Darren began his career at Robert Clack School teaching all three sciences in 2005, specialising in physics. He completed his training through the GTP programme and has worked throughout his teaching career in comprehensive and inclusive schools for 11-19 year olds located in areas of East London with high social deprivation.

In 2013, following an Assistant Headship at the Warren School, Darren joined St Paul’s Way Trust School as Director of Learning for the School of Education where he led on the development of the NQT programme and the Summer Science School. Darren then moved to oversee the development of the Sixth Form as Deputy Headteacher helping the Sixth Form to deliver record results as well as taking on wider responsibilities involving Data, Standards and Compliance across the school.

In September 2018 Darren was appointed as Deputy Headteacher for the UST, with responsibility across the trust for Standards and Compliance. He has a proven track record of delivering strong results, developing teams and ensuring robust and effective processes to facilitate whole school learning and in September 2019 was appointed to the UST Executive as Director of Data and Compliance.

Darren has also worked for many years as a Subject Teacher Leader for the Prince’s Teaching Institute (PTI) providing support and knowledge enhancement in physics for teachers early in their teaching careers so as to help them develop a greater range of strategies and methods for teach. In addition to this role with the PTI he is also their Associate Department Co-ordinator for Science where he oversees the PTI’s national programme supporting research projects to enhance science faculty provision and development.

Prior to becoming UST’s Director of Learning, Laura had several Headteacher roles working in London, often in challenging contexts, leading school improvement journeys. Her experience has taught her the importance of good governance and so she holds several board positions related to safeguarding:?Executive committee member of both Lambeth's Safer Children Partnership and Lambeth’s Virtual School Management Board.

She is also a:

• Member of the strategic partnership board at London South Bank University, where she lectures on the MA, BA and PGCE courses
• Facilitator for Teacher Development Trust, delivering the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) on behalf of the London South Teaching School Hub
• Contributor to several national education magazines and podcasts
• Co-author of a book on how to support disadvantaged learners
• Pro-bono consultant for the third sector.

Matthew is a skilled education leader with over 25 years’ experience in the state sector and is passionate that all children should benefit from high quality learning experiences.  A music graduate of Durham University, he worked as a Director Performing Arts and as an Advanced Skills Teacher for many years before moving into Senior Leadership roles.

His experience spans Local Authority, Music Hubs and Senior Leadership Teams. This has included setting up a new free school for students with Special Educational Needs in Language and Communication and working for the charity Achievement for All. Prior to his current role, Matthew was Principal of a new all through school.

Lynsey joined UST in March 2022, but her passion for HR began more than 20 years ago when she started her career working for the Civil Service. During this time, she has expanded her expertise into Operations and Event Management as well. Amongst the many highlights, Lynsey was part of the organising committee for WorldSkills London 2011, the largest ever international careers event for young people. Notably, this was the largest and most complex event ever held at Excel London. As well as this, she was an integral member of the Ceremonies Operations team for the London 2012 Summer Olympics, something she was particularly proud of as she grew up on the doorstep of the London Stadium. Lynsey’s people-first approach is felt by everyone she works with, her enthusiasm is guided by the firm belief that HR is a constantly evolving environment, where no two days are the same.

Hodo is a dynamic and forward-thinking school leader with a passion for transformational education in Tower Hamlets.

A proud alumna of SPWS, Hodo graduated from the University of Greenwich with a BA (Hons) in Primary Education and completed a Master’s degree in Education at London Metropolitan University. She worked for 10 years at Ben Jonson Primary School (LBTH) - progressing from NQT to Assistant Headteacher - before joining CJPS as Deputy Headteacher in 2017.  She was appointed Headteacher at CJPS in 2020.

Hodo has a proven track record of strategic leadership development, curriculum design and implementation and creating a culture of high expectations. She believes passionately that the curriculum should be driven by a curiosity to understand the world and a desire to connect and build relationships - underpinned by a love of reading and cultural capital enrichment.  

