Central Support

Tayo Williams - Finance Director/ Head of Finance 

Tayo is an accountant, consultant and highly skilled coach and is currently working at Strive4 Academy Trust to ensure the highest possible quality and efficiency in the Finance Team.  With extensive experience in both the commercial field and in education, she

delivers a high quality and efficient business support service to all schools in the Trust, to ensure that day to day operational functions are effectively managed.

Tayo assists the Operations Manager to provide business support functions in each school and contributes to the development of high performing support teams which are highly motivated and focussed on the educational outcomes of pupils and the strategic vision of each school and the Trust. She leads the promotion and delivery of good financial management so that public money is safeguarded at all times and used appropriately, economically, efficiently and effectively.

Jennifer Small - Operations Manager

Jennifer joins Strive4 with many years of experience working at a senior level within the education sector. She is a confident “hands on” leader whose expertise is in managing and developing support teams to deliver high level services to internal and external customers.

Her previous roles have included a wide remit of operational and school business management and she is particularly skilled in developing finance and administration processes, procedures and systems.

Pete Wade - Compliancy Manager

Pete has a enjoyed a career working in Operational roles for a number of large organisations with a particular focus on Operational Excellence. During this time he rose to Board level with responsibility  for Financial and Budget control, People development and acting as Lead on Change Management processes to aid improved productivity and staff welfare. By bringing these aspects to the Academy Pete is supporting our development and continued growth. A former Governor of a local Junior school, 4 years as Chair, his experience in understanding the importance of creating a strong educational environment supports the ethos for our children's future.

Project Manager

Deirdre McCoy has over 30 years of both commercial and school management; she was a founding staff member of Strive4 Academy Trust and has worked at Ray Lodge Primary School for a decade, recently returning to the Trust after 2 years at another Multi-Academy Trust. Deirdre oversees project management focussing her skills and energies on specific tasks and development in order to have timely, but sustainable, growth and development in key areas of Trust finance and business operations.