Members & Directors

Uffculme Academy Trust is governed by Members and Directors. Each must declare any pecuniary interests they have in relation to the work of the Trust and in relation to the business on each meeting’s agenda. A register of interests is maintained and is accessible to the public. Each year Members and Directors must agree to our Code of Conduct, which encompasses the Nolan Principles of public life. Members and Directors are required to make an annual declaration of their eligibility to be part of the Trust and a safeguarding declaration.

Members

Members oversee the work of the Trust and are responsible for overarching decisions, such as changing the Trust’s Articles of Association, and the appointment of Directors and Governors.  Our Members subscribed to the formation of the Trust and meet the obligations set out in our Articles of Association.

Members may hold Directors and the Board to account, and in this way ensure that the Trust is working to best effect. In our Trust Members are also Directors and participate in Board meetings, enabling them to keep in close touch with our work and contribute knowledge and expertise to the Board’s work.

Our Members are:

  • Sue Brewer
  • Emma Fielding
  • Faith Jarrett
  • Moira Marder.

Directors

Between nine and eleven Directors are appointed by our Members to take responsibility for the strategic direction of the Trust, working in the way that a Board oversees a company or charity.

Members and Directors are expected to attend meetings regularly and to submit apologies for any meetings they cannot attend A record of attendance at Trust meetings is maintained, and is available to the public. A review of attendance can lead to action to remove Members or Directors from their role.

Directors responsibilities are set out in our Terms of Reference and include:

  • ensuring the Trust is being run effectively
  • controlling its management and administration
  • ensuring the Trust maintains its vision and values and delivers the outcomes which it has defined for pupils and the Trust.

Our Directors include the Trust’s Chief Executive Officer.

The Trust's Director of Finance and Resources is not a Director of the Trust but informs Trust meetings as required.

Information on each Member and Director is given below and in our Annual Report, which also sets out for each person their term of office and, for the year in question, their attendance record at our meetings.  

 

Julia Adamson

Julia is the Vice Chair and Director of the Trust, and also Chairs the Finance Premises and Risk Committee. She has over 20 years education experience, including as a Primary teacher and a subject leader. She has a track record of successfully managing education technology programmes and was involved in the establishing of Barefoot Computing across the UK and is now the Director of Education at BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and responsible for Computing at School, the network for computing teachers.

Julia is particularly interested in inclusion, and from her own experience understands how technology can impact positively on progress for all children, particularly those with additional needs.

Julia has three children and has served as a parent governor at various schools for many years.

Sue Brewer

Sue is both a Director and a Member of the Trust. She is Headteacher of a Primary School in Somerset and has worked within education for many years across different phases. Prior to her current Headship, Sue was Headteacher of a Primary School in Devon for 10 years. Sue was a member of the governing body of Uffculme School for 12 years before becoming a director/trustee of UAT, and has been a school governor in other schools previously; her involvement with school governing bodies has spanned the last 25 years.

Sue has represented Headteachers both in Devon and Somerset on a variety of Local Authority Boards and currently sits on the Somerset Schools Forum. Sue is a previous Chair of the Board of Directors and currently Chairs the UAT Director Personnel Committee. 

Max Graesser

Max is a Director and Chairs the UAT Board of Directors. Max worked for 30 years at ITV. Starting as a programme maker in news and documentaries, he went on to manage the production business for Granada TV before being appointed Managing Director, Operations for ITV News Group in 2004, and Operations Director for ITV plc in 2006.

On leaving ITV in 2009 he was appointed a trustee of the ITV Pension Scheme and in January 2013 was elected Chair of Trustees. He was subsequently appointed independent Chair of Trustees for three schemes within the Babcock International Group.

He is currently also the Chair of Trustees for the UK Schemes of Ricoh Europe.

Lorraine Heath OBE

Lorraine is the Trust's Chief Executive Officer and a Director of the Trust. She became Headteacher of Uffculme School in 2008.   Prior to this she worked in a number of secondary schools in Somerset. Lorraine started her career at Ladymead in Taunton (now The Taunton Academy) before moving to Huish Episcopi, then taking up the post of Head of English at Court Fields. Following a year working as an English consultant for the National Strategies, Lorraine returned to Ladymead as Assistant Head and subsequently Deputy, from where she moved to Uffculme School.

In 2013 Lorraine was elected onto the regional Headteacher Board where she worked with Outstanding South West Heads and Sir David Carter when he was RSC on the Academies programme for the region.

Lorraine is a Director of Richard Huish Trust and a governor on the Local Governing Board of The Taunton Academy. As a National Leader in Education Lorraine regularly works with Headteachers across the region, providing advice and support for schools as required.

In 2019 Lorraine was awarded the OBE for services to education.