Always adapting and refining her practice in response to national developments in education, Hodo recognises the power education has in transforming the community in which she serves.

Ms Toye joined the Royal Greenwich Trust School in September 2019. Ms Toye has extensive leadership experience acquired through various roles within the secondary sector including Education Consultant, Principal/Headteacher, Co-principal, Associate Principal, Deputy Headteacher and Assistant Headteacher.

As a highly motivated and innovative leader, Ms Toye has a proven track record for successfully leading and managing across diverse areas of responsibility. Her core talent in viewing challenges as opportunities and in achieving intended outcomes with drive and enthusiasm supports her dedication to raising standards.

Ms Toye is an advocate for young people who, at the heart of all decisions and actions, maintains clarity on what is ultimately of greatest benefit to the students within the learning community.

Nicholas trained as a teacher in 1998, and worked in  Norfolk as  Head of English before moving to London in 2009, as Deputy Headteacher in the soon to be named St Paul’s Way Trust School. During this time, he worked to set up the sixth form provision, the science research centre, and the school’s initial tennis partnership with Greenhouse.

Working as Associate Head from 2013, Nicholas took on outreach roles in the former Copland School in Brent, and in the former Royal Greenwich UTC. ???

In 2015, he was appointed Headteacher at Acland Burghley School in Camden, where he remains Headteacher. He is a director of Camden Learning, and formed a ground breaking partnership with the now resident Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. 

Nicholas has always worked in mixed, comprehensive schools, and has a passion for ensuring that all students achieve, irrespective of any barriers that they might face. He lives in Tower Hamlets. ??

A passionate and dedicated school leader, Siobhan graduated from Keele University and completed the Graduate Teacher Programme where she worked in two inner London schools before going on to teach in Hackney for 14 years.  Within that time, she has taught across the primary phase, led on core areas of the curriculum, was a specialist teacher in education for early reading and has well over a decade of senior leadership experience. Joining SPW in September 2019 as Assistant Headteacher and becoming Head of School in 2022, Siobhan has been instrumental in ensuring the school provides the quality of education that families expect and deserve.

Firdusi Uddin is motivated by the desire to provide an aspirational and inclusive educational experience for students, helping them to become considerate young people, as well as critical and creative thinkers who are driven to make a difference in the world.

Firdusi graduated from the London School of Economics with a degree in Psychology and Philosophy. She has a Masters in Educational Leadership and a Post Graduate Diploma in Psychology. Firdusi is an RE specialist by training and has been a Head of Faculty and led on the quality of teaching and learning through the School of Education. She has also held the post of Senior Deputy Headteacher responsible for Pastoral and Inclusion.

At the age of 16 years old Linda began her career in finance, working for a building company in Swanley. It was here that she completed her AAT, an internationally recognised accounting and finance qualification. Her next move saw her join a company that introduced her to the world of management accounts.

A proud and loving mother, Linda then had her first child and so began working part time for Woolwich Building Society. She enjoyed many happy years here until it was acquired by Barclays, and in 2007 was one of last 32 people who stayed to close all of the remaining Woolwich accounts.

Linda then made her first foray into education at a school in Gravesend, where she quickly got up to speed with the intricacies of school accounting. She joined RGTS in 2017, initially to support one day a week, but her invaluable and extensive knowledge has seen her assume her current role providing support across UST.

Nichola is a strategic thinker who is committed to making a difference. She has a track record of successfully building high performing teams, navigating high-energy situations and achieving goals on time and within budget. 

Cyril Jackson was the springboard for Nichola’s career, where she enjoyed a number of different roles and gained her certificate in School Business Management. She left to oversee an academy in Hackney before returning to Tower Hamlets as Business Manager of a large secondary school. 

Joining UST in August 2023, she brings a wealth of expertise when it comes to operations management, financial planning and implementing collaborative approaches to problem solving. Nichola is an integral member of the Trust’s finance team and is helping to spearhead its development through a period of growth.  

