Staff Profiles
Senior Administration
Our dedicated and well-qualified staff put your children at the heart of everything we do.
Senior Administration
Martin Towse
Principal
Martin is originally from the United Kingdom and has a Bachelor degree in Education from Bangor University, in Wales. He remained in Wales and started his teaching career as a Primary teacher. The desire to travel and enter the international education sector, led him to move abroad and in his 20+ years teaching experience, he has taught in the UK, Africa, Thailand, China and now Malaysia. Prior to joining St Christopher’s, Martin was Deputy Head Master of Harrow International School, Beijing.
Martin is married to Lynsey, who is also a teacher and they have two daughters, Erica and Jenna.
Alexandra Backhouse
Deputy Principal / Head of Prep
Alex is from the UK. She has a BA in Applied Psychology from John Moores University in Liverpool then later trained to be a teacher, gaining a PGCE in Primary Education from the University of Leeds in 2004. She then stayed in Leeds and started her teaching career working as a class teacher and SEN coordinator for the children.
After teaching for 6 years in the UK she moved to Penang and started her international career at SCIPS working as a year 3 teacher and Assessment coordinator. She then moved to Nepal for a year before moving back to KL to get married and have two children.
She worked in KTJ for five years, starting as a Key Stage 2 coordinator and then becoming the Deputy Head. Her career then took her to Tbilisi Georgia to work as the Head of Primary and Vice Principal.
Alex is now going to be working as the Deputy Head and Head of Prep School at SCIPS and is very excited about this new chapter of her life. Outside of school Alex is passionate about trekking and being involved in family activities.
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Sarah Green
Head of Juniors
Sarah is from the United Kingdom. She has a BA in Contemporary Theatre Practice from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Scotland and then later trained to be a teacher, gaining a PGCE Primary Education from University of Paisley, Scotland in 2005. She remained in Scotland and started her teaching career as a Primary teacher.
However, the desire for adventure led her to be a volunteer teacher on a remote island in the Marshall Islands, where she lived and worked without any electricity or running water for a year. Sarah returned to Scotland to teach but her adventurous spirit then led her to Malaysia.
She loves life in Penang and has enjoyed working at SCIPS since she joined in 2011. In 2015, she got married to a Penangite and they have a son Elliott, who loves attending SCIPS. Sarah is passionate about using technology to help enhance education and was appointed as a Google Innovator, something she is very proud of. After being a teacher at SCIPS for 7 years, Sarah took on the challenge of being Head of Juniors, a role she thoroughly enjoys. Sarah is the school’s lead on our OPAL project and loves changing the nature of playtimes at SCIPS. She sees so much benefit and joy in our changing approach to play.
Justin Chamberlain
Head of Infants
Justin comes from Cambridge in England and has a BA in History with qualified teacher status. After three years teaching in the UK, Justin moved to Malaysia where he taught in Kuala Lumpur for four years and Kuantan for a further five. Before returning to Malaysia to join SCIPS he also taught in Nepal and China. Though he has taught all the way from pre-nursery to secondary his passion is for early years and most of his experience has been with younger children. Outside of school Justin is passionate about board games and roleplay games and also enjoys playing guitar and eating Malaysian food!
He is excited to join SCIPS and start a new chapter in Malaysia.
Leng Wai Fun
Finance Manager
Elissa Tan
Operations Manager
Kaiyethire Bupalan
Human Resource Manager
Kenneth Aeria
IT Manager