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Penrose Learning Trust

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Members & Trustees

Members

  • Stephen Carr

    Stephen Carr

    Stephen is a specialist in information assurance/security and corporate compliance. He has held senior positions in Local Government and the private sector and chaired industry wide information assurance/security working parties and presented conference papers. Stephen is a graduate of the Open University, a Fellow of the British Computer Society. a Chartered IT Professional and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He is a former student of East Bergholt School and his children and grandchildren have attended the Claydon Schools.

  • Martin Redbond

    Martin Redbond

    Martin held various roles for a Swiss company before moving to a private agricultural supply company where he was Sales & Marketing Director. He still has an involvement in the agricultural industry as editor/ owner of a subscr1ption-based business newsletter. Martin has served as a Mid Suffolk District Councillor. During this time, he chaired the Scrutiny Committee and was vice chair of the Suffolk Local Agreement Joint Scrutiny Panel. He was also a Trustee of Suffolk Acre. He was a Governor at Claydon High School for 12 years where he led Health & Safety. Martin is currently a Parish Councillor and founder/chairman of a Senior Citizens' Club.

  • Ian Rossiter

    Ian Rossiter

    Ian lived and worked for fifty years in Sub-Saharan Africa (Zambia, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Lesotho, Botswana) as a World Bank and European Union finance adviser in policy development, project preparation, budget formulation, institutional capacity building, monitoring and evaluation. Now retired, Ian lives in Capel St Mary.

  • Nick Wellington

    Nick Wellington

    Nick is a trusted advisor, mentor and leadership coach who provides a confidential, authentic and unique perspective informed by his personal and professional experiences.

    Having begun his career in the Civil Service, leading to him becoming Private Secretary to a Cabinet Minister, Nick moved into the Private sector where he has led a number successful and diverse teams in the Finance and technology sectors. Nick has a strong passion for helping to ensure talented colleagues are recognised and have access and pathways to senior leadership within organisations.

    Much of his work now is collaborating with senior leaders who are looking to attract and retain diverse talent to build a values based and inclusive offer to colleagues which will help them succeed in the post pandemic era.


    In his spare time, Nick also acts as a Governance Support partner for Suffolk County Council.

  • Rosanne Wijnberg

    Rosanne Wijnberg

    Senior manager with skills and abilities gained through extensive experience in a number of leadership and management roles. Experience of successful partnership development, inside the organisation and with external customer and suppliers. Recognised achievements in leading innovative transformation programmes and solutions, in business and public sector

 

Trustees

  • Sarah Skinner
    CEO

    Sarah Skinner

    Sarah has been in education for 30 years. She started as a PE teacher in Thurrock, moved to Southend as Head of PE and then took up her first Senior Leadership post back in Thurrock. Further promotion saw Sarah take up a Deputy Head role at Farlingaye High School in 2002 and then Headship at Claydon High School in 2009. Sarah sits on the Ofsted Headteacher reference group and was a governor on the Virtual School Board during lockdown. Sarah has supported governance by sitting on a local IEB. In 2018 Sarah was appointed as the CEO of South Suffolk Learning Trust

  • David Smyth
    Chair

    David Smyth

    David has been involved in School Governance for 12 years, initially at Hadleigh Community Primary School and latterly at Hadleigh High School.

    He first became a Governor for selfish reasons as he didn't grow up in the UK and when his children started school he decided that the best way to learn about the UK Education System was from the inside.

    Along the way he learned so much from both schools and believes he made a difference in both by bringing a business sensibility to the role.

    He has a 'whole child' philosophy when it comes to education, the belief that a child must be seen as more than a set of data and that school must give all children opportunities to shine regardless of their academic ability.

    He passionately believes that education can make a positive difference to a young person and sees it as the route to keeping as many 'open doors' as possible for their life choices.

  • Sarah Dignasse

    Sarah Dignasse

    Sarah is a former Essex secondary Headteacher who remains involved in educational improvement initiatives through her on-going work with schools. She has extensive experience of curriculum development, aiming to ensure that that the educational needs of all young people are met. Sarah has served as an Interim Executive Board member with schools facing challenging circumstances, is chair of the management committee of an Adolescent Psychiatric Unit and has experience as a Governor and Trustee. Sarah also chairs Families InFocus, a local charity which supports families who have a child with Special Education Needs or Disabilities.

