Trustees
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Suzannah ReevesTerm of Office: 29/06/20 - 29/06/24 Member Appointed Trustee/Chair of Trustees
Suzannah Reeves
Suzannah has 25 years; experience as a teacher and educational leader. Suzannah is Director for Quality and Monitoring at Oldham Sixth Form College. Suzannah is a member of the SLT at OSFC. She has been in her current role for 5 years and has a breadth of experience both prior to and alongside her work in this role, including extensive strategic leadership experience through her Chair of Governor roles in both the primary and secondary sectors.
Suzannah is a designated Specialist Leader of Education (SLE) for Governance and Strategic Leadership and has expertise in a range of areas including quality improvement, curriculum planning design, governance and leadership.
The impact of Suzannah's work can be seen through her leadership support and challenge at the schools where she is Chair of Governors and through developments at OSFC. Having come through the route of Head of Humanities at OSFC and has an excellent insight into the challenges faced by curriculum leaders. She has led the restructure of the Curriculum Area Leader role at OSFC and the impact of this is seen in the level of ownership and accountability taken by colleagues in these roles, including effective scrutiny of data and clarity and improved practice in respect of performance management.
Suzannah has an analytical approach, basing judgements on evidence from a range of sources and she understands the need for contextual information. She is transparent with her colleagues and is never afraid to have difficult conversations to ensure action is taken to improve outcomes for students.
Suzannah is a local councillor for Old Moat Ward on Manchester City Council. She was elected in 2010 and from 2011-2015 she was assistant executive member for Children's Services
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Liz FraneyTerm of Office: 03/09/18 - 03/09/24 Member Appointed Trustee
Liz Franey
Liz is a career civil servant and has been working in the Department for Education for almost ten years, based in their offices in Manchester. Prior to that Liz was a European Civil Servant, working on a variety of topics, including international trade negotiations.
Liz's current role is as Head of Delivery for the Blackpool and Oldham Opportunity Areas. This is an exciting programme which aims to promote social mobility in twelve of the most deprived areas of England. In this role, she manages two teams split over four sites and a budget of approximately 15 million pounds. One of the attractions of the role is that it covers the entire span of the Department for Education's remit, from early years and children's social care to post-16 provision. The focus is on using evidence-based practice to help the most disadvantaged children and young people to achieve their full potential.
Before joining the Opportunity Area Programme, Liz worked as the Head of Office for the Regional Schools Commissioner for Lancashire and West Yorkshire. This gave her an in depth insight into the academies programme, including DfE's oversight of academies.
Prior to that Liz managed teams within the department's Free Schools Programme.
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Bushra JamilTerm of Office: 29/06/20 - 29/06/24 Member Appointed Trustee
Bushra Jamil
Bushra Jamil has over 25 years' experience working in training and employment. This has entailed extensive research, analysis and formulation of economic growth policies; commissioning and project management of schemes (2m to 5m per annum); business development, including marketing of training provision; supporting the delivery of a Government pathfinder project (12m) in collaboration with internal and external agencies to improve training and employment outcomes for the residents of Greater Manchester; working nationally with Government Departments to develop new policies on skills, employment, including careers provision to ensure these meet the current and future needs of employers.
Bushra has served on Parrs Wood High School Governing Body from 2011 - 2016. During this time she has been an active member on the Governing Body and a range of Committees, including Resource Management, Standards and Curriculum, Head Teacher Appraisal and Pay.
Additionally, Bushra has lived in the area for over 25 years. She has a strong commitment to the local community and to improve educational outcomes for all schools in the MAT.
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Damian OwenMember Appointed Trustee/Executive Principal
Damian Owen
Damian (executive Principal) is an LLE with over 25 years' experience of teaching and leadership in a range of settings, working in some of the most deprived areas of the country to turn around the performance of failing schools, as well as moving Good schools to Outstanding status. He became Principal at Manchester Health Academy in September 2013 and was instrumental in leading its development from Inadequate to a Good judgement by Ofsted within eighteen months of his appointment.
He was a member of the Ofsted Focus Group for schools in challenging circumstances, developing the ways in which schools are inspected. Mr Owen holds the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) and has completed a range of accredited headship development during his tenure. He is also an accredited Pupil Premium Reviewer. More recently he has completed extensive school to school support alongside other GMLT colleagues within Salford, providing successful leadership and school improvement to a school facing significant challenges.
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Carol CulleyTerm of Office: 29/06/20 - 29/06/24 Member Appointed Trustee
Carol Culley
Carol Culley's role in the GMLT is as a trustee and the Chair of the Finance Committee. Carol has experience and expertise in many different areas including finance, performance management, health and safety and governance and assurance.
Carol currently has the role of City Treasurer at Manchester City Council since June 2016. Within this role she is responsible for and oversees Finance and Performance, Revenues and Benefits, Customer Contact Centre, Finance and HR Shared Service Centre, Procurement and Commissioning and Internal Audit, Health and Safety & Risk Management. However, Carol's previous experience has included her role as Deputy City Treasurer with the responsibilities of Finance and Performance, ICT and Health & Social Care Devolution Team as well as being an Assistant Chief Executive overseeing Finance and Performance.
