottish Highers.) Esther has been a committee member for over ten years and until October 2024 her main role was overseeing the bookings for the CHESS members’ annual holiday to Cefn Lea in Wales.

Ruth Barber - Administration

Charles & Ruth Barber live in Bradford, West Yorkshire. They have seven children: six boys and a girl, who have all been home educated from the start. The eldest three went to University and are now working. Ruth has a background in Banking and worked at Christians Against Poverty as a debt counsellor before home educating. She now helps with a range of administration tasks for CHESS and is the current Editor for Home Time magazine.

Michael Lane - Chairman

Originally from New Zealand, Michael & Deidre came to the UK in 2002 and have made the UK their home ever since. They now have three children, Jessica 18, Daniella 16 and Kayden 14 (that’s their ages, not middle names) all of which are God’s work in progress. Being slight outsiders they were not pulled into the ‘children go to school’ cultural norm and, not having any family around, they never asked, so their children never did go to school. Michael remembers telling a friend that they started with the question ‘what type of education?’ rather than the question which most non-Christian and sadly Christian parents ask ‘which school?’ So for them that was a home based Christian education. 14ish years on they continue with God’s help and grace to suppport other Christian Home Educators.

Nathan Field - Website/IT Co-ordinator

Nathan and Becky are second-generation home educators. Both were taught (and met) through being home educated using the A.C.E. curriculum and have spent several years working in home education. They now home educate their four children, two girls and twin boys aged 3-9, in Shropshire.

Jo Clarke - Finance Manager/Pastoral Care