Trust Leadership Team

Sheila brings a wealth of valuable experience in education, both in school leadership and governance. Sheila is an ex Headteacher, has worked as an adviser to primary schools and until recently was inspecting international schools. Sheila understands the leadership and governance challenges facing schools in all age phases, and brings her support and challenge into our schools, alongside her commitment to doing what is best for young people.

Matthew is an experienced Headteacher and EHT and is committed to helping develop great leaders. He has an MA in Leadership and is an ILM Level 7 qualified Leadership Coach. Matthew has developed a strong understanding of the challenges facing primary school leaders through his role on the Kent Headteachers’ Association Executive Board, and through coaching a number of primary school Headteachers and Executive leaders in recent years. Matthew served as Governor for a local NHS Trust for over 4 years, and brings this experience to supporting governance across the Trust. He is based in our schools and comes as a pair with our school dog Buddy.

Nigel leads the finance function across our schools. Before joining our team in 2020, Nigel was working as an Accountant in the commercial sector. Nigel is committed to ensuring our students benefit from great facilities and the best staff. He has helped us to achieve that whilst maintaining healthy reserves year on year. Our Trust is in a strong financial position. Nigel has great experience in contract management and achieving savings. He also overseas our internal payroll services, which save us money and time. Nigel is not removed from the life of our schools. Nigel brings a hands on approach to problem solving and is the Chair of his Local Parish Council.

Ben brings great HR experience from the private sector to our Trust and holds the CIPD Level 5 qualification. He leads recruitment for our schools and can give the time required to give us the best selection of candidates for our vacancies. He is passionate about our staff feeing they have great working conditions and takes real care to ensure new staff feel welcome and have the information they need to make a good start. He also leads our work on staff wellbeing as we strive to be the best employer we can be.

Mike has been the HT of Wrotham since 2016. His high expectations have ensured that Wrotham has remained one of the top performing non-selective schools for many years. He is passionate about innovative approaches to education leadership and has developed a creative portfolio of successful approaches to school improvement. Mike brings a wealth of safeguarding experience to our team and has been instrumental in creating a culture of inclusion and respect at Wrotham where students know they can be themselves and thrive. In our last inspection, Leadership and Management at Wrotham was judged to be ‘Outstanding’.

Tanya has been the HT of Aylesford since 2017 and was previously the DHT at Wrotham. Tanya has an unwavering drive to see schools thrive and has led the impressive school improvement journey at Aylesford School over the last five years. When we started supporting the school, all areas were in trouble. The school is now oversubscribed, and this year saw the students at Aylesford achieve the school’s best ever results. Aylesford was judged as ‘Good’ in all areas in its last inspection. Tanya brings great experience of raising standards quickly and of engaging the community to work with and support the school.