Barbara O’Connor appointed deputy chief executive for St Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy Trust

The academy trust responsible for both Catholic schools in Bishop’s Stortford has expanded its management team.

Barbara O’Connor, currently head at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary in Waltham Cross, has been appointed deputy chief executive officer of the St Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy Trust.

The trust is a family of nine Catholic schools in the Roman Catholic deanery of the Lea Valley, including St Mary’s Catholic School, Windhill, and St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Great Hadham Road. St Paul’s Catholic Primary and Nursery School in Cheshunt joined at the end of 2024.

Trust chief executive Andrew Celano, a former head at St Mary’s, said: “I am delighted Barbara will be taking up this new role at a very significant time in the trust’s development.

“Over the last three years we have established the foundations of our school improvement work, supporting and challenging schools to be ever-better centres of Catholic educational excellence.

“As we enter the next phase of our growth, the board and I identified the need to expand the capacity, skills and capabilities of our team to further support the excellent work of our individual schools.

“Barbara was the outstanding candidate and natural choice for this challenging new role, having had direct experience as a headteacher within the trust and a track record of leading highly successful and recent collaborative work across the trust, leading our schools improvement programme.”

Ms O’Connor started her teaching career in 2003 in Redbridge. She took her first leadership role in 2012 as deputy head at a primary school in Wales before returning to London in 2013 and joining the team at St Joseph’s in Waltham Cross, where she was promoted to head in 2019.