Leadership & Governance

Across SCSP we recognise that leadership is the ‘golden thread’ weaving through the success of a school. We know that having strong governance at all levels and supporting effective governance is critical to sustaining success. Effective challenge, the right support and accurate self-evaluation are key to any setting improving.

Effective governance is crucial to this success. It provides confident, strategic leadership and creates robust accountability,  oversight and assurance for educational and financial performance.

Members are responsible for the articles of association, appointing and removing trustees and receiving the annual report and accounts.

Governance Structure
Steel City Schools Partnership has a clear structure for governance based on best practice and RSC, DfE and ESFA guidance.

Trustees are the individuals who are appointed to challenge and scrutinise the strategic direction and day to day running of the MAT. Trustees manage the business of the Trust and work on 3 core functions – clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction; holding leaders to account for educational and pupil performance and performance management of staff and overseeing the financial performance of the Trust.

Local School Committees are primarily responsible for the oversight of teaching and learning including recruitment of staff and curriculum models within their own academy – all of which are fundamental to ensuring the best possible outcomes for pupils. Steel City Schools Partnership believes in local community engagement at Governance level, including parental and staff representation.

Nicola Shipman

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

With over 35 years of teaching and leadership experience behind her, Nicola is a National Leader of Education and supports schools and Trusts across the region as part of School Improvement work with the DfE. Nicola, who has NPQH, has led a number of schools and a Federation as Executive Headteacher. She has wide experience of successful system leadership including leading NPQML, NPQSL, NPQH and NPQEL programmes with SCSP strategic Teaching School Hub partners.

Morag Somerville

Chief Officer - Operations (COO)

Morag is COO at SCSP and leads the work of the support teams across SCSP including Health and Safety, Finance, Business, Premises, HR and Catering. Morag is a Specialist Leader of Education and has completed qualifications up to Advanced Diploma. She also holds NPQH. She has extensive experience in the field of Finance, HR and Business Management. Morag leads finance work for Learn Sheffield and other strategic partners.

Jon Bell

Head of Estates

Jon has extensive knowledge and experience of working in the building and construction industry having been a facilities manager within Bovis Lindley. Qualified in Health & Safety and Building regulations, Jon is responsible for ensuring that all Health & Safety, Risk and Premise issues are fully compliant with statutory legislation.

Sarah Shaw

Head of Finance

Sarah provides accountancy and financial support within the Trust and to the academies within SCSP. Sarah is a qualified chartered accountant and prior to joining SCSP acquired over 12 years experience in finance within a charitable and educational setting of independent schools.  Prior to then, her background was working within private accountancy practice with experience as Auditor, Accountant and Client Manager.

Coleen Renshaw

Executive Director for School Improvement

Coleen was previously the Strategic Director for School Improvement and Workforce Development at the Maltby Learning Trust. She brings to the role significant experience in English – Reading, Writing, Phonics and Speaking and Listening as well as secondary and primary expertise. For the past 2 years, prior to joining SCSP she was deployed across the primary schools, secondary schools and the central trust team to drive the rapid school improvement agenda required in schools facing challenging circumstances. This included supporting a secondary school in special measures. She currently leads our second hub and manages key priorities within the Trust Strategic Plan, including those around Oracy and Writing. She leads on other associated Academy Development Plans driving these priorities and initiatives forward at pace through close work with the senior leadership teams. 

Sinead Fox

Executive Director for School Improvement

Sinead has extensive knowledge of SCSP, as prior to her appointment as EDSI was the headteacher at Woodseats. She has the NPQEL. She was a locality lead head within one of the hubs and has experience in leading pupil premium and SEND reviews having been trained nationally in these aspects of school improvement. With a track record of rapid and sustained school improvement and with school improvement support already underway with 2 of our schools, she leads one hub. This is alongside the leadership development programmes and coaching and mentoring of new heads and leaders to SCSP. Sinead is also leading the Teacher Walkthrus on behalf of Learn Sheffield in the city.

Michelle Proctor

Director of Teaching and Learning

Michelle is our Director of Teaching and Learning. In her role she has developed the CPD offer includes the very successful Developing Learning Programme, leadership of the Learners First NQT and RQT programmes, maths, writing and New to Y2 sessions. Michelle is a SLE, A National Primary Science Teacher of the Year, leads a regional PSQM Hub and is an experienced KS1 moderator for Sheffield. Michelle is also an English Consultant through the English Hub at Whiston Worrygoose in Rotherham.

Angela Low

Attendance Officer

As Attendance Officer across SCSP Angela has developed the SCSP OTIS (On Time In School) strategy to improve attendance and reduce lateness and persistent absence. Angela works closely with the leadership and inclusion teams at each Academy. She also works closely with external partners, including MAST and the Attendance lead practitioners to support families with attendance.

Gary Leesley

Catering Manager

Gary has a wealth of experience in the field of catering and hospitality having been a catering manager for an academy in Sheffield prior to working with SCSP. He has been a chef for over 30 years. Gary is responsible for the catering teams and provision across SCSP and in making sure we are compliant with all food hygiene and national school food standards. 

