Kish describes himself as a "local boy", attending The Highfield School in Letchworth Garden City, and joined the team just 8 short weeks ago.
We reminisced about his childhood - where all good stories start - and the journey he took to becoming Director of Finance at St Chris. After completing his A Levels and admittedly slightly disappointed with his results, he was unsure of what path he wanted to pursue, with his top two interests being accountancy and law.
To keep doors open, he attended the University of the West of England in Bristol and studied both.
After university, then pursued accountancy and found himself working locally with a property management company as an accountant, predominantly working on service charge accountancy. It was then that Kish began studying to become a Chartered Management Accountant.
When he was part-qualified, Kish was keen on working in the public sector, so he moved to Welwyn Hatfield Council for a brief period as an Assistant Management Accountant before then becoming employed at the City of London Corporation, a bigger council. "[Working in councils,] it was all about cuts and I got a bit fed up with the culture," Kish said, "so I thought I'd try the academy sector". He did just that and went to work at The City Academy in Hackney and remembers the job very fondly "I think that was the best job I had in a lot of ways. What I'd learnt in my accountancy qualification, I put into practice".
The City Academy was part of a wider public sector scheme to overhaul the existing educational institutions in Hackney to create new academies. Kish noted that the environment was quite different to St Chris, namely how the school was quite strict "it was a bit like the army, but it worked. The school put a lot of money into the kids, and they were really looked after, they relished and prospered in the structure that the school offered. Many of the academy's students came from challenging backgrounds, so they would often enjoy their time in school; for many students, it was an escape.
After working at the City Academy and having such positive interactions with the sector and the students themselves, Kish felt assured that education was the right sector for him and thrived amongst the lively throes of the school's finance department.
So, Kish proceeded to pursue work in that very sector and went to work at St Francis College in Letchworth Garden City for a short while, but felt the environment wasn't the right fit for him.
So, he decided to take on temporary work at Hertfordshire County Council. Shortly after, Kish then went to work as Director of Finance at the National Hair and Beauty Federation, a membership body, where he supported small businesses with their accounts. He was there for 5 years.
After this stint of time outside of the education sector, Kish took on a role at The Difference, an educational training charity, and a middle ground between the public sector and education.
The Difference was started by an ex-English Teacher who came from a difficult background and was established to support students who were excluded from learning, both by physical exclusion from the school, and by being removed from classrooms. The charity proactively lobbied the government on these issues and provided training courses to support teachers to better support students.
Kish had previously approached St Chris to see if the school would like additional training from the Difference Charity, but it was clear that the school simply didn't need it. Unfortunately, Kish was then made redundant after just one year of employment. As if by luck, the Director of Finance job at St Chris came up right at the point of Kish's redundancy. He felt confident during his time working at The Difference that he'd found his feet once again in the education sector, so decided to explore the option.
He recalled talking to Nat Baker, Deputy Head, at the time, to ask about the culture and work environment at St Chris. To his delight, St Chris seemed appealing despite his initial apprehension to return to a school.
“It was a great opportunity, so I thought I'd grab it. As with everything, you go for an interview and hope for the best, so I was delighted that I got the job, especially when my presentation had gone over the time limit!".
Despite only being here a short period of time, we were keen to hear Kish's take on St Chris' work culture. "The culture is really collaborative, and people mix well. Unlike other schools, there's no division between teaching and professional services staff. I remember one of my first lunchtimes at the school I saw a cleaner eating lunch with some teachers. That was so refreshing".
Kish's calming demeanor and ability to work peacefully during frenetic times makes him a brilliant fit for managing a dynamic finance department. "I really like it, there's an awful lot to do, which can be stressful, but I've only been here 8 weeks (about 2 months) and I've been getting stuck in and spending more and more time with the finance department". Kish also mentioned that he recently enjoyed spending time with a student during Work Experience Week, showing him how the finance systems and the team worked.
Of course, any new role brings its own unique challenges. "Doing so much in such a short space of time like changing the finance system and payroll systems has been challenging, it's like our team is starting from scratch, there's always lots of things to deal with, but that's equally as exciting."
"There's lots of scope to make changes and work with lots of people, such as helping Heads of Department with managing their upcoming budgets. Getting to know the diverse range of teams across the school has been great. St Chris is a unique school which has its place not just locally but also nationally. Students here have a good balance of contact and freedom, it's my job to make sure we are making the right financial decisions to support that for the years ahead."