School partnerships alliance

Meet the team

Find out more about our trustees, advisory board and operations staff. 

Why our team will make a difference

S.P.A. benefits from the wealth of knowledge and experience of its trustees, advisory board and operational staff, who are drawn together from across many sectors. What they all share is a passionate belief in the power of partnerships.

Executive team

Dr Joe Spence
Chief Executive Officer

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    Dr Spence FRSA joined the School Partnerships Alliance as CEO in January 2025. Joe was Master of Dulwich College from 2009 to 2024 and Headmaster of Oakham School from 2002, having previously taught history and politics at Eton College, where he was also Master in College (housemaster to the King’s Scholars).  Joe has been a governor of more than a dozen state and independent schools. A trustee of the Mark Evison Foundation, Art History Link Up and the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association, he is also a playwright and librettist.
Dr Margaret Hunnaball
Director of Programmes and Research
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    Margaret has 35 years’ experience as a physics teacher, with senior leadership experience in both state-maintained and independent secondary schools. Her final post was Principal Deputy at King’s College School, Wimbledon, which is part of the Wimbledon ISSP. Margaret has recently completed a PhD at King’s College London, conducting ESRC-funded research into cross-sector educational partnerships. Her research interests reflect her love of education: partnership working, leadership and holistic education beyond the formal curriculum. 
    As S.P.A.’s Researcher in Residence, Margaret brings a wealth of teaching experience in both state and private sectors, and also in research both within this country and around the world.
    Outside education Margaret is passionate about hockey, she was an International Hockey Federation (FIH) umpire and is now on the FIH Pro League Panel for Umpire Managers.  She also serves on the European Hockey Federation Appointments Committee and the FIH Rules’ Committee.
Janine Green
Membership and Communications Manager
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    Janine has a background in communications strategy, coaching and school governance. After several years working in the media and advertising industry, Janine retrained to be a Personal Development Coach with Birkbeck University. After running a successful Coaching practice for several years, Janine embarked on an MSc in Organisational Psychology, where her focus was the Education sector.
    Janine’s passion for the education sector further is reflected in her position as Chair of Governors at a 3 form entry South-East London state primary school, previous to this she was Chair of their Pupils, Parent & Community Committee. Janine cares deeply about ensuring that all children have the opportunity to thrive.

Sara Carrett
EA to the CEO

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    Sara was PA to the Headmistress at St Swithun’s Junior School in Winchester from 1997 – 2013 and moved to Wimbledon to become PA to the Head Master at King’s College School from 2013 – 2024. She has been EA to the S.P.A. CEO since March 2024.

Associates

Christina Astin

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    Christina is an experienced school partnerships leader and now helps schools to develop strategic partnerships for mutual benefit, especially cross-sector. She directs training programmes and speaks and writes on partnerships. In 2022 she launched #PartnerChat, a network for school partnerships professionals, hosting monthly virtual “breakfast briefings” to discuss topics relating to partnerships. She is also a school science consultant (having taught physics for 22 years) and is a sought-after leader of science leadership and physics-specific teacher training across the UK and beyond. As a Head of Science she co-founded Young Scientists Journal. She is an advisor and former trustee to the charity Physics Partners and she maintains a portfolio of corporate clients as a consultant on educational outreach. In 2022 she was appointed Chair of Planet Possibility, a consortium of five organisations working together with funding from the Institute of Physics to increase diversity in physics. Christina qualified as a Level 7 Executive Coach in 2022. She is proud to serve as a Kent Ambassador, and is a Fellow of both the Institute of Physics and the Chartered College of Teaching. She lives in Canterbury with her family where she sings in the cathedral as a deputy lay clerk.

Clancy McMullan

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    Clancy has worked in education for over twenty years in a variety of settings across Yorkshire. Her experience stretches from classroom teaching to faculty management to examining. Throughout her career, devising and delivering staff training has been integral, at both whole-school and trust-wide levels. She is currently based at Vale of York Academy, York. Concurrently, Clancy has worked as coordinator of York ISSP, which is an equal partnership of thirteen secondary schools, (ten state schools and three independent schools), situated within the City of York. Its purpose is to provide a city-wide network of academic and enrichment opportunities for able and interested children in York. Over the years in her role as York ISSP Coordinator, Clancy has worked with other partnership coordinators both offering and seeking support through the valuable network that exists nationally. She joins S.P.A. as an associate to support the delivery of consultancy, CPD and resource development. Cross sector equality of access and delivery continues to be at the heart of Clancy’s partnership ethos. Celebrating the good practice across all schools to build and endorse the collegial nature of alliance through shared expertise, regardless of socio-demographics, she believes, is the key to promoting impactful partnership work with a child-centred approach.

