Board of Trustees

Chair, Trustee

Sue is a former headteacher who is now Chief Executive of SSAT (The Schools Network), a national organisation which works with schools to improve performance through the development of staff and students. She has written widely on education, including pamphlets on personalising learning and redesigning schooling.  Sue is also the Chair of Melbourn Village College Governing Body.

Trustee - Chair of the Community and Partnerships Committee

Sebastian comes from a business background, having set up and run successful companies based in the market intelligence sector in the UK, USA and Australia; initially while he was completing a Law degree at Anglia Ruskin University. Based at East Hatley, he has been active in the South Cambridgeshire area in a wide range of roles as an elected member of Cambridgeshire County Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council and as a Parliamentary candidate. He has been a school Governor and is currently a Trustee of a local Almshouse charity. 

Trustee - Chair of Finance and Resources Committee 

Simon is a Director of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC), in the Deals practice.  He is also a community governor and the Chair of Finance, Planning and Personnel Committee at Cambourne Village College. He has a BA (Hons) in Business Administration from the Athens University of Economics and Business, and a MSc in Finance from Lancaster University.  He is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment and a Fellow of the Institute of Consulting. Simon is a classically trained pianist and a private pilot.

Trustee

Rita Monson has lived in the Cambridge region since 2004, and is originally from New Brunswick in Canada. She attended University at MIT in Boston before settling in the UK. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from MIT and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge. Rita is currently a research scientist at the University, studying the interactions bacteria have with each other and their response to the environment. She has been a fellow of Churchill College since 2007 and was heavily involved in admissions, teaching, academic support and more recently as Dean of the College. She is passionate about finding ways to increase access to Higher Education, a process that begins early in education.

Trustee

Jacob is studying for a Master’s Degree in Engineering at the Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge. In the earlier years of his studies, he was a Trustee of the Jesus College, Cambridge, charity, a role he was appointed to after being elected as the Student Union President. Coming from a comprehensive background himself, Jacob is passionate about ensuring an excellent education for all. He enjoys rowing and music production in his spare time.

Trustee

Canon Andrew is Director of Education, Ministry and Mission for the Diocese of Ely, with oversight of 85 diocesan church schools and academies, including three multi academy trusts.  He has 12 years' previous experience of leading Ofsted inspections, and is a trustee of a number of local and national educational charities.

Trustee - Chair of the West Village Partnership

A former teacher, headteacher and local authority adviser, Liz has taught at all ages from 3-11 and has worked with schools needing rapid improvment; supporting and challenging teachers, heads and governors to bring about necessary change. She worked closely with council officers and elected members as well as Ofsted and the Department for Education (DfE) as part of a consultative group, while leading advisers responsible for Early Years in Hertfordshire.

Now retired and living in Offord, where her grandchildren attend the local primary school of which she became Chair of Governors in 2019 as the school joined The Cam Academy Trust. In September 2022 Offord Primary School joined a partnership of schools within the Cam Academy Trust and Liz became the Chair of the West Village Partnership single Local Governing Body. She joined the Trust Board as a trustee in Autumn 2023. 

Trustee - Co-chair of Curriculum and Standards Committee 

Nicola has worked as a teacher and teacher educator for over 20 years.  She originally gained a PhD and taught and worked as Head of Geography in three secondary schools in the UK, including Comberton Village College, before going on to teach and eventually lead the geography PGCE course at Cambridge University.  She has since held a number of leadership positions, including head of the School of Education and Social Care at  Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, and head of the Department of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessent at UCL Institute of Education (IOE).  She is now Pro-Director of Education at the IOE, through which she has strategic oversight of its broad portfolio of programmes, including teacher education.  She is also co-founder and Executive Direcor of the UCL Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education.

Trustee

David Thomas is the CEO of Axiom Maths. He has been a maths teacher, a secondary school headteacher, and a government advisor. He co-founded Oak National Academy to support schools during the Covid-19 pandemic, and received an OBE for services to education in 2020.

Trustee

Katharine Carruthers is an experienced teacher, teacher-educator and examiner. She has degrees in Chinese and in International Relations and Politics. She is the Director of the Centre for Chinese Language Education at the Institute of Education (IOE), UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society. This role includes leading on IOE’s delivery of the UK Department for Education’s Mandarin Excellence Programme. Katharine is the series editor of the textbooks for teaching Chinese for 11-16 year olds in England. She teaches on the IOE’s Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) Languages course and on the MA in Intercultural Communication. She works with and visits regularly a large network of schools across England.

Katharine Carruthers has lived in the area since 1988, first in Saffron Walden and then in Cambridge since 2013. She has been a governor at Melbourn Village College since 2015.

Member

Chair of Comberton Village College's governing body, Janet has been a governor at the school for the past 20 years and has seen her children and grandchildren attend the college. Janet is also a Trustee of the Friars Trust, which was set up to benefit students and the older community in her home village, where she also assists her husband and eldest son in running the family farm.

Member

John retired after 12 years as Head Teacher of Saffron Walden County High School in 2015.  Prior to joining SWCHS John was Head Teacher of Notley High School in Braintree. Since 2011 he had also been Chief Executive of the Saffron Academy Trust.

John was designated a National Leader of Education in 2011 and has led and coordinated improvement programmes to raise standards in several schools facing challenging circumstances. He now works as an independent education consultant and leadership coach. 

Member

George is a former teacher at The Perse School, Cambridge, and was a Governor there as well as at Impington Village College. He is an experienced business entrepreneur who co-founded and is a Director at Anspear, (formerly Pearson Publishing). He is currently a member of the Management Board of Cambridgeshire’s Virtual School for Looked After Children.

Member

Colin was Principal of Hills Road Sixth Form College from 1984-2002 and was Vice-Chair and Senior Independent Director of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust from 2002-2010. He is currently a governor of Comberton Village College and Long Road Sixth Form College. He is also Past President of the Johnian Society at St John's College, Cambridge, an Honorary Senior Member of Wolfson College, Cambridge, and an Honorary Fellow of Anglia Ruskin University.