White Woods Primary Academy Trust

Phil Marshall - Chair

Phil has a broad range of intensive educational leadership experience spanning 3 decades, having served 13 years as a secondary head teacher in Rotherham. Since 2011, Phil has worked with the Department for Education as an ‘Education Specialist’, in addition to serving as a ‘Director of Learners First Schools Partnership’. Phil is also a ‘Director of PM Impact Ltd’, providing leadership support to academies, multi-academy trusts and schools.

Stephen Wragg

Stephen has more than 13 years of experience as a non-executive in the NHS, most recently as ‘Chairman of Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’, a position he held from January 2009 to December 2018.

Currently, Stephen is a self-employed management consultant and prior to this he was ‘Technical Director’ at W2 Networking where he was responsible for customer technical solutions, customer service and satisfaction and the development of commercial data centre strategy.

Ian Newbury-Milton-Scott

Ian is a qualified and experienced human resources practitioner. Ian currently works in the children's social care sector in a senior role. He has held the role of Chief Operating Officer and Director of People Services & Employee Engagement for an organisation that provides residential care for children including education and therapeutic provision.

Ian has previously worked in the housing sector in senior roles and for local authorities including a Shire County as Head of Human Resources, working closely with an NHS Trust as joint lead for organisational development. He has held positions of Chair of the Public Employment Partnerships and Chair of the Counties Equality Network. Ian has hands-on experience of working with Inspectors and Commissioners including improving the quality and leadership with positive outcomes. Ian is currently a non-executive director for a poverty alleviation pension fund.

Clare Sturman

Clare Sturman is the CFO of The Diocese Sheffield Academies Trust.  She has a BSc (Hons) in Economics from The University of Hull.  She has over twenty years' experience in Finance, predominately in industry.

Clare is a chartered member of CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) who over the past five years has worked in school finance in a local authority school and a MAT gaining the Level 4 Diploma for School Business Managers (CSBM).

Asma Maqsood-Shah

Asma has over 15 years experience as a senior leader and headteacher in the primary education sector within the Yorkshire and Humber region. She came into teaching with a strong belief that every child can, and has the right to, achieve no matter what their socio-economic background, race, religion or disability status. This belief is a strong driving force and fosters her ambition to serve diverse communities and improve the life chances of all pupils. Her primary areas of expertise include leadership development, Early Years and EAL.

Julie Parry - Vice Chair

Julie has over 30 years of experience in primary education, 20 of which have been spent as a primary head teacher, working in Reading, Sheffield, Leeds, Birmingham and Doncaster. She has worked for local authorities and for multi-academy trusts as both an employee and on a consultancy basis through her own consulting company.  Julie has a keen interest in conservation and volunteers for the Peak District National Park.

Zaidah Ahmed MBE

Zaidah is an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion specialist with 20 years of experience both in the public and voluntary sector. She is highly respected and nationally recognised for the work in the field of community engagement with BAME and hard to reach communities. She is a serving magistrate for over 15 years. She also holds a Trustee position at Rotherham United Community Football Sports Trust for the past 15 years.

She holds a Masters in Education.

Tony Dudson

Tony is a recently retired accountant from Whiston, with two children and a keen interest in the local community. Tony has worked in various organisations, most recently spending over 30 years working in the NHS gaining wide ranging experience in Finance, IT, Information, Commissioning and Governance.

Whilst not having experience directly in the education sector he worked for over 20 years with Higher Education Institutions across the country. This gave him the opportunity to understand the requirements and importance of a well-designed and delivered curriculum, not just for the student but also our wider community. Following retirement Tony would like to focus his energy to make a difference to his local community.

As part of this he plans to contribute to developing the Trust to further improve its standing within the local community to ensure pupils who go through our institutions have the best possible start in life.

Antony Wilkin

Antony is currently Head of Professional Services within a leading UK Software business, with 20 years experience in Financial Services and Technology industries. During his career he has developed key skills that he brings to the board of directors such as strong senior leadership, motivating high performing teams, managing and influencing key stakeholders, problem solving and navigating complex challenges. He is a father to three young children, two of which already attend White Woods Primary Academy Trust School. Since becoming a father, he has developed a keen interest in understanding how children’s educational journey sets them up for success later in life.