Emma Fielding

Emma is a Member of the Trust.

Emma is the Principal at Richard Huish College, Taunton. She began her career in education as an educational researcher at the University of Cambridge before going on to train as a history and sociology teacher. She has since worked in the Post-16 educational sector for 17 years in a variety of roles including:  Head of School and Teaching and Learning at Varndean College in Brighton, History PGCE Convenor at Sussex University and, most recently, as Assistant Principal for academic studies at Exeter College.

Emma is a member of the national AQA Curriculum and Assessment Quality Committee and has contributed to a range of best practice Ofsted materials and professional development training for the Post-16 sector. Emma has a particular interest in teacher professional development and is passionate about the importance of providing high quality comprehensive education for all our young people.

Jill Larcombe

Jill is not only a Director of the Trust, but is also the Chair of the Uffculme Primary School Local Governing Committee, a member of the Uffculme School Local Governing Committee and is supporting the Axe Valley Academy Local Governiing Committee by Chairing in the short term. 

Through the Teaching School College South West she is a Local Leader of Governance. 

After 27 years as a dairy and sheep farmer Jill made a career change and moved into local council administration. She is now a self-employed bookkeeper, parish council clerk and clerks within two maintained school federations.

Jill has been a school governor for 21 years, 19 of which have been at Uffculme. In her capacity as a member of the board of Devon Association of Governance she is a secondary academy governor representative on the Devon Education Forum and a represents governors on the Devon Children & Families Education Advisory Group. 

Moira Marder

Moira is a Member of the Trust. She is the Chief Executive Officer of the Ted Wragg Multi Academy Trust, a five school Trust responsible for providing collaborate and inclusive education for over 3,000 children aged 2-16 across the Greater Exeter area. 

Prior to this, Moira was a teacher in London for 14 years, joining St James School, Exeter in 2007 as a Deputy Headteacher, later becoming Headteacher.

Moira has a relentless passion for school improvement and is a National Leader of Education.

Jenny Sutton

Jenny Sutton is a Director of the Trust. She is employed as the South West Director for ‘Teach First’, the largest graduate recruiter nationally and currently third in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers. She was the founding ‘Teach First’ South West Director, launching the charity in the region in 2013 since when she has built the team and the profile of ‘Teach First’ across the South West with schools, universities and businesses. Jenny is an ambassador for the programme having successfully completed the Teach First programme when it was launched in 2004 in London.  

Jenny worked as an English Teacher, Head of Performing and Expressive Arts and Assistant Head for Curriculum at Highbury Grove School, Islington, for six years.  During this time, Highbury Grove School went from an Ofsted rating of Requires Improvement to one of Outstanding.  Jenny successfully completed the Future Leaders Programme, a transformative leadership development programme for senior leaders with the potential to become headteachers of schools in challenging contexts within three years.  Jenny went on to spend two years working as an education consultant in post-16 and data for ‘Learning Plus UK’, before joining the senior leadership team of The City Academy, Hackney. 

As a passionate advocator of the Arts (Exeter University Drama graduate) and of a broad and balanced curriculum, Jenny is delighted to be a Director of Uffculme Academy Trust board at an exciting time in the Trust’s development.

Shaun Vickery

Shaun Vickery is a Director of the Trust. He is a qualified accountant and Director of SMV Associates, a local firm of Chartered Certified Accountants which he set up over 20 years ago.The business employs two other qualified staff and four trainees studying for their ACCA qualification.

Shaun is married with two children. He attended Uffculme School and his elder child now attends the school.

Faith Jarrett

Faith is a Member of the UAT.

Faith has worked as a teacher in secondary education for the last 39 years; thirteen as Head of The King's School in Ottery St Mary, Devon. The King's was graded outstanding by Ofsted at its last two inspections. Since September 2016 she has worked as an education consultant working on school improvement with over twenty secondary schools primarily across Devon, Dorset, Somerset and North Somerset. She has been a governor in a PRU and in a special school and now carries out bespoke governor training on behalf of Babcock LDP.

Robert Lea

Robert Lea is a Director of the Trust. He has over 20 years experience working in the investment management industry as a fund manager, analyst and strategist. Robert has held a number of senior positions during his career to date, including as a Global Equity Strategist at UBS Investment Bank, Head of Global Equity Research and Managing Director. He is also a qualified Chartered Accountant.

Robert previously spent eight years working in Asia, where he was individually ranked as one of the top-three equity analysts in the industry. He also achieved a top-three ranking in Europe, gaining 15 minutes of fame as one of the few investment strategists to call the top of the cycle ahead of the 2008 global financial crisis.

Robert currently lives in Somerset where he spends his free time enjoying the countryside with his wife and two children.