Marian Simmons

Marian’s background is in educational leadership and development. She has worked as an Ofsted Registered Inspector, inspecting schools across all phases; she was an Assistant Director for Education in Manchester and then Head of Education and Skills with Redcar and Cleveland.

Currently Marian is Director of Independent Coaching and Consultancy, working on school improvement and leadership development with headteachers and schools in the North-West.

Oldham Hulme Grammar School, Corporate Member

Represented by .......

Raz Mohammed

Raz has extensive experience of successfully working in some of the most challenging wards and towns in England including Dewsbury, Heckmondwike, Batley, Huddersfield, Blackburn and Oldham. More recently Raz has held various roles at Mahdlo (Oldham) Youth Zone and has recently returned from Blackburn Youth Zone as the interim CEO.

During Raz’s time in Oldham he has developed a new hub and bespoke service. Along the way his organisations were highly commended for Partnership Working and reducing anti-social behaviour by Greater Manchester Police. Raz represents the voice of young people and the voluntary sector on the Social Mobility Opportunity Area board for Oldham, The Arts, Culture and Mental Health Evaluation steering group and various other health and community forums and partnerships across Oldham and Greater Manchester.

Emma Farmer

Emma is the Director of Business Strategy for the Five Rivers Multi Academy Trust. Emma began her employment with Tinsley Junior School in September 2011. Prior to this she worked as Head of Unplanned Care within Doncaster Primary Care Trust; overseeing the commissioning, procurement and performance management of key NHS services.

Having spanned 15 years in the public sector, Emma has valuable HR, leadership, strategic finance and business skills. She is also a recognised SLE (Specialist Leader in Education) providing system leadership and consultancy across a number of schools.

Norman Hole

Norman worked 36 years for the Department for Education, latterly as Assistant Director leading on all aspects of the Academies programme in the Lancashire and West Yorkshire Region working closely with the Regional Schools Commissioner to deliver the government's policy for achieving sustained improvement in the region's schools.

Prior to that he was Assistant Director working on the development of the government's 10 Year National Youth Strategy "Aiming High" and leading the implementation and delivery of a number of cross-government and departmental youth programmes.

Andrew McCully, Chair of Trustees

Andrew retired in 2023 after a long career at the highest levels of the civil service:  26 years as a senior civil servant in the Department for Education and its predecessors, the last 12 of which he was the Director General on the Leadership Team of the Department responsible for the school system.  His wide range of policy roles during the Labour governments 1997-2010 included the establishment of a cross-Whitehall unit for children and young people’s outcomes, responsibility for school standards, the teacher workforce agreement, and cross-Whitehall delivery programmes in support of vulnerable young people.  His leadership roles under the Coalition and Conservative governments 2010-2023 included the academies and free schools programmes, school funding reform, safeguarding in schools, the teaching workforce and school curriculum and qualifications. 

He received an OBE in 2001 for public service and was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 2019 

Kit Thorne, Vice Chair

Kit has been a professional educator for over 40 years. His roles have comprised those of teacher in secondary and primary; adviser and Ofsted inspector in both phases; school improvement manager and strategic lead for continuing professional development (CPD) in schools and academies.

Graham McGuffie

Graham is an Independent Consultant. He has worked in education for over 40 years and in Oldham for 30 years as a senior leader in a secondary school and subsequently as a school adviser, trainer and governor.

He brings with him experience of working closely with the higher education sector, education advisers in neighbouring authorities and teacher networks.

He is a qualified School Improvement Partner.

Olwyn Smythe

Olwyn joined Yorkshire bank at the age of 19 whilst still deciding on a career and almost 40 years later is still in banking. Currently she works for HSBC looking after around 600 Premier clients with their banking, mainly their financial planning needs, pensions and investments.

Olwyn has welcomed the opportunity to be involved in the Trust as her daughter, Charlotte, is a teacher at Richmond Academy and has spoken of her passion for her career and the academy.

Ian Robinson

A Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers with over twenty years’ experience in the rail industry. Ian works for Alstom, managing a team supporting Alstom fleets across the world with safety issues, modernisation and decarbonisation. Ian has a range of professional experience including project delivery, safety management, risk assessment, asset management, due diligence, TUPE transfer and auditing.

Ian is the parent of a child with special educational needs and has a keen interest in the needs of SEND pupils within the school and the wider city of Derby. Ian was a Parent Governor of Carlyle Infants school from 2017 until it joined the Harmony Trust in 2019. Ian then joined the Derby Hub Board in 2019 and became a Trustee in 2020. Ian is the SEND Trustee and Chairs the Audit and Risk Committee.

Angela Lant

Angela has spent the last 15 years in senior leadership positions in education including Headteacher, Executive Headteacher and Primary Director for five schools based in Sheffield.

As a Headteacher she has worked with many Ofsted frameworks and has a good working knowledge of the latest framework and the emphasis it places on curriculum development and schools providing an education which is fit for purpose and bespoke to its community.

As a classroom teacher her passion was, and still is, for early years and the teaching of reading.

Due to working within a Trust before her retirement she has recent and relevant knowledge of the duties of Trusts and the accountability involved. She has a strategic view of education as well as the understanding of the impact that running schools can have on Headteachers and their senior leadership teams.

Ben Flynn

Ben is a qualified Senior Finance Professional, who has worked in finance for over 20 years with the last 8 years in the Healthcare sector. He has held previous senior European roles at global corporate organisations, playing a pivotal in corporate strategy development. Ben is currently the Director of Finance & Operations at a small medical device distributor based in Cheshire. He has three children, two in primary education and one in secondary.

Helen Cairns

Helen is a solicitor and has worked within the education sector since her qualification in 2000. She trained and spent most of her legal career with international law firm Eversheds Sutherland LLP, advising clients within the higher education, further education and academy sectors on a range of corporate, commercial, charity, regulatory and governance issues. More recently, Helen decided she wanted to concentrate on working with the academy sector as this is an area of particular interest for her, and she joined Browne Jacobson LLP as a Legal Director in order to do that.

Beenash Iqbal

Beenash is a Solicitor who has extensive experience in the legal sector having worked in the sector for over 10 years. Beenash trained at a firm in Oldham and has since been part of one of the UK’s largest consumer law firms, namely Slater & Gordon LLP who have a national presence in the United Kingdom. Beenash specialises in diverse areas of law including civil litigation, clinical negligence and currently deals with Fast track and High value matters. Beenash is self-motivated, focused and determined to each role she undertakes.

Beenash has two beautiful children and is dedicated to the improvement of teaching and learning outcomes for every child. She is passionate about the education sector and is committed to working alongside all the academies to provide practical solution-driven strategy to achieve high educational standards.

Nadia Saleh

 Suzanne Thompson

• guidance to ensure the board works in compliance with the appropriate legal and regulatory framework,  
• advice on procedural matters relating to the operation of the board, and
• administrative and organisational support.