Central Leadership Team

Jonathan began his teaching career in North London in 1991, having graduated from the University of Surrey where he studied History and English, followed by teacher training in Sussex. In 1998 he moved to a secondary school in Stevenage where he became Head of History and then, simultaneously with this post, Head of Year and PSHE / Citizenship Co-ordinator. From here, Jonathan took up the post of Assistant Headteacher, then Deputy Headteacher at Sawston Village College in Cambridgeshire before becoming Principal of the school in 2010. In 2018, Jonathan became the Chief Executive Officer of Anglian Learning.

Jonathan is Chair of the Cambs CEO Forum (CCF); is a member of the Norfolk and Suffolk CEO network and is also a strategic board member of the local SCITT and Teaching School Hub. He supports the DfE in the delivery of the Trust and School Improvement Offer and has until recently been Chair of Cambridgeshire Schools Forum. In 2024, Jonathan graduated with an MBA in Educational Leadership (International) from UCL, specialising in the challenges and opportunities facing academy trusts as they grow and develop and the leadership qualities required to lead these complex organisations.

Jonathan is passionate about the mission of Anglian Learning which is to ensure the best possible educational outcomes and experiences for all pupils, for their families and their communities through self-sustaining, innovative and outward facing schools, while working to improve the wider educational system.

Duncan studied Biology at the University of Leeds which led to his first teaching position in a large comprehensive school in London, eventually becoming Lead Teacher for Science across the London Borough of Hillingdon.

Alongside his role of Deputy CEO, Duncan was the previous Principal of Bassingbourn Village College, appointed in 2013 until August 2019. Duncan is proud of the strong positive ethos that has developed at Bassingbourn, where all students are known as individuals and where each student enjoys an education that focuses on their own individual skills, strengths and aptitudes. He believes that education is most successful when the College, the students and their parents and carers form a strong partnership.

Prior to this, Duncan was Deputy Principal of a small multi-academy trust where he was responsible for the leadership of the Curriculum, Outcomes and Quality Assurance across Primary, Secondary and Post 16 learning phases. Both of these roles have been clearly focused upon improving standards. Additionally, Duncan has been a practicing Ofsted Inspector. This has greatly supported his school-to-school support work. He is also a Parent Governor for a primary school in Suffolk.

Sarah worked for three years as PA to the Principal at Sawston Village College before joining the central team of Anglian Learning as PA to the Executive Trust Leadership Team in 2018. Sarah’s role expanded to include Trust Marketing Manager in July 2019.

Sarah manages the central business support team who provide administrative support for the central leadership team and marketing and communications for Anglian Learning. Sarah is keen to regularly promote the achievements of our staff within Anglian Learning and that of our academies and feels privileged to be part of such a motivated team.

Prior to this, Sarah worked for Cambridge University Press for 22 years, progressing through to assistant management within the customer services department. Transferring to the IT department, Sarah was a User Acceptance Testing Manager for 6 years.

Kerrie worked as a clerk for a number of Governing Bodies as an employee of CamClerks, the Local Authority traded service. This included Bottisham Village College where she began working in 2004 and subsequently The Netherhall School. When Anglian Learning was formed, she went on to provide clerking services for the Trust Board and its committees and in 2021 took up her current role as Head of Governance, Compliance and Risk.  Kerrie is responsible for ensuring that governance across our Trust adheres to good practice and meets all statutory and regulatory requirements. She also leads on areas of compliance such as Data Protection.

Kerrie hasn’t always worked in Governance and in fact began her career as a research scientist having studied Biochemistry at Sheffield University and subsequently graduating from Leeds University with a PhD in Molecular Biology. She worked in academic research in Leeds, New Zealand and Kent for a number of years before taking a career break to raise her children.

Kerrie has two grown up children and in her spare time enjoys adventurous travel, time with family and friends and tending to her many pets.

