Trust Central Staff (ID 1062)

• John Henrys
  Chief Executive Officer
  John Henrys

  John has worked as CEO of LwLAT since 2019. Previously he has worked as a Local Authority advisor and on senior teams at school and trust level in the West Midlands and Northamptonshire. He has a deep understanding of effective systems within a Multi Academy Trust and this knowledge ensures the schools are working as effectively as they can in key areas of their operation. This knowledge also ensures that systems are in place that enable the trust to hold themselves to account across a number of KPIs, ensuring that the right resource is deployed in the right areas to support across the trust.

  John welcomes the challenge of working in the education sector and is a Trustee, and Chair of the Education Standards Committee for a high performing trust in Northamptonshire. John is also currently the Chair of a Pupil Referral Unit School Management Committee in Leicester City.

• David Goulding
  Chief Operating Officer
  David Goulding

  Dave works alongside a range of internal & external stakeholders to communicate a clear vision and strategy. He is the lead on the planning and delivery of a multi-million-pound transformation and condition project, ensuring that capital funding delivers. Upon project completion, long-term success is secured by the outstanding service that our teams in IT & Estates provide for our students, staff, and communities.

  Dave is passionate about the education sector and making a positive difference by working with people who want the best for the children and staff within our Trust. He has served as a governor for 8 years and is currently the Chair of Governors to the largest primary school in his home city of Coventry.

  Dave has 13 years of experience in education. He started as an IT apprentice in 2010 and began working at Lancaster Academy in 2015 as IT Manager on the delivery of the Building Schools for the Future Programme, gaining accreditation in Prince 2, Agile and ITIL. He then joined the extended Senior Team at Lancaster, leading on marketing & admissions and supporting with behaviour and safeguarding as a DDSL. In 2018, Dave moved to the Trust Central Executive Team to lead on IT and marketing across the Trust and in 2021 took on responsibility for Health & Safety, Estates and Admissions.

• Michelle Plumtree
  Chief Finance Officer
  Michelle Plumtree

  Michelle is a knowledgeable and experienced qualified finance professional who leads on all aspects of finance, both strategically and operationally across the Learning without Limits Academy Trust. With a strong background in finance and leadership, Michelle brings a wealth of experience in financial planning, budgeting, and risk management. She is dedicated to ensuring the financial health and sustainability of the trust, enabling it to provide high-quality education to all pupils.

  Michelle has a proven track record of implementing effective financial controls and an approach which focuses on maximising the impact of financial resources while also supporting the strategic aims of the trust. Her leadership and expertise have been instrumental in navigating complex financial landscapes and fostering a culture of transparency and accountability.

  In her role, Michelle collaborates closely with senior leadership, trustees, and other stakeholders to align financial practices with the trust's mission and vision. She is committed to continuous improvement and innovation, leveraging data-driven insights to inform decision-making and improve educational outcomes and enhance financial and operational efficiencies.

• Abigail Evans
  Chief Administrative Officer
  Abigail Evans

  As CAO, Abigail's role is to oversee consistency of Trust-wide systems, processes, policies and procedures ensuring both compliance and efficiencies, in time and money. Abigail works closely with the Executive Team, leading on procurement, policies, and the complex administrative aspects of people management. She also oversees the dine@ inhouse catering service.

  Abigail holds the Level 7 CIPFA qualification in School Financial & Operational Leadership and is a Fellow of the Institute of School Business Leaders (ISBL). After gaining a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design, Abigail worked as a Design and Project Manager in the marketing industry for 10 years before retraining and obtaining her Certificate of School Business Management (CSBM).

  Abigail joined LwLAT as COO in 2019, during which time she honed her skills and expertise, responding to the needs of a developing and continually improving Trust. This led to Abigail becoming a Diploma member of the Charted Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) and an Agile Project Management Practitioner.

  Abigail enjoys supporting Academy based staff through regular onsite visits and collaborative working. Abigail is passionate about staff wellbeing and understands when people feel valued they give the best of themselves. Given the right environment, both staff and students will flourish.

  With 16 years experience in school governance, Abigail is currently serving as Vice-Chair and community governor at a Secondary Academy in her local area. Abigail is committed to ensuring children from all backgrounds have access to good quality education, giving them the best chance to succeed.

• Jessica Yates
  Human Resources Officer
  Jessica Yates

  Jess is the HR Officer at Learning without Limits Academy Trust (LwLAT). She holds an LLB Law degree and has recently completed her CIPD Level 5 qualification, providing a strong professional grounding in employment law and HR best practice.

