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The St Laurence Education Trust (SLET) was established in 1997 as the governing body for Ampleforth College.

The Trust is made up of volunteer trustees from a variety of backgrounds who, amongst other things, oversee the financial, educational and strategic management of the school. They have overall responsibility for the school to meet all of the requirements set by external statutory bodies such as The Department for Education and Skills, the Independent Schools Inspectorate and the Charity Commission.

Trustees meet formally every term as a full trustee board and for sub committees but communicate frequently between these meetings. They are regular visitors to the school, meeting staff and students and attending school events. To learn more about the individual trustees, please see the biographies below. To find out more, please contact Liam Kelly, Company Secretary, on liam.kelly@ampleforth.org.uk.

Mrs Claire Smith

Mrs Claire Smith, Chair of the St Laurence Education Trust, worked in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1979-2006 in a variety of roles, including secondments to the private sector.  She has been an adviser to the St Laurence Education Trust since 2010, and became a trustee in September 2012. She was also Chair of a school governing body in the London Borough of Newham from 2008-2013; a Visiting Lecturer and Professor at several universities in the UK, and has worked on a number of international professional development programmes.  She has been a non-executive director of an international engineering consultancy and sat on a Cabinet Office appeals panel. She is a member of the St Laurence Education Trust Planning and Finance Committee, the Ampleforth Abbey Trust Finance and General Purposes Committee, and is the Chair of its Nominations Committee.

  • Mr James O'Neill

    Mr James O'Neill, the Vice-Chairman of the St Laurence Education Trust and member of its Education Committee, has been involved in education for more than forty years. He has taught in state schools in Sheffield, Chelsea, and Bexleyheath, and from 1987-1993 was Deputy Headteacher at All Saints' RC Comprehensive School in Mansfield. From there he became Principal of Carmel College, Darlington, a post he held until 2009. He was a National Leader of Education: in this role he supported other schools facing difficulties with performance outcomes. Current educational roles also include Director of Leadership Links Ltd., Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Education Village Multi-Academy Trust, Former Chair of the Sponsors' Monitoring Group for the St Aidan's CofE Academy, Darlington, and Regional Director and Leadership Development Adviser for the North-East for The Future Leaders Trust. He is a trustee of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough.

  • Mr Matthew Craston

    Mr Matthew Craston was a student at Ampleforth College and a graduate from Oxford University and has worked in London's financial sector for more than 30 years. He began in banking at Chase Manhattan where he spent the 1980s. Through the 1990s he worked in the corporate finance department of SBC and SBC Warburg, and then as a managing director in the leveraged finance group when the bank became UBS Investment Bank. In 2004 he switched to the fund management business, managing credit funds at at European Credit Management Limited for ten years. He has recently set up his own company, Finance Map, to provide students and others with an understanding of the financial world through one-to-one tutorials. Matthew is Chair of the St Laurence Education Trust Planning and Finance Committee and a member of the Ampleforth Abbey Trust Investment Committee.

  • Mrs Elizabeth Berner

    Mrs Elizabeth Berner's professional life has been spent in teaching, particularly working for the Girls' Day School Trust over the course of thirty years.  In some of the Trust's SW London schools roles have included Head of a History Dept, Sixth Form Careers Adviser as well as undertaking subject and general Oxbridge preparation. She has also been a tutor in higher education in HM Prison Wandsworth.  Additionally she has held non-executive directorships in the NHS in the 1990s and currently sits on the boards of various voluntary sector organisations.  Her connection with Ampleforth arises from both her husband and son having been educated at the College, the latter also at the prep school at Gilling Castle, as well as from participation in some of the Lourdes pilgrimages and various retreats at the Abbey.

  • Mr Christopher Adams

    Mr Christopher Adams studied Mathematics at Cambridge University and trained as an accountant, eventually becoming a Partner at Armitage & Norton Chartered Accountants. From there he moved to KPMG, where he became Head of Charities in the North of England, before joining Saffery Champness in 2003. He remained a Partner there until 2012. He is now a self-employed Chartered Accountant, acting in a personal capacity as a trustee and board member for a small number of commercial companies, family trusts and charities. He is a member of the St Laurence Education Trust Planning and Finance Committee and Chair of the Ampleforth Abbey Trust Audit and Risk Management Committee.

  • Fr Gabriel Everitt OSB

    Fr Gabriel Everitt OSB was received into full communion with the Catholic Church in 1989 and joined the monastic community at Ampleforth in January 1990. He was ordained priest on 24 June 1994, and from 1997-2003 was Head of the Department of Christian Theology at Ampleforth College. From 1997-1998 he was also Housemaster of St Aidan’s, and then from 1998-2003 Housemaster of St Oswald’s. In January 2004 Fr Gabriel was appointed Headmaster of Ampleforth College, a post he held until August 2014. From 2001-2011 he was also a governor at St Martin’s Ampleforth. From March-June 2015 he attended the Monastic Formators’ Course in Rome and Assisi.  Fr Gabriel has also held the post of Master of Studies for Ampleforth Abbey and Librarian at St Benet’s Hall in Oxford.  Fr Gabriel is currently the Prior Administrator and Acting Superior of the Community at Ampleforth Abbey.