Leadership

Andrew Whitaker
Executive Principal - The White Rose Academies Trust

Andrew Whitaker enjoyed a ten-year career in the University sector, including working as an Associate Senior Lecturer, before moving into the 3-18 education sector as a Senior Leader. As Senior Vice Principal of the UK’s largest all-aged special school based in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, Andrew led all operational areas of the school including Post 16 provision. Throughout a transformative eight years, he project managed a £25m BSF building programme, created a highly successful school improvement consultancy and played a key role in leading...

Senior Leadership Team

Richard Chattoe

Principal

Prior to commencing his role as Principal at Leeds City Academy in March 2019, Richard worked as Vice Principal at Leeds West Academy, with responsibility for the improvement in the quality of Teaching, Learning and Assessment across the school...

Chris Ray
Vice Principal

Chris graduated from The University of Leeds in Sports Science and physiology, after a year travelling he completed his PGCE as a Science Teacher at the same University. Chris also went on to study a Masters in Teaching and Learning at Leeds Trinity University...

Simon Ford
Acting Vice Principal

Simon graduated from Leeds Metropolitan University in 2002 with BA (Hons) in Physical Education. He spent his first six years teaching PE in his hometown of Scunthorpe where he became the Head of PE at the Specialist Sports College...

Gemma Edwards

Assistant Principal

Gemma was raised within a military family living in Germany and Cyprus before being educated in Lancashire, England. She gained a BA Honours degree in Human Geography at Nottingham Trent University, before moving to Leeds where she qualified in 2002 as a Geography teacher in secondary education...

	Luke Pollard Assistant Principal Luke Pollard began his career through Teach First in 2011 as an ICT teacher at Leeds West Academy, becoming the ICT and Business Subject Leader twelve months later. In 2014, he was appointed Lead Practitioner for Computing, leading the Computing departments at Leeds West Academy and Leeds East Academy... Read more >>
	Vicki Morris Assistant Principal Vicki graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in Chemistry in 2011. Whilst studying, she worked as a mentor for Looked After Children and as a relief child support worker and so it seemed like a natural progression when she began working as an unqualified teacher at Royds School in Leeds... Read more >>
	Rebecca Capstick Acting Assistant Principal Rebecca graduated from Leeds Trinity and All Saints College in 2010 with a degree in English. Throughout her studies, Rebecca worked at Intake High School/Leeds West Academy tutoring Year 11 students in Maths and English. From there she continued her studies and was awarded a PGCE in 2011, a goal which had been at the forefront of her mind since Read more >>
	Marcia Gunson Acting Assistant Principal Marcia left sixth form and went straight into employment, working with unemployed adults delivering employability skills training. Following this, she started volunteering in a youth centre where she developed her passion for working with disadvantaged, young people. She then went onto study... Read more >>
	Liz Armstrong Business and Operations Liz Armstrong has extensive leadership and management experience both in an educational and a commercial setting. Liz worked for a major engineering company for 20 years, latterly as a Project Accountant monitoring and reporting on a £1.6 Billion contract. Liz gained valuable experience in managing... Read more >>