Our Staff

The Rose Learning Trust Staff Team

As a trust, we acknowledge the need to retain and develop talented staff within our schools. We will use the growth of the trust to provide professional opportunities for ambitious, skilled staff who share our vision and who are interested in developing their skills. We also have a strong emphasis on ITT development.

We are looking for schools who share our ambitions for the future, whose culture and ethos match ours, and who are committed to providing the very best for their children both academically and socially.

Central Team

Chief Executive Officer/Accounting Officer Helen Harrison	Deputy Chief  Executive Officer     Jeremy Harris
Chief Finance Officer Amy Skelton	Trust Business Operations Manager Lucy Frewer
Director of Curriculum Effectiveness Kelly Cousins	Trust Finance Officer  Emma Dobson
Governance and Compliance Officer Lyndsey Williams

Chief Executive Officer/Accounting Officer

Helen Harrison   

Helen has had substantial experience in school and executive leadership, including both headship and advisory positions and within her current role as Chief Executive Officer/Accounting Officer of The Rose Learning Trust. She was an accredited School Improvement Partner and has trained as a coach through the Local Leaders of Education programme. Helen has completed the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust Executive Headteacher programme and more recently the National Professional Qualification in Executive Leadership. She has also led 3 schools through very successful Ofsted inspections as headteacher, as well as supporting trust colleagues and partner schools.

Over the years Helen has enthusiastically maintained her vision for education and has been sustained by the knowledge that ‘every child matters.’ She believes passionately in the importance of raising standards and giving pupils access to the best possible teaching and learning experiences, but equally that pupils’ welfare and wellbeing is just as important. This has underpinned her philosophy and guided her practice, as evidenced through validated academic outcomes, including trajectories of improvement over time  and through Ofsted.

As both a headteacher and CEO, Helen has been able to apply her skills as a peer-to-peer coach and mentor to identify and share outstanding practice in order to facilitate impactful system wide improvements. She believes that schools and organisations are successful when they are led by leaders who lead learning and where everyone understands their responsibility for sustainable improvement and for building effective partnerships.

Helen thoroughly enjoys being Chief Executive Officer at The Rose Learning Trust and feels privileged to play her part in making a difference.

Deputy Chief Executive Officer    

Jeremy Harris

In this role Jeremy has focussed on all aspects of school improvement including the implementation of trust wide strategies to secure highly effective teaching and learning, leading to strong outcomes for all pupils.  Jeremy particularly enjoys working with school leaders to build capacity in leadership at all levels.  He has also taken a lead on the development of IT and online cloud solutions for effective communication and information sharing across the trust.  Jeremy has the National Professional Qualification for Executive Leadership (NPQEL) and was the Headteacher of Hatchell Wood Primary Academy for thirteen years leading the school through four inspections.

Jeremy has been in education for twenty-seven years.  He was pivotal in taking his school through the process of academisation in 2017, seeing the benefits of belonging to a multi-academy trust and the opportunities this would bring for high quality school improvement and collaboration. 

Jeremy thoroughly enjoys his work and feels privileged to play a part in changing the lives of children through the delivery of a high-quality educational experience.

Chief Finance Officer

Amy Skelton

As a qualified accountant, Amy has over 20 years experience working in public sector accountancy working across many facets of local government finance including both revenue and capital accounting. She completed her chartered public finance accountant (CIPFA) exams in 2006.

Amy has worked within the education finance sector for the last 14 years initially as a Local Authority Principal Finance Officer dealing with schools funding and the statutory aspects of education finance. She then moved to the finance support traded service to Rotherham Schools where she managed a team delivering support in all financial aspects of administering a school delegated budget. During the early days of academisation, she was both a strategic and operational lead in adapting financial support services to Rotherham academies.

Amy completed the NCSL/CIPFA Certificate in Financial Reporting for Academies in 2012 and has over 8 years experience of producing Academy Statutory Accounts for both single and multi-academy trusts.

Amy has been in her role with The Rose Learning Trust for last 5 years. During this time she has developed robust financial systems, procedures and budget reporting tools which underpin statutory compliance and facilitate effective financial management and accountability. 

Amy feels very privileged to be part of the Executive Leadership team where she can use her skills and experience to support and drive the trust’s vision for raising educational standards.

Director of Curriculum Effectiveness

Kelly Cousins 

Being Head of School at Richmond Hill Primary Academy for the past 6 years, has cemented Kelly's passion for securing strong teaching and learning for all children.  Having taught first hand, in all year groups in the primary phase, (Nursery through to Year 6) Kelly enjoys driving standards, utilising her coaching and mentoring skills, in order to support colleagues to strive for excellence in the classroom.   

Kelly has successfully completed the National Professional Qualification for Headship, as well as the Chartered Teacher programme, gaining CTeach status, ensuring that pedagogy is research led and impactful and has more recently achieved the NASENCO qualification.

Kelly provides support and advice through her Executive Safeguarding role within the Trust and delivers audits to ensure all schools are compliant.  She leads the Let's Think in English (LTE) Hub for the North, providing high quality CPD, whilst showcasing good practice in the classroom and collaborating with schools within the Trust, as well as external.  Kelly is committed to ensuring that all children have access to a high quality curriculum, by sharing the best practice across our family of schools, in her role as Director of Curriculum Effectiveness.

Trust Business Operations Manager 

Lucy Frewer

With several years' experience in School Business and Operations, Lucy has a background working in schools in the South Yorkshire area. Previously she has supported schools as both a Business and Operations Manager, first in Barnsley Academy and then at Netherwood Academy. She has worked strategically with the schools to improve compliance and ensure best practices across all areas of business operations. 

Prior to working in education Lucy worked in recruitment and IT software, supporting the setup of both a successful recruitment company and a UK division of a German IT software company. 

In addition to the above she also supports other schools in the South Yorkshire area as Vice Chair of Governors for both a primary and secondary school, something she finds extremely rewarding. 

Lucy is committed to providing highly efficient operational and business services that support the Trust and ensure that the schools can provide the best experience and outcomes for our pupils. 

Trust Finance Officer

Emma Dobson

Prior to joining The Rose Learning Trust, Emma was a Manager at Yorkshire Bank, where she had a 15-year career in retail and developing experience in business banking undertaking a qualification in this area also. Emma moved to education finance 6 years ago, developing her skills in education finance at Hatchell Wood Primary Academy.

For 18 months, Emma has held a dual role coordinating finance and banking across the trust while continuing to provide local support to Hatchell Wood. This dual has enabled Emma to develop her expertise in all aspects of finance in education required for members, schools and for the trust body.

Emma is passionate about education, a natural organiser, and takes great pride in her contribution to ensure the smooth running of the financial systems and bank accounts for the trust.

Trust Governance and Compliance Officer

Lyndsey Williams 

Prior to joining The Rose Learning Trust, Lyndsey worked at Doncaster Council, where she had a 12 year career in the administration of Council Tax Liability and the assessment of Housing Benefit claims. During this time she gained a vast amount of experience and knowledge in Customer Service, Compliance and Government Legislation.

Lyndsey changed careers into Education Administration in 2015 and enjoyed working in busy primary school offices over the next 8 years; starting as an administration assistant and then moving on to become Office Manager. During this time she developed her knowledge and skills in the day to day management of a school office covering many aspects such as Health and Safety, Finance, Compliance, Governance and Safeguarding.

Lyndsey feels privileged to be a part of The Rose Learning Trust central team. Her career experiences mean that she has a breadth of knowledge to bring to the Governance and Compliance role.