Dr Keith Watson

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    With vast experience of the educational sector, including as a CEO of a primary academy trust and being the leader of a Teaching School, Keith now uses that knowledge and experience as an educational consultant and coach. Keith worked for 30 years in primary education, mainly in Southampton, and for many years he focused upon school improvement through National Support School work and with the National College for School Leadership, particularly on research and development. His doctorate, from Southampton University, focused upon the development of assistant headship in England. Having also trained as a coach outside of education he now coaches many school leaders and leadership teams both on school improvement but also on their own personal development. Keith is also the CPD lead for the National Association for Able Child in Education Charity which includes delivering training and CPD across the country. Outside of his work Keith is a keen runner and triathlete who manages to get slower and slower year by year as well as maintaining a lifelong passion for history.

Trustees

Tom Arbuthnott

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    Tom is S.P.A. Chair and Deputy Head (Partnerships) at Eton College, responsible for the schools’ work on public benefit and social mobility, particularly through overseeing the bursary programme, state school partnerships, and the agency that students develop to social and environmental ends.  Tom was a former Chair of the Schools Together Group and was active in raising the initial seed funding for S.P.A.
    Tom has been developing thinking and ideas about partnership working for more than a decade, and instituted and edited the first two collections in the ‘Partnerships in Practice’ series: ‘All Together Now’ (which focused on music partnerships) and ‘The Missing 2000’ about preparing young people for top-tier university entry.

Sarah Butterworth

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    Sarah is the Director of Schools at the educational charity Royal National Children’s Springboard Foundation which secures transformational bursaries for young people at independent and state boarding schools across the nation. Previously she ran partnerships for Highgate School and project managed the opening of the London Academy of Excellence in Tottenham in 2017—a sixth form free school with nine independent schools and Tottenham Hotspur Football Club in the partnership.

Tom Campbell

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    Tom Campbell is the Chief Executive Officer of E-ACT, a national multi-academy trust comprising 38 schools and serving over 25,000 pupils across England. With more than two decades of experience in education, Tom has held various leadership roles, including Chief Education Officer at Greenwood Academies Trust, where he oversaw 37 academies, and Principal at Fullhurst Community College, where he led the school from being among the bottom 10 to the top 100 in the country over seven years . Tom’s academic background includes a degree in psychology and computing, an Executive MBA from the University of Cambridge and participation in the Oxford High Performance Programme . He is a Fellow of both the Chartered College of Teaching and the Royal Society of Arts. Tom has led sector-wide initiatives such as E-ACT’s “Bridging the Gap” conference to address the impact of child poverty on education. His leadership is rooted in the belief that no organisation can achieve lasting change alone and that meaningful partnerships across schools, sectors and communities is the foundation for transforming outcomes for children and young people everywhere.

Jodh Dhesi

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    Jodh is Chief Executive Officer of the Schools of King Edward VI in Birmingham (a Foundation Charity operating two independent schools with a multi-million pound endowment) and Accounting Officer of King Edward VI Academy Trust, Birmingham, which operates ten 11-16 academies. These two entities work together under the name of King Edward VI Foundation, Birmingham, known as “the Foundation”. 
    Jodh is accountable for the leadership, educational outcomes, financial and risk management, organisational development, governance and ambassadorship of the Foundation which educates 11,000+ students and employs 1700+ members of staff.
    He is also a School Improvement Partner for the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership.

Stephen Lester

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    Stephen is a recently retired school business leader who remains involved in a range of education sector activities, including membership of ESFA Academies Finance and Assurance Steering Group and the working group which reviews the Academy Trust Handbook each year. He was appointed an MBE in 2018 for services to education. He is a qualified management accountant, a School Resource Management Advisor, Chair of Trustees of the Institute of School Business Leadership, lead of Cumbria Association of School Business and Administration Management and an Academy Trustee.