She has acquired several accredited professional qualifications for her work in finance including, CIPFA, diploma in management: certificate in commissioning & procurement and is also a member of the CIPFA Council and Chair CIPFA Local Government Board.
Carol has a wealth of experience in financial management, governance and assurance and fulfilling trustee roles and associated requirements. Including, experience of schools finance and governance.
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Emma CaulfieldTerm of Office: 12/06/18 - 12/06/22 Co-opted Trustee
Emma Caulfield
Emma is presently Chair of Governors at Parrs Wood High School. She has worked in primary education for 25 years as a middle and senior leader. She was a primary school teacher & middle leader for eight years and worked as School Improvement Officer for Manchester City Council for five years (Primary English and Intensifying Support Programme). She has also held the roles of School Safeguarding Lead and of Primary English Lead for MCC. She works widely as a Key Stage 1 moderator. Emma was a primary school governor for five years including two years as Chair, during which time the school was graded 'outstanding' by Ofsted. She holds the NPQH qualification and an MA in Education. For the last seven years Emma has been a primary literacy consultant and is a published author on literacy related matters in primary education.
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Thomas McDonaldTerm of Office: 29/06/20 - 29/06/24 Member Appointed Trustee
Thomas McDonald
Mr McDonald is a Trustee for the GMLT. He is currently working as a Non-Executive Board Member of Equity Housing Group,(2015 to present) his roles include: Chair of specialist housing committee and member of Audit and Risk Committee.
Thomas has a BA Economics degree and a MA In Social Policy as well as a Social work qualification. His skills in strategic leadership and project management and wider understanding of the social and other factors that affect student progress and wellbeing, will hopefully assist the school in establishing itself and providing an effective and safe environment for students
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Rob FordTerm of Office: 29/04/20 - 29/04/24 Member Appointed Trustee
Rob Ford
Robert has over 15 years teaching and research experience. He is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Manchester, where he has worked since 2007. He has taught a variety of courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and is an internationally recognised expert on public opinion, British politics and the politics of the radical right. His books include Revolt on the Right (2014); Sex, Lies and Politics (2019) and Brexitland (2020). He is currently working on a book about the 2019 British general election. Robert has worked with the BBC on their election night broadcasts since 2005, and is part of the team who produce the general election exit polls. He writes and commentates regularly for a range of media outlets including the Observer, the Guardian, the New Statesman, the Economist, the BBC, the New York Times and the Washington Post.
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Louise StauntonDirector of Finance
Louise Staunton
Louise is an accredited Schools Resource Management Adviser (SRMA) with over 15 years' experience in educational finance. She has held a number of roles, providing financial advice and support to a range of schools and trusts in a variety of contexts. She qualified as an ACCA Accountant in 2006 and held the role of Education Finance Officer with Trafford Local Authority for five years before becoming Finance Director and Business Manager in a single Academy Trust. There she established a business management partnership, providing services to schools across the LA. Louise has worked closely with the National College for Teaching & Leadership as regional business manager advocate and partnership adviser, promoting school business management collaborations across the North West. She has significant experience in managing large budgets and ensuring the effective financial performance of organisations against the background of reductions in real-terms funding. Louise holds an advanced diploma in Education Business Management and a postgraduate qualification in Educational Leadership. In 2014 she became Strategic Director of Finance and Corporate Services at Manchester Health Academy, overseeing a 14 million expansion project and providing support, in her role as SLE, to numerous organisations experiencing financial pressures.
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Ella OvershottTerm of Office: 18/11/20 - 18/11/24 Co-opted Trustee
Ella Overshott
Ella has over 25 years' experience in sales and operational leadership, business change and performance improvement. As a director of a fast growth consultancy (The Pecan Partnership) for the last 8 years, Ella has supported organisations to successfully grow and transform in sectors including higher education, financial services, retail, utilities and social enterprise. Latterly Ella achieved award winning success for her work in mergers and acquisitions.
Ella's particular areas of expertise are in culture change, organisational engagement and leadership capability. As an experienced, accredited coach Ella also works with high potential leaders and executives to improve performance, transition to new roles and achieve career goals.
Ella has three children who attend Parrs Wood High School and Beaver Road Primary.
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Rachel BirksTerm of Office: 18/11/20 - 18/11/24 Co-opted Trustee
Rachel Birks
Rachel is a regulatory and professional discipline lawyer, specialising in regulation across the healthcare, social care and childcare sectors. She is a partner in a law firm in Manchester and works for a range of non-departmental public bodies, and statutory and accredited regulators.
Rachel sits as a Legally Qualified Chair at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, hearing disciplinary cases against doctors. She also acts as a Legal Adviser to panels considering cases at Social Work England, the new regulator for social workers.
Rachel's job involves advising on the application of rules and regulations to particular cases, conducting complex investigations into adverse incidents and appearing as an advocate in various different tribunals.
Rachel is Vice-chair of the Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers.
