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Penrose Learning Trust

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Members & Trustees

Members

  • 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.

  • Flavio Vettese

    Flavio Vettese

    Flavio has a wealth of over 30 years educational experience. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer for a Multi Academy Trust, a post he has held for over four years. Prior to this he served as Deputy Director of Education for a Catholic Diocese and has been a Senior Educational Strategy Adviser within a local authority as well as senior leader posts in various educational settings.

  • Geoff Potter

    Geoff Potter

    Geoff was in the first cohort to take national examinations at East Bergholt School . He then had a forty two year teaching career in East Anglia culminating in the post of Assistant Headteacher at Claydon High School. Geoff’s specialist subject was Physics and his main area of responsibility was Pastoral Care. His children and one of his grandchildren attended East Bergholt High School . In his retirement Geoff is now a Deputy Church Warden at East Bergholt Parish Church and also a voluntary Community / School bus driver.

  • Caroline Derbyshire

    Caroline Derbyshire

    Caroline is the CEO of Saffron Academy Trust (SAT), which comprises 9 schools (primary and secondary, and one all through school) in the Uttlesford and Braintree areas of Essex. All of these schools are graded Outstanding or Good by Ofsted. The Trust also runs Saffron Teaching School Hub.

    Previously, she was Headteacher of Linton Village College at a time when it received two consecutive ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted gradings and where she set up a Teaching School Alliance, a small MAT and became accredited as a National Leader of Education.

    Caroline was an elected member of the East of England Headteacher Board, is a Fellow of The Chartered College of Teaching and has co-authored a chapter on Flexible Working in the WomenEd book ‘10% Braver’. Caroline wrote a chapter in Tom Sherrington’s “The Learning Rainforest Fieldbook”. She chaired the national group, Headteachers’ Roundtable, until September 2024.

 

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

  • Sarah Dignasse
    Chair

    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.

  • Angela Gage

    Angela Gage

    Angela has been a governor since around 2011 and a Chair of Governors since 2015, has supported other governing bodies and mentored new chairs. She enjoys talking to pupils and staff and seeing how schools grow, develop and change over time. Her background is in Human Resource Management.

    She is also a trustee of another charity, Got to Read, based in Ipswich which helps adults to become confident readers.

    Angela is a newly a grandmother and is looking forward to some "Grand" adventures in the next few years.

Governance Documents

Funding Agreements

Previous Years

 

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