Executive Management Board
Executive Management (ID 1154)
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Steve BaragwanathChief Executive Officer (Trustee)
Steve Baragwanath
Steve is the CEO for UOLAT.
His passion is addressing social mobility and student progress.Steve has 20 years of headship experience across three academies, with a proven record of school improvement and curriculum innovation. Taking UAH from 420 pupils to 1366, introducing a sixthform which now has over 300 students and being accredited provider of apprenticeship and “T” Level qualifications.
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Susan BoorDirector of Primary Education (Executive Principal HPA & HBA)
Susan Boor
Sue is an experienced educational leader with a proven track record of success in primary school leadership. With 15 years of experience across two academies, she now holds the dual role of Executive Principal of HPA and HBA, as well as serving as the Director of Primary Schools for the Trust. This expanded role offers a greater capacity within the Trust to guide and support additional primary schools, furthering the Trust’s mission to provide high-quality education to even more pupils.
Under Sue’s leadership, HPA has achieved a significant improvement from “RI” to “Good,” and she is now guiding and supporting the improvement and development of HBA at a rapid pace. Sue firmly believes in placing pupils at the heart of all educational efforts, and she recognizes the importance of engaging with the wider community to foster positive relationships with parents and caregivers, all in furtherance of the Trust’s mission.
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Liam DavéPrincipal (University Academy Long Sutton)
Liam Davé
Liam Davé is the Principal of the University Academy Long Sutton.
Liam is leading the rapid improvement of UALS making use of his extensive previous experience in delivering improvements in teaching and learning across schools, curriculum design and assessment. Liam leads on the use of Technology to support learning across the Trust. -
Sue GoodsellPrincipal (Monkshouse Primary Academy)
Sue Goodsell
Sue has 40 years experience working in primary education. She has an established track record leading good and outstanding primary schools and has supported several local schools. Sue is an innovative and supportive leader, and has a keen interest in research and pedagogy. She is currently leading MPA to be accredited with Thinking School status, working with Thinking Matters to enhance metacognitive approaches throughout the school. Sue’s strong values around inclusivity and all children having the best possible start in life, means she takes a holistic approach to supporting all children in the school. She forms excellent relationships with families and makes strong links with the wider community. Sue is passionate about education and, as the leader of the most recent school to join the trust, looks forward to sharing her expertise and working collaboratively with others.
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Tiffany HebronPrincipal (Wrangle Primary Academy)
Tiffany Hebron
Tiffany Hebron is the Principal of Wrangle Primary Academy
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Ben MawfordChief Financial Officer
Ben Mawford
Ben is the Chief Financial Officer for the Trust.
A chartered certified accountant, Ben assists the Executive Team in all compliance matters regarding Charitable Status, ESFA and DfE returns. -
Sheila PaigePrincipal (University Academy Holbeach)
Sheila Paige
Sheila Paige is the Principal of the University Academy Holbeach.
Now in her second Principal’s role, she has many years of experience of leadership and successfully driving sustainable improvements in secondary schools within Lincolnshire.
Sheila is particularly skilled in the use of CPD and assessment to deliver improvements in Teaching and Learning and pupils’ attainment. -
Katharine SaywellPrincipal (Gosberton House Academy)
Katharine Saywell
Katharine is the Principal of Gosberton House Academy. She is experienced in working across mainstream and specialist provisions including as a mainstream SENCo, senior leader at GHA and as a specialist teacher supporting Lincolnshire children, families and schools. She is passionate about working with children and their families to support them to meet their full potential.
In creating the Academies Act in 2010 and the subsequent changes in the 2011 Education Act a prime rationale was to allow Headteachers to manage their institutions free from the bureaucratic local authorities; giving heads the freedom to innovate and get best value for money. Giving Principals this freedom through earned autonomy, with meaningful checks and balances is fundamental to UOLATs philosophy and we have found it to be very effective in running the Trust.
In establishing the Trust there were three key principles. Firstly the Trust must focus on the progress and well-being of all its children and young people, secondly giving our Principals the freedom to manage through earned autonomy and thirdly holding them to account for their academies performance whilst ensure we had best value for money with maximum resources available for teaching and learning.
The University of Lincoln Academy Trust is committed to providing a wide range of high quality services to enable its academies to focus on their core business of raising standards, improving progress and supporting for all our young people. We believe it is important to have good value for money and to achieve that we use a combination of in house and commissioned service; all services are designed and commissioned with the view that they can expand with any potential growth in the Trust. Each service has a Trust employee who is the lead officer for that service.
We delegate the full budget to each academy and charge each year the direct costs of that service based on agreed criteria. This ensures full transparency to staff and governors. It is also our policy that each academy maintains its own surplus, if an academy has a deficit, then the trust would make a loan to that academy, but will not pay off any deficit.
Although the CEO has operational responsibility for running the Trust, there is a strong belief in team work in the Trust and so most decisions within the delegated powers for the CEO are taken through the Executive Management Board. This comprises of the CEO, Director of Primary Education (Executive Principal) Principals and the CFO.
Operational Management of the Trust
University of Lincoln Academy Trust sets the level of delegation to its executive staff and its Academy Governing Committees. It believes in delegating to the lowest level where accountability can be secured ensures that the structure is flexible enough to move quickly and address issues effectively. The Trust has a very experienced CEO and Director of Primary Education (Executive Principal) and many more very experienced staff at various levels in our academies.
The Trust’s high level of delegated authority to its senior staff has been very beneficial to the Trust because of their commitment, skills and performance. Thus the Trust wishes to continue to support that philosophy.
The Trust firmly believes the Scheme of Delegated Authority should vary and depend upon the performance of any academy in the Trust and they expect the CEO to implement changes where necessary and report back to the Trust. The scheme defines where responsibility lies for decision making; this does not preclude discussion or engagement at other levels where the decision maker feels they can benefit from additional advice or guidance.
The CEO will if necessary also place constraints of budget spend where overspends are starting to occur. Executive staff are expected to draw up their own plans for major maintenance or new buildings and after discussion at the AGC, will seek approval by the Board of Trustees. These plans will not just appear they will have been discussed at length over a period of time.
The government’s decision to totally separate Trustees from AGC’s membership means finding a method of engaging Chairs of Governors in the management of the Trust is challenging. UoLAT has chosen to do this by regular meetings of the Executive Management Board and Chairs of Governors Committee
