Governance

Richard Sloan

Chair of Olympus Trustees for five years, Richard has been an educational professional for nearly forty years. Richard worked as a senior Local Authority advisor for Gloucestershire before taking over as principal of a large city comprehensive. Judged by Ofsted to require Special Measures, Richard led the school to successful re-inspection two years later. Subsequently, Richard worked in London and the East Midlands as a senior regional secondary school improvement advisor for the National Strategies. Richard has worked on the Academies Programme in the South West as an education advisor to the DfE for nearly ten years. Richard sits on the Olympus Remuneration and Nomination Committee and Finance and Resources Committee.

Sarah Williams

Sarah Williams is the Vice Chair of the Trust Board, Primary Lead Trustee and Chair of the Trust Improvement Committee and has been a  Trustee since 1^st January 2015.

Sarah has worked within governance since 2012, firstly at a local pre-school, then a local primary school and now within a Multi Academy Trust. Previously, her career was predominately within the Financial Services sector, working for global companies such as AXA, Zurich and The Royal Bank of Scotland. During this time, she obtained several industry recognised qualifications and a vast range of experience in leadership, management and HR practices.

Since beginning a family, Sarah left full time employment to raise her children, but has used her skills gained in the workplace to help her local community. She is passionate about ensuring that all children receive the highest standard of education and are given the opportunities to thrive and reach their full potential.

Dave Baker

Dave Baker is Chief Executive Officer, Accounting Officer and a Trustee of The Olympus Academy Trust.  Dave was the first Headteacher of Bradley Stoke Community School which opened in September 2005 and grew a year group at a time until the oldest students completed year 13 in 2012.  Dave was asked by the local authority and both schools’ governing bodies to take on interim responsibility for Abbeywood Community School in October 2011.  Abbeywood became an academy on 1^st January 2013, sponsored by The Olympus Academy Trust.  This was the starting point for the Trust’s partnership work which has continued to grow and has since developed a strong reputation locally with responsibility for 6400 learners and 750 staff.  4 of the 9 schools in the Trust have been re-brokered from other Trusts and 3 were judged inadequate by Ofsted and were in need of special measures when they joined Olympus.

Dave has taught in and around Bristol since 1987.  He is passionate about improving the life chances of young people and broadening their horizons.  He believes strongly in collaborative approaches to teaching, learning and leadership and wants to help nurture the leaders of tomorrow.  He wants the schools he works with to support and work with their local communities.  Dave contributes to local, regional and national leadership training programmes for various organisations and is a National Leader of Education.  He was an elected member of the Headteacher Board for the South-West of England from 2014-17 and currently coordinates a Trust leaders’ network for the South West region.  Most recently, he has provided support for two multi-academy trusts in challenging circumstances in Cornwall by becoming a trustee.

Dave swims and runs several times a week, surfs the Severn Bore, plays and coaches basketball and is a Bristol City FC season ticket holder and trustee for Bristol City Robins Foundation.

Jenny Allen

Jenny has been a Trustee since April 2019 and is a member of Patchway Community School SIC.

Jenny Allen currently works as the Access and Participation Funding Manager at the Office for Students (OfS), the higher education regulator. She oversees a number of funding interventions promoting equal opportunities for all students, whatever their background, to access and succeed in higher education. For two years Jenny was programme manager of the National Collaborative Outreach Programme (now Uni Connect) which brings together 29 partnerships of universities, colleges and other local partners to offer activities, advice and information on the benefits and realities of going to university or college. Prior to joining OfS Jenny worked with social landlords around care and support, employability, skills and apprenticeships and she has many years’ experience working in housing and homelessness. Jenny is a trustee of The Care Forum, a local health and social care charity, and was previously chair of a small homelessness charity and a member of a housing association board.

Paul Davies

Paul has been a Trustee to the Board since January 2017. He is also Chair of Audit & Risk Committee and Chair of Governors, Winterbourne Academy.

Paul is a qualified internal auditor, and currently manages the risk and governance framework and control environment for the internal audit and whistleblowing function of a large financial services organisation. He also has previous experience of project and change management, and recruitment, and is a past member of a local Youth Centre management committee.

Michael Fry

Michael has been a Trustee since 2016 and is Vice Chair Audit and Risk Committee and  has been Governor/Chair of Governors at Filton Hill Primary School since 1995

Retired since 2018, Michael was formerly a healthcare operational estate professional with a building services background with over 30 years’ experience of working in the NHS for a large local Acute Trust. He moved into consultancy with Capita Healthcare in 2008 taking on several roles as Interim Director of Estates and Facilities for several Acute Trusts, leading a multi-disciplinary team maintaining and enhancing the Trusts’ estate portfolio.

As a governor at Filton Hill Primary School, Michael has developed a close working relationship with all of the staff from teachers, TA’s to support staff.  Since retirement he has gone into school on a weekly basis as a volunteer which has allowed him to gain an in depth understanding of methods of teaching and how progress is monitored and supporting data produced.