Nicki Mattin

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    Nicki is Principal of Thurston Community College. She has over 30 years’ experience of working in schools and believes that they should equip their students with the confidence, competence, knowledge, skills and understanding to fit easily and actively into a rapidly changing society. Partnership working is critical to this. During her career she has worked on projects that have had influence locally, nationally and internationally. This has included being the school lead on an EU- funded project “Improving the Quality of Education in Iraq” with the British Council and Iraqi government, focused on helping to rebuild the Iraq school system and community using a model of school to school support. At a local level Nicki was a founding member of East Kent Schools Together (EKST) an innovative state-independent school partnership, in which each school contributes and draws from the partnership on an equal footing for the benefit of all.

Julie Robinson

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    Julie is CEO of the Independent Schools Council (ISC), the trade body representing associations across independent education in the UK – more than 1400 schools.  ISC provides national-level research, communications and lobbying for the sector.
    Julie spent more than 11 years in headship roles, and is a Governor at both a City of London Academy and an independent school in London.

Leo Winkley

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    Leo has been Headmaster at Shrewsbury School since 2018. He is also the Chair of the Board of Trustees at Shrewsbury House (The Shewsy) and Governor at Prestfelde School. Leo previously served as Chair of the City of York ISSP, Chair of the Boarding Schools Association and Headmaster at St. Peter’s School in York from 2010-2018.
    Leo has more than 12 years of experience in partnership work. He helped found the S.P.A. in order to extend opportunities to promote life chances for young people and share mutually beneficial experience and expertise across sectors for the benefit of children and progress.

Advisory board

Fiona Boulton OBE

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    Fiona became Director of Independent Schools at United Learning in September 2022. She originally joined the organisation in 1995 when it was the Church Schools Company; later becoming United Learning. She was Head of Guildford High School from 2002 – 2022. Under Fiona’s leadership, Guildford High became a Teaching School in 2013 and Fiona was appointed an NLE. Fiona led the United Learning Teaching School Alliance from 2013 – 2020.
    She has a variety of governance roles; she is an Associate Director of Cumbria University, a Governor at North London Collegiate School and is a member of the ‘Learning Partners Academy Trust’. She has also served on the governing bodies of Portsmouth Grammar School, St Ives Prep School, Hoe Bridge Prep School and Epsom College.  
    Fiona has been on the Advisory Board of the School Partnerships Alliance since 2022. She also helped to establish the West Surrey Partnership of all the state and independent schools in the Guildford area. She was Chair of HMC in 2019-2020, and on the Advisory Council of the Institute for Ethical AI in Education (IEAIED) (2018 – 2021).
    In 2023, Fiona was awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours list for services to education.

Dr Kate Chhatwal OBE

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    Kate is CEO of Challenge Partners, an England-wide, practitioner-led school improvement charity. Kate is passionate about education and social justice. Her belief in the ability of children and adults to develop themselves and others, and to transform the world around them, is at the heart of all she does.
    Kate’s previous roles include Executive Director of Southwark Teaching School Alliance and Chief Programme Officer at The Future Leaders Trust. Kate also spent 11 years in the Department for Education, where she led the Labour government’s flagship National Challenge Programme and worked on developing far-reaching proposals for 14-19 curriculum and qualifications reform.
    Kate has volunteered as a school governor and trustee for more than a decade and is currently a trustee at STEP Academy Trust.
    Kate holds a PhD in education policy from the European University Institute in Florence, and was awarded an OBE for services to education in the 2020 New Year’s Honours.

Leora Cruddas CBE

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    Leora Cruddas is Chief Executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, the national organisation and sector body for school trusts in England.  She has advised successive governments and sits on several DfE Advisory Bodies. She was recently the vice chair of the Head Teacher Standards Review Group, a member of the external advisory group for the Schools White Paper and SEND Green Paper and has also been invited to sit on the Regulatory and Commissioning Review.  
    Prior to founding CST, she was Director of Policy and Public Relations for the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL). Leora has six years of experience as a Director of Education in two London Local Authorities. 
    She is Visiting Professor at UCL Institute of Education. 
    Leora was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours, 2022.

Ian Davenport

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    Ian has worked with S.P.A. since its inception, when he was the founding interim Lead. He now provides ongoing support on government and school relations.
    After graduating, Ian worked in The City for a number of years for Morgan Stanley and Arthur Andersen. He was the Head Master of Blundell’s, a housemaster and Head of Department at Radley College and an Economics tutor at Oxford University.
    Ian was also the founding CEO of the Royal National Children’s SpringBoard Foundation as well as starting the SpringForward project, working closely with the DfE.
    He has been an adviser to various educational organisations, including ISC. He has been a governor of a number of schools, both independent and state, junior and senior, as well having been the Chair of Trustees at The Royal Academy for the Deaf. He is now working with the Hg Foundation building a national independent-state school STEM programme.

