Trustee Profiles

Please see below the profiles of the people leading Prince Regent Street Trust.

Register of Interests can be downloaded from the Governance Documents page. 

Trustee Information

Kay Steven

Chair of Trust

Chair of Trust since inception in 2018. Kay has a BSC (Hons) in Biology with Psychology and is a Fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences. Kay has a NEBMS certificate in supervisory Management and whilst in Manchester was a Director in a property company and was a convenor for the local branch of the National Association of Cytologists.

Since 2005 Kay has concentrated on voluntary work on Teesside, firstly with the NCT and then within school, and education related charities. Kay regularly attends CPD and training courses with Stockton Borough Council, CST and NGA, and she has completed the NGA Chairs course.

Kay is a former Chair of Governors at Hartburn Primary School. She is currently a Trustee for Friends of Hartburn Primary School and Second Hartburn Scouts Association.

Julia Armstrong

CEO & Accounting Officer

Julia has been CEO and Accounting Officer since inception of the Trust in 2018. She previously served as Headteacher of Hartburn Primary School and the Deputy Headteacher of Kader Academy. Julia’s qualifications include the NPQH and the NPQEL and ‘Being the CEO’ through the Forum Strategy. Julia has led on many school improvement initiatives across North East Education Authorities and has strategically developed the capacity of Prince Regent Street Trust over the last five years.

Jamie Irvine

Vice Chair of Trust

Jamie has been a civil servant for 17 years working for Dept. for Work and Pensions where her experience includes recruitment, social justice, socio-economic climate and policy writing. Jamie was the Chair of Village Primary School and has experience in dealing a range of issues including Headteacher performance, recruitment and redundancies.

Margaret Colley

Chair of Trust Improvement Committee

Margaret is a registered teacher and accredited Primary School Improvement Partner, currently employed by York St. John University as a link tutor and external mentor. She has considerable experience across the primary phase in education, training, service improvement and leadership development.

Margaret previously worked for Middlesbrough Council as Head of Achievement until August 2017 and is currently project work for the teaching school alliances across Teesside as well as other projects for individual schools and local authorities on a self-employed basis.

Margaret is the Vice Chair at Abingdon Primary School in Middlesbrough. She is a foundation governor at both Ayresome and Sacred Heart Primary Schools in Middlesbrough.

Andrew McCulloch

Chair of Finance, Audit & Risk Committee

Andrew is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Internal Audit with over 25 years internal audit experience. He is a Director of Internal Audit at a nationwide provider of business assurance services, working across several sectors including education, social housing, Police and Fire and Rescue Services, local government and the private sector. Andrew has extensive experience relating to internal controls across all areas of a business including Governance, Risk Management, Finance, Compliance and operational activities.

Andrew was a Governor at Barley Fields Primary School, first as a parent governor and then as a co-opted governor serving as Chair of the Resources Committee and finally as Vice Chair of the Governing Body.

Paul Newson

Paul is a Chartered Management Accountant and a member of the Institute of Internal Audit with over 25 years of internal audit, compliance and risk management experience. His qualifications include GDPR practitioner, IOSH managing safely, ISO auditing, and Food Safety management.

Paul is employed as Head of Audit, Risk & Compliance at a large PLC national retailer, and he is responsible for monitoring and reporting on all internal control processes, including internal audits, compliance management, risk management and the Health and Safety standards. Paul’s duties also include the production of the Risk Management report in the published Annual Report and reported formerly on governance and assurance to the non-executive directors at regular Audit Committee meetings.

Waseem Khan

Paul Leadbitter

Paul is a Quantity Surveyor and Construction Management professional with over 38 years of commercial experience in the housing and construction. He runs his own property and construction consultancy business, helping social housing providers to improve homes across the country. Paul recently qualified as a Building Safety Manager and Retrofit Coordinator and expects high levels of safety and sustainability in buildings and estates.

Paul has been a school governor since 2003 and is the former Chair of Kader Academy. Paul is passionate about education and providing the best opportunities by creating high quality learning environments.