  Jess began her HR career working as an HR Consultant, before moving into the higher education sector, where she partnered with both academic and professional services teams, developing strong business partnering expertise.

  At LwLAT, Jess leads the HR function across the Trust, advising colleagues, developing policies and procedures, supporting recruitment, and ensuring HR systems are effective and compliant. Jess works closely with all of our schools to promote positive employee relations, staff wellbeing, and the operational effectiveness of the Trust as it continues to grow.

• Lorna Chandler
  Director of Secondary Education
  Lorna Chandler

  Lorna has been working in school leadership for more than 20 years, including several years as a secondary head. After a spell in industry, Lorna began her teaching career as a science teacher, then as a faculty leader, where she worked with several training partnerships to develop PGCE students and teachers in the early stages of their careers.

  After several years as a senior leader at an outstanding all-through school, Lorna shifted her focus to schools that required urgent, rapid improvement. As Vice Principal and Principal, Lorna has played a key role in the improvement journey of multiple schools. Prior to her first headship, Lorna served as a school improvement lead for a large multi-academy trust, working with leaders across academies to develop the curriculum offer and ensure the needs of vulnerable learners were met.

  Building on her master's degree in education, with a focus on equality, diversity, and inclusion, Lorna is committed to ensuring that all children can access the education they need to thrive. Lorna is the school improvement lead for LwLAT secondary academies, working in partnership with Kate Madia (Primary Lead) on a range of overarching strategic priorities spanning both primary and secondary phases.

• Kate Madia
  Director of Primary Education
  Kate Madia

• Natalie Collins
  Trust Implementation Coach
  Natalie Collins

  Having recently completed a NPQ in ‘Teacher Development', Natalie is responsible for developing teaching & learning across the Trust and supporting the implementation of the curriculum. Central to Natalie's role is collaboration; building relationships and working with learning teams and staff across the schools with a shared ambition to inspire a new generation of leaders and teachers. Natalie's career began as a primary teacher in Leicester, and later trained as a Reading Recovery teacher, igniting a passion for ensuring that all children learn and love reading. She is an experienced teaching and learning consultant and is focussed on closing the attainment gap to improve chances for young people. Natalie is inspired by the children and young people she meets and works alongside colleagues to drive a culture of high aspirations.

• Kim Kent
  Trust Supervision Lead
  Kim Kent

  Kim is the Learning without Limits Academy Trust (LwLAT) Safeguarding Supervision Lead. Prior to being part of the central team at the Trust, Kim was an Assistant Principal, SENCO and Designated Safeguarding Lead at a local school. Up until recently, Kim has been the LwLAT Trust's Safeguarding Lead.

  Following completion of the NSPCC and Safeguarding Network's Reflective Safeguarding Supervision training, Kim is now responsible for providing staff with support to empower them to further focus on the experience, well-being and progress of learners. Kim works closely with the current safeguarding lead and Academy safeguarding teams to ensure that there is a robust safeguarding culture throughout the Trust.

• Martine Boyd
  Trust Safeguarding and Attendance Lead
  Martine Boyd

  Martine is our Trust safeguarding and attendance lead focusing on supporting our schools to ensure the well-being of the students remains at the forefront of our work and consistent safeguarding and attendance practices are fully complaint and confidently embedded.

  Martine has completed a wide range of training to ensure the role of a Trust Safeguarding Lead can be fulfilled, as well as ensuring her registration remains current as a Social Worker. Martine successfully completed the NPQLBC in 2023/2024.

• Farana Hanif
  Finance Manager
  Farana Hanif

  Farana Hanif is an ACCA qualified finance professional with over 10 years of extensive experience within the education sector. She recently joined Learning Without Limits Academy Trust as Finance Manager, where she leads a team of finance professionals and oversees the Trust's overall financial health.

  With a strong background in Business Partnering, Farana brings expertise in budgeting, forecasting, financial analysis, and stakeholder management. Her approach focuses on supporting decision makers with clear financial insight and strategic guidance.

  In her role, Farana works closely with senior leadership, trustees, and external stakeholders to ensure the Trust's financial operations are robust, well governed, and aligned with audit requirements. She is committed to strengthening financial processes and contributing to the long term sustainability and success of the Trust.

