Governance
Blackdown Education Partnership is governed by Members and Trustees. Each must declare any pecuniary interests they have in relation to the work of the Trust and in relation to the business on each meeting’s agenda. A register of interests is maintained and is accessible to the public. Each year Members and Trustees must agree to our Code of Conduct, which encompasses the Nolan Principles of public life. Members and Trustees are required to make an annual declaration of their eligibility to be part of the Trust and a safeguarding declaration.
Members
Members oversee the work of the Trust and are responsible for overarching decisions, such as changing the Trust’s Articles of Association, and the appointment of Trustees and Governors. Our Members subscribed to the formation of the Trust and meet the obligations set out in our Articles of Association.
Members may hold Trustees and the Board to account, and in this way ensure that the Trust is working to best effect.
Trustees
Between nine and eleven Trustees are appointed by our Members to take responsibility for the strategic direction of the Trust, working in the way that a Board oversees a company or charity.
Trustees responsibilities are set out in our Terms of Reference and include:
to determine the vision for the Trust and ensure that its achievement underpins all strategic planning and decision making
to develop, review and take ownership of the Trust’s strategic and financial plan and monitor its implementation
to ensure that all schools / academies within the Trust attain high standards and demonstrate at least good progress against national indicators
ensuring the Trust maintains its vision and values and delivers the outcomes which it has defined for pupils and the Trust.
Information on each Member and Trustee is given below and in our Annual Report, which also sets out for each person their term of office and, for the year in question, their attendance record at our meetings.
Local Governing Committees
Each School has their own Local Governing Committee – their overall purpose is to;
to ensure all students within the academy have access to a high quality education provision in line with the shared vision.
to monitor the implementation of the development/improvement plan of individual academies within the Trust, ensuring that it is delivering against agreed strategic and local objectives; moving the academies and the Trust as a whole towards achieving and sustaining a regulatory judgement of outstanding in all areas.
to ensure that the academic and wellbeing needs of students are being met effectively through the design and delivery of a broad and balanced curriculum which, through use of personalised, developmental support, helps to maximise each student’s success and enjoyment.
The minutes of the Blackdown Education Partnership Trustees meetings are avaliable, on request, by emailing the Lead Governance Professional at admin@bep.ac
Key Information including our Registers of Business Interests are held here - Governance Documents
Julia Adamson, MBE - Trustee
Julia has over 20 years education experience, including as a Primary teacher and a subject leader. She has a track record of successfully managing education technology programmes and was involved in the establishing of Barefoot Computing across the UK and is now the Managing Director of Education and Public Benefit at BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and responsible for Computing at School, the network for computing teachers.
Julia is particularly interested in inclusion, and from her own experience understands how technology can impact positively on progress for all children, particularly those with additional needs.
Julia has three children and has served as a parent governor at various schools for many years and has recently been awarded a MBE in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours List, for Services to Education.
Sue Brewer - Trustee
Sue is a Headteacher of a Primary School in Somerset and has worked within education for many years across different phases. Prior to her current Headship, Sue was Headteacher of a Primary School in Devon for 10 years. Sue was a member of the governing body of Uffculme School for 12 years before becoming a director/trustee at UAT, and has been a school governor in other schools previously; her involvement with school governing bodies has spanned the last 25 years.
Sue has represented Headteachers both in Devon and Somerset on a variety of Local Authority Boards.
Simon Foster - Trustee
Simon is a parent at The Castle School and works for the Department for Education.
Simon is experienced in the management of portfolios, programmes and projects. He is skilled in providing strategic advice and stakeholder relationship management with diverse stakeholders across public, private and NGO sectors. Simon has a background of working at regional, national and cross sector levels in both policy/strategy development and operational delivery.
Michelle Fox - Trustee
Michelle has been involved in the governance of The Castle Partership Trust for over 13 years and has been a parent at The Castle School.
Professionally, Michelle is an experienced employment lawyer, with over 20 years’ employment law experience, providing commercial and pragmatic advice in relation to a wide range of employment and HR issues.
Max Graesser - Trustee
Max chairs the BEP Board of Directors. Max worked for 30 years at ITV. Starting as a programme maker in news and documentaries, he went on to manage the production business for Granada TV before being appointed Managing Director, Operations for ITV News Group in 2004, and Operations Director for ITV plc in 2006.
On leaving ITV in 2009 he was appointed a trustee of the ITV Pension Scheme and in January 2013 was elected Chair of Trustees. He was subsequently appointed independent Chair of Trustees for three schemes within the Babcock International Group.
He is currently also the Chair of Trustees for the UK Schemes of Ricoh Europe.
Matthew Griffiths - Trustee
Matthew has extensive experience of education and of serving as a governor and director (both in the UK and in South Africa).
Matthew’s career has focused on enabling children who are disadvantaged to learn successful in preparation for their adult lives.
Helen Harris - Trustee
Helen joined as a Trustee in November 2022, having relocated to the South West.
Helen was previously employed as a Director of Finance and Operations in Cheshire schools until her retirement in February 2022.
Helen has 28 years of experience working in the education sector covering two schools in the primary sector for 18 years and latterly 10 years at a large secondary school and now brings this expertise to the Board and the Risk and Resources Committee.
Dr Paula Holbrook - Trustee
Paula lectures Leadership in Practice on the Open University MBA (Leadership Practice) and is practice tutor for the Senior Leader Award. Paula is a practicing Business Manager and accredited School Resource Management Adviser (SRMA) with a broad business background. Paula achieved a PhD in Business and Management with Plymouth University, whilst working as a director in social housing -her thesis explored the social impact of housing policy.
