Business Support Staff

Sir Jon Coles

Since January 2012, Jon Coles has been Group Chief Executive of United Learning.

Darran Ellison-Lee

Darran has a wide range of achievements in Education, including leadership in both Primary and Secondary phases as well as in Special Education.

Darran was a National Leader of Education, leading one of the first national teaching schools and a federation of primary schools in the North of England. The teaching school under his leadership provided a wide range of school improvement work and was one of the first schools providing training for Schools Direct.

Darran has overseen growth of our primary schools, which now includes over 35 schools. Darran’s leadership of improvement work has secured enhanced quality of teaching, resulting in schools moving from Special Measures to Good, at times requiring him to step in as Exec Head or acting Principal to support. In addition,

Darran is Director with responsibility for the Trust’s support, challenge and accountability on Safeguarding, ensuring that United Learning meets Statutory requirements and that Safeguarding processes across the Group are robust and effective.

Ben Antell

Ben Antell is the recently appointed Director of Secondary Academies in United Learning. Before taking up this role, Ben was a Regional Director in the trust and previous to that an Executive Principal with a responsibility for schools in Bournemouth and London. Ben is passionate about school improvement and the belief that education is the key to social mobility and future success. Ben also works as an Ofsted inspector in the south-west and counts himself fortunate enough to have worked with some of the leading educationalists in the country through both his Regional Director, Executive Principal and Ofsted roles.

Fiona Boulton

Fiona became Director of Independent Schools in September 2022. She originally joined the organisation in 1995 when it was the Church Schools Company; it later became United Learning. She was Head of Guildford High School from 2002 – 2022. Guildford High became a Teaching School in 2013 and Fiona was appointed an NLE, leading the United Learning Teaching School Alliance from 2013 - 2020.

She has a variety of Governance roles; she is an Associate Director of Cumbria University (since 01.06.21), she is on the Governing body of Epsom College (since 01.11.09) and she is a member of the ‘Learning Partners Academy Trust’. Fiona is on the Advisory Board of the School Partnerships Alliance and she has helped to establish the West Surrey Partnership of all the state and independent schools in the Guildford area. She was Chair of HMC in 2019-2020, and on the Advisory Council of the Institute for Ethical AI in Education (IEAIED) (2018 – 2021). In 2023, Fiona was awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours list for services to education.

Jed Queally

Jed joined United Learning in September 2013, recently completing his 10^th year and still enjoying the role as School Business Manager at Northampton Academy.  Prior to that he was a Bank Manager for HSBC Bank for 31 years.

Jed's school role includes looking after the support structure including Finance, Estates, IT, Operations, H&S, GDPR and Office Admin functions.  During his 10 years, he's tendered for many contracts including cleaning, photocopiers, telephony, minibuses, numerous furniture purchases and a golf zone.

Jed has also secured external funding to support internal refurbishment as the school PAN increased and has enjoyed the journey as Northampton Academy moved from good to outstanding at their last Ofsted inspection.  Jed is passionate about improving the environment, so it is a great place for staff to work and for our students to be proud of.

Jed has also supported other United Learning schools, both Primary and Secondary, to help them settle into or assist with major changes. He also mentors new Business Managers within the Group.