Members and Trustees

Jackie worked for English China Clays, then Imerys for many years encompassing a welfare and event organising role. Close links with the company’s pensioners led to her forming and being key player in a charitable clay pensioners’ annual holiday providing an event for hundreds of pensioners every year, paused only by the pandemic. Jackie went on to become a Training and Management Development Officer and being seconded onto the company’s performance improvement and cost saving team. For the last twenty years Jackie was a Borough then Cornwall Councillor and still is a member of a Parish and a Town Council. Jackie believes strongly that aspiration should be nurtured and encouraged in our Cornish children.

Steve has 35 years of teaching experience. He was a Deputy Headteacher for 17 of those years. He is a Trustee of Trenance Cottages. He is a Member of Newquay Rotary Club, Cricket Club and Newquay Hornets RFC. His areas of expertise are Quality Assurance, Finance, School buildings, sites and facilities.

Dave was a police officer for 34 years concluding his career as the Inspector for Newquay and its satellite towns and villages. On retirement he worked at the Eden Project for 8 years where he was the Operations Manager. At the end of 2019 Dave moved back to Newquay as the Operations Manager for Newquay Zoo and a unique relationship with Newquay Junior Academy from whom they lease land which is home to the zoo’s African Savannah enclosure. Dave’s interests are in linking communities and also in how schools are embracing nature as a learning tool through the concept of the outdoor classroom.

Askel Veur is the standards and academies arm of the Truro Diocesan Board of Education and a significant partner in school improvement across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Askel Veur is an Academies Umbrella Trust governed by a small non-executive Board. It is committed to a child-centred and holistic vision of education, informed by but not driven only by data.

Mark Lees has spent 44 years as a teacher and leader in a wide variety of primary schools. He has experience as a MAT CEO and an educational consultant/inspector. Mark is passionate about the development of an exciting curriculum for all children set within a stimulating and creative learning environment. He is an experienced school governor and is currently chair of governors in two primary schools. He enjoys providing support and challenge for school leaders and enjoys visiting schools as a governor.

A former Cornish headteacher, Geoff has served as the Liberal Democrat member for Newquay Central since 2007. Geoff is Cornwall Council’s Cabinet Member for Transport. Geoff has been with the Newquay Lifeboat for over 20 years. He led the local Cliff Rescue team for 25 years and has twice been awarded the Chief Coastguard’s Commendation.

After finishing school in Newquay, Sebastian travelled through Africa before studying Agriculture at Seale-Hayne College in Devon. He returned to Cornwall to join the family business of farming and manufacturing ice cream. The Callestick Farm brand has since established a reputation that has seen continual growth in its market share.

Sean has been a doctor in the NHS since 1998, since 2009 as a consultant trauma and orthopaedics surgeon. Good governance, education and relentless objective scrutiny of performance are fundamental to his work. Sean hopes to use these skills to help our academies continue to set and achieve aspirational targets for performance and development.

Jo has had a long and successful career within financial services. She has run her own company for the last 16 years providing compliance support and business coaching to financial advisers across the UK. Jo has two children and enjoys being involved in the parent teacher association. She also volunteers in schools, nationwide, providing money education workshops to school leavers. Jo is passionate about empowering our next generation to really understand what financial security is all about.

Ashley is Deputy County Commander and Paramedic for the NHS South Western Ambulance Service. He is responsible for operations across 17 ambulance stations. He is also a retained fire-fighter based at Newquay. Ashley joined Newquay RNLI in 1992 and is a long-standing helmsman and crew member of the Newquay lifeboat.

John’s varied career has included engineering, logistics, and product, project, and process management. He worked for a number of telecoms companies including BT. John changed career direction with a move to Monarch Aircraft Engineering Ltd as Management Accountant. He now volunteers with Citizens Advice and is a director of a property management company.

Sally has been a successful strategic and operational leader within the education across Cornwall and Devon for over thirty years. Sally has a good knowledge and understanding of learning and teaching pedagogy, learner support, pastoral, safeguarding, SEND, careers and the operational support areas. She believes that all children, young people and adults in Cornwall deserve an opportunity to have the best education and training possible to ensure they are able to achieve their full potential whatever their background or starting point.

Sarah is now retired but has been in education for over 40 years, 34 of those years were spent at Newquay Tretherras. Sarah was deputy headteacher at Tretherras for six years and acting headteacher at Newquay Junior Academy for an interim spell. With this experience she hopes to be able to empower, guide and hold to account leaders to ensure that all pupils of different abilities and backgrounds receive the whole education they deserve.