Biographies
Miss Karen Bradford - Vice-Chair
Karen is the Chief Executive of South Kesteven District Council in Lincolnshire. She has lead responsibility for the strategic direction and operations of the Council ensuring excellent quality services are provided for all local residents. Karen works in partnership with key stakeholders such as Lincolnshire County Council, Lincolnshire Enterprise Partnership, Health Sector, Fire and Police Services to deliver key community schemes and projects. Karen has over 30 years’ experience of working in Local Government including holding a number of senior positions across the country. Karen has previously held the position of Chief Executive for Gedling Borough Council in Nottinghamshire, Chairman of a local Lincolnshire Primary School for 2 years and has been a Trustee for the Robert Carre Trust since 2015. Karen has been the General Secretary for the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) since September 2019. Since March 2020, she has been one of the Directors at InvestSK, based in Grantham, Lincolnshire and more recently in October 2020, has been a Director of a Children’s Charity.
Mr Nick Law - Executive Head - ex officio
Nick has been the Headteacher at Carre's Grammar School, since January 2008 during which time the school has expanded, becoming co-educational in the sixth form in 2010 and an Academy in 2011. He is the overall lead for the schools within the Trust and works closely with the DfE, Regional Schools Commissioner and the Head of KSHS. His specific focus is to ensure that the Trust's strategies are realised. He is a member of the Lincolnshire Learning partnership Board, the LTSA and LEARN Strategic Group, as well as being a Local Leader in Education.
Mr Malcolm Robertson
Malcolm attended Birmingham University Dental School and set up and worked in his own dental practice in Sleaford until 2012. He is a Member of the Faculty of Dental Surgery, RCS (Eng). Malcolm is married with two sons who were students of CGS prior to attending Nottingham Trent University. He was a CGS Governor from 1995 until the creation of the Robert Carre Trust. Malcolm has represented Lincolnshire at county golf.
Mr Andrew Hutton - Chair
Andrew was previously Chair of Governors at Carre's from October 2009 to 2017 and has been a governor for 12 years. He has overseen the conversation to academy status, Sleaford's sixth form changes, Ofsted visit, as well as the creation of the MAT. He is an experienced general and project manager in the Transport Industry and having led the development work on the rebuilding of London Bridge station for eight years, he spent 3½ years seconded to the USA as Practice Lead, Stations and Commercial Development for Network Rail Consulting but returned to the UK in 2020.
Mrs Val Andrew
Val is a former employee of Carre’s Grammar School (2006 – 2010). She has a background in corporate and commercial finance but has worked in the education sector in various business leadership roles for 25 years. For the last 8 years Val worked for ASCL (The Association of School and College Leaders) as a national specialist for business leadership practitioners. Opting for semi – retirement in August 2018 Val continues to support the sector as an independent consultant providing advice and guidance on a range of issues including the challenges relating to funding.
Mr Ben Wills
Ben is the Head of Property at Beeswax Dyson Farming and has worked there since 2014. Ben attended Carre’s Grammar School between 1994 – 2001, after which he studied and graduated from the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester with a First Class (Hons) in Rural Land Management in 2005. Returning to Lincolnshire he joined Brown & Co and qualified as a Chartered Surveyor and worked in their Grantham and Melton Mowbray offices. Ben also became a Fellow of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers and became a RICS Registered Valuer. Ben became a Trustee of the Robert Carre Trust in 2020. Outside of work Ben enjoys spending time in the countryside and fell walking in the Lake District.
Mrs Viv Porteus
also attended. Viv worked for the Ministry of Defence in London for several years in a logistics role. She is now employed at RAF Cranwell, specialising in the recruitment of potential officers into Royal Air Force. A graduate of the Open University, Viv is a strong advocate of lifelong learning. She has volunteered in the local community for many years and is keen to contribute further. Aside from work and voluntary roles, in her spare time Viv enjoys art, hiking, photography and embroidery.
Mr David Hodgso
Born in Lincolnshire from a home of educationalists with his Father a headteacher and his Mother a special needs leader, David has been in primary education since 1993 as teacher, deputy head and for the last 17 years headteacher. He has been a head of three Lincolnshire Schools and also Executive Head of Church Lane Primary Sleaford. Currently head at Leasingham St Andrew’s where he has been for 12 years and which was last year rated good by Ofsted and Outstanding by Church schools section 48 inspection. He has been an Associate Advisor for the Diocese of Lincoln for 4 years supporting and carrying out support visits to Lincolnshire Church Schools. He is also an LLE for the Lincolnshire Teaching School Alliance and am currently involved in the LAMP project to support schools in developing maths attainment. David has worked with Carre’s sports partnership for the last 10 years and been involved with collaboration work with both Carre’s and Kesteven & Sleaford High School. He is a member of a Sleaford peer to peer group of 8 schools, which are supporting and developing good practice and support for all its communities. David’s qualifications include 1993 B Ed. Honours Primary Education, 1996 LAMP-University of Central Lancashire Cert Ed in Leadership and Management, 2003 NPQH, 2012 NCSL –Executive Headteacher Qualification, 2015 Local Leader in Education-Kyra Teaching School Alliance.
Ms Rachel Garrett
Rachel has been an Education HR Consultant with the HR team based in Nottingham for Browne Jacobson since 2017, supporting a number of education clients across the Midlands including Robert Carre Trust who she has worked with closely supporting the trust on a variety of topics over the years. Her specific focus is supporting clients with complex grievance, disciplinary, performance management, whistleblowing and absence management case work including designing and delivering bespoke training. She also carries out bespoke consultancy work; with complex disciplinary investigations ranging from fraud and safeguarding allegations to tricky bullying and harassment issues, TUPE transfers and restructure and change management projects for MAT clients in the UK. She has been a HR generalist practitioner and a qualified Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (Assoc CIPD) for over 25 years. She has worked in both the private sector for electronic and food manufacturing, IT organisations and a fashion house and in the public sector for Derby and Nottingham City Local Authorities prior to her current post. She has specialised in working in the Education sector for around 6 years which she loves and has recently qualified as a mediator. She has two teenage boys who keep her busy in her spare time and enjoys yoga, pilates, swimming and the occasional run, having run the Nottingham half marathon many years ago.