Outside of work, Paula is a long-serving volunteer and trustee of Dartmoor Rescue Group. She is working towards assessment as an Operational Mountain Rescue Search Dog Team with trainee search dog Amber.
Jill Larcombe - Trustee
After 27 years as a dairy and sheep farmer Jill made a career change and moved into local council administration. She is now a self-employed bookkeeper, parish council clerk and clerks within two maintained school federations.
Jill has been a school governor for 21 years, 19 of which have been at Uffculme. In her capacity as a member of the board of Devon Association of Governance she is a secondary academy governor representative on the Devon Education Forum and a represents governors on the Devon Children & Families Education Advisory Group. Jill, through the Teaching School College South West, is a Local Leader of Governance.
Jenny Sutton - Trustee
Jenny is employed as the Regional Principal of the National Institue of Teaching, South and West. Prior to that Jenny was the South West Director for ‘Teach First’ - after launching the charity in the region in 2013 she then built the team and the profile of ‘Teach First’ across the South West with schools, universities and businesses.
Jenny worked as an English Teacher, Head of Performing and Expressive Arts and Assistant Head for Curriculum at Highbury Grove School, Islington, for six years. During this time, Highbury Grove School went from an Ofsted rating of Requires Improvement to one of Outstanding. Jenny successfully completed the Future Leaders Programme, a transformative leadership development programme for senior leaders with the potential to become headteachers of schools in challenging contexts within three years. Jenny went on to spend two years working as an education consultant in post-16 and data for ‘Learning Plus UK’, before joining the senior leadership team of The City Academy, Hackney.
As a passionate advocator of the Arts (Exeter University Drama graduate) and of a broad and balanced curriculum, Jenny is delighted to be a Director of Uffculme Academy Trust board at an exciting time in the Trust’s development.
Rachel White - Trustee
Rachel is the current Headteacher at Bishop Henderson CEVA Primary School and had over 25 years’ experience in education, initially as a teacher in primary schools, then as an Advance Skills teacher supporting other schools and in senior leadership from 2011.
David Taylor - Trustee
David has been involved with governance within The Castle Parternship Trust for over 10 years and was previoulsy the Chair of Governors at Court Fields School in Wellington.
David has been a qualified Social worker since 1979 and was the Director of Children’s Services in Somerset from 2004 to 2010 and Director of People’s Services in Shropshire between 2010 and 2013.
David is a Trustee on the Somerset Community Foundation, a Governor at Bridgwater and Taunton college and sits as a non-executive on the Altogether Care Company.
He works in a voluntary capacity with CHARIS, teaching refugees English.
Faith Jarrett - Member
Faith has worked as a teacher in secondary education for the last 39 years; thirteen as Head of The King's School in Ottery St Mary, Devon. The King's was graded outstanding by Ofsted at its last two inspections. Since September 2016 she has worked as an education consultant working on school improvement with over twenty secondary schools primarily across Devon, Dorset, Somerset and North Somerset. She has been a governor in a PRU and in a special school and until recently carried out bespoke governor training on behalf of Babcock LDP.
Moira Marder, OBE - Member
Moira is the Chief Executive Officer of the Ted Wragg Multi Academy Trust, a thirteen school Trust responsible for providing collaborate and inclusive education for over 3,000 children aged 2-16 across the Greater Exeter area.
Prior to this, Moira was a teacher in London for 14 years, joining St James School, Exeter in 2007 as a Deputy Headteacher, later becoming Headteacher.
Moira has a relentless passion for school improvement and is a National Leader of Education and was awarded an OBE for Services to Education in 2024.
Mark Moore- Member
Mark is a solicitor and partner in a large regional law firm. He has over twenty years experience advising property developers, investors, funders and charities, and has been location head responsible for leading and driving local initiatives.
Mark has been a school governor in Taunton for in excess of 10 years.
Dan Morrow - Member
Dan is the Trust Leader and CEO of Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust.
Dan moved into education motivated by a desire to give back. His appointments to date have enabled him to make a difference in a huge variety of schooling and civic contexts. Following his own experience of being a free school meals pupil and the first in his family to go to university, gaining a place at Oxford University reading History, Dan is a strong believer in breaking down barriers and providing opportunities for pupils to fulfill their ambitions and achieve their potential. Equally, he is dedicated to delivering a positive and sustained impact for the local communities we serve.
Sheila Naylor- Member
Sheila’s working career was spent mainly in the Civil Service in a wide range of jobs including project management, staff training and area management. She followed this with a role in the voluntary sector running a charity that is both a grant making body and a provider of supported accommodation for pensioners on low incomes.
She became a governor at The Castle School in 1994 then was Chair of Governors, before becoming Chair of The Castle Partnership Trust from its inception until she retired in 2019. She has been a Member of The Castle Partnership Trust since then before joining the merged Trust in September 2023. During her service she was a member of a number of county-wide governor training and advisory groups that were established to raise standards and improve the quality of governance in the county.
Sheila is currently a Trustee of Bishop Fox’s Educational Foundation.
Rob Trowbridge- Member
Rob has over 20 years experience of working in education and is currently Director of Finance and Operations at an academy in the South West. Prior to this Rob was School Business Manager and Trust HR Lead at The Castle Partnership Trust, leaving in December 2020.
Before joining The Castle School in 2013, Rob was employed in various finance management roles, including a number of years training and advising schools throughout Somerset on all financial matters, and has significant experience in finance, HR and school building projects.