Deborah Atoyebi is UST’s Trust Business Manager. Having worked in the education sector for over 10 years in Tower Hamlets, she is passionate about supporting those who are working tirelessly to provide the best learning experience for young people. Part of that time was spent working at Cyril Jackson prior to the school joining the UST family, before she moved to Stepney All Saints in 2019. 

Deborah joined UST in July 2023 and brings with her vast experience in different fields; she is an associate member of the CIPD and holds an AAT Certificate in accounting. Her experience so far has seen her take up roles including HR and Office Manager, Inclusion Officer and SEN Teaching Assistant, while also as a People Associate for a Financial Education company. Her current role brings all of her expertise together as she supports the Trust with administration support, procurement and tendering, compliance and project management.

Raihana joined UST in September 2021 as the HR Operations Manager and is now working with us in the capacity of HR Consultant, 1 day per week. Raihana holds a BSC in Human Resources Management and has worked within the Education Sector for over 17 years.  Whilst having had experience of working in mainstream education for 17+ years, Raihana has been working as a HR professional for over 8 years. During her time in HR, Raihana has had ample of experience of managing a team of HR professionals as well as the day-to-day aspects related to Human Resources in an educational setting.

The decision to work at UST was in line with her passion and enthusiasm of working within an evolving HR Department, the thirst to collaborate with other HR professionals, as well as the opportunity to grow within an organisation that is committed on improving outcomes for the children within the community.

Sarah began her teaching career at Cyril Jackson Primary School in 2005. Starting as an NQT, her passion for Early Years education over the next decade saw her lead that area of the school to the Ofsted Outstanding rating in 2015. In 2016 she joined the senior leadership team as CJ’s Deputy Headteacher, taking ownership of a lot of responsibility for HR issues. Sarah took a career break to spend time with her two beautiful boys, returning to teaching in 2022 as the Early Years Phase Leader at St Paul’s Way Primary, also overseeing this team’s Outstanding rating. Her broad experience across UST schools has led her to take up a role in the central HR team, where she is bringing her expertise to numerous projects.

Lucy joined UST in September 2023 as our Recruitment Manager. She was already well known to the HR team at the Trust after working closely with them in her previous role within a recruitment agency where she supported in supplying staff to schools across UST.

Prior to joining the recruitment world, and having her two wonderful children, Lucy spent 14 years at Cyril Jackson Primary School. Starting out as a teaching assistant, she enjoyed numerous roles, including early years educator and class teacher, before heading up the early years department. This is where her passion for education and the love of the family environment that schools foster came from, and what drives her determination to play a role in ensuring every child in the UST family has the best possible education.

Trevor has a deep-rooted passion for systems and development reporting. He is motivated by the desire to provide a streamlined customer service, whilst simultaneously supporting the HR and Payroll community. Trevor joined UST in August 2021 from Juniuper Ventures, where he was working with the schools Cleaning and Catering service as a Payroll Systems Lead. Prior to this he worked in local government for a number of years, working closely with both academies and maintained schools to deliver an efficient payroll service.

Sharlene is a part qualified accountant who first started working with UST in July 2021. Initially only intending to be with us for three months while helping to implement the new payroll system on iTrent, she quickly became indispensable and has now established herself as the UST Payroll and Pension Services Manager. She first started working in payroll in the private sector when she returned from maternity leave in 2005. After two years she successfully transitioned to working for the local authority within their schools HR team. Sharlene stayed with the local authority for 14 years, but when the opportunity came up to work with UST she jumped at the chance. The school environment is very different to what she has experienced before, but Sharlene finds it motivating to be surrounded by the children that we are all here to support.

Philip Moss is an experienced Education Adviser and Project Manager with a comprehensive knowledge and experience of strategic leadership, governance and operations in Academy Trusts. ?He has managed a diverse range of capital builds projects, project managed the set-up of Free Schools and the conversion and transfer of schools and academies. ?