Jack Lacey

Jack has been working in schools across Bristol for over 20 years.  He started his career as a teacher, deputy and acting headteacher at Broomhill Junior School before moving to become deputy head at Christ Church Primary.  During his time there, he was seconded to Bristol LA where he led the succession planning strategy across the city.  Jack went on to become headteacher at Victoria Park Primary and has been in his current role as Head of Primary for Cathedral Schools Trust for the past two years.  Jack is a Local Leader of Education and an Ofsted Inspector.  He has been on the Interim Management Committee of another local school and has been a trustee of both the Square Food Foundation and Travelling Light Theatre Company.

Isabel Marsden

Isabel is currently in her second term of office as an Olympus Trustee, having joined the Board in December 2014. Isabel sits on the Abbeywood School Improvement Committee as well as being Vice Chair of the Trust Improvement Committee. She is also the Lead Trustee for the Olympus Secondary phase.

Isabel has more than 15 years’ experience of local governance of schools both inside and outside Olympus and at both Primary and Secondary Levels. Isabel was a Community Governor at Barrs Court Primary in the late nineties, a Parent Governor at St Michael’s Primary in Stoke Gifford from February 2008 – December 2013 and has been a Parent Governor at Abbeywood Community School since November 2012. Isabel chaired the Local Governing Body at St Michael’s from October 2009 – October 2013 and the Local Governing Committee at Abbeywood from October 2014 – October 2019.

Isabel’s professional background is within maths education, and she now has over 30 years’ experience in this sector. She has taught at schools in South Gloucestershire, Bristol and North Somerset and was Head of Maths at Nailsea Secondary School from September 1999 – July 2003. Isabel then worked as a Numeracy Consultant for North Somerset from September 2003 until August 2008, before setting up her own company in Jan 2009 working as an education consultant. Isabel closed her company in July 2015 but continues to work on a self employed basis, teaching mathematics within a variety of different organisations.

Sarah Phillips

Sarah has been a Trustee on the Board of Olympus Academy Trust  since September 2019 and is Vice Chair of Finance and Resources Committee. She currently works as a Procurement and contracts Senior Officer for the Office for Students and has over 20 years experience of public sector procurement.

Sarah was a Parent Governor of Bradley Stoke Community School for 10 years, holding many positions such as Chair of Wellbeing Committee and Vice Chair of the local governing body.

Laurence Pitt

Laurence is currently employed as Head of School Improvement and Lead for School Partnerships with Bristol City Council.

Laurence has worked in primary settings as teacher, SENCO, deputy Head and Headteacher. He was Headteacher for 15 years at Ashley Down School, Bristol which grew from a junior school to a split site primary with a new build provision and then expanded to a 2 primary school federation with his role growing to Executive Head. He has worked as a Bristol Consultant Leader, BCC lead for new and acting headteacher programme, National Leader of Education, teaching school lead from 2013 in Bristol Primary Teaching School Alliance and various system lead and school to school support roles. Laurence was also Oasis Community Learning Deputy and then Regional Director for South West 2018-2019

Laurence’s interests are in school leadership, management and governance, team development and curriculum design.

Paul Roberts

Paul is Chair of Remuneration & Nominations Committee and a Member of Charborough Road School Improvement Committee and has been a Trustee for 4 years. He is currently an HR Marketing & Recruiting Specialist for RWE Supply & Trading, a global energy commodity trading company.

Paul has over 20 years of experience within HR, with a particular focus on early talent strategies where he has developed award-winning programmes to support graduates, students and apprentices to achieve their potential.  As well as working for major global organisations, Paul has run his own consultancy business supporting a wide range of organisations.  He is an active member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD), and the Institute of Student Employers (ISE).

Paul became a community school governor at North Road Primary School in Yate in 2006 where he served a four-year term.  In 2012, he became a parent governor at Stoke Lodge Primary and became part of the Board when it converted to an academy that then grew into the Cosmos Academy Trust.  When the Cosmos Academy moved into the Olympus Trust, Paul took up a position on the new Board.

Paul has have two daughters who are studying at schools within the Trust.

Kate Sheldon

Kate is a Trustee and member of  the Trust Improvement Committee, and Chair of Meadowbrook School Improvement Committee.

Kate is self employed and is working for Kumon Bradley Stoke as a Communications Officer and undertakes occasional invigilation work for Bradley Stoke Community School.

Kate’s background is in education. She trained as a secondary school teacher, working in the state sector and then as a Regional Manager in the private sector working for Kumon Educational. Kate became a Community Governor at Bradley Stoke Community School when the first governing body was formed there. After 7 years and a short break she then became a Parent Governor at Meadowbrook School when her son joined the school.  She is in her second term as Parent Governor and also volunteers her help with reading support in school.

Bob Smyth

Bob is Chair of the Finance & Resources Committee, having previously served on the Audit & Risk and Remuneration & Nominations Committees. He was elected as a parent governor at Bradley Stoke Community School (BSCS) in 2011 and has been an Olympus Trustee since foundation in 2012. He had two sons at BSCS who are both now at university. He is a qualified accountant and, before retirement, was a senior manager in a large utility company. This gives him experience in financial reporting, audit and governance, and business processes.