Colin Guyton
Head Teacher
Colin began his teaching career in Sussex working in schools that served socio-economically deprived coastal communities. As a teacher of Geography, and subsequently as an effective Curriculum Leader, Colin established a track record of impressive student academic outcomes in different school settings.
Colin moved into Senior Leadership in 2015, initially as Vice Principal, before acting as Principal in one of England’s most deprived Secondary Schools (52% Pupil Premium). Through his leadership, and despite the heavily deprived context, his school performed in the top 7% of schools in England and Wales at GCSE.
Following a period working as the sole Deputy Headteacher in an all-through British International School in the United Arab Emirates, Colin joined St John’s School, Cyprus in May 2021. As Headteacher, Colin has established a trajectory of rapid school improvement, leading the school to rank in the top 5% of schools nationally for student progress with a score of +0.62.
Away from school Colin enjoys opportunities to travel and is often caught jet setting over the school holidays. Colin is also an avid sports fan, keenly following Arsenal and the Miami Dolphins, forever hopeful of his teams’ future sporting success.
Stephen Dixon
Deputy Head Teacher
Originally from Lancashire, Steve completed a degree in Drama at the University of Birmingham. Before teaching he worked for an educational theatre company working in schools across the UK. This experience, combined with working as Drama Director on an American summer camp is what sparked an interest in teaching drama and consequently Steve completed a PGCE at Birmingham City University.
He was appointed as Head of Drama at a very large secondary school in Birmingham, each year seeing over 80 students through GCSE drama examinations. In his final year at the school over 100 students were entered for GCSE drama with a 100% pass rate. In the same year Ofsted visited and the drama department was awarded an ’outstanding’ judgement.
Steve then worked in a much smaller secondary school in Dudley as the Head of Arts before taking on the role of Assistant Head in a school on the edge of Wolverhampton. He stayed at this school for 19 years progressing to Deputy Head and then finally Head Teacher for the last five years. In his final year of headship the school gained their highest ever GCSE results and was judged by Ofsted to be a good school.
Steve arrived at St John’s in September 2022 and thoroughly enjoys working with fantastic pupils, colleagues and a supportive local community.
When he is not at work, Steve enjoys drawing and painting and visits the theatre as often as possible. You may see him out and about walking his golden retriever, Bentley.
Kate Parkinson
Pastoral Manager & Designated Safeguarding Lead
Kate has worked in Education for over 15 years, with both Primary and Secondary School experience. Kate started her career in as an Attendance and Safeguarding Support Assistant in a primary School in Catterick Garrison, where over 80% of the students were Service Children. When Kate and her family moved to Chester, she began a new role of Attendance Officer in a Secondary School in Ellesmere Port. Having worked in this role for 2 years, she moved on to become a Pastoral Manager.
Kate has a wealth of experience in Safeguarding and is trained in Trauma Informed Practice, which focuses on understanding trauma’s impact, supporting affected students, and creating inclusive, safe environments.
Kate has been a military wife for over 16 years and has a real understanding of the challenges military families face. With having two children herself, she has firsthand experience of the impact changing schools and making new friends can have on young people and strives to ensure all students have a smooth transition into St John’s School.
