Aspire’s Champions Team
At Aspire Education Academy, our Champions Team embodies the heart and spirit of our community. These learner ambassadors lend their voices, share their experiences, and help support others throughout their education journey.
They are proud role models, advocates, and collaborators who help shape the Aspire learner experience.
The Champions Team is a group of dedicated Aspire staff who volunteer to support our social value initiatives, represent the organisation at events, and contribute to community engagement activities across the academy.
Champions play an active role in supporting workshops, fundraising events, and outreach programmes, while also sharing insights from their areas of expertise to help shape and improve our provision. Their contribution ensures that staff voices are heard, valued, and embedded into continuous improvement, strengthening Aspire’s impact across the communities we serve.
Meet Our Champions
Sarah Lewis-Holder
As HR Manager at Aspire Education Academy, Sarah chairs all Champions Team meetings and provides a structured monthly agenda to guide discussions. Their role is to ensure that all Champion focus areas are represented and that resources such as the cultural calendar and awareness or celebration days are effectively used to share relevant content with both staff and learners.
Each meeting begins with a review of previous actions, alongside open discussion to ensure every Champion has the opportunity to contribute and be heard. This approach helps maintain an inclusive, collaborative environment and ensures the Champions Team continues to make a meaningful impact across the organisation.
Chair
Matt Taylor
As Head of Operations, Quality and Engagement, Matt acts as Vice Chair of the Champions Team.
In this role, they support the Chair and help ensure that ideas, discussions, and agreed actions from the Champions Team are embedded into the delivery of Aspire’s curriculum and wider provision.
They provide ongoing support, advice, and guidance where needed, helping to translate Champion-led insight into meaningful practice that enhances the learner experience across the organisation
VIce ChairMark Blackburn
Charity AmbassadorMark Blackburn is the Operations Manager at Aspire Education Academy and also serves as the organisation’s Social Value Champion. In this role, he leads the development of initiatives that support local communities through charitable events, engagement activities, and accessible workshops, including the recently launched CV Workshops.
Mark’s work ensures that opportunities are available not only to learners enrolled on Aspire programmes, but also to members of the wider community.
By creating inclusive events and skill-building sessions, he helps foster collaboration, personal development, and positive social impact across the communities Aspire serves.
Phil Williams
Phil Williams leads on Mental Health and Wellbeing within the Champions Team. His role focuses on promoting mental health and wellbeing initiatives, as well as providing resources and guidance to help raise awareness across the organisation.
Phil organises activities that encourage both physical health and social connection, such as Walking Month and engagement activities like Bingo. He also creates OneFile announcements and contributes wellbeing-focused content for Aspire’s social media channels. Phil is available to offer support, guidance, and signposting to anyone seeking advice related to mental health or wellbeing.
Mental Health and WellbeingFarah Malik
As an ED&I Champion, my goal is to actively promote equality, diversity, and inclusion across the workplace by creating a welcoming and respectful environment for all. I aim to raise awareness of key ED&I issues through meaningful conversations, events, and resources that reflect the diverse experiences of our colleagues and learners.
I’m committed to supporting wellbeing by linking ED&I initiatives with mental health and personal development, and I strive to ensure that everyone feels seen, heard, and valued.
Through collaboration, creativity, and a genuine passion for inclusion, I hope to inspire positive change and contribute to a culture where diversity is celebrated and inclusion is embedded in everything we do.
ED&I Champion
Olivia Morris
Olivia Morris is the Neurodiversity Champion at Aspire Education Academy. She acts as an advocate for neurodivergent learners and staff, promoting understanding, acceptance, and inclusion across the organisation.
Drawing on her own lived experience, Olivia offers empathetic support, listening and providing guidance to those who are neurodivergent. She works to raise awareness and deepen understanding of neurodiversity, helping Aspire move towards a more inclusive work and learning environment where everyone feels welcome and valued.
Olivia supports collaborative efforts across the organisation to celebrate individual strengths and ensure that inclusion is embedded into everyday practice.
Neurodiversity ChampionLucinda White
As the LGBTQIA+ Champion, Lucinda plays a key role in fostering an inclusive, supportive, and understanding environment for all colleagues. She serves as a visible and approachable point of contact, someone employees can turn to with questions, ideas, or simply for a conversation.
Lucinda is passionate about raising awareness, encouraging open dialogue, and championing events and initiatives that celebrate diversity and wellbeing. She also works closely with the HR team to highlight and promote opportunities that support learning, growth, and increased awareness across Aspire.
LGBTQIA+ ChampionEleanor Webster is part of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Champions Team, with a particular focus on reading for pleasure and its positive impact on mental health and wellbeing. She is passionate about the benefits reading can have on confidence, emotional wellbeing, and behaviour, drawing on her experience supporting children with a range of behavioural needs in education settings.
Eleanor is developing a staff book club to encourage reading for pleasure and community engagement, and she also creates resources that link reading initiatives with wider equality, diversity, and inclusion events across the organisation.