  • Claire Lincoln-White
    Vice chair

    Claire Lincoln-White

    Claire joined the SSLT as a Trustee in 2020. She brings a wealth of experience in financial services, where she founded and leads her own consulting company. With over 20 years' experience, Claire is a recognised expert in non-financial risk in her industry. She has significant experience in financial and risk management, both within her own companies and through working with global, regulated financial services organisations. Claire is passionate about developing young talent and believes education has an essential role to play in supporting young people to achieve their potential.

  • John Edgar
    Safeguarding Trustee

    John Edgar

    John Edgar MEd (Cantab), NPQH, PQSI

    John is an experienced educational professional. He is currently the Safeguarding Trustee for a local Multi Academy Trust, a National History Mark Assessor for the Historical Association, and freelance educational consultant.

    John qualified as a history teacher in 1985 teaching first in Gloucestershire, then in schools in Kent and Essex, where he was Humanities Coordinator and Head of History. He was the Associate Tutor for History NQT induction in Essex and seconded to support schools in category in neighbouring Local Authorities.

    John has extensive leadership and advisory experience within schools and Local Authorities. He served as an Ofsted Inspector, and qualified as a Lead Inspector. Most recently he has served as a Headteacher Virtual School and Service Manager for Educational Welfare Services (Inclusion).

    John has mentored trainee history teachers since 1994. In 2014 he was asked to develop the Billericay SCITT History PGCE and continues as its Lead Subject Mentor.

  • Gary Dutch

    Gary Dutch

    Gary joined the SSLT as a Trustee in 2021, having enjoyed a long career working within Global Financial Markets. For the most part Gary worked within Risk and Audit roles, as well as time spent as a Consultant, and is now keen to leverage his experience in different ways.


    Gary is passionate about leading and developing individuals and is focused on helping them maximise their potential and enjoy balanced all round growth.

    Living in Ardleigh, married to Sarah with two sons, 20 and 17, he has always been an active parent helping them through the education system, as well as providing a reasonable taxi service!

    Gary is a keen sportsman / fan and is a Chelsea Season Ticket holder!

  • Clare Barnett

    Clare Barnett

    Clare is an advocate for the transformational power of education. She currently works in higher education as a corporate governance professional and is studying part-time for a Master's degree in Business Administration. Clare also brings knowledge and experience in the areas of: project governance and management; policy, strategy and performance; process design and review; leadership and management; and customer service.

  • Peter Draper

    Peter Draper

    Peter recently retired after 25 years in the financial services sector where he held a number of differing leadership roles across technology (systems development to support and risk management). Most of the firms had global offices and he was involved in creating and developing successful global teams. These opportunities gave Peter real insight to different cultures and working practices.

    Personal interests and hobbies are varied and include travelling, local history, watching sport especially football and rugby, keeping chickens and walking as many of the local footpaths in his area as he can with his two golden retrievers.

  • Inno Van Den Berg

    Inno Van Den Berg

    I had a daughter in the school and wanted to offer my help in the most practical way I can. I have had experience of being involved in independent schools in Ireland and in France and have had some experience, especially in finance, in identifying and then helping to solve problems. I am keen to both support but also question the school's executive team to continue to foster the ethos and educational environment my daughter benefited from during her time at Claydon High School.

  • Shirley Young

    Shirley Young

    Shirley has worked for 25 years across all sectors of education, particularly in schools in challenging circumstances. She has extensive experience in the strategic development of inclusion programmes and pastoral care within schools; whole school behaviour management, Safeguarding, Attendance, Whole School Improvement and reporting to Governing bodies, trusts and inspection teams. As part of her consultancy work, she completes assessments for the Inclusion Quality Mark Award and carries out safeguarding reviews, behaviour audits and leadership and management mentoring for leaders working across Inclusion. Shirley has been an active governor for over 15 years. This has included the roles of Chair of Governors for a small primary school and Chair of a Federation for a group of 3 small primary schools.

Governance Documents

Funding Agreements

Previous Years

 

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