Simon Elliott

Simon Elliott OBE is Chief Executive Officer of the Community Schools Trust and former Headteacher of Forest Gate Community School in Newham, East London. He leads a growing trust of schools across London and the North East, with a focus on high standards, collaboration and transformational school improvement.

Under Simon’s leadership, Forest Gate Community School became one of the highest-performing schools in the country, achieving Progress 8 scores consistently above +1 and securing an Outstanding Ofsted judgement in 2016. The school was also recognised as being in the top 1% nationally for financial efficiency.

As CEO, Simon has led CST to national recognition for pupil outcomes. In 2026, CST was ranked the 4th highest-performing trust in England for the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and the top-performing non-selective MAT nationally in this category. The trust was also ranked amongst the top 20 MATs in the country for overall attainment.

Simon is known for his no-nonsense, values-driven approach to education and his commitment to developing strong leadership teams that improve life chances for young people.

In 2026, Simon was awarded an OBE for services to Education.