Mental Health and Wellbeing ChampionEleanor Webster
Robyn Flemming
As the Menopause Champion, Robyn is dedicated to promoting awareness and understanding of the menopause journey - a natural life stage that should be acknowledged and celebrated rather than stigmatised, as it impacts individuals, families, and lifestyles.
Robyn works collaboratively with fellow Champions to deliver initiatives aligned with key awareness days, fostering an inclusive and supportive culture.
Her focus is on creating safe environments where staff and learners feel comfortable seeking guidance, asking questions, and accessing resources that empower them throughout their menopause journey.
Menopause ChampionClaire Jackson
Claire Jackson is passionate about helping people discover their inner strength and belief in themselves. As Aspire Education Academy’s Confidence Champion, she works with learners to build self-awareness, resilience, and the confidence they need to succeed—not just in education, but in life.
Claire understands the challenges learners face and knows how transformative confidence can be. Her approach is warm, supportive, and focused on creating a safe space where individuals feel empowered to grow and thrive. Our mission at Aspire is to inspire confidence, nurture self-belief, and help every learner unlock their true potential.
Confidence ChampionSavannah Galea
Savannah Galea is the Bereavement Champion at Aspire Education Academy, supporting learners and staff who have experienced loss.
She provides a listening ear, guidance on accessing mental health support, and raises awareness of bereavement resources across the organisation.
Savannah encourages open conversations, helps staff with signposting and reasonable adjustments, and promotes understanding through national bereavement days and internal communications, fostering a compassionate and supportive Aspire community where everyone can continue to engage and thrive.
Bereavement ChampionAmina Saadiya
Amina is our bereavement champion, committed to raising awareness and ensuring compassionate support for anyone affected by bereavement within our company. Guided by empathy and understanding, she works closely with staff, students, and families to encourage open conversations and ensure no one feels alone.
Upholding our core values of One Team, Integrity, Excellence, and Respect, Amina strives to create a supportive, informed, and caring environment where every individual’s experience is acknowledged and respected.
Bereavement ChampionCraig Jackson
Craig Jackson is an Environmental Sustainability Champion at Aspire Education Academy. His role focuses on educating and promoting sustainable practices among staff and learners, encouraging practical steps towards more environmentally responsible lifestyles.
Craig supports staff by developing resources to aid delivery and sharing information on key sustainability topics and awareness events throughout the year.
By embedding environmental sustainability into learning, he helps prepare Aspire learners for employment in education settings where sustainability is an increasingly important focus.
Environmental Sustainability ChampionEmma Waller
Emma Waller leads on Environmental Sustainability within the Champions Team. Her role focuses on promoting sustainable practices across the organisation, supporting both staff and learners to consider ways they can be more environmentally conscious in both their professional and personal lives.
Emma helps raise awareness by celebrating key environmental calendar days and weeks, particularly those that learners can promote within education settings, such as Gardening Week. She also develops and shares resources, including PowerPoint presentations and useful links, to support learning and engagement around environmental sustainability.
While environmental sustainability has previously been challenging to embed within the curriculum, this is evolving following recent training initiatives, and Emma continues to support its integration across Aspire’s provision.
Environmental Sustainability ChampionRebecca Holbach
Within her Champion role, Becky helps to create and encourage a proactive and supportive culture where learners and staff feel confident in raising concerns and developing an understanding of safeguarding concepts that are vital within education.
She supports the embedding of safeguarding across Aspire’s programmes and contributes to the development of accessible safeguarding resources, such as a monthly safeguarding newsletter distributed to both staff and students. This helps ensure that everyone at Aspire remains up to date with safeguarding information and continues to refine their knowledge and understanding in a purposeful and ongoing way.
Becky is passionate about safeguarding and is committed to ensuring that learners develop the confidence, knowledge, and understanding needed to carry out their safeguarding duties effectively in their future roles.
Safeguarding ChampionLyella Lewis
Lyella is one of our Safeguarding Champions, responsible for ensuring all safeguarding resources are developed in line with Aspire’s policies and implemented consistently across the organisation. She works closely with teams to embed safeguarding into everyday practice, raise awareness, and promote a strong culture of vigilance and accountability.
Passionate about keeping children, young people and adults safe, Lyella ensures safeguarding is recognised as everyone’s responsibility in helping to create a safe, supportive, and compliant environment for all.
Safeguarding ChampionStephanie Eaton
Steph is one of our Safeguarding Champions and is committed to promoting a culture where the wellbeing, safety, and dignity of both staff and learners are always prioritised. In this role, she actively supports the work of the safeguarding team by raising awareness of safeguarding issues and available support resources across Aspire.
As a Safeguarding Champion, she leads by example. She is passionate about fostering understanding, encouraging open conversations, and ensuring that everyone feels supported and confident in recognising and responding to safeguarding concerns. She is enthusiastic and aims to strengthen a positive safeguarding culture where individuals feel safe, valued, and empowered.
Safeguarding Champion