Leadership

 Chief Executive Officer – Helen Joyce

Helen has worked in the education sector for over 20 years, initially starting her career in a small village school in North Wales. On relocation to Lincolnshire, Helen developed her leadership at Carlton Road Academy in Boston, initially as Maths Subject lead and was appointed Head of School at Carlton Road in September 2006.

Passionate that EVERY child should meet their full potential, regardless of their background, her drive to secure the best outcomes for pupils through clear, transparent leadership led to significant improvements at the school, leading to its ‘Outstanding in all areas’ judgements in September 2014.

Prior to joining Keystone Academy trust, Helen was appointed to lead the primary academies in September 2016 within a Lincolnshire Trust. As Chief Education Officer, Helen led a strong Central Education Team and Extended Services Team, supporting educational outcomes and pastoral needs of children and families. She also oversaw the Connect Teaching School, which has successfully delivered a SSIF maths project for Lincolnshire schools and successfully trained many SCITT trainees.

Helen contributes to the sector-led school improvement model. As an LLE and an accredited Pupil Premium Reviewer, Helen has considerable experience of challenging and supporting leaders, having supported over 20 schools on their implementation and evaluation of school priorities, while valuing the uniqueness of each school - and truly believing that collaboration ensures that children of all abilities develop and thrive within their environments.

Helen fundamentally believes in our young people, our academy communities, our staff and partnership working - all of which when working in harmony will ensure that our learners become well-balanced, independent and successful members of society.

 Chief Financial Officer - Samantha Taylor

Samantha Taylor is a Fellow Chartered Accountant with over twenty-five years of accounting and business experience in a variety of public and private sector roles.

Trained at Deloitte in London, Samantha moved out of Practice after seven years into a wide range financial roles in organisations ranging from FTSE 100 companies to small charities.

Samantha joined Bourne Westfield Primary Academy at the start of 2014 and was actively involved in the development of the school including securing significant capital grants, the opening of a nursery and the development of a successful teaching school. Despite the financial challenges in the sector the school successfully grew its reserves for future developmental opportunities.

In anticipation of forming a new MAT in Lincolnshire, Samantha introduced financial software and processes to allow for the expansion of the trust as new schools joined.

Keystone Academy Trust has a centralised financial function with contributing staff based in all the Trust schools. The DfE Chart of Accounts is used with Sage for Academies. Budgets and forecasting are supported by Imp Budgeting Software.

The MAT continues to grow with seven schools as of September 2021. During this formation and growth, the CFO has concentrated on quickly developing an effective MAT-wide finance and purchasing team, with centralised processes, controls and procedures.  There also continues to be focus on value for money, financially supporting school improvement plans, and obtaining cost-savings through efficiencies.

Paul Singleton - Director of School Standards

Paul has worked in the education sector for over 15 years, initially starting his career working in a small village school close to Bourne and then as a Teaching and Learning Consultant working for CfBT, the Lincolnshire School Improvement Service, where he was deployed to support schools to raise standards in English, Phonics and Maths. Paul then developed his leadership skills working at Long Sutton County Primary School, a large 2-form entry school, in South Lincolnshire with a long history of satisfactory Ofsted judgements. At Long Sutton, Paul took overall responsibility for the strategic leadership of teaching & learning, assessment, and the curriculum. Through a systematic drive for improvement with a clear focus on all pupils achieving to their full potential, the school was successful in achieving its first ever ‘Good in all areas’ Ofsted judgement in July 2016.

In September 2021, Paul was appointed to the role of Director of School Standards for Keystone Academy Trust. In this role, he leads the School Improvement Team and is responsible for the trust’s vision for assessment and improving of outcomes for all pupils. Central to this, is Paul’s role as MAT PiXL Raising Standards Lead, whereby he leads a team of RSLs to provide our pupils with the best chance at becoming successful learners. In his current role, Paul is also the Strategic Assessment Lead for Lincolnshire whereby he has overall responsibility for ensuring that the Local Authority meets all its statutory requirements for moderation and monitoring at KS1 and KS2. This role also entails Paul being the KS1 Moderation Manager and an approved STA moderator for KS1 and KS2. For several years now, Paul has also been a Visiting Tutor for the Deepings SCITT, EDT Facilitator and ECT Induction Tutor.

Paul is fully committed to the sector led improvement model and believes that by schools working in a collaborative and transparent way, this allows children to become effective learners with a thirst for knowledge and well placed to succeed in later life.

 Tracey Roscher - Chief Operations Manager

Following a career in banking, Tracey moved to the education sector in 2002, first as an administrator and later as a bursar. Both roles were in small LA maintained schools which gave Tracey the opportunity to manage a range of non-teaching support tasks covering IT, Premises, HR, Finance and Administration. It also made her acutely aware of the need to effectively support busy head teachers and school leaders, enabling them focus on teaching.

Tracey was involved in the successful formation of two federations of primary schools and learned the importance of collaborative approaches and building professional networks. Between 2008 and 2010, she studied with the National College of School Leadership and gained both the Certificate and Diploma in School Business Management.

In 2013, Tracey joined Long Sutton County Primary School as School Business Manager, operating at both senior leadership and strategic level.  At this two-form entry school, she initiated a move to Local Authority Prime Account status, giving the school greater control over finance and payroll. She led many premises development projects, most notably securing grant funding to build a school kitchen. The kitchen team, under her management, went on to provide School Food Standard ‘Gold’ certified meals for Long Sutton Primary pupils and four further schools.

Tracey was appointed Chief Operations Manager for Keystone Academy Trust in 2020 and is responsible for the strategic development and management of HR, IT, Estates, Facilities, Procurement and Compliance. She has successfully tendered for, and implemented, HR and payroll provision and has developed a strong professional and strategic partnership with a new IT managed services company. Both these collaborations mean Keystone Academy Trust systems are well placed to support future growth.

Tracey is an advocate for support staff in education and remains true to the same fundamental support function she observed in her earliest education roles – enabling heads and senior leaders to focus on quality teaching, so that children in their schools can have the best possible education and life chances.