• Laura Hardie
  Finance Business Partner
  Laura Hardie

• Pindy Kandola
  Finance Business Partner
  Pindy Kandola

  Pindy is an experienced Finance Business Partner with close to 20 years experience in Finance working across a range of industries, with the last 4 years being spent in the education sector. She is adept at providing strategic financial support to facilitate high-quality educational outcomes. Pindy is highly skilled in budgeting, forecasting, and long-term financial planning across complex, multi-entity environments, with a strong understanding of education funding and regulatory requirements, as well as being a trusted advisor to senior academic leaders, known for translating complex financial information into clear, actionable insight, strengthening decision-making, governance, and the effective stewardship of public funds.

• Matthew Hand
  Lead Governance Professional
  Matthew Hand

  Matt joined the Trust in 2023 and has considerable experience in the governance sector. As Lead Governance Professional, Matt plays a pivotal role in ensuring that the Trust's governance structures operate effectively, enabling high‑quality decision‑making aligned with the Trust's strategic priorities. This in turn supports the Trust in delivering strong educational outcomes, safeguarding public funds, and maintaining high standards of leadership.

  Acting as the central point of contact for governance matters, Matt ensures compliance with the Academy Trust Handbook, Companies Act obligations, and charity governance expectations. He provides advice on governance matters to Trustees, Governors & the wider team

  Matt leads on clerking the Board and its Committees and oversees the clerking arrangements of the Local Governing Bodies. He also leads on the Trust wide development programme for Trustees and Governors and provides support when the Trust seeks to appoint new representatives on the Board and its committees.

• Paul Pierce
  Technical Systems Manager
  Paul Pierce

  Paul's role as Technical Systems Manager primarily involves the management and development of the Trust's central IT network, whilst line managing and providing 3rd line support to the Senior IT Technicians across our academies.

  Paul has been a part of Learning without Limits Academy Trust in various ICT roles and continues to develop professionally, recently completing Fortinet NSE4 training to further his knowledge on the firewall system across the Trust.

  Paul has a First-class degree in Computer Networking from the University of Wolverhampton and has played an integral part of a £3.5m IT Refresh Project across 5 schools, including replacing servers, firewalls, Wi-Fi, telephone system, end user/classroom hardware and much more. He is dedicated to building positive relationships across the Trust and ensuring that a high level of customer service is consistently provided from the IT Services team.

• Jordan Weston
  IT Services Lead
  Jordan Weston

  Jordan joined South Wigston High School in 2014, beginning his career supporting staff and learners with day-to-day IT systems and infrastructure. In 2022, he moved to Babington Academy as Senior IT Tech where further developed his skills.

  In his position as IT Services Lead, Jordan is responsible for managing daily escalations from the internal IT team and providing training initiatives to enhance team capabilities. Alongside his technical expertise, he has strengthened his leadership and operational skills through completing the Level 5 Operations qualification, supporting his role in leading teams and driving service improvement across the trust.

• Scott Letts
  Estates and Compliance Manager
  Scott Letts

• Andrea Jarvis
  Trust Catering Manager
  Andrea Jarvis

  Andrea is the manager of our in-house catering service, dine@, looking after Primary and Secondary Academies for LwLAT. As Catering Manager, Andrea is responsible for Compliance, Menu Planning & Implementation and working towards NetZero with suppliers, Academies and the Trust. She is also responsible for the dine@ catering team which she helps to develop through a passion for training.

  Andrea has a wealth of knowledge and experience; she has received a First Class Honours degree in Hotel and Catering Management and has vast experience in Retail High Street Restaurants, Business & Industry and Schools & Universities, and is currently nearing the completion of a level 5 apprenticeship in Operations Management with HIT training.

  To create healthy and sustainable menus, Andrea was recently proud to achieve the Silver School Plates Award in association with ProVeg for a second year running. To help promote our catering service in the community, she enjoys getting involved with students to create theme days and recently welcomed parents into our Primaries to enjoy Christmas lunch and breakfast. Collaboration with students is a key part of the role and she enjoys involving students in studies and planning for events, such as the Nourish project in conjunction with School Food Matters.

• Tom Westwood
  Marketing & Events Manager
  Tom Westwood

  Tom plays a key role in supporting communications and marketing across the Learning without Limits Academy Trust. With a strong background in both education and event management, he is responsible for developing and delivering high-quality communications that engage families, promote each school's unique identity, and reflect the Trust's values. His work includes managing digital content, designing promotional materials, supporting recruitment campaigns, and supporting to coordinate events across the trust schools.

  Tom is particularly passionate about making communications clear, inclusive, and impactful. He brings a creative, solutions-focused approach to every project, with a commitment to celebrating the achievements of pupils, staff, and the wider school community.