Board and Members

Claire Heald

Chair of Trustees

Claire is the Chief Executive of the Cam Academy Trust, a multi-academy trust in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. She is a Trustee at educational charity, The Difference. Before that, she was National Director of Education at Academies Enterprise Trust, one of the country’s largest MATs. She is also a fellow at the Centre for Education and Youth. She is passionate about educational equity and an expert in school improvement, particularly curriculum, assessment, teaching and inclusion.

Jeremy Beswick

Jeremy is an investment fund professional of >20 years’ experience in the industry, with a background in international business management and leadership, marketing, sales and client service, strategy, planning and product development, spanning both traditional and alternative asset classes in retail and institutional markets. He has served on several Boards and Executive, Investment, Risk and Audit Committees. He has spoken at many fund management conferences internationally, and has written a number of articles published in the Financial Times and other financial journals.

Jackie Cutchey

Jackie has been involved in education for more than forty years, beginning her career as a primary school teacher in a London Borough. Having held a variety of middle leader roles before gaining promotion to deputy headship in Lowestoft. Jackie was asked to be acting headteacher after eighteen months, subsequently becoming headteacher for the first time in 1997. Jackie has led schools through Ofsted inspections a total of five times with good outcomes each time.

Steve Purdy

Steve has had a successful career in business which included roles as UK Managing Director for a Fortune 500 company in the IT sector and UK Managing Director for a Global FTSE 250 company in the Services sector. Steve now runs his own business providing Performance Consulting, Executive Coaching and Leadership Development to clients looking to improve their performance within their professional and personal lives.

Toni Kittle

Toni is a Director of Education at Unity Schools Partnership and works within the executive team who support 33 schools, including primary, secondary and special. Toni has been a headteacher and executive headteacher within Suffolk and has a proven track record of transforming schools. Toni is a trustee for Essex and Suffolk Children's University, where she advocates for the most disadvantaged pupils. She has a particular interest in RSHE.

Claire Heald

Member

Claire is the Chief Executive of the Cam Academy Trust, a multi-academy trust in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. She is a Trustee at educational charity, The Difference. Before that, she was National Director of Education at Academies Enterprise Trust, one of the country’s largest MATs. She is also a fellow at the Centre for Education and Youth. She is passionate about educational equity and an expert in school improvement, particularly curriculum, assessment, teaching and inclusion.

Helen Capron

Member

Helen Capron has explored education from a variety of angles: as a researcher, teacher, chair of governors and parent. She believes in high quality education for all and seeks to ensure this is being offered across all the Active Learning Trust schools.

Vic Daniels

Member

Vic Daniels is the co-founder and Executive Chairman of one of the UK's largest privately owned media companies. He has also spent almost 20 years involved in the education sector. Here, Vic has chaired boards for local authority and foundation schools at primary and secondary level. He has also chaired primary and secondary level School Improvement Boards. Vic’s further experience includes time spent as a local authority governor for strategy for a 6th Form College, chairing a Single Academy Trust, a mainstream Multi-Academy Trust and an Alternative Provision/Special School MAT. He has also been used by the DfE and local authorities in a board advisory capacity.