Governance

Prior to his involvement with the Laidlaw Schools Trust and The Children’s Foundation, Peregrine worked for two of the North East’s leading Companies: Vickers plc (later BAE Systems plc) and Scottish and Newcastle plc. His role for both companies took him all over the world and gave him a fascinating and unrivalled experience working across different cultures and different organisations. Peregrine still consults for several start-up companies, helping them to develop their businesses internationally. Although he has not been directly involved in education before joining the Trust, Peregrine grew up in a school, his brothers both teach and he is married to a teacher. He fully supports the Trust’s aim of improving the opportunities and life chances of some of the most disadvantaged children and young people in the North East of England.

Ben is the Relationship Manager for Schools North East, a charity giving a voice to all 1,150 North East schools in the national debate. His role is to work with schools, MATs and partners across all sectors to support the organisation to influence the shape of regional and national policy.

After studying at Newcastle University, Ben moved to London to work in education at The Key, spending five years supporting school leaders and governors across the country. After working with Schools North East at the start of 2019 on a project to support MATs across the region, Ben moved back to the North East in the summer and joined the SNE team.

Ben was previously a governor at a special school in London for 4 years as Chair of a leadership and management committee. During his time at the school, he was involved in recruiting a new Head Teacher, a school relocation, and an Ofsted inspection (Good!).

Ben is passionate about supporting the Trust’s vision to transform the lives of children and communities in the Laidlaw Schools Trust through inspirational education.

Lorraine is the school Reception and Administration officer at Atkinson Road Primary Academy. Before joining the school as an administrator Lorraine studied MSC Project Management at the University of Sunderland. Following on from university, she worked at Nandos as an Assistant Manager for 10 years. 

She is married with 3 children; 2 of them attend Atkinson Road Primary Academy. Lorraine is passionate about supporting Atkinson Road Primary Academy to provide the best education and environment for the children.

Garuth is a Project Manager with Openreach, leading in transformation changes within the new sites department; implementing system and process changes to improve how developers work with the company.

Garuth has worked for BT Group for the past 21 years, covering a variety of roles. With the increased demand (especially in recent years) on the network, from streaming services to the changes in where we work, he's found it an interesting industry to be part of and insightful to see new technology and products come to market and to see the shift in the network from copper to fibre.

Originally from Northern Ireland, Garuth went to university in Middlesbrough and settled in Newcastle. He is married with 2 children who both attend Atkinson Road Primary Academy. In his spare time, he is a keen runner and has taken part in the Great North Run since 2008.

He encourages his children to join in where possible and can regularly be found on a Saturday morning at one of the many North East's Parkruns. His children have also taken part in the Junior Great North Runs from the age of 5.

Harry is the Policy Officer at Schools North East, a charity giving a voice to all 1,150 North East schools. His role is to research national educational policy developments and data and to support lobbying on behalf of schools in the region.

Originally from Yorkshire, Harry studied History at Newcastle University. Following on from University, he worked in Parliament for three years, before moving back to the North East in 2019.