Evolve Church Academy Trust

As an educational trust, made up entirely of Church of England Schools, our vision is firmly grounded in our Christian values, principles and core behaviours. We aim to support and nurture all children within the community of our schools to achieve their very best, academically, and to prepare them for life, in its entirety, beyond primary education. Our board of trustees, directors and school leaders have created the following mission statement that encapsulates all that we strive for as a collective across Evolve. In other words, we exist for the spiritual and academic fulfilment of all the children within our care.

A Welcome Message from our Executive Headteacher

I’d like to wish you a warm welcome to Evolve Church Academy Trust and to our four wonderful schools. As a trust of small, rural church schools, we pride ourselves upon the strong, values based experience that we provide for all of our children.

Our mission is to enable all in our schools to achieve the best that they can by working together. We embrace differences and the wide range of strengths and passions that our children have. Through our curriculum, we aim to nurture and enable these passions to blossom.

It is our long term goal to simply create a trust that provides an excellent education for our children. Our school teams value the togetherness that we encourage and through working together, as a community of children, parents and teaching professionals we believe we provide the very best platform to achieve this.

Oliver Johnson
Executive Head/CEO

Meet our Team of Trustees

Peter French

Interim Trust Board Chair Person

I work as the Deputy Director of Education for Peterborough Diocese. I have 30 years’ experience of governance, working with all types of schools as well as academies. I am also a season ticket holder at Northampton Town Football Club and have been for many years.

Pecuniary Interests (PDF)

Oliver Johnson

Executive Head/CEO

To me the most important thing is family. I’m married to my wife Jen and have 2 beautiful daughters, one of whom has just started primary school! The other is 1 so not quite there yet! I have been in primary education for 18 years now and I consider the school environment to be at its best when its an extension of the family for children and adults. Since qualifying as a teacher in 2004, I have worked in all phases of primary education and held various posts leading to my current role of CEO of Evolve Church Academy Trust. I really believe in the power of small schools and the way in which they provide the perfect platform for children to flourish in the next stages of their education and lives.

Pecuniary Interests (PDF)

John Moffitt

Trustee and Business Committee Co-Chair Person

My name is John Moffitt. I am a Trustee of Evolve Church Academy Trust and was also a governor at the Culworth and Boddington Federation of Schools until I stepped back to focus on my role as a Trustee. For a short time, in 2022 to 2023, I was Acting Chair of the Trust. My whole working life was in primary education, beginning in 1975. I worked as a teacher, an advisory teacher for Mathematics and as a headteacher. I retired in 2013 after 23 years as a headteacher of two schools. As a director, I am the Chair of the Risk and Audit Committee and a member of the Finance Committee. As a Director of the Trust, I remain passionately committed to the values of primary education and the continuous school improvement of all 4 schools in the Trust. An excellent education is the simple right of every child.

Karen Theobald

Trustee with Responsibility for Safeguarding and Child Protection Advisory

I am a recently retired childcare social worker, having worked for local authorities, a voluntary adoption agency and a children’s trust since 1978. I have consistently worked within childcare services: residential, family centres, childcare teams, and in fostering and adoption services. I use my skills, knowledge and expertise to contribute to positive outcomes for every child, ensuring all children have opportunities to reach their potential. I was a Foundation Governor at Culworth Primary School, taking on the role of Vice Chair and in 2022 became Chair of Governors. I attended the Full Governors Meetings and sat on the Curriculum Sub Committee and the Safeguarding Committee. I resigned as a Governor in September 2023 to consolidate my role within the Trust as Safeguarding Lead working across all four schools.

Pecuniary Interests (PDF)

Graham Dixon

Trustee and Business Committee Co-Chair Person

I am married with two children, both of who had the benefit of going to an Evolve school which led to me initially becoming a school governor. I have over 35 years of experience in a wide variety of Finance related roles including several overseas, that in addition to being personally enriching strongly contributed to my views on the benefits of diversity, equity and inclusion to ensure robust and effective outcomes. Over the last 12 years, I have supported four organisations in private and public sectors as a Board Director (including Evolve) with a focus on finance, audit and risk management matters. I am co-chair of the Business Committee for Evolve.

Damien Trevatt

Trustee with Responsibility for IT Advisory

Starting as a parent at Loys in 2017 I was asked to join as a Governor at St.Loys Primary in November 2018 then moving into the Chair role at St.Loys from February 2020 combined with Chair of MAT finance between September 2019 and September 2022 until changes in the structure of MAT and local schools forced a choice between MAT and school positions in August 2023. I stood down from school responsibilities to focus on the MAT side of the coin.

Currently I’m a MAT Business committee member until September 2024.

My professional experience can be found here https://www.linkedin.com/in/damientrevatt/
Pecuniary Interests (PDF)

Lyn Johnson

Trustee

Like most people, I am the sum of many parts. I am a wife, mother and grandparent. I have spent most of my life in the education sector, initially as an English teacher, leading to working for Warwickshire LA as an Education Advisor. I was a consultant for the National College for ten years, delivering leadership training programmes.
I have been a school governor for many years, chairing two primary school boards and one secondary, supporting the schools in their journey from ‘Requires Improvement’ to ‘Good/Outstanding.’ I have also been a governor trainer.
My church is St Margaret’s, Crick, where I make the tea, am secretary of the PCC and a representative on Diocesan Synod. Education is my passion.
I believe that every child has a gift and the purpose and skill of the teacher is to unwrap it.