Meet Our Team

CEO of the Diocese of Sheffield Academies Trust

Has served as Vice-Chair of Governors at a DSAT school prior to, and through, conversion
Formerly CEO of PPF plc,  a national Recruitment and Training Business with a turnover of £90m per annum
HR skills - in 2013 Andrew was granted Chartered Fellow status within the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (the highest level of CIPD professional membership) 
Brings skills in HR, company law, leadership and management of business

Alison has experience teaching in the primary sector. She held a number of leadership roles while teaching, including specialising in music, leading maths and working as Early Years Foundation Stage lead for many years. Alison has extensive experience as a headteacher and an executive headteacher. She worked as a headteacher of a Church School in our trust before the school converted to academy status, and during her time as headteacher the school moved from Good to Outstanding and was one of the highest performing schools nationally. She has experience of leading schools as an executive headteacher in a variety of contexts, including schools in Rotherham, Sheffield and Doncaster, including rapidly improving underperforming schools in category.

Alison has previous experience as a National Leader of Education (NLE) and as such has significant experience of supporting leadership in a variety of contexts. She was designated as a Pupil Premium Reviewer as part of this role and has a passion for improving provision for vulnerable pupils, with measurable impact upon outcomes for vulnerable pupils in the schools she led.

Alison is a trained Ofsted school inspector. She works for our trust primarily in a school improvement capacity, focusing on supporting school leaders to improve provision and bring about the changes needed to drive excellence.

• 28 years of experience working in Education, Primary Education and the University of Sheffield.  
• Has served as Chair of Governors at a DSAT school for over 13 years during this period moved the school from RI to Outstanding.  
• Finance Director of the Trust for 5 years prior to and during conversion of schools. 
• Business & Finance, Management and Leadership qualifications to degree level in addition to the ADSBM qualification. 
• Overseeing all functions of the DSAT Central Team (Non-Teaching) 

Brings skills in Management and Leadership in Education, Finance/Audit, HR, Payroll, Safeguarding, Health and Safety/Compliance/Premises & Buildings, System Development, ICT and Infrastructure, Procurement, Conversion/Legal, Governance, School Business Management.

Masters qualified in Employment Law
 
Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)

Alison has over 24 years HR experience and joined DSAT in 2021 having previously worked as an education HR specialist for over 12 years within South Yorkshire. Alison brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in HR and is our first point of call for all people issues.
  
Alison is a member of our Executive Central team and works strategically with the board of Trustees to ensure our people are effectively supported and skilled to meet the needs of our children. Alison is committed to supporting and coaching our leaders to enable them to lead successful academies in our communities.
 
Alison’s focus is on the wellbeing of all our employees, having successfully implemented the DSAT Wellbeing Charter in 2022.  

Karen has taught for more than twenty-five years in primary schools in Yorkshire, evolving her practice using an evidence informed approach. She has taught in Foundation Stage, KS1 and KS2 and is currently a Year 5 Teacher and Lead Practitioner at St Alban’s C of E in Wickersley.

Karen believes that everyone can attain mastery of the key ideas in mathematics and is interested in how developing carefully sequenced learning can ensure all children learn and remember more. Karen has strong subject knowledge and supports others to develop their own, encouraging teachers to notice more and draw children’s attention to key points.

As Maths Lead, Karen has brought about significant improvements to maths provision. She is inspirational as a leader and develops the enthusiasm of others.

Strong communication and support ensure that staff who work with Karen feel empowered to move forward in their maths journey. She encourages all teachers to become more reflective and understands the need to consider the different prior knowledge and contexts of teachers.

As a Maths Specialist (South Yorkshire Hub), Karen has worked with Maths Leads and teachers within DSAT and other Trusts ensuring the concrete pictorial abstract approach is understood more clearly. In her role as School Improvement Lead (Mathematics) for DSAT, she focuses on the design, planning and implementation of mathematics school development.

Karen is an NCETM Accredited School Development Lead and has a National Professional Qualification in Leading Teacher Development.

Rebecca has over 15 years teaching experience in the primary sector. She has held a number of middle & senior leadership roles while teaching, including PE, Phonics lead, ITT Mentor/QA & Acting Headship cover. Rebecca has worked as Early Years Foundation Stage lead for many years, in a number of schools. Within the role Rebecca has supported schools to move from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘outstanding’ on the relevant Ofsted frameworks, including designing affective EYFS curriculums & improving outcomes. Rebecca has delivered staff, student & family training to ensure the most up to date pedagogy is used & attainment is raised. Rebecca has worked with schools to design & open nursery provision to ensure the best start to education. Rebecca gained the SENDCo qualification in 2023 to support the early identification of barriers, gaps and SEND need from the earliest age. Rebecca is working with DSAT schools to overcome these factors to ensure the target remains, achievement for all. Rebecca has a number of years' experience of inspection processes by SIAMS, Ofsted and Trust Board.