Growing up in Cardiff, Richard went on to study a Computing degree at what is now Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, graduating in 2004. Prior to this, whilst studying for his A-Levels, Richard delivered holiday workshops to young people as part of the Cardiff Youth Service, teaching skills such as website design, animation and t-shirt printing. Richard has a passion for serving young people and now focuses on doing this through the provision of technology.

As Director of ICT, Richard leads the Anglian Learning Technical Services Team in running an enterprise network of around 5000 devices across 16 sites and supporting 8500 pupils and 1200 colleagues. The team aims to provide the very best affordable experience of using ICT safely and securely, to all members of the community.

Richard has collaborated widely across Cambridgeshire schools on projects ranging from coordinating buying consortia to designing and supporting data systems for colleagues, pupils and parents. Richard is active within the national EdTech community and regularly attends and contributes to conferences across the country.

Richard is member of the British Computing Society and is a trustee of his local Village Hall. In his spare time, Richard enjoys choral singing at a professional level, photography, cookery and spending time with his wife, two children and wider group of family and friends.

Camilla graduated from Homerton College, Cambridge University with a BEd (Hons) in History and Primary Education in 1996.

Prior to Joining Anglian Learning in 2021, Camilla worked at Bottisham Village College for 10 years, holding roles that included Teaching Assistant, Class Teacher, SENCo, DSL and Assistant Principal.

Camilla has always been interested in Inclusion, and has worked in this field for the majority of her career. She is a qualified Nurture Practitioner, a Specialist Teacher for Specific Learning Difficulties, an Access Arrangement assessor and she holds the NASENCo award.

Camilla is equally passionate about safeguarding and the promotion of positive mental health and wellbeing in schools and has previously worked as a SEMH advisor for the East Cambridgeshire Opportunity Area. She currently represents the Education Sector on several different forums and steering groups working with the NHS, Public Health England and the National Childrens Bureau to champion the needs of vulnerable pupils. She feels privileged to be a trustee for an Alternative Provision multi-academy trust in London.

Outside of work, Camilla enjoys nothing more than spending time at home or travelling with her husband and their 5 sons.

James Woodcock studied History at Durham, graduating in 1998, before spending 5 years studying and practising law in York and Leeds. James then moved to Cambridge to teach History. James’ career has primarily focused upon teaching and learning and professional learning, including subject leadership, trainee and early career teacher development, teaching and learning policy and practice, whole school professional learning, and middle and senior leader development. James also has been a pastoral leader and has extensive experience in primary transition.

James is particularly interested in the professional development of colleagues and in the cultures and structures that empower teachers and leaders, enable sustained professional growth and support the exercise of expert professional judgement. James’ philosophy is to build colleagues’ breadth of expertise, to enable individuals, teams and institutions to engage with and shape debates, to reflect constructively critically on their own practice and with research, and to develop practice through informed decision making and policy design.

James’ approach recognises, on the one hand, the importance of the distinctive qualities of individual subject disciplines and of different phases and key stages, and, on the other hand, the benefits of consistent practices and expectations within schools to support pupils’ learning, behaviour and wellbeing. James, and the programmes that we run, also recognise that school improvement and professional learning are not only for teachers but are vital for all professionals working in an educational context, including teaching assistants and operational and support services.

Claudine joined Anglian Learning as the Director of Operations in March 2019 to oversee Estates Management, including Health and Safety and the management and effective use of SCA funding. Having a vast amount of experience within education facility management, she is responsible for the delivery of all building projects for the Trust, managing multiple estate projects. This includes new builds, repairs / replacement works, and Claudine was the project lead for the £17m project at Bottisham Village College. With the Director of Finance, she also manages the procurement of energy, maintenance, catering and other similar contracts; overseeing the centralisation of contracts across the estate.

In 2000, Claudine joined Bottisham Village College initially working in finance then managing facilities. In 2016, she became Head of Operations for Bottisham Village College and The Netherhall School prior to joining Anglian Learning.