Steve Smith

IT Manager

Steve previously worked in hardware and software support for a number of years prior to working for a large IT Managed Service Provider providing national IT support for over 19 years.  Steve joined SCSP in April 2021 and has extensive knowledge in educational IT support, he brings a wealth of experience in the delivery and support of IT systems & contracts across a wide range of educational establishments.

Trustees

Anita Dell – Trustee
Experienced in: Communications, Marketing, Branding

Anita has vast experience within the public sector for more than 18 years in supporting city council, schools and multi academy trusts with all their communication needs. This includes crisis communications, proactive and reactive media enquiries, drafting press releases, managing campaigns, producing web stories, managing social media and liaising with designers to produce marketing materials. Anita currently manages the communications for the Sheffield City Region for Louise Haigh MP.

Andy Gates – Trustee
Experienced in: Education policy, Operations, Governance, Risk Management

Andy has significant education sector experience which he has obtained whilst working within the Department for Education for a large part of his career. His roles have ranged from education policy development through to more recently operational delivery. As a senior leader, his current remit is to lead a large number of geographically dispersed, multidisciplinary teams, to deliver new school premises whilst ensuring the needs of trusts and schools are met. Andy is also an experienced school governor and Chair.

James Glover – Trustee
Experienced in: Law, Corporate Affairs, Company Law

James is an experienced general counsel and executive leader with expertise in legal, regulatory compliance, governance and corporate affairs. Most recently, he successfully built and led legal, risk, governance and corporate affairs pillars supporting the transformation of a £300m turnover healthcare and insurance business. James has commercial experience in mergers and acquisitions, business integration and transformation, general management and sales and marketing.

Peter Mucklow – Trustee

Experienced in: Strategic Management, Project Management, Financial Management, Risk Management

Peter worked in education at a senior level in mainly national roles for over 14 years; 10 of these as Director of two national agencies. He was Director of Apprenticeships at the Department for Education and was responsible for apprenticeship policy in England. His previous experience included working as Director of Further Education within the ESFA and Director of Young People’s Funding in the EFA. Peter is a graduate of the Major Project Leadership Academy, Said Business School, University of Oxford. Peter has recently been appointed as Chair of Trustees. 

Dr Juliet Rowson – Trustee
Experienced in: Education, School Improvement, Leadership and Management

Juliet has extensive experience in teaching and leadership within a range of educational settings including Ofsted category schools and those causing concern. After 22 years in teaching, Juliet now works as a DfE policy advisor, first in curriculum strategy and now in careers policy.

Alison Roy – Trustee
Experienced in: Project Management, Change Management, Higher Education

Alison has over 25 years’ experience working in the higher education sector in a wide variety of professional services roles, including managing staff and students. Experienced in change and project management, and as a qualified Programme/Project Manager, Alison has previously and currently works on a number of strategic projects with senior staff across different universities, covering people, estates and IT projects. Having over 10 years of school governance experience, Alison was founding member and Director of Lound Academy Trust and worked with SCSP colleagues to transfer the Lound Schools into its portfolio. Alison also holds a Masters degree in Education.

Nicola Shipman – Trustee
Experienced in: School and System Leadership, School Improvement and Education

With over 30 years of teaching and leadership experience behind her, Nicola is a National Leader of Education and an Ofsted Inspector. Nicola, who has NPQH, has led a number of schools as Executive Headteacher and has wide experience of successful system leadership including leading NPQML, NPQSL and NPQH with SCSP strategic Teaching School Alliance partners.

Fatimah Adesanya – Trustee

Experienced in: Audit, Accountancy, Financial Management, Higher Education, and Research.

Fatimah is a qualified accountant and has worked in private and not-for-profit sectors for more than a decade. At a senior level, she has worked with top-tier assurance firms on different projects abroad while managing and facilitating strategic management accounting, corporate reporting, financial accounting, and audits of small and large organisations.  She also works as a researcher and enjoys teaching across local schools.

Members

Paul Doherty – Member & Trustee
Experienced in: Change Management, Project Management, Legal, Compliance, Finance

Paul has been a trustee at SCSP for over 6 years and has previously been Chair of the Board. Paul is also a Member of SCSP and a Member of the Institute of Directors (IoD) who work closely with Academy Ambassadors in encouraging business leaders to become involved as non-executive directors. 

Mark Priest – Member
Experienced in: Training and Development, Public Relations

Mark was a founding Trustee of SCSP. He is a police officer with South Yorkshire Police responsible for the training and development of police recruits new to the force as well as supporting serving police officers in their role in a range of development areas.

Katie Sully – Member
Experienced in: Premises, Health and Safety, regeneration, acquisitions and development management.

Katie is well known for the successful delivery of nationally recognised strategic regeneration projects. She has led many large scale mixed use waterside projects in city centres across the North and London. Katie manages design teams that create innovative design solutions, ensuring the igloo agenda of people, place and planet is achieved. She is committed to and passionate about the brand identity of all her schemes. Working closely with partners and communities.