South Pennine Academies
About Us
About Us
South Pennine Academies is a charitable multi academy trust established in 2012. Based in West Yorkshire, we currently work with eleven primary and secondary converter and sponsored academies located in Calderdale, Kirklees and Oldham. The Trust also operates Huddersfield Horizon SCITT, rated an Outstanding ITT provider by Ofsted.
The team at South Pennine Academies are committed to delivering school improvement through the development of effective partnerships with our academies, the communities we serve and external organisations. Our academies are an integral part of their local communities. We value the diversity and distinctive opportunities that working within our local communities brings. Development of local solutions to meet local needs is a key aspect of our work.
Strong collaborative working brings drive, expertise and capacity to all elements of our school improvement work, allowing school to school support to flourish. By working together, we provide a high quality educational experience and give everyone the best possible chance to achieve. Improving the life chances of all our students is central to our vision.
Outstanding learning starts with strong and effective leadership and high performing staff. We are committed to ensuring that we recruit, develop and retain high quality staff, ensuring all have access to excellent professional development opportunities. We always aim to be an employer of choice.
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Our Vision, Values and Key Priorities
Vision
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To develop a group of closely partnered academies
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To ensure all academies are world class Centres of Excellence for Teaching and Learning
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To ensure the Trust plays a pivotal role in improving the life chances of students
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To develop local solutions and partnerships to meet local needs
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To promote school improvement with inclusion and diversity at its core
Values
South Pennine Academies believes in school improvement through a partnership model. This brings drive, expertise and capacity to the school improvement agenda. We recognize and encourage each academy’s unique characteristics and ethos, reinforcing their individual identities within their respective communities.
Working within a multi academy trust allows school to school support to flourish. Becoming part of our partnership will allow you to become a leader not a follower and be involved in shaping the partnership rather than having it shaped for you.
Key Priorities
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Strong and effective leaders
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High performing staff
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Successful students
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Engaged community
- Resilient and sustainable organisation
The Executive Team
Chief Executive Officer/Accounting Officer - Lynda Johnson
Lynda was appointed as the Trust’s Chief Executive Officer in January 2023. As the CEO, Lynda is responsible for the overall success of the Trust and all the academies within it. She has been a highly successful leader in education for over twenty years including being an Executive Head Teacher, School Improvement Partner, National Leader of Education and Ofsted Inspector.
Lynda has a great deal of leadership experience in transforming organisations and developing people, including achieving three concurrent outstanding inspection outcomes in three primary academies as CEO of a previous Trust. She firmly believes in a values driven organisation with children and young people at the heart of everything.
Operations Director - Roz Batley
Roz brings a wealth of experience in school leadership, with particular emphasis on finance and business management in the secondary sector. She has experience of Academy conversion, and is designated as a Specialist Leader of Education. She has extensive experience of working on Governing Bodies in both primary and secondary education. She has been a member of a primary governing body for 19 years and held the role of Chair for over 10 years.
Education Director - Alison Black
Alison Black is our Education Director. She has thirteen years' experience as a headteacher and school improvement adviser and was previously Executive Principal of two of our primary academies in East Oldham. As a headteacher, Alison has successfully led three newly sponsored academies to achieve good inspection gradings as well as achieving outstanding in her first headship. Alison leads the Academy Effectiveness Team to work with schools in a range of activities to support school improvement including monitoring effectiveness through data analysis and reviews, supporting self -evaluation, building capacity in leadership and provision of high quality professional development for the whole workforce.
Finance Director - Keith Rushton
Keith joined the Trust in summer 2017. He is a qualified accountant and a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. He has 28 years experience working for a range of international accountancy firms. He has specialised in the education sector for over 20 years, working with a large number of colleges, universities, academies, and independent schools. He brings a wealth of experience from providing internal audit, external audit and advisory services to his clients. Keith is an expert in education and charity finance, balancing an excellent understanding of the education sector with a commercial outlook.
HR Director - Luke Ricketts
Luke Joined the Trust in October 2023. He has over 20 years' experience supporting HR in educational settings. He has a Master's Degree in Human Resource Management and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). He is a Safer Recruitment Trainer and a Mental Health First Aider.
