Mrs Sue Collings, CEO
Sue is the Trust’s CEO, having started in April 2023. Sue has worked in education for over 30 years and has been a secondary Headteacher for 14 years and a CEO for over 6 years. She has a master’s degree in leadership and management and is a qualified leadership coach. She has led extensive personnel, technological and physical change in schools which has created innovative learning environments. Sue is an elected ASCL Council representative where she is a member of the Leadership and Governance group, and she is also a member of the DfE Trust Leaders group where policy and practice are designed. Sue has been a Governor to a Virtual School, a Principal Examiner for OCR and a national trainer in education. Sue remains passionate about raising achievement for all students and has achieved this continuously throughout her career against a backdrop of challenging budgets.
Mr I Bacon, Education Director
Ian has 20 years of Senior Leadership experience at large secondary schools in Milton Keynes and further afield. Most recently, he has been Headteacher of Watling Academy, a brand-new secondary school on the western flank of Milton Keynes, leading the school from its pre-opening phase through to its successful ‘Outstanding’ OFSTED inspection in May 2023. Ian was Strategic Lead for the Enigma Maths Hub from 2015-2020 and acted as Senior Lead to establish the MK and South Northants Computing Hub. He has proven experience in school improvement and strategic planning and been commissioned to conduct ‘Quality of Education’ reviews in other schools.
Mr Norman Allan, Finance Director
Norman Allan joined the trust as Interim Finance Director in January 2022 and transferred to a permanent position in September 2022. Norman is a qualified Management Accountant with over 35 years’ experience as a director, predominantly in Finance for publicly quoted companies or venture capital backed private companies. His strengths lie in being able to bring experience gained in a range of sectors including, leisure, distribution, manufacturing, technology and education to benefit the Trust as it grows.
Jen Swain, Primary Lead
Jen has 20 years of education experience ranging from nursery provisions to KS3. Jen started her teaching career at a challenging school in Milton Keynes, moving into the wider leadership team in her second year. Following that, Jen spent 2 years working at a middle school in Bedford, running their maths department. However, Jen realised that she missed the primary school experience and returned to Milton Keynes in 2014 as Assistant Head at Drayton Park School. During this time, Jen worked closely with another school in Milton Keynes, Brooksward, and became Head of School there in 2018, whilst still working closely with Drayton Park and leading the project for federating the two schools.
In 2022, Jen became Executive Deputy across the two schools and in 2023, Executive Head. In 2024, the two schools made the exciting decision to join with the Trust and in 2025, Jen was appointed as Primary Lead, supporting all the primaries in the Trust. In her spare time, Jen has two young children who make life interesting and loves trying new foods and restaurants as often as she can!