Holly has been a primary school teacher for eleven years. She graduated with an English degree and has had experience of English leadership within her own school and across the DSAT academy. Holly has had experience of leading school improvement, in her current role of Deputy Headteacher and her previous role of Assistant Headteacher. Holly has been a Lead Practitioner of English across DSAT for several years. This role has included supporting other schools with improving standards in English. Holly is passionate about implementing outstanding teaching for reading and writing.

Paul is a primary educational practitioner with over 23 years of experience in teaching. Within this time, he has been a subject leader in a range of curriculum subjects including maths, PE, computing, geography and history.

Paul has experience leading schools as headteacher. He has implemented high quality teaching and learning experiences and assessment systems to support all pupils to make outstanding progress. During this time his school achieved World Class Schools status, TES English team of the year and became a research schools lead school.

Paul has worked as a SENCo in three different settings which were successful in achieving the dyslexia quality mark and supported pupils whatever their need to be able to access rich and impactful learning experiences.

Paul is a qualified schools inspector with 11 years’ experience in schools. Within this time, he has enhanced his experience through inspecting special needs, independent and early years settings. Currently, Paul is working with DSAT schools to empower them to enable all pupils to have all the tools they need to be ambitious and strive for the very best, including vulnerable pupils.

Clare Sturman joined the Trust in 2019.  She has over twenty years' experience in finance, predominately in industry, before working in school finance in a local authority school gaining the Level 4 Diploma for School Business Managers (CSBM).

Clare is a chartered accountant and a member of CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) and has a BSc (Hons) in Economics.  She is a Director of another local MAT.

Starting out in London providing support for the music industry, Dan has over 25 years experience in IT support.  After a spell with a leading internet service provider, Dan moved to South Yorkshire and began to specialise in IT support within the education sector.  Dan has now been supporting schools in South Yorkshire for over 20 years.  With a passion for emerging technologies, Dan makes sure IT use within DSAT continually evolves to best serve the specific needs of the organisation.

Joined DSAT in February 2019, have over 20 years IT support experience in both primary and secondary educational establishments.  I have an Open University degree BSC (Open).   I previously worked for a RMBC Action Zone supporting primary schools with IT, travelling around North West Rotherham.

With over 20 years’ experience working within the Education environment, across both Primary and Secondary levels, Stuart has been a DSAT employee from the beginning and joined the central team in 2021.

Prior to working in education IT support, Stuart’s background was Civil Engineering and occupational health for Sheffield City Council and The Institute of Occupational Medicine.

Stuart’s passion is to work alongside and support both staff and pupils in the educational environment.

24 years experience as a Building Manager with the LABSc honours degree in Business Property Management
P402 - Surveying and sampling asbestos
Legionella Training
Fire Risk Assessments - Trained with SYFS and carried out more than 1000
Diploma in Management

Worked 36 years for RMBC,  of which 24 years employed as a Building ManagerNEBSM - Level 3 NVQ Supervisory Management
NEBSM - Level 4 NVQ - Management
Certificate in Management

Foundation Degree in Construction
P402 Building Surveys & Bulk Sampling for Asbestos
City & Guilds Modules 1-4 in the Control of Leginonella Bacteria in Water Systems
IOSH - Managing Safely
Fire Risk Assessment Training

Alison’s background is in primary education, having worked at a local primary school for nearly 26 years prior to taking up her role as DSAT Education Welfare Officer. Alison’s key roles included Designated Safeguarding Lead and Early Help/Pastoral lead, working closely with families to ensure they received appropriate support from specialist agencies. Alison has also been involved in the development of our DSAT SEMH group, helping schools to meet the needs of our most vulnerable pupils.

As EWO, Alison will be making regular visits to all our schools across the Trust and working closely with those families who need support to achieve good attendance.

Alison is also the Chair of the Local School Board at a nearby school.

Zoe joined DSAT in March 2023. This is her first role within the education sector. Before DSAT she worked for 7 years for a private healthcare company in their payroll department.  They had 4000+ employees over 40 different sites. Prior to this, Zoe worked as a Business Administrator for a large glass company in Sheffield.

Payroll Qualifications held - CIPP Payroll Technician.

Ruth joined DSAT in March 2023. This is her first role within the education sector. Previously she worked within the construction industry as a management accountant for over 10 years.  

Payroll Qualifications held - CIPP Payroll Technician.