Eric is the former Principal of Ormiston Bushfield Academy in Peterborough, where he led the school from possible closure in 2001 to a new £26 million purpose built accommodation in 2009. Working with architects and constructors, Eric developed a state of the art educational facility, which impacted on the regeneration of the whole community. The development of community opportunities both in resources and in people engagement is close to Eric’s heart.

Prior to this, he was Deputy Head at Bushfield College and Sir Harry Smith Community College in Whittlesey and has 43 years’ service in education. Eric taught PE and Geography and undertook a range of coaching awards including athletics, he is a current Level 3 coach, tennis and football in which he holds the UEFA B award.

Eric was Youth Development Coach at Peterborough United from 1985-90 and also coached the Huntingdon U18 Youth Team to two FA County Youth Cup Finals. He continues to be an active sportsman having run 12 London Marathons (PB 3.04.20) and over 70 half marathons. Eric is the only person to have completed every Great Eastern Run Half marathon in Peterborough and currently represents his age group in Team GB in the Duathlon at the European and World Championships and is keen to reach the highest level in both duathlon and road running whilst his legs and heart continue to function!

Eric is also a keen mountaineer having trekked to Everest Base Camp and in 2015 climbed two 4000m peaks in the Alps.

In 2014, he was awarded both the Pride in Peterborough ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for services to education and the ‘Secondary Head Teacher of the Year’ award.

Currently, Eric is Chair of Governors at Ormiston Meadows Primary Academy and a partnership consultant for The Youth Sports Trust. He also was until recently Chair of the Peterborough School `improvement Board.

Mark is currently the Headmaster of the British School of Paris Junior School, having previously been Headmaster at Laxton Junior School, Oundle.

His first teaching post was at St Mark’s RCVAP School in Ipswich and, after a fulfilling four years, his sense of adventure took over and he joined the Shell Schools’ Network, moving to Rumukoroshe School in Nigeria. Following a very successful two years in Africa, Mark moved to China to work at The CSPC International School, Shell’s new school in Daya Bay. 

Richard was brought up on a council estate in Cambridge and educated under the old direct grant system at the Perse School. 

He studied natural sciences for medicine at Cambridge and then, by a series of serendipitous events, ended up as a University Lecturer in Physiology at Cambridge.  

His main research interests are in heart, circulation and early human development.  

In Cambridge his main educational interest, apart from lecturing, has been in facilitating access and outreach work, both through his college (Emmanuel) and the university.  

He has participated in master classes, particularly in South Yorkshire, which is one of his college’s link areas, and has run many summer schools for the university.  

Richard is also Chair of the Villiers Park Educational Trust which seeks to create social mobility by providing education opportunities for gifted children from underprivileged backgrounds. 

Scott started his career as a PE teacher in 1992 and after a number of years teaching PE in schools in Nottingham and Fenland, he secured his first headship at a Cambridgeshire school in 2005. Following 7 years of successful headship including its conversion to an Academy, Scott moved to a larger Local Authority school with a sixth form in Northamptonshire. Having been there for less than 6 weeks an Ofsted inspection placed the school in special measures and ultimately it became an Academy as part of a large, regionally based MAT and Scott led the school out of special measures shortly after.

In 2015, Scott secured a post as Principal in an academy in Peterborough that had been in special measures for 18 months. The academy was part of a small but growing MAT based in Cambridgeshire. The school was removed from special measures in his second term and at that point it was agreed it should be ‘re-brokered’ to the newly established Thomas Deacon Education Trust. That school is now the Queen Katharine Academy.

In June 2018, after 18 months of working as part of TDET, Scott took on the role of its Director of Secondary Education, which was then developed into a wider role, overseeing the overall education strategy for the Trust, supporting Principals in both the Secondary and Primary phase.

Scott has chaired the Peterborough Partnership of Secondary Schools and is also Chair of a locally based SCITT (School-Centred Initial Teacher Training) provider.

Kate is a freelance Creative Producer and has worked in the creative sector, mainly theatre, for all of her career.  Her focus is to create new opportunities for artists to work with communities to support social cohesion, well-being and aspiration .  She delivers this work through Jumped Up Theatre, a small charity, now based in Peterborough, which she founded over 20 years ago.  She has also worked locally for Vivacity and Eastern Angles, and nationally for organisations such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, English Touring Theatre and Manchester Royal Exchange

Kate lives in Peterborough with her husband and daughter, and enjoys yoga, swimming and live events, from sport to music.

Kate was a governor and chair of local infant school for a number of years.  She is passionate about all children being given the equality of opportunity from a strong and well-rounded education, and creating a lifelong interest in learning to equip them for the challenges that life may hold.

Bernard Barker is Emeritus Professor of Educational Leadership and Management at the School of Education, University of Leicester where he was Director of Post Graduate Research and taught Masters and Doctoral students in the UK and the Far East. He has been Chair of the Academy Committee at Queen Katharine Academy in Peterborough since 2017, following service as Vice Chair at the John Warner School in Hertfordshire, a member of the Hoddesdon Schools Trust.

Bernard was educated at one of the first London comprehensives and was awarded an Open Exhibition to study history at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He won a Major State Scholarship to York University where he researched the Labour movement in the years immediately before and after the First World War.

Between 1971 and 1999 Bernard taught at secondary schools in Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Leicester, including 17 years as the principal of Stanground College, a large community comprehensive in Peterborough. He moved on to lead Rowley Fields Community College in Leicester out of special measures and taught the History Post-Graduate Certificate in Education at the University. He was awarded a PhD for his thesis on educational leadership in 2003. Bernard was also lead consultant with the Centre for Educational Management and trained school heads on the National College for School Leadership’s flagship programme.

Bernard has written widely on history and education, including numerous books and articles on a variety of themes. He is an active researcher on the relationship between education and social mobility and in 2020 published STEM, Social Mobility and Equality (Palgrave Macmillan) with Kate Hoskins.