Tony Hartney CBE 

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    Tony Hartney CBE has been a headteacher of inner London primary and secondary schools, including twenty-three years as headteacher of Gladesmore Community School in Tottenham, which serves a community of high economic deprivation. Under his leadership, an exceptionally positive ethos prevailed, outcomes were strong, and community relationships were impressive. For nearly two decades outstanding Ofsted judgements were achieved. Over a hundred students gained bursary places to sixth forms in independent schools, and the school became a flagship for both the Premier League and Moody’s Corporation.   Since retiring from headship, Tony audits safeguarding and provides guidance for schools in this. He has also retained a prominent school improvement role supporting schools in HEP. He notably led the acclaimed London-wide Stepping Stones initiative for the GLA, and he was key in fostering calm and improved community relations following the riots in 2011. Since then, he has chaired several education and community boards and is experienced as a governor of primary, secondary, PRU, AEP and sixth form providers.

Ali Henderson

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    Ali is the CEO of Royal National Children’s SpringBoard Foundation (RNCSF), the UK’s largest bursary charity. Prior to becoming CEO, Ali led RNCSF’s focus on impact and learning, building on her previous experience in a focus on strategy development and impact evidence in roles for Oxfam, local government and in Private Office at No.10 Downing Street under the Blair & Brown administrations.

Iain Henderson

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    Iain is Director of The Bridge at Wellington College, and co-director of the Festivals of Education. He has taught in both state and independent sectors in the UK.  He has been a Biology teacher; a Head of Year; a Boarding Housemaster; Assistant Head, and Deputy Head.  He works with all the schools in the Wellington Family to embed the essential Wellington DNA, ethos and culture, sensitively in each new context.   He also oversees Educational Conferences, the Wellington College Teaching Alliance, the Wellington College Student Alliance and the Wheeler Programme, as well as any other partnership or collaborative work undertaken by the school.  
    Iain is a trained coach and has introduced and grown a coaching culture at Wellington.  He has now trained more than 500 teachers there and at other schools to become coaches.  He is also a governor of Wellington College International School Bangkok and was a founding trustee at Corvus Multi-Academy Trust. He has also been a trust member of Ascend Academy Trust and continues to coordinate the historic collaboration between Wellington College and The Wellington Academy.

David Laws

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    David was previously Executive Chairman of the Education Policy Institute, and is now Chairman of AQA and Energy UK.  
    Between 2010 and 2015, David served in the Coalition Government as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Schools Minister and Cabinet Office Minister. Whilst Schools Minister he was responsible for policy areas including all capital and revenue funding, the Pupil Premium, accountability and policy on teachers and leadership.
    David was Member of Parliament for Yeovil from 2001 until 2015.
    David graduated from King’s College, Cambridge, with a double first class honours degree in economics and worked at J.P. Morgan and Barclays de Zoete Wedd.

Lord Nash

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    Lord Nash was a non-executive director of the Department for Education between 2010 and 2013, a Schools Minister between 2013 and 2017,and the lead non-executive director across government between 2020 and 2022. He is a qualified barrister and a career venture capitalist.
    He and his wife founded Future Academies, which manages 10 schools in London and Hertfordshire with a total of 7000 pupils.

Sir Hamid Patel CBE

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    Sir Hamid Patel CBE is Chief Executive of Star Academies, a multi-academy trust that operates 31 schools in clusters in Lancashire, West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, West Midlands and London.
    Sir Hamid is a member of several national and international strategic educational and policy forums. He currently serves as a board member of Ofsted and the Confederation of School Trusts. He is an Honorary Professor of Education at the University of Birmingham.
    In recognition of his service to education, Sir Hamid was awarded a CBE in 2015 and a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2021.

Carl Ward

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    Carl is the Founder and Chair of the Foundation for Education Development and is Chief Executive of the City Learning Trust – a group of education establishments in the UK. He has regional, national and international experience in education strategy, leadership development and education improvement.  In a career spanning 28 years in education, Carl has worked in a range of organisations across several settings. He is one of the longest serving CEOs of a Multi Academy Trust in England, is a National Leader of Education, and has led and developed local, regional and national strategic boards and initiatives.