Board of Trustees

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Board of Trustees

The Trust Board is the decision making body for the Trust.  The Board are accountable and responsible for all the schools.  Academy Trustees are both the charity Trustees and Company Directors of the academy Trust.  The Trust Board meets regularly and has a range of different committees which meet throughout the year.

“This is a highly successful and skilled board who have the commitment and knowledge needed to ensure a truly successful Trust.  They are receptive to advice and support and are curious about how to continue to improve further”

“The Trust Board is holding the leadership of the Trust to account effectively.  They have a good range of expertise on the Board and are willing to question rigorously and effectively.  The reporting systems, as well as the partnerships groups and standards meetings in schools, mean that the Trustees have a good overview of the effectiveness in schools.”

“This is a highly effective Board whose Trustees and central team understand their roles and responsibilities, resulting in a highly successful organisation.  The structures and practice are scalable and will allow the Trust to grow whilst maintaining a high standard of governance.

External review of Governance by National Governance Association, May 2023

Rebecca Meredith CBE | Chief Executive

Chief Executive Transform Trust

Rebecca is an experienced proven Head, National Leader of Education (NLE) and CEO with over 15 years’ experience of providing the vision and leadership required to ensure high quality outstanding education for all children. Rebecca is an ambitious and imaginative leader constantly striving for improvement with success for the whole school community.

Rebecca arrived at Sneinton as Head in 2002 when the school was in Special Measures and took it on an improvement journey to Outstanding.  Building from this, Rebecca founded the Transform Teaching School with initially 10 member schools in Nottingham City, her aim to share and develop school to school support across like minded professionals. Transform Trust was then founded in 2013, based on the sharing principles of the Teaching School. Rebecca has a proven track record of successfully leading and managing people & resources to improve educational outcomes where the child is at the centre of the provision. It remains Rebecca’s commitment to deliver to the child an enriched broad based education as an enabler to achieving their full potential.

  • Date of Appointment: 01/01/15
  • Term of Office: Ongoing
  • Appointed by: Transform Trustees
  • Business & Pecuniary Interests: Paid to perform role of CEO by Transform Trust; Director of TT Support Services Limited, a subsidiary of Transform Trust.
  • Governance Roles in other Educational Institutions: Woodland View Primary School, Kinoulton Primary School and Brierley Forest Primary and Nursery School

Michael M Butler MInstLM | Chair of Trustees | De Facto Member

  • Date of Appointment: 01/09/2024
  • Term of Office: 4 Years
  • Appointed by: Members of Transform Trust
  • Business & Pecuniary Interests: Owner of Thompson Butler Associates; Trustee & Unit Management Team at TS Orion
  • Governance Roles in other Educational Institutions: None

Dennis Jones | Trustee

Dennis is a former Nottingham City Councillor and was previously a Lecturer in Further Education for 30 years before taking on the role of Examinations Officer at Oakwood Academy in 2003.

In 1983, Dennis became a School Governor and was appointed Chair of Governors at Parkdale Primary School from 2012 to 2019 and is now Chair of Governors at Highbank Primary School. He is also a GCSE and GCE Examination Inspector of the Joint Qualifications Council.

  • Date of Appointment: 01/09/24
  • Term of Office: 12 months
  • Appointed by: Chairs of Governors
  • Business & Pecuniary Interests: Director of TTSS (Transform Trust Support Services)
  • Governance Roles in other Educational Institutions: Chair of Governors Highbank Primary & Nursery School & Governor of LGB at Parkdale Primary School

Roger Periam | Trustee

Roger is Direct Diocesan appointee to Trustees and has extensive governance experience in education, having been Chair of governors at South Wilford (primary) and Chair of finance at Emmanuel (secondary). He also oversaw the building of Emmanuel school which was a £20m project.

Although he originally trained as a science teacher at The Institute of Education in London, Roger worked for multi-national corporations in the technology sector (Mitel, GEC, Plessey Telecom, Marconi and Ericsson) which included managing major financial budgets. Since retirement, Roger has also undertaken the role of Director of SNMAT (Diocesan MAT).

  • Date of Appointment: 01/01/2023
  • Term of Office: 4 Years
  • Appointed by: Members of Transform Trust
  • Business & Pecuniary Interests: Director of TT Support Services Limited, a subsidiary of Transform Trust.
  • Governance Roles in other Educational Institutions: Director of Diocese of Southwell & Nottingham MAT

Dame Susan Jowett | Trustee

Susan is a retired Chief Executive Officer and an education adviser.

Until retirement in August 2017, Susan was the CEO and Trustee of The Spencer Academies Trust, which was then a group of ten primary and secondary schools including the high-performing, outstanding George Spencer Academy.
As a system leader, Department of Education Adviser and National Leader of Education (NLE) she has provided advice to government education departments, regional local authorities and Trust Boards. She was the Chair of the Teaching Schools national network for science leaders and a Senior Partner of Challenge Partners focussing on effective collaboration for school improvement and international benchmarking. She has had a local, national and international impact on primary and secondary education, helping to turn around under-performing schools and supporting others on their school improvement journey. She worked with the Department for Education in Melbourne, Australia and Education Leaders in Kenya.

As a passionate advocate of teaching as a profession, she chaired the Boards of George Spencer’s centre for initial teacher training and the teaching schools alliance. Her commitment to continuous professional development, reflected in her master’s educational research, ensured the school became a license holder for leadership development programmes and she personally helped with the original design and implementation of the programmes.

Susan’s dedicated service to education over 41 years was recognised in January 2016 when she was awarded a Damehood, DBE.