A mother of two, Claudine has been heavily involved with organising school fundraising events. In her spare time, Claudine enjoys spending time with the family and walking the dogs, she enjoys outdoor pursuits and socialising with friends.

Stacie started her career in 2008 where she trained at two Cambridge based accountancy practices to gain her AAT and ACCA qualifications. She worked her way up to become an audit manager, where she was responsible for a portfolio of clients requiring statutory audits. She worked on a wide-range of clients, from Cambridge Colleges to owner-managed technology businesses, before choosing to specialise in the charity and not-for-profit sector. During her audit career she worked with several academy trusts and developed a keen interest in the sector.

Stacie joined Anglian Learning in December 2021 heading up the finance team as Financial Controller and enjoys the variety of work involved in working at a growing multi-academy trust. Since joining Anglian Learning, she has been heavily involved in the financial transformation project which has included implementing new finance systems and the restructure of the finance team into a hub model.

In her spare time Stacie can be found planning her future travels, enjoying good food with friends and family, or spending time with her horses.

Rachael started her teaching career at a large infant school in centre of Huntingdon. It was here she was able to further pursue her interest in child development and special educational needs when she took on the position of SENCo, a role which she held for over next 11 years.

In 2009, she joined Bottisham Community Primary School and held various roles including SENCo, EY/KS1 Team Leader and Deputy Headteacher before becoming Headteacher in 2016. As headteacher, she was fortunate to be able to lead the school to join Anglian Learning in 2018 as one of the first three primary schools, along with Fen Ditton Community Primary School and Stapleford Community Primary School.

Charity graduated from the University of York in 1993 with a degree in Economics.

She worked as an auditor for KPMG and led on a large apprenticeship programme for an accountancy training provider before joining Cambridge City Council where she worked in wide-ranging roles for 14 years including leading on financial reporting.

Charity joined Anglian Learning in January 2019 as Director of Finance and as part of the wider team has supported the significant growth of our Trust. She was appointed to the role of Chief Operating Officer in June 2021 to lead a number of key areas, working with other members of the Central Leadership Team to improve service efficiency and impact for the benefit of the Trust’s pupils and colleagues. She is also the Trust’s Chief Financial Officer.

Nationally, Charity represents academy trusts on the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) Scheme Advisory Board Cost Management and Benefit Design sub-committee as well as chairing the ESFA LGPS Working Group and working as a member of the Academies Finance and Assurance Steering Group.

Charity is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA).

Caroline began her HR career in 2000 at Sainsbury’s where she held a range of HR roles including Regional HR Manager and HR Change Manager. She has also held HR posts in the leisure industry and local government. Prior to joining Anglian Learning in January 2023, Caroline spent 13 years at the University of Cambridge, most recently as Head of HR for the School of Clinical Medicine. At the Clinical School, Caroline was responsible for the HR strategy and the operational HR service to over 3000 colleagues across 21 academic departments along with links to the NHS.

Caroline is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and was also a trustee for Mind in Cambridgeshire between 2015-2018. Caroline is passionate about wellbeing within the workplace and successfully developed and embedded the Clinical School’s wellbeing programme with a specific focus on mental health. She has recently developed the trust’s new people strategy with a strong emphasis on a sense of belonging to develop and maintain a positive work culture.

Michelle joined Sawston Village College in 2004 as a Casual Sports Centre Receptionist and soon trained as a Lifeguard, Swimming Instructor, Aquafit Teacher and Fitness Instructor. Michelle worked as a Duty Manager before being promoted to Sports Centre Manager in 2010 building on her knowledge and experience of Sports Centre operations.

Michelle joined Anglian Learning in 2022 as Anglian Leisure General Manager and is responsible for the strategic development and management of the Anglian Leisure centres, including safeguarding, Health and Safety, marketing, finance, social media and the centralisation of services including the implementation of a new leisure management system.

Michelle has two daughters and enjoys travelling and eating out with friends and family. She is a keen runner and is a run leader for a local ladies’ running group, she also regularly attends boot camps and tabata classes.