Our People

The beating heart of our ESMS Community

The Development Office is the hub of our ESMS Community.  Our very experienced team help our alumni and friends communicate with each other and support our pupils as they prepare to make their mark on the wider world.  We also help transform the lives of children through our Access to Excellence fund and would love to talk about the many ways that your contribution can have a positive impact.  

We are always happy to hear from members of the wider ESMS Community - alumni, parents and former parents.  Please feel free to email development@esms.org.uk with any queries you have or give Suzi a call on 0131 311 1131.

Angela Alexander

Angela Alexander is our Director of Development and leads on the all fundraising and alumni/community relations for Stewart’s Melville College, The Mary Erskine School and the ESMS Junior School. A key part of her role is continuing to build a strong ESMS community with a wide range of events and activities for current parents, former pupils and staff, as well as supporters of the Schools. She also is responsible for fundraising for our Access to Excellence programme, as well as capital projects and other School priorities.  Angela has responsibility for our partnership programme as well as shared responsibility for our sponsorship programme.  Angela oversees our Heritage Office.

Tania Alvares-Peres

Tania Alvares-Peres manages our ever-growing database of alumni and parents. Tania organises our mailing lists, provides specific information to alumni as requested and ensures that we keep in touch with members of the community who are arranging reunions and other events. Tania is also responsible for recording all donations to Access to Excellence. 

Jon Cooper

Dr Jon Cooper is our Heritage Officer with the responsibility of looking after seven different archives across our sites. Not only is Jon tasked with cataloguing and conserving the artefacts, photographs, and documents he is also taking every opportunity to bring the archives into the public domain and can often be found hosting tours of the schools’ collections organising exhibitions and displays. Jon also runs school history clubs and helps on class outings to heritage sites.

Keryn Henderson

Keryn is our Development Assistant and supports the team to deliver a wide range of objectives, from mailings and social media to events large and small for parents, alumni, staff and the wider ESMS community.  Keryn is the first point of contact in the department and directs enquiries to other team members as appropriate.  Keryn also supports the work of the SMC FP Club through administration of the database and communications.

James Robertson

James Robertson supports the Development Office as Community Engagement Lead. In this role he works closely with Angela Alexander( Director of Development) in order to strategically co-ordinate our community work across ESMS. This includes, building and supporting current and new potential partnerships with charities and schools across Edinburgh and beyond through volunteering and fundraising, as well as sharing knowledge and resources. James is also a Teacher of Support for Learning at Stewart’s Melville College and The Mary Erskine School, where he specialises in supporting pupils with their Mathematics.

Suzi Squires

Suzi Squires is our Development Manager and leads on delivering our projects and strategy.  She has particular responsibility for our major public events, the Community Champions programme and Access to Excellence fundraising alongside department communications.  Suzi takes great care to ensure that the Development Office's numerous contacts with individual members of the extended ESMS Community are supportive and helpful.  Suzi also has specific responsibility for developing business and career support for young alumni and school leavers through the Connect programme and the digital platform, ESMS Connect.

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