  • Date of Appointment: 01/01/2023
  • Term of Office: 4 Years
  • Appointed by: Members of Transform Trust
  • Business & Pecuniary Interests: Director of Dorset Centre of Excellence which includes Orchard Special School
  • Governance Roles in other Educational Institutions: None

Gemma Savidge | Trustee

Gemma is an experienced Finance Director with over 20 years post-qualification experience in a range of sectors, including 14 years within the Higher Education Sector. Her current role is Finance Director of PPL PRS Ltd.

After completing a Doctorate in 2015, Gemma developed a keen interest in the impact of primary education on children’s long-term outcomes and social mobility.

Gemma lives in the city of Nottingham with her husband, two daughters and two dogs.

  • Date of Appointment: 14/10/20
  • Term of Office: 4 Years
  • Appointed by: Members of Transform Trust
  • Business & Pecuniary Interests: Company Secretary, Louvre Pro Ltd
  • Governance Roles in other Educational Institutions: None

Rukia Shaffi | Trustee

Rukia is the Head of Consultancy at the Confederation of School Trusts, working closely with executive leaders and trust boards to deliver bespoke services on all aspects of governance, including external reviews of governance. In addition to her experience working with multi-academy trusts, Rukia has worked as part of the senior management team in a charity providing support to some of Nottingham’s most vulnerable young people. 

Rukia’s first involvement with school governance was as a parent governor at Robert Shaw Primary and Nursery School, prior to the school joining Transform Trust. She became Chair of Governors in 2019 and is proud to have been part of the school’s ongoing improvement journey, which was recognised with a ‘Good’ Ofsted rating in November 2021. 

Throughout her career and voluntary roles, Rukia has remained passionate about education and believes that all children and young people are entitled to the best possible start in life through their experience at school. 

  • Date of Appointment: 14/2/22
  • Term of Office: 4 Years
  • Appointed by: Members of Transform Trust
  • Business & Pecuniary Interests: Head of Consultancy at the Confederation of Schools Trust
  • Governance Roles in other Educational Settings: None

Dr Catherine Gripton | Trustee

“Dr Catherine Gripton joined the University of Nottingham in August 2018 as an Assistant Professor in Primary Education.  She supervises MA and PhD students and teaches on primary teacher education courses within the School of Education.  She has worked in Higher Education since 2004 and gained professional recognition from Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy) as a Senior Fellow in 2011.

Before and alongside working in Higher Education, Catherine was a teacher in four primary schools in Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire.  She has been a class teacher for all year groups Nursery to Year 2 and became an Advanced Skills Teacher in May 2003 for early years and mathematics.

As well as being a member of ATM, BSRLM, EECERA, Early Education, AMET, MA and the Chartered College of Teaching, Catherine is a member of the Early Childhood Mathematics Group and joint MA/ATM primary and early years group.  Catherine has worked extensively in Trustee Induction Checklist/March 2022 v2 mathematics professional development, undertaking external consultancy for regional maths hubs, teaching schools, research schools NCETM, DfE and educational suppliers.Catherine’s expertise and interests include:

• early years practice and pedagogy
• early childhood mathematics
• primary mathematics
• children’s perspectives in education

Catherine’s doctoral research explored 5-7 year old children’s lived experiences of ‘ability’ in case study classrooms”

  • Date of Appointment: 16/9/22
  • Term of Office: 4 Years
  • Appointed by: Members of Transform Trust
  • Business & Pecuniary Interests: Education consultancy ″Catherine Gripton″
  • Governance Roles in other Educational Institutions: None

Mark Coppel | Trustee

Mark is a National Leader of Governance and delivers external reviews and support for schools and academy trusts through the National Leaders for Governance programme, on behalf of the NGA.

Mark is also an NGA consultant and delivers sessions for NGA Training and Consultancy and facilitated on the NGA Leading Governance development programmes for chairs, clerks and boards. He has delivered the clerk’s development programme for several teaching schools.

Mark’s background is in technology management, and he has taught at Sheffield University Management School, including on the MBA, as well as working as an independent consultant.  Under the Labour government’s flagship creativity and culture programme for education, he facilitated and evaluated creative partnerships projects.

Mark has been working in education since 2006 as a consultant and trainer, working with local authorities, multi academy trusts and a teaching school alliance.

Mark’s governance experience includes chairing multiple schools including interim executive boards – taking schools from special measures to good, being a trustee and member of a MAT, being the member of several transition boards, and chairing a special school’s governing board.

  • Date of Appointment: 09/10/2023
  • Term of Office: 4 Years
  • Appointed by: Members of Transform Trust
  • Business & Pecuniary Interests: Governance Trainer and Consultant for National Governance Association.
  • Governance Roles in other Educational Institutions: None

Maddi Popoola | Trustee

  • Date of Appointment: 18/09/2024
  • Term of Office: 4 Years
  • Appointed by: Members of Transform Trust
  • Business & Pecuniary Interests: Mental Health Support Team Service Manager – Nottingham City Council
  • Governance Roles in other Educational Institutions: None

Trust Board – Governance Professionals

Trust Board

  • Steve Cox - Chief Finance Officer: Business and Pecuniary Interests: Director of TTSS Limited. Other Roles: Governor at Ashbrook Junior School. Ensures the Board is compliant with the appropriate legal and regulatory frameworks (ESFA, Companies House and Charity Commission).
  • Ruth Palmer - Governance Professional: prepares the minutes for Trust Board Meetings and provides administrative support to all Trust Board Committees including preparation of Committee minutes.