For details of the full opening of Upton Court Grammar School for all year groups in September please click here.
Meet the Trustees
Upton Court Grammar School, Foxborough Primary School and Trevelyan Middle School belong to the Pioneer Educational Trust. The Trust is led by the Board of Trustees. The Board members are directors and trustees of the charitable company.
The Department for Education's (DfE's) Governance Handbook sets out how governance is structured in an academy where the trust is a charitable company limited by guarantee.
An academy has two layers of governance:
- The members of the trust, who have ultimate control over the direction of the academy trust
- The governors, who are also the directors and trustees of the charitable company.
Functions of the Education Trust Board
- The Trust Board will take full accountability for the schools under its control.
- The Trust will delegate responsibilities for governance of the schools to the Local Governing Body (LGB). The Local Governing Body, of between 9 and 15 members (depending on the size of the school), and will be responsible and accountable for the following:
- Student Attainment
- Learning, and the Learning Environment
- Curriculum & Standards of Performance
- Sites and Buildings
- The Trust Board will retain all other responsibilities and specifically for Pay & Conditions, Human Resources and Finance and have a Strategic overview of the other areas of responsibility. The Trust board will have one sub-committee related to audit. All voting members of the Trust Board will attend all meetings.
- A member of the Trust Board will be made accountable for a particular area of the activity, and will be responsible for supporting the schools, and LGBs in delivery of their accountabilities.
- Audit will be a key part of the Board, and will cover both financial and other operational matters.
- It will appoint a CEO, who will be responsible for the day to day management of the Trust, the schools, and will be responsible for delivering the agreed strategic plan.
- Trust members will, initially, be appointed from the local governing bodies.
- The Trust Board will retain all accountabilities and responsibilities unless they are specifically delegated to another body.
- The term for Trust Board members would be three years, renewable.
Chairs of Local Governing Bodies - Foxborough Primary School Mr Mahesh Yanambakkam, Trevelyan Middle School Dr Mark Jervis, Upton Court Grammar School Mr Rajesh Sharma.
Pioneer Educational Trust Scheme of Delegation
Pioneer Register of disclosures of interest - Members Trustees 2020-21
Dr Mark Jervis Member & Trustee
Acting Chair of Trust Board
Date of Appointment: 29 November 2016 Re-appointment: 27 September 2018
Term of Office: 3 years
Appointed by Trevelyan Middle School Governing Body
Trust Meetings Attendance 2019/20 8 out of 8
Pay & Conditions Meetings Attendance 2019/20 2 out of 2
Mark Jervis has been a parent governor at Trevelyan Middle School for six years and chair for two years, having completed the Chairs of Governors' Leadership Development Programme from the National College of Teaching & Leadership. He has also previously been a co-opted governor at a Maidenhead school, having been approached by the borough to help model good governance, particularly around analysis of data. Mark has worked in computing since finishing his Mathematics PhD; orignially in mathematical computation in the defence industry and most recently as a leader of a research and development team at the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer. Mark has three children in the Windsor three-tier school system.
Mr Sanj Badhan Trustee
Date of Appointment: 10 October 2018
Term of Office: 3 years
Appointed by the Trust Board
Trust Meetings Attendance 2019/20 5 out of 8
Sanj Badhan is the Founder of BasesysOne, specialising in customer marketing and behaviour. His background/experience has come from a wide variety of industry; telecommunications, utilities, financial services and retail, where he has been involved in uncovering the core purpose of relationships. Having grown up in the area and with a six year old daughter, Sanj is pasionate about education and ensuring furture generations are empowered.
Miss Lucy Hegarty Trustee
Date of Appointment: 6 February 2019
Term of Office: 3 years
Appointed by the Trust Board
Trust Meetings Attendance 2019/20 8 out of 8
Lucy Hegarty currently works in Human Resources, with the last 5 years spent managing student recruitment for global telecommunications companies. This current role leads to a particular interest in developing young people’s employability skills and understanding of future career opportunities. Having studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, she is committed to raising aspirations of students in state schools, with a particular focus on STEM subjects.
Mr Andrew Le Poidevin Trustee
Chair of Finance and Audit Committee
Date of Appointment: 4 December 2019
Term of Office: 3 years
Appointed by the Trust Board
Trust Meetings Attendance 2019/20 7 out of 7
Finance & Audit Meetings Attendance 2019/20 4 out of 4
Andrew joins Pioneer Educational Trust after a career in private industry. He was latterly CFO of Spirit Energy, a European oil and gas company, and previously held senior finance positions in Centrica in Windsor and a hotel company. He has worked in the UK and Europe and lived in North America.
