Meet The Steering Group

Chair - Sarah Wynde

Sarah was a parent governor at Guildford County School from 2013 to 2022, and its Chair of Governors for three years. Sarah grew up in Guildford, lives locally with her husband and three children, who are current/past students at Guildford County. She has a passion for helping young people and educators to raise their aspirations and achieve more than they thought possible.  She is excited about partnering with the Trust and Surrey University to open the new Surrey Maths School.

Sarah began her career as a health psychologist, then held global HR leadership roles at Mars and Vodafone. She set up her own talent consultancy in 2012, and delivers leadership and team development, executive coaching, facilitates teams working on complex business challenges and consults on talent strategy. Clients include adidas, Bacardi, Pandora, Centrica and Atkins. She is also a pro-bono consultant with Impetus PEF who partner with charities to upscale their provision of services supporting disadvantaged children and young people from cradle to career, to help unlock their full potential.  She is fascinated by applied neuroscience, has recently learned how to upholster chairs and loves walking her dog in the Surrey Hills.

Ian Roulstone - Head of Department of Mathematics, University of Surrey

Ian has held a teaching and research position at the University of Surrey, since 2004.  Prior to this Ian gained 15 year of research and leadership experience in the scientific civil service.  He has been the co-theme leader in the National Centre for Earth Observation since 2008.

Paul Smith

Paul Smith is Professor of Composite Materials and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Surrey.  He is an engineer by background and has been working on the mechanical properties of materials for over 30 years.

Paul also has a strong interest in education.  He holds a PGCE, with mathematics as his primary subject.  He also served on the governing bodies of two schools in Guildford (Merrow Infants and Bushy Hill Junior) including a term as chair.

Andrew Isherwood

Andrew was an officer in the Royal Navy and then re-trained as an accountant with a global Pharma company. He subsequently worked as a Director of an international consultancy firm advising banks, investment banks and other financial services companies on transforming their operational performance.

With two children attending local schools, Andrew is passionate about enabling young people from across the area to achieve their potential. Most recently, he was Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee for the Guildford College Group where standards improvement was critical and achieved.

In his spare time, Andrew coaches juniors at Guildford Rowing Club.

Andrew Roach

Andrew is the Director of Education for Learning Partners Academy Trust. Andrew has significant experience of secondary school leadership including a number of years as a Senior Deputy Headteacher in a large north London comprehensive.  In addition, he has been a facilitator for the National College of School Leadership delivering LfTM, Leadership Pathways through the Institute of Education and most recently as Lead Facilitator for STSN’s NPQSL programme. He is also an on-line facilitator supporting the NPQ suite of courses.  Andrew is currently delivering the ECF in George Abbot School’s role as a Regional Delivery Partner on behalf of South Farnham Teaching School hub and acting as the Appropriate Body for all secondary ECTs.

He has been a Leadership Development Advisor of the Fast Track and the Accelerate to Headship programmes.  Between 2016-21, he was employed as the Director of the Teaching School alongside his role as Director of Education.

Areas of expertise: Provision and delivery of school-based and external training. bespoke workshops and training programmes.  Coaching support, career consultations and interview support for Deputy Headteachers and Headteachers.