Members
Roger Merryweather
Appointing Body - Other Appointed Member
Roger is a prominent local businessman and ex-High Sheriff of Nottingham. He is Director of the Southwell Heritage Trust and has been a long-standing governor at Lowes Wong Infants School. Roger's family have a long and historically significant association with the town of Southwell, being the first to cultivate the Bramley Apple on a larger scale in the 19th Century.
Chair of Board of Trustees (currently Nigel Turner)
Appointing Body - Ex-Officio
Nigel is a Chartered Accountant (recently retired) with 35 years' experience in general practice, the last 15 being managing partner of the Practice. His role encompassed all aspects of directing a team for mutual support and success. Nigel has been involved in the 'not for profit' and charity sectors for 27 years, affording him extensive experience in husbanding scarce resources including public funds.
Nigel was a governor of Minster School for 15 years the latter 10 of which were as Chair. Prior to his Chair position he headed the Governor team that delivered the £34M new school buildings on time and in budget.
Mark Tanner
Appointing Body - Ex-Officio
Mark is the Vicar of Radcliffe on Trent with Shelford and appointed by the Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham as Interim Chair of the Diocesan Board of Education. He has been a school Governor in the Dioceses of Southwell and Nottingham and Winchester for over 20 years.
Prior to moving to Winchester Diocese, Mark was a Governor at the Minster School and in 2008 Chaired the Interim Executive Board at the Magnus School in Newark. He retains a key interest in school improvement and desire to see Church Schools as centres of excellence.
Corporate Member - Diocesan Board of Finance - Martin Cooper
Southwell Minster Cathedral Chapter Member - Dean Neil Evans
Trustees
Nigel Turner
Chair of Board
See above for further information.
Moira Hepworth
Vice Chair
Moira is the Head of Law and Research for the UK’s professional Institute for local taxation matters. She has worked in this field for over 25 years. She manages a number of boards and committees, bringing together often disparate views from these groups in order to convey a clear professional response to government initiatives and consultations.
Moira frequently writes for in-house magazines on technical topics, with her work increasingly involved in consultancy projects for local and central government clients. She has a BA (Hons) degree in Public Administration and served as a Parent Governor at the Minster School for five years.
Meg Maunder
Meg has been a leader in educational leadership for a number of years and held significant roles at the National College for School Leadership (NCSL). She was Assistant Director of NCSL, with particular responsibility for developing National and International Leadership Programmes and their quality assurance. Meg was responsible for the College’s strategic role with governors and their associations, Equal Opportunities, the Black Pupil Achievement Programme and the Women’s Leadership Programme. She also represented the College at the Cabinet Office on leadership for diversity across all public service sectors.
Meg continues to undertake various roles in education as an independent consultant. She co-founded of Women into School Headship initiative and is a member of ASCL Senior Leadership Appointment Service.
Matthew Parris
Matthew is the strategic leader of the Minster Trust for Education and established the Trust in 2018. He was, until the end of the 2019-20 academic year, the Head Teacher of The Minster School and prior to that the Head of Rushey Mead Academy in Leicester. Both schools are highly successful National Teaching Schools.
Matthew is a National Leader of Education with a proven track record of successful school leadership and supporting others in their individual settings. He is committed to ensuring every child in the trust receives the highest quality of education in all its facets: academic, spiritual and experiential.
Diana Poole
Diana has a Masters Degree in Education. She is a member of the Nottinghamshire Governors Support Service and is often deployed to support governing bodies in their development of the very best practice.
Diana was longstanding Chairperson of Halam Primary School governing body and as such has been key in several successful Ofsted inspections, each of which (in the reports) has included positive reflections on the effectiveness of governance.
Tony Walker
Tony worked in Nottinghamshire schools for thirty-five years. Twenty of those as a head teacher. His first headship was in a small, high performing village school. This was followed by a thirteen-year tenure at Farnsfield St Michael’s C of E Primary School, a medium sized school set in a rural location. He joined the school when it was in special measures and on his retirement in December 2019 the school was judged by Ofsted to be good with outstanding features.
Throughout his time in teaching, Tony taught all ages within the primary range apart from Foundation. From 2013 until his retirement, he was a member of the Southwell and Nottingham Diocesan Board of Education. He also served on the strategic board of the East Midlands East Maths Hub.
In the last few years leading up to his retirement, Tony undertook national training to be a Church of England SIAMS inspector and carried out several Church School inspections within the Southwell and Nottingham Diocese.
Paul Anstey
Paul is currently the Chief Executive Officer (Government UK and Ireland) for Sodexo UK Ltd, with responsibility for £700m of revenues. Paul has experience of delivering a broad portfolio of services and innovative solutions to clients such as the Department of Work and Pensions, Police Service Northern Ireland, Metropolitan Police and the Ministry of Justice. Paul is an energetic and experienced CEO/MD with a proven track record of delivering growth and excellent results in both public and private equity-backed companies in the UK and globally.
Paul possesses a rare combination of skills across retial, leisure, and hospitality and relishes working in challenging high- change environments. A strong strategic thinker with solid commercial acumen, who through innovative cost control, strong leadership and a passion for customer service, consistently delivers sales and profit growth. He brings a high-level and contemporary business perspective to the board with specific knowledge around contracts, procurement and managing teams of employees. This acts as a good counter-perspective to the education and public sector expertise already present at board level. Paul is also a trustee of the Sodexo Foundation and understands the importance of good governance.
Michele Atkinson
Michele is a retired education professional who was previously a Deputy Head at The Minster School. During her time there, she led a number of key areas of particular relevance to the work of the Trust. Michele was part of the team, alongside Matthew Parris, to develop this Trust and bid for its establishment. Through this process she developed her understanding of the structures and operations of the Trust and developed some of the early iterations of systems and processes. After her retirement, Michele remained engaged with MITRE as a governor at The Minster School. She is also a magistrate in Nottingham.
Michele brings a wealth of experience in staff training and is very well-placed to support many aspects of the Trust's work, including initial teacher training, early career training, people strategy, HR in schools and community links and relationships. She also has a strong understanding of education provision, including curriculum development, the quality of teaching and strategic planning and self-evaluation.
Rebecca Pernetta
Rebecca is a qualified teacher who has worked in both the primary and secondary sectors for 18 years. She is employed by the Virtual School, which leads the local authority's statutory responsibilities for promoting the education of looked-after and previously looked-after children. Rebecca previously worked as an assistant educational psychologist.
Rebecca is very well-placed to support the vital SEND agenda at the Trust. This is a national priority in education and is a key development for the Trust and its schools. Rebecca's experience will also assist the Trust to consider how it addresses the increasing struggles of some pupils to access education due to barriers such as wider home circumstances and mental health needs.