Andrew was educated in Stockport and at Oxford University, where he enjoyed an education rich in academic challenge and personal development. Andrew's three grown children benefited from strong education locally and Andrew would like to play his part in ensuring that all children in the local community continue to have the best educational opportunities available.
Mrs Mercedes Hernàndez Estrada Member & Trustee
Date of Appointment: 1September 2018
Term of Office: 3 years
Appointed by the Members
Trust Meetings Attendance 2019/20 6 out of 8
Mercedes Hernández Estrada is the Head of the British Council School in Madrid. Previously she worked in education in the UK for almost thirty years. Born and educated in Spain she developed an interest in Languages and she completed a BA in Modern Foreign Languages and an MA in Anglo Germanic Philology at the University of Oviedo in northern Spain. She moved to the UK in the late 80s and worked in schools in the South of England since. She was a Lead Practitioner for Curriculum Design and Leadership for three years working with schools and Local Authorities in the South of England, from Plymouth to Kent. She joined Slough Grammar School in 2010 overseeing a period of growth at the school and the establishment of the Pioneer Educational Trust. She was a National Leader in Education and, in that capacity, she worked with Governing Bodies and Heads to design school improvement programmes.
Mr Mark Roper Trustee
Date of Appointment: 8 February 2017 Re-appointed 6 February 2020
Term of Office: 3 years
Appointed by the Trust Board
Trust Meetings Attendance 2019/20 7 out of 8
Finance & Audit Meetings Attendance 2019/20 5 out of 6
Pay & Conditions Meetings Attendance 2019/20 2 out of 2
Mark joins the Upton Court Trust Board with particular focus on the Strategic plan and metrics.
He was a Governor at UCGS, from 2010 to 2016. In this role he helped the newly appointed principal select her senior management team, supported the transition to academy status and acted as data Governor.
He was previously parent Governor at Our Lady of the Rosary, RC primary school, from 2003 to 2009.
He is a Director of Run the Change and Mathsmoves - an online source of resources for primary teachers to explain the fundamentals of Maths in an easy to understand way.
Mr Rajesh Sharma Member & Trustee
Date of Appointment : Re-appointed 25 September 2019
Term of Office: 1 year
Appointed by Upton Court Grammar School Governing Body
Trust Meetings Attendance 2019/20 6 out of 8
Rajesh is a former student of the school. After leaving, Rajesh studied for degrees in Politics, Economics and Law, culminating in being called to the Bar. His experience spans the fields of manufacturing, business, technology and law at a senior level.
Rajesh credits the high quality and inspirational teaching and guidance he received at this school for much of what he has achieved and for enhancing the quality of his daily life.
Ms Shirin Veeran
Date of Appointment : 20 July 2020
Term of Office: 3 years
Appointed by the Trust Board
Trust Meetings Attendance 2019/20 1 out of 1
Shirin Veeran is a CRM Sales Force Automation Manager, UK&I. She has worked in sales and marketing for over 8 years with a focus on strategy, processes and automation. Born and educated in Saudi Arabia, she completed a Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Business Administration specialised in Marketing from the University of Calicut, India. She worked as an English teacher for 8th and 9th grade students and an ESOL trainer at Dar-Al Hanan, Saudi Arabia for Cambridge University Press courses before moving to the UK in 2012. In 2020, she was selected to participate in a 9-month programme with 30% Club – Women Ahead, a cross-company mentoring programme to promote women into leadership. Having lived and worked in 3 countries, she has a keen interest in the well-being of women and children and empowerment through education.
Mr Eddie Neighbour Co CEO
Date of Appointment : 1 September 2018
Trust Meetings Attendance 2019/20 8 out of 8
Finance & Audit Meetings Attendance 2019/20 6 out of 6
Mrs Antonia Spinks Co CEO
Date of Appointment : 1 September 2018
Trust Meetings Attendance 2019/20 8 out of 8
Historic Trustees (Last 12 Months)
Mr Kam Gill Member & Trustee
Date Stepped Down: 8 September 2020
Date of Appointment: 3 December 2018
Term of Office: 1 year
Appointed by Foxborough Primary School Governing Body
Trust Meetings Attendance 2019/20 4 out of 8
Ms Gillian May Member & Trustee
Former Chair of Trust Board
Date stepped down: 31 December 2019
Date of Appointment: 22 May 2019
Term of Office: 3 years
Appointed by the Members
Trust Meetings Attendance 2018/19 1 out of 1
Finance & Audit Committee member
Mr Danny Sohal Trustee
Former Chair of Finance Committee
Date stepped down : 8 October 2019
Date of Appointment : 11 October 2016
Term of Office: 3 years
Appointed by the Trust Board
Trust Meetings Attendance 2018/19 0 out of 7
Finance Committee Meetings Attendance 2018/19 3 out of 6
