Our staff
Sharon Roberts
CEO
Sharon has been a headteacher since 2008 and is a National Leader of Education and a Founding Fellow of the Chartered College. She has experience of school leadership in a range of contexts. This includes executive headship and leadership of school improvement in the London Borough of Sutton. She is currently the Executive Headteacher of two schools’ within the Trust overseeing strategic planning and whole school improvement, with a particular focus on standards.
Karen Coleman
Head of Finance/ Chief Finance Officer
Karen has 14 years’ experience managing finance, HR and premises in schools and has a finance background previous to that. Karen works closely with all the schools in the Trust to offer financial support, budget monitoring, ensuring value for money and financial compliance. Karen is currently studying for the AAT qualification.
David Bennett
Trust Operations Officer
David has managed educational estates and health & safety since 1996. He has been an active Parent and Staff school governor over many years. Previous roles include GMB Branch Secretary specialising in education health & safety and member of the GMB National Education Committee. Within the social sector, voluntary roles have included chairperson of two registered charities, Community director for Sutton Single Regeneration Bid and an elected community board member of the Metropolitan and Hyde Housing Management Board.
Claire Marriott
HR Manager
Claire is a qualified (CIPD) HR professional and has been supporting schools with their strategic and operational HR needs for the past 10 years.
Shareen Hogg
Attendance Officer
Coming from a Police background, Shareen has over 20 years’ experience in school attendance. She leads attendance across the trust and works closely with school's and families to ensure children maintain a full and regular attendance at school.
Aneta Barsauskiene
Finance Processing Team Manager
Aneta works closely with the Finance Director and Head of HR. She is a graduated AAT student and has over 8 years experience working in finance roles.
Lisa Tilleray
Admissions Officer and Data Admin Support to the Trust
Lisa was appointed to the role of Admissions Officer in April 2018 having previously managed admissions at Stanley Park Infants’ School for 3 years. Lisa is responsible for admissions throughout the Trust for both nursery and school and is based at Stanley Park Infants’ School.
School Improvement Team
Louise Wood
Director of Teaching and Learning
Louise has worked at Barrow Hedges since September 2007, initially as class teaching Deputy Headteacher, before becoming Acting Headteacher in April 2011. Louise completed her NPQH (National Professional Qualification for Headship) in 2012 and was appointed as Headteacher in the same year. Aside from two periods of maternity leave (in 2012/13 and 2016/17,) Louise has been Headteacher of Barrow Hedges for the past eleven years. Louise is completing her NPQEL (National Professional Qualification for Executive Leadership). Louise is really enjoying working with colleagues across the Trust.
Claire Bignell
Trust Assessment Lead
Claire has been a Deputy Head at Avenue Primary Academy since 2015 and works closely with the Head Teacher on the strategic development of the school and is also responsible for assessment and Pupil Premium.
Claire has considerable experience in the analysis of pupil data and was appointed as the CPAT Assessment Lead in September 2021. Since working for the Trust School Improvement Team, she has created a strategic plan for assessment and how it informs the curriculum, teaching, and interventions. She has a consistent approach to assessment, where all schools follow the same scale and analysis templates. She has ensured that the MIS system, Arbor, is used efficiently and effectively to support staff in setting targets and analysing data.
Each year Claire analyses published data using ASP for KS1 and 2 progress and attainment, and the Year 1 phonics check. This is an important part of her annual role, as it enables her to monitor closely how the Trust schools are performing in relation to national figures. This information is used to inform relevant members of staff and shared with governors and Trustees. To go alongside the ASP analysis, Claire writes detailed case studies about any area where, from the external data, gaps or trends are exposed.
Claire is confident in her ability to analyse and present data, appropriately to a variety of stakeholders (governors, members of SLT, Trustees etc). Claire enjoys being challenged by these audiences, through questioning and discussions.
Marianne Wilson
Trust English Lead
Marianne has been a primary school teacher since 2010 and is English Lead and part of the Senior Leadership Team at Barrow Hedges Primary Academy. During her teaching career, she has also been an external moderator for the London Borough of Sutton. In her role as English Lead in the Cirrus Improvement Team, Marianne provides strategic support for the Trust as a whole and bespoke support for each school. Marianne is working towards a goal of driving standards in teaching and learning of English across all Cirrus schools; this ensures that every child is given the opportunity to leave primary school being confident in their reading, writing and communication skills. The support provided includes working closely with the English leaders in schools, organising development opportunities for staff within the Trust and supporting senior leaders with monitoring and evaluative activities.
Janine Whittle
Trust EYFS Lead
Janine has been a primary school teacher since 1997 and is the Early Years Lead and part of the Senior Leadership Team at Barrow Hedges Primary School. During her teaching career, Janine has led on many aspects of education across all phases, but her passion lies in Early Years where she truly believes the greatest impact on a child’s education is made in their formative years.
Janine understands that a child’s experience between birth to five has a major bearing on their future life chances. Therefore, believing that every child deserves the best possible start in life, strives to offer the highest standard of education. This is evidenced by her dedication, passion and love of Early Years teaching; through high expectations of herself, staff and pupils and by her commitment and enthusiasm for systematic improvement to raise standards throughout her teaching career.
Janine’s work in Early Years has been validated through successful Ofsted inspections, the Early Years Quality Mark and high scoring ECERS (Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale) inspections.
Janine became the CPAT Leader for EYFS in 2021. Her role is to empower leaders across the Trust to offer high quality Early Years education, thus enabling their youngest learners to flourish and to be the best they can be. Janine was awarded Inspirational Leader of the Year 2021-22.
Becky Cheetham
Trust Maths Lead
Becky has been a primary school teacher since 2014 and is Maths Lead and member of the Senior Leadership Team at Barrow Hedges Primary Academy. Becky is passionate about Maths and within her role as the Trust Maths lead, is committed to ensuring high quality teaching and consistent learning. Becky is responsible for monitoring standards of Maths across our 5 primary schools which allows her to identify strengths and areas of development. Becky also works closely with the Maths Leads and Headteachers across the Trust, enabling her to provide bespoke support to each school to further improve the Trust's Maths standards as a whole.
Kate Hayward
Trust SEND Lead
Kate is the Trust SEND Lead as well as the Assistant Headteacher and SENCo at Wallington Primary Academy. Throughout her 25 years in education, Kate has a wealth of experience in teaching and leadership which has been focused on Inclusion. For the last 15 years as a Senior Leader, Kate has championed inclusive practice for all children in removing barriers to enable them to fulfil their potential as well as securing the right educational support for these pupils as they progress through education. This work has been recognised and externally validated by Ofsted and IQM. In a wider Leadership capacity, Kate is an ECT tutor, supporting behaviour across the school, working on a number of school improvement projects involving curriculum development and design with a focus on diversity in the curriculum, Pupil Premium Strategies and OPAL (outdoor play and learning) to enrich and improve the quality of play.