He has been the Operations Director/Chief Operations Officer in two Multi-Academy Trusts prior to joining UST in the Interim COO role. ?

He previously held roles in a Local Authority as Service Director for Schools and was seconded to the Department for Education for 3 years as a specialist Funding and Governance Advisor.

He has a comprehensive knowledge of the legal, regulatory, governance and operational frameworks of academy trusts and the education and charity sectors in general and has worked with many of the sector-leading law firms and the DfE on numerous projects.

Darren studied IT in Yorkshire for 2 years before making the move south to London in 2012, where he took up a position as a general handyman for an art gallery. He then started working at St Paul's Way School in 2014. His dedication and commitment to the school has seen him take up the role of Building and Compliance Manager across UST sites, where he is responsible for maintaining the buildings across the trust.

Thomas graduated from King’s College with a First in BSc (Hons) Maths in August 2021. He was drawn to working in education because of a passion for supporting children to access the same academic options as him. He is enjoying the dynamic nature of his role, predominantly based in the estates team, but also supporting finance and data.

Chris joined UST in November 2021. He started his career working in the third sector for The Prince’s Trust, supporting its efforts to get young people into education, training and employment.

After a number of years working for charities, Chris combined his passions for communications and social mobility by joining an agency that specialised solely in the education sector. In this role he forged a strong reputation for supporting numerous schools across the country to achieve their marketing objectives.

Chris is passionate about the role that communications can play when it comes to high performing schools. From attracting the best staff to ensuring parents are fully aware of what’s happening in their child’s school, he plays an important part ensuring everyone inside and outside of UST is aware of the special things happening across the trust.  

Joyce joined UST in March 2022 and has quickly become an invaluable member of the team, supporting good data practice at both Trust level and in our schools. She has a long record of excelling in school data management and analysis. She started at St Bonaventure’s Secondary School & Sixth Form as the data manager for KS3&4, implementing assessment data capture and reporting. She then turned her attention to creating a teaching and learning reporting system. Prior to joining UST, Joyce was the Data Leader across KS3-5 at Stoke Newington School & Sixth Form, where she oversaw assessment, attendance, behavioural reporting for the whole school, construction of new assessment reporting across KS3&4, as well as training on MIS or assessment systems for new starters, HOYs and SLT.

Louise brings over 20 years’ worth of experience working for Local Authorities across the country with Childrens, Schools and Families Services.

She began working for Norfolk County Council in 2001, working for the Peripatetic Team Administration which covered all Children Services offices and residential homes in the Norwich and Great Yarmouth areas. Louise then moved to Surrey County Council as manager of the Information Governance team, where she held responsibility for the initial trial and implementation of the National Police Disclosure Protocol. As well as training police officers, social workers and health workers, her remit also saw her working with school staff across the county.

In 2015, Louise made the move to Tower Hamlets, including specialising in school data protection. Since 2019 Louise has worked as an independent consultant, providing schools with a Data Protection and Information Governance Service. She also works with Children Services Departments across the country, providing a redaction service. Her focus is on supporting with historical files.

Tom has the overall lead on the strategic IT planning for UST. He has been employed by TQS for fourteen years and has worked on all of the company’s larger projects over this period. He has a wealth of technical knowledge in both the education and private sector.
Tom’s technical knowledge includes the provision of large scale networks and wide area networks. This also includes the provision of cloud networks with Microsoft Azure.
Tom also oversees cyber security for the Trust to ensure it is meeting its obligations to the Government backed scheme, Cyber Essentials Plus.

Nigel came to TQS after 15 years as an onsite technician in a primary school. As Education manager for TQS his role is to lead the teams that provide first and second line support for all the UST Schools. This includes day-to-day liaison with SLT and all staff at the schools as well as project planning and working with external companies on new and existing services and equipment.

Nigel has also been instrumental in setting up the new SharePoint structure for the UST Executive and also provides support as necessary to all UST staff.