Our Team
We intend to keep our Executive Team small to provide high-level direction and support but to leave key responsibilities at a school level. Members of the team work to support capacity building in our academies and to broker academy-level expertise in school-to-school support.
Kirsten Jowett
Kirsten Jowett
CEO
Kirsten has worked in education for the past 30 years. Starting as a primary school teacher, she has worked in both primary and secondary phases of education. In the past 11 years she has led three schools as Headteacher.
She is a governor of an independent special school leading on quality if education and leadership support. Her qualifications include a BA QTS (Hons) in Education and NPQEL. Kirsten has worked for the DfE (Department for Education), Department of Health and a wide range of local authorities across London and the south-east as an LA Advisor and Independent Consultant.
She was a National Strategies Regional Adviser for Behaviour and Attendance in London and the London Regional Coordinator for the National Healthy Schools Programme and is a published author of a range of education resources. Prior to this role Kirsten led on the creation of a Multi-Academy Trust in North-West London where she was CEO for three years.
School Improvement Offer
The School Improvement Team works with our individual schools and the collective group of our schools within the Trust in order to provide clarity around expectation, values, roles and responsibilities. This enables all our learners to achieve their maximum potential.
At the heart of our school improvement strategy is a commitment to working in partnership with all of our schools to be self – improving and committed to achieving a school led system. Our school improvement visits provide a balance of support, collaboration and challenge. Half termly visits to schools ensure that there is a relentless focus on raising standards. The team includes specialists in Primary Education, Special Education, Professional Development and Careers Guidance
Our Lime Trust School Improvement Strategy, which is centred around the DFE’s Five Pillars of quality for Multi Academy Trusts, has the capacity and flexibility to develop and will grow with the addition of schools with different improvement needs. It is research based, drawing heavily upon the school improvement work of Sir David Carter, Ofsted and the Education Endowment Foundation.
Rachael Holland
Rachael Holland
Director of Education
Rachael was a Headteacher with Lime Trust for 4 years. She has over 25 years’ teaching experience, has taught throughout the primary age range, was a SENCO for several years, as well as a Local Authority moderator. She successfully managed and led the academisation process at Lime Academy Abbotsmede and the school has seen improved outcomes at all key milestones as a result.
Her qualifications include a BA (Hons) in Law, PGCE, SENCO accreditation, NPQH and NPQEL qualifications. Rachael has been a Director of Education for the Trust since April 2020. In this time, she has developed the Trust’s primary curriculum, progression of skills and assessment framework and embedded all the Trust’s systems and schemes consistently across the primary settings.
More recently, she has led on the development of the Special curriculum, Special school hub development and the Trust Teaching and Learning Policy.
Rachael was recently deployed as an Interim Headteacher at Larkswood until the new Headteacher started in September 23. During this time, the school received an Ofsted ’Good’ rating.
Lee Dobson
Lee Dobson
School Improvement Lead
Lee is the School Improvement Lead for Lime Trust, working closely with the Trust Director of Education and School Improvement Advisor to support all schools across the Trust. Lee leads a range of hubs across the Trust, supporting year group planning and subject development.
Prior to this role, Lee has had a range of leadership roles. He was headteacher at a two-form entry primary school in Peterborough, which is part of the Lime Trust, leading the school through a successful Ofsted in February 2022. Lee is also a Mathematics Specialist Teacher and SLE in mathematics and he has led a wide range of CPD in this area for Lime Trust, a range of other Trusts and the Peterborough Local Authority. He has also completed the NPQSL and NPQH qualifications.
Miranda Cummings
Miranda Cummings
School Improvement Advisior
School Improvement Advisor and works as part of the School Improvement Team across all schools in the trust. Miranda is an Early Years Specialist Leader of Education and has experience of senior leadership across three local authorities, including work as an Assessment Lead. Holds NPQH, NPQSL and Early Years SENCO Award. Experienced lead practitioner on a successful Nursery start-up, developing provision for 2-4-year-olds. Miranda is also a DfE Early Years Covid Recovery Expert and Area Lead.
Jenny Bull
Jenny Bull
School Improvement Advisor (SEND)
Jenny works as a School Improvement Advisor as part of the School Improvement Team across all schools in the Trust with a focus on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. She has experience of senior leadership in special needs environments and has worked as an assessment lead including piloting of The Rochford Review recommendations. Her qualifications include a Master’s in Education, NPQSL, NPQLTD and she is currently working towards a NPQH.
Michaela Philpot
Michaela Philpot
Strategic Training Lead
Michaela is the Strategic Training Lead for Lime leading on developing careers and professional development pathways across the Trust. Michaela also leads the Lime Trust Teaching Training programme in partnership with Ambition Institute.
Prior to this role, Michaela has had a range of leadership roles, which include working as a senior leader specialising in supporting schools on journeys of rapid school improvement, ITT English Subject Lead for Havering Teacher Training Partnership, Lead Practitioner, GCSE examiner for multiple exam boards and Trust Careers Lead. In addition to creating and delivering a range of CPD at Trust Level, Michaela has also presented at the Havering Festival of Education.
