Trustees

The trustees set the strategic direction of the trust, hold senior school leadership to account and oversee the trusts financial performance.

Clare Swann (Chair)		Date appointed: 12th Jan 2021 Term of Office: 4 years Appointed by The Members Clare has been a teacher for over 25 years. Her experience in education has been wide ranging and has included teaching from EYFS to Key Stage 4. She has experience in senior leadership as Deputy Headteacher at two primary schools in the North East of England. Currently Clare supports pupils who are unable to attend school. Clare completed an MA in Education in 2017. She was a governor at Oughtrington from 2014 until 2020, and was the Chair of Governors from 2015 to 2020. Clare is also a Local Authority governor at St Andrew's Primary School, Warrington, and has been the Vice Chair since November 2020.

Leanne Shaw		Date appointed: December 2024 Term of Office: 4 years Appointed by The Members Leanne has over 20 years primary teaching experience and in this time she has led various subjects, Key Stages and was Deputy Head at Oughtrington Primary. In 2021 she went on secondment to Warrington LA supporting schools across Warrington with curriculum development, focusing on ensuring that curriculums were ambitious, rigorous, and well suited to each schools’ context. She also worked with Head Teachers and Subject Leads across the authority. In 2022 Leanne took up the role of Primary School Improvement Advisor for the CDAT multi academy trust working across 15 primary schools. She went on to lead the School Improvement Team within the Beam Trust.

Joanne Bridge		Date appointed: 12th Jan 2021 Term of Office: 4 years Appointed by The Members Joanne is an experienced teacher and leader at Werneth High School, Stockport, where she has responsibility for pupil premium and KS3 achievement. She has a PIXL Partners in Evidence qualification for exceptional middle leaders. Joanne was a governor at Ougthrington from February 2015 until January 2021, and was the Chair of the Curriculum Committee from September 2016 to January 2021.

Jacqui Waby (Vice Chair)		Date appointed: 12th Jan 2021 Term of Office: 4 years Appointed by The Members Jacqui is an Operations Manager for the technical professional service provider Jacobs, having joined the buisness in a project management role in 2014. Jacqui has a successful track record of managing challenging projects in highly regulated environments in line with scope, time, cost and quality expectations. In addition to her experience at Jacobs, Jacqui has fifteen years' experience of project management and business development in the events industry, including bid management and mobilisation of new contracts. Jacqui has been a governor in Warrington since 2009. She joined the Governing Board at Statham in March 2011 and held the position of Chair from January 2015 to November 2021.

Karina Middlehurst		Date appointed: 12th Jan 2021 Term of Office: 4 years Appointed by The Members Karina is a qualified Accountant and has worked in finance and business management in the IT industry for 30 years, looking after management accounts, costing and benchmarking and more recently travel and expense systems and interfaces with finance systems. She was Treasurer of the Pre-School and After School Club Committee when her children were young, moving onto the Governing Board at Statham Primary School for 10 years and then joining the Beam Trust, where she is now the Chair of the Resources Committee. Karina has lived in Lymm for 17 years and is a keen Morris Dancer and crafter - being a coordinator of the Lymm Tree project.

Mark Bainton		Date appointed: 15th February 2023 Term of Office: 4 years Appointed by The Members Mark is retired as he took early retirement to enable his wife to pursue her career as a Primary School Teacher, before this Mark was an Engineering Surveyor, firstly with Manchester City Council then with Barratt Homes and then later with Network Rail as Principal Technical Officer. Mark is involved in the local community which he finds very rewarding, he is also a Church Warden at St Mary's Church in Lymm. Mark is a Parent Governor at Lymm High School and has previously been a Governor at Cherry Tree Primary School.

Alyssa Fyfe		Date appointed: 15th February 2023 Term of Office: 4 years Appointed by The Members Alyssa is a Graduate Process Engineer at Jacobs, an international technical professional service provider. Alongside her typical day job of working on complex engineering designs, she has been involved in producing a business case for the development of innovative solutions to help achieve Net-Zero by 2050 and also mentors new graduates and university students. Alyssa has lived in Lymm since the age of 3 and moved back permanently after finishing University in 2021. In her spare time she enjoys attending local dance classes which she has been doing for 20 years.

William Groarke		Date appointed: 15th February 2023 Term of Office: 4 years Appointed by The Members Will is a Graduate Planning Officer at Tameside Council, with a background in estates management. He has recently graduated from the University of Manchester in MSc Planning and is working towards attaining chartered membership status of the RTPI. He has experience within the management of planning applications, navigating the difficulties of the planning system and working within the realm of building maintenance and facilities tracking. Will aims to progress his experience in governance through being a Trustee of The Beam Trust and to positively contribute to the lives of all the children at the schools within the trust.