Our Trustees
Ciara Carroll - Chair
Image to follow...
Ciara has worked in education governance for more than a decade, supporting all phases through to university at the local level, as well as at Trust level. She has managed trust-level governance in multiple academy trusts, ranging from two schools to 43 and is currently Head of Governance at GLF Schools. Ciara is also a qualified DPO and has managed service provision of governance and data protection to multiple schools. She is an Associate of the Chartered Governance Institute, having completed their Qualifying Programme in September 2024. She is also a member of the Trust Governance Insight Programme and the Large MAT governance group, both national networks of governance professionals who develop and support education governance through their work with CST and the Department for Education.
In her former life, Ciara worked for JPMorgan for ten years in their Fund Accounting division across three countries.
Ciara is currently a parent governor at Harris Academy Sutton and is secretary for the Sutton Storm Basketball team.
Ciara said: "Following my change in career, I wanted to give something back to the community. I was fortunate to do so by supporting schools to provide the best education to all children through the support and challenge mechanism of the governing board and was able to build a career as an independent Governance Professional before moving to work within academy trusts. I volunteer as a governor myself to help me understand both sides of the role; this appointment as trustee to Everychild Partnership will allow me to support the Trust to develop its governance and also my own understanding of the trustee role.
I am so grateful to all those who volunteer their time in all schools, and it is a privilege to be able to join their ranks."
Peter Brooks - Chair of Education Committee
|
Peter has served as a Trustee since 2017, currently serving on the Education Committee. As a lifelong resident of East Grinstead, he is passionate about supporting the local community and ensuring an excellent education for all children through his involvement with the Trust Peter retired in 2019 after a 50 year career in manufacturing and general management – his last role being Managing Director of a speciality magnetics business in Crawley. He brings strategic and practical business insight to the Trust Board thanks to his extensive management experience. |
Claire Creed
After graduating from the University of Kent with a BA Hons degree in German and linguistics Claire worked for 14 years in a multi-lingual role within the road freight industry. In 2011 Claire took a career break into raise her young family and to support her parents. During this time, she became a governor at her children's primary school, where she soon became Chair, a post she held for 10 years.
Claire now works as an independent governance professional and is also a governance associate for Schools' Alliance for Excellence. Using her 18 years of governance experience, she also supports governance across the county, first as a Local Leader of Governance and now as a Specialist Advisory Governor and as an Investigations and Panel Governor for the Surrey Governance Support Programme.
Claire is delighted to be joining the Everychild Partnership Trust.
John Faulkes
John has been involved in school governance for 15+ years. He became Chair of Partners in Learning Trust from its beginnings in 2014 and was elected Chair of the new Everychild Partnership following the 2023 merger, serving for the next 3 years. John is principally interested in the future Vision and Strategy of the Trust, but also in developing leadership capability at all levels. John lives in East Grinstead with his family. He runs a training company mostly working with the Life Science sector – Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals.
Nathan Heslop - Chair of Finance, Audit & Risk Committee
Nathan is Chartered Accountant with over 20 years’ experience of working in senior finance & commercial roles across a broad range of sectors. Nathan’s interests lie in the oversight of the financial health of the Trust. He is committed to contributing to the shared future vision and strategic direction of the Trust. He is currently the CFO of a Specialist Land Based College Group which delivers further and higher education across the South of England. Nathan lives in Camberley with his family and is a FA Referee and a Football Club Director in his spare time.
Lisa Kent
Lisa worked for over 20 years in banking and management consulting in the City, focusing on large programme management and managing financials, IT, HR and Risk functions within the banks. Since then, she has focused on not for profit activities. These have included being Chair of Home Start Surrey, doing strategy work for UK wide charities, and chairing two other local charities focusing on young carers and education. She has also been very active in school governance for 15 years, chairing three different school/ Federation governing bodies. In addition, as part of the Surrey Local Leaders of Governance programme, Lisa has been a member of interim executive boards for schools in challenging positions, and has carried out and chaired investigations and complaints for many schools. She is also a Presiding Judge for the Surrey Family Magistrate Court.
Rachel Thorne
Rachel is the Headteacher of St. Mary’s Church of England Primary School in East Grinstead.
Rachel became a Headteacher in 2005. She has been a Head in four very different school settings and this has developed her passion for education. She is dedicated to ensuring the highest quality of learning for all children.
Rachel believes in ensuring children remain at the heart of decision-making for schools and that they experience an exciting, engaging and positive learning journey that inspires them for their future.
Rachel lives in West Sussex, she enjoys walking by the sea or in the countryside and spending time with her wider family.
Tracey Trotter
Tracey is a Coach, trained in NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), working with new and aspiring leaders who want to make changes to their lives, personally and professionally.
She has over 25 years’ experience as a Senior Leader in Education and so understand the workplace environment of the schools in all its guises (FE, academies, Free Schools and Independent Schools) and the challenges that are presented on a daily basis.
In addition to being a qualified accountant, she also has experience of structuring, developing and managing operations teams, HR, Estates & Facilities, IT, and other administrative teams.
Tracey also delivers change projects, supporting finance and senior leaders in SEN schools and colleges.