Governance
Listed below are the various boards and bodies that set strategies and scrutinise delivery at trust and individual school level.
Further details of the trust’s structure and how it operates can be found in the trust constitution HERE.
Members of the Trust
Tim Wainwright
Tim Wainwright became Chief Executive of WaterAid UK in May 2017. Before joining WaterAid, Tim spent six years as Chief Executive of ADD (Action on Disability and Development) International. Tim also served as the chair of Bond, the consortium of UK international development agencies, for three years. He spent two years as director of the English regions for the Equality and Human Rights Commission in the UK, and before that held a range of senior roles with Oxfam and VSO in the UK, Beijing and Bangkok. Tim completed a degree in maths at Cambridge and a master’s degree at Lancaster.
Jeremy Long
Jeremy is a qualified chartered accountant, who has had a management career in a range of sectors, and with a long-standing interest in skills, training, and education. Jeremy is former chair of the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP), and is co-chair of the Oxfordshire Inclusive Economy Partnership (OIEP) – an initiative aimed at bringing together businesses, education institutions, the voluntary sector, and the Oxfordshire local authorities, to tackle some of the issues of inequality in the County. Jeremy has several non-executive director business roles, including for National Grid Electricity Transmission, and is an investor in a local energy efficiency installation company Energy My Way.
Diocesan Board of Education
RLT is a mixed multi-academy trust with both community and Church of England schools. The Diocesan Board of Education acts as a member of the trust in a corporate capacity through the diocesan director of education or otherwise as it shall direct. Further details about the Diocesan Board of Education can be found HERE.
Paul Whitehouse
Paul Whitehouse is an IT professional with over 20 years’ experience in data management and financial systems. He spent a number of years implementing and supporting financial systems in the UK and New Zealand. More recently he has been focused on data architecture and governance for a large multi-national business. He was chair of governors at Madley Brook Primary School.
Kirsten Robinson
Up until October 2023 Kirsten was RLT’s Chair of Trustees. She is a qualified CIPFA accountant with over 20 years of experience and is a member of the Institute of Management. She is currently the Director of Finance Operations at the University of Oxford and has had a career in national audit and local government finance, procurement, performance management and governance, university finance, management and governance. She has experience of chairing governing bodies at both primary and secondary schools, and of being a non-executive board member on a housing association board, a small charity trustee and company secretary.
Board of Trustees
Jeremy Long - Chair of Trustees
Jeremy is a qualified chartered accountant, who has had a management career in a range of sectors, and with a long-standing interest in skills, training, and education. Jeremy is former chair of the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP), and is co-chair of the Oxfordshire Inclusive Economy Partnership (OIEP) – an initiative aimed at bringing together businesses, education institutions, the voluntary sector, and the Oxfordshire local authorities, to tackle some of the issues of inequality in the County. Jeremy has several non-executive director business roles, including for National Grid Electricity Transmission, and is an investor in a local energy efficiency installation company Energy My Way.
Ruth Bennie
Ruth is a school link adviser with Oxford Diocesan Board of Education and has worked in schools for 30 years. She taught in a variety of schools in Northampton, Tower Hamlets, Leicester, Wokingham and Oxfordshire before taking up headship of a primary school in Oxfordshire. Ruth has continued to enjoy learning, completing an MSc in educational leadership in 2006 and she is currently studying for a professional doctorate in education.
Professor Deborah Eyre
Prof Eyre is a global education leader, researcher, writer and influencer. Her career has included a variety of senior education roles in the UK and globally as well as advising governments and educational foundations in the UK, Hong Kong, South Africa, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, USA and Singapore. She was global education director at Nord Anglia Education (2010-2014) and prior to that served as director of the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (NAGTY), based at the University of Warwick.
Dr Felix Leach
Felix is an associate professor of engineering science at the University of Oxford and tutorial fellow of Keble College. His day job involves teaching and researching engineering, specifically emissions from combustion and air quality. He is a chartered engineer and fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Felix is a member of the Oxford Diocesan Board of Education where he serves on the finance committee. In his spare time Felix has a passion for music, not only singing himself, but also delivering music education courses with the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain.
Julie McCulloch
Since 2018 Julie has been Head of Policy at the Association of School and College Leaders where previously she was Primary and Governance Specialist. She was also a board member of the Cambridge Primary Review Trust. Earlier in her career she worked for the education company Pearson, initially publishing teaching and learning resources for primary schools, and more recently leading their work on UK policy.
