Meet our Trustees

Louisa Davies, Chair of Trustees.

Louisa has over a decade's experience in education & governance. She first became a governor at Lydney C of E in 2008 and then joined Aylburton Governing Body. She has been a Chair since 2014. Louisa is a Local Leader of Governance and provides both formal & informal support to other Chairs and Governing Bodies in the area.

Louisa is a qualified teacher and has worked with children and young people in many roles, giving her good knowledge of a range of different educational settings including working with children with SEND, Children in Care, at academies, state schools, faith schools and Further Education. She currently teaches at a Secondary Academy in South Gloucestershire.

Rachel Dare, Chief Executive Officer

Rachel has been a headteacher and executive school leader in different local authorities in England & Wales. After a first headship in Monmouthshire, she became Executive Headteacher in Gloucestershire in 2013, leading the schools to form the successful Severn Federation. Rachel was proud to open the Severn Federation Academy Trust in January 2021. Rachel is passionate about supporting schools to provide excellent education and providing creative school support solutions.

Qualifications include:

B.Ed hons Educations (specialism Music), M.Ed Child Psycology, NPQH; and in 2018 was designated as a National Leader of Education.

Ashleigh Child, Chair of Finance Committee

After graduating with a degree in Maths and Meteorology Ashleigh returned to Gloucestershire and completed the ACA qualification with a local accountancy firm. Now, as a chartered accountant and with 10 years audit experience working with academies, charities and businesses, she can bring her skills to the SFAT board. Using this financial and regulatory knowledge, Ashleigh can support the Trust, being part of the finance and audit & risk committees. 

Ashleigh is looking forward to working with the other trustees and leadership team to support the Trust in its vision and ethos. 

Mohammed Rizwan, Chair of Ethos & Education Committee

I work in the Civil Service and have been here since 2018. I currently work at HMRC, where I make sure businesses are paying the right amount of tax at the right time. I do this by interviewing businesses and examining their records which I reconcile with tax legislation. I’m also a manager, ensuring my reports are being the best they can be. I do this by supporting and guiding them.

I am an examiner for Pearson, where I examine GCSE English, A Level English (Poetry), and an international English paper.

In my current role, I am part of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion network because I am very committed to improving outcomes for people of all backgrounds. I’m particularly interested in social mobility, but I understand how important intersectionality is in understanding and removing barriers to progression and success, whatever that may look like.

I have been teaching for over 10 years, and I would like to see what it’s like on the other side, where decisions are made. I want to develop my skills in decision making, business awareness, influencing and negotiation and finance, especially, and I think being a trustee will help me to do this.

Buy my main reason to become a trustee is to use my existing skills and experience to improve outcomes for children. I’m a huge believer in making the world a better place and the earlier we get started, the better things will be. Improving outcomes for children is one important way to do this.

I am keen to be involved outside my local area and I think I could bring my knowledge of working in a more diverse community to the Forest area. I am also interested in social mobility, and I’d like to gain more experience in this area. I’d like to help increase social mobility in any way I can.

Having worked in adult education, I appreciate the importance of getting education right from the very beginning.

Pam Howell

I have 35 years' experience in Primary Education, including 19 years as a headteacher. During my headship I was also recognised as a National Leader of Education. Since September 2022 I have refocused my efforts on helping school leadership teams develop teaching and learning within their schools for the benefit of their pupils.

My educational journey has always been about the child and the enrichment we can bring about to their lives. 

I am also driven by the desire to develop and inspire our future profession; guiding and supporting colleagues to achieve their full potential. 

Through strong teamwork and collaboration with all stakeholders I have been fortunate to lead schools from positions of Inadequate and Requires Improvement to Good and Ourstanding judgements. 

In the words of Nelson Mandela: ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

Reverend David Ibbotson

David has worked in education for almost all his career.  He has taught chemistry in a mixture of maintained and independent schools and was a deputy headteacher for 15 years before being ordained in the Church of England.  In the last ten years before retirement, he was a school chaplain in a number of boarding schools.  Throughout his career he has been passionate about the well-being and progress of pupils and education in the widest sense.  He has been a governor in a number of schools and a schools' inspector with the Independent Schools Inspectorate.  He is based in the Forest of Dean and enjoying retirement in this beautiful part of the world.

Nicola Dunford 

Nicky Dunford, returned to education after running her own business for 8 years, in 2006 and was quickly appointed Head Teacher of a small rural primary school which was judged to have improved from a Satisfactory status to an outstanding school within two years. She took on another failing school to form the Newton and Teign Federation and combined these schools with others in the South Hams to create The Link Academy Trust in 2016. The six initial schools grew to 23 over a period of over 9 years. The Trust was highly successful over this period, and the small, mostly rural/church schools were able to benefit from a collaborative and centrally supportive ethos, ensuring they provided a good or better education for pupils. During this time she also chaired the National Small Schools Group.
As the founding CEO of the Link, Nicky retired in August 2025 and is now a Director for Exeter Diocese Education Network, a Trustee for Devon Opera and more recently a trustee for the Severn Federation Academy Trust. She hopes that these roles will give her the opportunity to maintain her links with education. 
 

Register of Interests & Trustee Responsibilities

RETIRED TRUSTEES

REGISTER OF INTEREST

Trustees Meeting Attendance

Board of Trustees Meetings 2026-2027

Board of Trustees Meetings 2025-2026

Audit & Risk Committee Meetings 2026-2027

Audit & Risk Committee Meetings 2025-2026

Ethos & Education Committee Meetings 2026-2027

Ethos & Education Committee Meetings 2025-2026

Finance Committee Meetings 2026-2027

Finance Committee Meetings 2025-2026