Meet the trustees

Sian first became a school governor 20 years ago. With a background in social work she moved into education first at an educational charity and then took on a local authority governance lead role in Wandsworth, South London in 2008. In this role Sian developed a new professional clerking service, worked with South West London colleagues to deliver a NCTL governance license, was an active member of the LA's school improvement team supporting schools causing concern and led on the team's plans for managing reductions in budgets and the change in the LA's functions. Sian chaired LCOGS for three years until 2016. Since April 2017 Sian has been an independent governance specialist supporting LA's develop their governor services, delivering consultancy, training and governance reviews. Sian took on the role of chair of the trust board of the Wandle Learning Trust in January 2018. 

Appointing Body: Members
Term: September 2025 to September 2029
Committees: Finance & Resources, Chairs' Group, Governance & Nominations

Jill is a Management Accountant and works as Chief Finance & Operations Officer for a group of small businesses.

She also worked with Wandsworth Education in many capacities from Chair of Governors (Chesterton) and member of an Interim Executive Board.

She chairs appeals for school admissions and exclusions for the Local Authority.

Appointing Body: Members
Term: January 2026 to December 2029
Committees: Finance & Resources, Audit & Risk (Chair), People & Pay, Chairs' Group, Governance & Nominations

Sarah was a founding Trustee of Wandle Learning Trust. Sarah has spent her career in finance and management consulting.  Currently she works as an equity analyst, for an asset management company, with a focus on consumer investments. She is also a Trustee of First Story, a charity which works to teach creative writing in disadvantaged secondary schools across the UK. She has an undergraduate degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, and a Masters in Business Administration for which she studied and worked in the USA. 

Appointing Body: Members
Term: January 2026 to December 2029  
Committees: Finance & Resources (Chair), Audit & Risk, People & Pay

Charles taught History in a west London comprehensive secondary school for five years, during which time he was variously Head of Gifted & Talented and Higher Education, Head of History, joint Head of Sixth Form, Head of House, and Assistant Headteacher. Prior to joining the Wandle Learning Trust, he had four years' experience as a secondary school governor and latterly trustee of a multi-academy trust.
Charles has been a civil servant since 2012 - in the Cabinet Office and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - mainly in various policy and ministerial support roles. Most recently he has been focusing on organisational design and development.
He has lived in Balham, south west London, since 2005.

Term: January 2024 - December 2027

Committees: Standards (Chair), People and Pay

Courtenay is Professor of Developmental Disorders of Language and Communication at University College London, and a qualified speech-language therapist. She completed her PhD in Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, and her current research focuses on language disorders and how language interacts with other aspects of learning and development.
Courtenay has provided expert advice to a number of government reviews, including the DHSC Independent Prevalence Review of Autism, ADHD, and Mental Health, the Speech, Language and Communication Guidance expert advisory group, and the Expert Panel on National Inclusion Standards and Specialist Packages, assisting with the SEND reforms.
She has served as Chair of Governors for a local authority primary partnership (2015-2019) before joining Wandle in 2024.

Appointing Body: Members
Term: March 2025 - March 2029
Committees: Chairs' Group (Chair), Standards

Deanna works in Bloomberg’s global Government Relations and Public Policy team, where she leads on advocacy and policymaker engagement across a broad portfolio of regulatory and policy issues, including digital policy, artificial intelligence, ESG, and private markets. Previously, Deanna led Bloomberg’s UK Government Relations activity and later served as Chief Operating Officer for the team, a role she began during a secondment in Hong Kong.
Outside of her corporate role, Deanna is an active contributor to non-profit causes and sits on the Development Board of Rainbow Mind, an LGBT+ mental health charity. She previously served as Head of Public Affairs for Pride in London and as a Committee Member of the LGBT+ network InterBank. Deanna was named a Top 100 Future LGBT+ Leader by INvolve in 2021 and was shortlisted for the WeAreTheCity Rising Star Award in 2020.

Term: January 2026 - December 2029
Committees: People and Pay, Standards

Katie is an experienced teacher and school leader. Her career spans primary and secondary teaching, senior leadership and executive positions, including Director of Education and Interim CEO. She contributed to the expansion of a medium-sized trust which grew from one to nine schools. Katie specialises in school improvement and is recently accredited with the National Professional Qualification in Executive Leadership. Katie has recently moved into consultancy and advisory work, supporting schools, trusts, universities and private sector businesses to develop their organisation. Her work focuses on quality assurance, leadership development, inclusion and organisational development.

Appointing Body: Trustees

Originally Appointed: 2026
Current Term: 

Committees: 

Term: January 206 - December 2029

Committees

Term: September 2025 - September 2029

Committees:

Term: September 2025 - September 2029

Committees: Standards, Finance and Resources

Kate is Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer of Odgers, the UK’s leading search firm. She is the former General Counsel and Company Secretary of MOO and notonthehighstreet, and prior to that spent 15 years as a corporate lawyer and in the management team at Freshfields. She has previous experience of working with schools having been a governor of Haggerston School in east London for eight years. 

Appointed: 14/07/2026

 David is a highly experienced leader, with previous roles including Headships in both Birmingham and Manchester, a number of leader and director-level positions at national and regional level, as well as being an Ofsted inspector. He has previously held CEO roles at both Changing Live in Collaboration Trust, and Venturer’s Trust, and is now CEO of SAST, a MAT with 18 schools across Dorset and Somerset. He was awarded an OBE in the 2019 New Year’s Honour’s List for his services to education.
Throughout his career, David has successfully delivered sustained improvement in both pupil and Ofsted outcomes. He also has a keen interest in developing leadership programmes to encourage and nurture highly effective leaders and staff, alongside a values-led approach to driving strategy, where all stakeholders play their part.

Appointed: 14/07/2026