Mary Curnock Cook CBE
Mary is an independent education expert serving in a non-executive capacity on a number of Boards. From 2010-2017, Mary was Chief Executive of UCAS. Earlier in her career she held executive and non-executive positions in the education, hospitality, food and biotech sectors. As a NED with Pearson Education, Mary chairs its Qualifications Committee and also chairs the governing body of the Dyson Institute. She is a non-exec Director at the Student Loans Company, the London Interdisciplinary School, the Student Room and Education Cubed, and a Trustee at the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI). She has the role of Network Chair for Emerge Education, the leading edtech investor in Europe. In 2021, Mary took on the Chair of the UPP Foundation Student Futures Commission, set up to ensure successful student futures following the pandemic. She is a regular speaker and commentator on HE policy and practice and a recognised champion of the student interest. Mary has an MSc from London Business School and was awarded an OBE in 2000, and a CBE in 2020 for services to further and higher education. She is an honorary Fellow of Birkbeck and Goldsmiths and has an honorary doctorate from the University of Gloucestershire.
Paul James
Paul James is a qualified teacher with over 25 years of experience in schools, including in senior leadership roles in a range of secondary education settings, and as a primary school governor and IEB member. Until 2016 he was headteacher of an Outstanding-rated Oxfordshire comprehensive school of more 1,900 students, which is a National Teaching School Hub.
The RT Rev Colin Fletcher
For 20 years prior to his retirement, Colin was the Bishop of Dorchester, having responsibility, under the Bishop of Oxford, for the Church of England parishes across Oxfordshire, with the exception of Oxford itself. Prior to that he was the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Chaplain, Vicar of Holy Trinity, Margate, a tutor and curate in Oxford and a curate in Bradford. He has also been a governor of a ‘first wave’ secondary academy (the North Oxford Academy in Banbury) and, more recently, a trustee of the Oxford Diocesan Schools Trust.
Cathy Burleigh
Cathy is a qualified accountant and has worked in higher education for the past two decades. She is currently the CFO of Oxford Brookes University, where she has been since 2015. She brings skills and experience in the areas of finance, estates, audit and procurement in the education sector. Cathy has a deep and valuable understanding of how boards and governance function effectively in large education sector organisations.
Donna Husband
Donna is a senior public health professional with more than 25 years’ experience in the promotion of health and wellbeing in Oxfordshire. For the past decade she has headed up Oxfordshire County Council's Start Well programme, providing strategic leadership around public health initiatives for children and young people. She is public health lead for safeguarding on Oxfordshire’s Child Death Overview Panel and Oxfordshire Children Safeguarding Board, as well as being chair of Oxfordshire’s Multi-Agency Suicide Prevention Group. During the pandemic, Donna delivered the local government public health response supporting education settings.
Margaret Stevens
Margaret has recently retired as a professor of economics at the University of Oxford where she had been employed for three decades. She is now an emeritus professor in the Department of Economics, participating in research and occasional consultancy. She recently became a trustee of the Oxfordshire children’s reading charity ARCh. Between 2013 and 2023 she was a governor at Wolvercote Primary School and was chair of governors in 2015 when the school joined RLT. She brings to the board expertise in strategic management, finance and education.
Local Governing Bodies
Each school within the trust has their own local governing body (LGB). The core functions of each LGB are as follows:
- Setting the school’s vision, ethos and strategic direction within the principles of the Trust
- Maintaining the effective operation and membership of the LGB
- Overseeing the educational performance of the school: overseeing the financial performance of the school
- Ensuring pupil wellbeing including safeguarding, school safety and security
- Appointment of the headteacher and carrying out their annual performance appraisal
You can find out details of individual school LGBs on the relevant school websites. These can be accessed by VISITING THE SCHOOLS PAGE.
Governor Board
This board provides a forum at which governors can identify and share best governance practice and receive training support. Governors also give feedback to the Trust Board regarding any concerns and issues they may have and provide challenge to the executive team.
Its membership is governors from each school, often (but not always) the chair of governors, the chair of the trust and members of the central team.
Education Board
The members of the education board are the headteachers of each school and the trust's central education team.
This board has responsibility for:
- Driving improvement in achievement, attainment and performance of every school
- Identifying and sharing excellent pedagogy and teaching practice
- Identifying and sharing curriculum developments that will enhance educational opportunities and performance for children in the trust
- Creating opportunities for staff development to improve performance, achieve CPLD and maximise the retention of excellent teachers
- Conducting the educational aspects of due diligence for schools seeking to join the trust and for schools that the trust may sponsor