Her qualifications include a BA in English Literature and Language, PGCE and MA English in Education from King’s College London, NPQSL from the Institute of Education and the Secondary Teaching Leaders Award from Ambition Institute. She is currently completing the NPQLTD qualification alongside the Digital Support Apprenticeship focusing on the impact of cloud computing and AI within the education sector.
Business Support
The Business Support Team is one of the largest teams in the trust which is led by the Head of Business who is responsible for the following key areas:
- Admissions
- Attendance
- Facilities and estates management
- ICT
- Catering
- Health and Safety
- Risk management
- Strategic development of our estate and buildings
- Statutory compliance
In our schools, we are committed to having passionate and inspirational School Business Managers who ensure that our learners have access to asafe stimulating environment which supports our learners to flourish. These staff lead the business teams in the school which is made up of the: front office team (Office Administrators, Family Support workers, EHCP Administrators (special only) site team (Site Manager/Officer, Assistant Site Officer, Cleaners) lunchtime team (School Chef, Catering Assistants, Midday Assistants). The management of the catering and IT teams are looked after by the Head of Business.
Laura Fisher
Laura Fisher
Head of Business Support
Since 2017, Laura has been an integral part of Lime Trust, serving as the Head of Business. In this multifaceted role, Laura she oversees estates management, capital works, procurement exceeding £20k, health and safety, ICT, compliance, data protection, attendance, admissions, and all other front-office functions.
Laura has also supported the on-boarding of new academies to the Trust. Laura brings a wealth of qualifications to her role, including a BSc with First-Class Honors, PCGE, DSBM, NPQSL, and NEBOSH certification. This diverse educational background underscores her dedication to excellence and her capacity to navigate the complex intersection of education, business, and compliance within Lime Trust.
Finance Team
The Lime Finance team are made up of 9 finance professionals – The Head of Finance, two Finance Business Partners and three Finance Officers in each regional hub. The team is responsible for making sure all policies and regulations are followed including the Academies Handbook, internal policies and external audit expectations.
The Finance Officers mange the day to day transactions, making sure the schools get their resources and the suppliers are kept happy by paying them on time. They will also be the first point of contact for the parents when dealing with payments for trips, meals, clubs and nurseries. The Business Partners manage these teams, leading on internal audits, checking processes and procedures are being followed and leading the month end processes including meeting the Headteachers monthly to discuss these.
The Head of Finance oversees the team, leading on reporting to Finance, Risk ad Audit Committee, leading the external audit, making sure all returns to the ESFA are complete, and meeting the SLT of the schools in the regular business meetings to make sure they know where they are against their budgets ensuring they make key spending decisions in a timely manner.
While the education of our pupils and their outcomes is the key to what Lime do, we like to think we play a key role in supporting the education staff by taking away the burden and stress of managing the money day to day.
Ricky Barton
Ricky Barton
Head of Finance/CFO
BA (Hons) Accounting & Finance, BTEC LEVEL 7 – Advanced Professional Certificate in School Financial and Operational Leadership (CIPFA) and currently working towards ACCA. Over 14 years’ experience in finance, including banking, corporate finance, and, most recently, consulting on school finance and training on PS Financials and the SBS Online Budget Software. Ricky is also the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Trust.
Human Resources
The HR Service consists of a team of eight. The Head of HR is responsible for leading on the strategic development and delivery of an excellent Human Resources provision to schools and services.
We have two regional teams based In London and Peterborough, within each hub there is an HR Business Partner, an HR Administrator (Recruitment) and an HR Administrator (Absence).
Both the Head of HR and the HR Business Partners provide a high-quality operational support and advice service to all leaders, managers and staff for all HR related matters.
The Payroll service is another key function of the HR Team, with the delivery of this in house service. The HR & Payroll Officer provides a payroll service from start to end, ensuring compliance for both HMRC, pension and auditing purposes.
Lisa Collison
Lisa Collison
Head of HR
Lisa is an experienced CIPD HR professional with over 25 years extensive experience in the private, academy, MAT and public sector. As an all-round experienced professional, she has vast experience of dealing with all types of HR matters and as a trained mediator she is able to deal with internal conflict resolutions. Lisa over her years has built successful relationships with a variety of stakeholders including the handling of industrial relations with Trade union colleagues.
Governance
The Governance Lead works with our Members, Trustees and Governors across the Trust to deliver an annual timetable of meetings. At these meetings reports are received and activities across the Trust and its academies are scrutinised providing strategic oversight. Our meetings link Trustee and school-level governance, with all parties regularly visiting our academies. High quality governance training is in place at all levels of the Trust.
Kelly Smith
Kelly Smith
Governance and Communication Lead
Kelly has worked in education for the past 12 years, and has supported CEO’s, Members, Trustees and Governors in their roles, being their initial point of contact with the Trust. She is also leading on the communication strategy for the Trust, and is responsible for all complaints, FOI and SARs (Subject Access Request) for the Trust.