The Academy Effectiveness Team
Alison Black - Education Director
Alison is Director of Standards and Continuous Improvement at SPA. She has thirteen years' experience as a headteacher and school improvement adviser and was previously Executive Principal of two of our primary academies in East Oldham. As a headteacher, Alison has successfully led three newly sponsored academies to achieve good inspection gradings as well as achieving outstanding in her first headship. Alison leads the Academy Effectiveness Team to work with schools in a range of activities to support school improvement including monitoring effectiveness through data analysis and reviews, supporting self -evaluation, building capacity in leadership and provision of high quality professional development for the whole workforce.
Rebecca Denham - Head of Primary Improvement
Rebecca is the Head of School Improvement for South Pennine Academies. She has ten years' experience as a headteacher and school improvement advisor. Rebecca has been an Executive headteacher of two primary schools and lead one of the schools from requires improvement to outstanding and the other to good. In Rebecca s first headship her school consistently performed in the top one hundred schools in the country raising as high as 9th in the 2017 league tables. She has Local Leader of Education status and has a wide experience of primary education. Rebecca leads the Academy Effectiveness Team to work within the primary schools in a range of activities to support school improvement including monitoring effectiveness through data analysis and reviews, supporting self -evaluation, building capacity in leadership and provision of high-quality professional development for the whole workforce.
Sarah Cunningham - Primary Improvement Advisor & Deputy Head of Early Teacher Development
Sarah is the Primary Improvement Advisor for South Pennine Academies and the Deputy Head of Early Teacher Development.
Sarah has been in Primary Education for over 30 years and has worked in Kent, London, Hertfordshire and Kirklees. She has been an Early Years Foundation Lead, both a Key Stage 1 & 2 Lead, an Assistant Head and Head of School. Sarah is a designated Specialist Leader of Education and considers the SLE role to be an important and integral consultancy role supporting teachers in their own learning and professional development. She is a SLE for various areas in Primary Education including as an English Specialist, Cross Phase planning, Early Years, Behaviour Management, SEND, Mentoring and PSHCE. Sarah has delivered regional training for local authorities, local cluster training groups and INSET CPD for whole school training events, ECTs, and Middle Leaders. Sarah has Moderated for Kirklees Local Authority, and is a facilitator for the OLEVI teaching programmes including the Outstanding Teaching Programme Plus+.
Sarah works as the Deputy Head of Huddersfield Horizon SCITT, judged as outstanding in November 2019. Sarah has mentored ECTs, coached students through various stages of their teacher training, delivered training at Huddersfield University and written and implemented mentoring and coaching programmes for teachers in the early part of their careers.
Amanda Underhill - Secondary Improvement Leader
Amanda is a Secondary Improvement Leader for the Academy Effectiveness Team at South Pennine Academies. Before joining the Trust, Amanda held a number of middle leadership and extended senior leadership roles which included leading a successful English department. She graduated with an MA in Teaching and Learning at Leeds Metropolitan University in June 2013 and in 2014 was designated as a Specialist Leader of Education (SLE) for English. She is the professional development lead for Trust, and has experience facilitating various national programmes, including the ECF curriculum and the NPQLTD, as well as designing and facilitating bespoke professional development sessions and programmes for the Trust and their secondary academies. Since January 2023, Amanda has also worked as lead facilitator for the Specialist National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) for East Manchester Teaching School Hub. Amanda’s role as Secondary Improvement Leader supports the leadership and implementation of the Trust’s Secondary Strategy, with a focus on Teaching and Learning, and professional development. Amanda is passionate about working with teachers and leaders to review, develop and innovate practice to improve outcomes for learners, as well as to grow and retain talent at classroom and leadership level within the profession.
Nicola Jablonski - Primary Improvement Leader
Nicola is the Primary Improvement Leader and is part of the Academy Effectiveness Team for South Pennine Academies. Before joining the Trust, she spent her teaching career in primary schools within the Oldham borough, with various responsibilities. She led both KS1 and KS2, and has led many subjects: Mathematics, Science, PE, RE, Humanities (Geography and History), and PSHCE. As Assistant Head in two primaries, she had overall responsibility for curriculum, its intent, content and implementation. Throughout her career she has been involved with supporting the development of others through mentoring, performance management, leading teams and coaching. Nicola has worked for Huddersfield Horizon SCITT, where she was responsible for the design and implementation of the Primary Curriculum. She is a tutor for the trainees in our SCITT and is part of the Quality Assurance committee. Nicola also facilitates for East Manchester Teaching School for Year 1 and Year 2 ECT's. Nicola was awarded with ‘North West Teacher of the Year’ at the National Teaching Awards. Nicola has successfully completed NPQLTD and NPQH.