Andy Moorcroft

After leaving university Mr Moorcroft moved to New York to work in a school for orphaned children sponsored by the actor, Paul Newman which gave him his first insight into the power of education and the importance of teachers in supporting young people from challenging circumstances. He returned from New York in 1999, having trained to be an English teacher and Mr Moorcroft has spent the last 25 years working in secondary schools across the northwest of England. He has worked in senior leadership for 19 years and took up his first headship at a school serving a deprived community in Warrington. The school was at the bottom of all performance tables when he took over, but during his tenure the school secured funding to build a brand-new school and achieved a Good Ofsted report which was the first in the school’s history. Since then the school has achieved consistently strong results and became the most over-subscribed school in the Warrington.  

Mr Moorcroft used this platform to form a multi-academy trust working with other local headteachers and principals called  The Challenge Academy Trust (TCAT). TCAT was formed in 2017 and consisted of 3 academies. There are now 11 academies in Warrington and TCAT educates nearly 9000 pupils aged between 2 and 19 and employs around 1500 staff with a £57 million turnover.  

Mr Moorcroft became full time Chief Executive Officer of the trust in 2019, helping the Trust cement its position as a strong regional provider. TCAT has a contract with the Department for Education to deliver school improvement work and he acts as National Leader of Education across the region. TCAT is also the regional lead for delivery of the Early Career Framework and the National Professional suite of qualifications and has strong links with the Regional Schools Commissioner. Mr Moorcroft also sits on an advisory board with the Chief Inspector of Ofsted, delivers the National Professional qualification for Executive Leadership across the country and sits on the board of Warrington & Co which is Warrington’s Investment and Regeneration Agency. 

In 2008 Tim Long was appointed Headteacher of Bridgewater High School having started out as an English teacher and having assumed middle and senior leadership roles in a number of schools. Under his leadership in 2011 Ofsted judged Bridgewater High School to be Outstanding.  

In 2013 he was appointed a National Leader in Education whilst Bridgewater became a National Support School working alongside several Warrington schools. At the same time, he trained as an Ofsted Inspector, a role he still fulfils as a “serving practitioner” and he has inspected in excess of 35 schools and academies during this period. More recently he has conducted Curriculum Reviews in English for Ofsted. During this period, he also successfully led the school’s conversion to Academy status and then cofounded The Challenge Academy Trust (TCAT) whilst securing Teaching School status for Bridgwater High School.   

In September 2018 he was seconded to the Teaching School Council to coordinate the delivery of the DfE’s School to School Support offer across the Liverpool, Merseyside and Warrington areas for Tier 2 schools; he also continues to undertake a number of these deployments himself whilst providing school to school to support to other schools in the region.  

After 14 years as Principal at Bridgewater High School and having overseen the successful completion of a £4.4 million extension to accommodate an increase in the school’s PAN from 300 to 360, he moved to work exclusively for the TCAT as its School Improvement Lead. This involves providing school to school support within the trust but also outside the trust and builds on his other recent role of being the Executive Head (Secondary) for TCAT. 

Vicky Briggs has over twenty years of experience working across a number of schools in different roles. She holds a BA (Hons) in English with QTS and has attained the National Professional Qualification for Headship and the National Professional Qualification for Executive Leadership.  

Vicky has taught across the primary age range and has extensive experience in leadership, curriculum and school improvement across all educational phases. She has vast leadership experience including, as a headteacher and an executive head. She successfully led the school’s conversion to Academy status and then cofounded The Challenge Academy Trust (TCAT), which she became an executive lead of.  

Vicky is now the Director of Education for TCAT, a large multi-academy trust serving nursery to post-16 academies. In addition, Vicky works as a local authority school improvement associate and regularly undertakes DfE school to school support and TSI work across primaries and secondaries across the region. She is also an Ofsted Inspector.  TCAT are the regional lead for the delivery of the Early Career Framework and the National Professional suite of qualifications, of which she is a facilitator and sits on the Northwest Strategy group as the area lead.