OUR TEAM

Soumick Dey

Chief Executive Officer

Soumick has over 20 years of experience as a teacher and successful school leader and was previously Principal at Riddlesdown Collegiate. His commitment to delivering an exceptional education for all keeps the best interests of young people at the heart of our decision-making. After starting his career as a Teacher of Mathematics, Soumick has held a range of leadership roles and since September 2022, has been delighted to lead our family of schools. His particular interests are in developing leaders and securing success across a large organisation through distributed leadership. Soumick is a NPQH facilitator and a Director of the Croydon Headteachers Association.

Katie Turner

Director of Education

Since qualifying as an early years specialist in 2001, and then teaching all year groups from Nursery to Year 11, Katie is a skilled practitioner with expertise in developing exceptional classroom practice and a quality curriculum that prepares young people for a successful future. Katie has extensive leadership experience across all phases, most recently as Principal at Riddlesdown Collegiate, leading the school through its most recent outstanding inspection. Katie is passionate about developing people and is highly experienced in the design, delivery and facilitation of professional learning for teachers and leaders at every stage of their career. Katie’s knowledge of school improvement has grown through her work on leading the Trust’s Improvement Strategy and her varied governance experience.

Lyla Dey

Chief Finance Officer

Lyla has extensive experience in audit and finance having worked in West End firms as a certified Chartered Accountant for 17 years. Her work in auditing academy trusts led to her move into the education sector in 2018. Lyla has successfully developed and implemented a centralised finance function for the Trust through its various stages of growth. She is passionate about delivering the best value to schools and thereby enabling them to deliver exceptional education for all. Lyla works with other trusts to mentor and support their finance functions. She is also Chair of Governors at a Croydon primary school.

Lucy Bruce

Director of Performance & Quality

Lucy is an experienced leader in education, having previously been Director of English and Head of Teaching and Learning at Riddlesdown Collegiate. Lucy held a number of leadership roles across three different schools before moving to Ofsted as a HMI, where she led inspections of primary and secondary schools. Her passion lies in promoting reading across the curriculum, developing pedagogy and enabling exceptional classroom practice that is rooted in current research. She firmly believes that schools should offer a broad curriculum that enables all pupils to flourish and fulfil their potential. Lucy continues to inspect schools as an additional inspector and is a facilitator for the Early Careers Framework.

Daniel Pyke

Director of Finance

Liz James

Director of HR

Lewis Burgess

Director of IT

Charles Gardiner-Graham

Director of Estates

Mike Smith

Director of Post-16

Kelly Livingstone

Director of Operations (Catering)

Sara Scott

Governance Manager

Priya Chandran

Executive Assistant to CEO

Lorraine Stephenson

Finance Manager

Jenny Perry

Finance Assistant

Michelle Abraham

HR Manager