Trustees
Deirdre Bailey
Chair of Trustees
Deirdre Bailey had a 40 year career in Children’s Social Care. Deirdre supported families in crisis, worked with children in the care system, children who were moving on to adoption and trained and prepared prospective adopters. She also provided support to adopted adults who were hoping to access their birth records and make contact with their birth families. Deirdre is also an established school governor, as chair of governors for the last 22 years in a busy primary school and has been an active partner in Safeguarding, Headteacher Performance Management, Staff recruitment and monitoring Teaching and Learning. Deirdre is also Vice Chair at another busy Primary School where she has a lead role in Safeguarding, Headteacher Performance Management, Staff recruitment and monitoring Teaching and Learning.
Skill Set: Safeguarding, school governance, education, training, and compliance
Appointed Date: 3 December 2019
Appointed By: Ordinary Resolution
Term in Office: 8 Years
Rakiya Begum
Trustee
Rakiya is an accomplished FCCA and ACCA professional with over 15 years of strategic leadership experience across the public and private sectors, including 10 years in the NHS. She has a proven track record of delivering substantial financial and operational improvements, having successfully led initiatives that achieved over £13 million in savings while maintaining high-quality outcomes.
In addition to her professional achievements, Rakiya has served as a school governor, contributing to strategic planning, financial oversight, and educational performance. Passionate about fostering inclusive and equitable education, she brings a strong commitment to ensuring every child has access to opportunities that unlock their potential. Rakiya's dedication to excellence, coupled with her strategic vision, aligns with the Trust's mission to empower schools to deliver outstanding education.
Skill Set: Financial planning, governance, stakeholder engagement and organisational transformation
Appointed Date: 28th November 2024
Appointed By: Ordinary Resolution
Term in Office: 4 Years
Robert Curran
Trustee
Bob Curran has 30 years` experience as a teacher and head teacher. During his school career, Bob has been Headteacher for over 13 years at three primary schools, two in Bradford and one in Leeds. Bob has helped steer the schools he has led through three successful Ofsted inspections. Whilst in post as Headteacher, Bob has also provided support for leadership at two other schools which help lead to successful Ofsted outcomes. Since retirement, Bob has also worked in a freelance capacity successfully supporting a newly-appointed Headteacher through their first year of Headship.
Skill Set: Ofsted, Leadership Support, Education
Appointed Date: 30 September 2024
Appointed By: Ordinary Resolution
Term in Office: 4 Years
Hugh Figgess
Trustee
Hugh Figgess has 27 years` experience as a teacher and head teacher. During the last 20 years his work has focussed on school leadership and leadership development. Hugh worked with Ofsted, Leeds Becket University and CCDU, a Leeds based education consultancy where he was the National College for School Leadership programme leader for NPQH and Team Programmes across the Yorkshire and Humber region. In recent years Hugh has worked with a wide range of primary school leadership teams supporting them to enhance leadership within their teams and across the school.
Skill Set: Education and leadership
Appointed Date: 3 December 2019
Appointed By: Ordinary Resolution
Term in Office: 8 Years
Brent Fitzpatrick MBE
Trustee
Brent Fitzpatrick MBE runs a financially successful business career spanning 26 years, his MBE for his service to school governance, his being a National Leader of Governance and a Trustee with the Birmingham based National Governance Association.
His business specialises in oil and gas production, oil services, Insurance, technology, clean energy and international property development. He has long time experience of chairing a number of governing bodies and is trustee role at Dixon’s Academy Trust.
Skill Set: Leading companies, managing projects and company mergers, school governance, and strategic financial management of schools
Appointed Date: 1st May 2022 (Reappointed)
Appointed By: Ordinary Resolution
Term in Office: 4 Years
Rhian Kelly
Trustee
Rhian Kelly has 30 years of working in the manufacturing and chemical industries and since 2005 has worked for Lubrizol Limited, a global speciality chemical company, at their Huddersfield facility as the Health, Safety and Environment Manager. Rhian has successfully instigated a comprehensive safety management system including processes to identify hazards and then manage the risks whilst engaging all relevant stakeholders from employees, senior leaders and the UK regulators.
Rhian has recently taken on a more strategic role within Lubrizol Limited as the Regional Europe Environment and Sustainability Manager.
Rhian was also a Governor, and vice chair, at Clayton Village Primary School from 2016 until the school joined Pennine Academies Yorkshire.
Skill Set: Change Management, Risk Management, Compliance
Appointed Date: 28th November 2024
Appointed By: Ordinary Resolution
Term in Office: 4 Years
Qia Mahfooz
Trustee
Qia has worked for the last 25 years as a Civil Servant for the Department of Work and Pensions as a Change Manager delivering a number of legislative/ministerial changes across the Departments organisation. She is heavily involved in Performance Management at senior levels and takes seriously the role of delivering value for money using public purse.
Qia has also been a skilled school Governor and vice chair of a large primary school.
Here she has monitored School Improvement and played an active role in a number of other key areas including lead role in subject areas, recruitment of staff and Headteacher performance management.
Skill Set: Change Management, Compliance, Performance Management, Education
Appointed Date: 7 February 2024
Appointed By: Ordinary Resolution
Term in Office: 4 years
Penny Silson
Trustee
Penny Silson worked for the NHS as a nurse and senior manager principally at Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust for 37 years. Penny's roles had a massive remit: managing wards; doctors; nurses; delivering high quality care to all patients; achieving all NHS targets; managing budgets; ensuring sound financial controls were in place; optimising all resources and developing innovative services with strong, robust business plans to ensure strategic and operational goals were met. Never one to stand still she undertook a Diploma in Business Management and a Masters in Organisational Change. Alongside this she became a Magistrate at Bradford Courts specialising in the family courts and she thoroughly enjoyed the 10 years she spent on the “bench”. In 2015 Penny joined the governing body at Clayton village Primary School, at that time a school “ requiring improvement“ she took over as chair later that year. Claytons journey was quite remarkable and through sheer hard work , vision , passion and commitment they achieved a “ solid good “ at the last Ofsted inspection. Penny has been the designated governor for safeguarding at CVPS and is also the safeguarding officer for ST Johns Church Clayton. Penny's passion, love and care she had whilst working in the NHS has been transferred to working within the educational establishment. Penny firmly believes “ Every Child Matters “ and is entitled to and deserves a first class education, in a happy, safe and inclusive environment.
Skill Set: Managing People, Financial and Risk Management, Business Planning , Managing Organisational Change and Leadership.
Appointed Date: 18 May 2022
Appointed By: Ordinary Resolution
Term in Office: 4 Years
Meeting attendance