Educational Background

I work as an Independent Education Consultant in Leicestershire, Leicester City, Sheffield and Rotherham. I have over 30 years experience in primary education.  I left teaching in August 2006, having been a Headteacher in two schools.  One was a 250 pupil inner city school, which together with staff and governors, I brought out of Special Measures.  The challenges included a need to significantly improve teaching, standards, achievement and behaviour, in a school with very high turbulence, a large proportion of children for whom English was not their first language, significant behaviour issues and problems within the community.  My second headship was a much larger, 450 pupil school on an extensive campus in Leicestershire.

Recent Contracts and Independent Consultancy Work

Academic Year 2022/23: This year sees the return of the Using and Analysing Data Course, after a period of two years without national assessments! The automated HS10 will this year once again help leaders to quickly and effectively make comparisons of their school data with that nationally. The course will focus on catch up from the pandemic in terms of data analysis and target setting. The subject leader deep dive courses have proved very successful, and this term new subjects have included music, art and design and physical education. Next term, a course for new and experienced English leads will be added, and planned for the summer is a curriculum leaders’ deep dive course, also ideal for headteachers and deputy heads. I continue to support schools in the LearnAT and OWLS multi-academy trusts, LPAP group of schools in Loughborough, and other schools across the county.

Academic Year 2021/ 2022: Another busy year is planned. I continue to work with LearnAT and OWLs Academy Trusts and am delighted to also this year be working with the LPAP schools in Loughborough. As usual, I still have a number of individual schools that I work with in Leicester City, Leicestershire and in Rotherham. Another academic year with no data courses due to there being no national tests in 2021 again! However, assuming that national tests go ahead in the summer term of 2022, I will be planning data courses for the autumn term 2022. For this reason, the HS10 will not be updated until the course. In the meantime I have piloted a number of subject leader deep dive courses in science, history, geography for LearnAT, which have been very well received. For the summer term there will also be ones in D&T and computing. In the summer term, some of these will be available to all Leicestershire, Leicester City and Rotherham schools at the NSPCC – online booking is on the courses page of this website. 

Academic Year 2020/21: None of us envisaged this year being quite so challenging, with schools being closed due to COVID! During Lockdowns, I supported many schools to evaluate their remote learning offer, as well as using the time to undertake website checks for schools. Following the reopening of schools, I am supporting schools to ‘get back on course’ with their self-evaluations and development plans. Most are seeking support with Deep Dives, which I do across the whole curriculum, in the style of coaching senior and middle leaders to understand how a Deep Dive can support school self-evaluation. I continue to offer full two-day reviews in this coaching style as well. As there are no external tests again this year, I will not be running my Data Courses. However, for those of you who work with me and have been on the last course (2019) I offer updated automated HS10, EYFS spreadsheets and PPMs for leaders to add and analyse their teacher assessments. These will be updated in early July and availble on the Downloads page (use your existing passwords). I continue to work with LearnAT and OWLS Trusts. 

Academic Year 2019/20: Many of you will know that I spent much of 2018/2019 off work having been diagnosed with breast cancer. However, following chemotherapy, an operation and radiotherapy, I am now back at work, healthy, full of energy and busy writing two new courses for this year. The Analysing and Using Data, based on ASP and the IDSR 2019 will be delivered  from November 2019. Effective School Self-Evaluation will be delivered from March 2020 and will focus on effective self-evaluation relevant from September 2019. I still continue to work with Learn-AT (MAT) and with a range fo schools in Leicestershire, Leicester City and Rotherham. Mary Hirst and I are still associates and I am delighted that Mary will once again be supporting on some of Data Courses. 

Academic Year 2018/19: The dates for the first of the data courses for this year have just been published and booking is now open. I also intend to update my monitoring and evaluation courses this academic year, which will run from 2019. I continue to work with my excellent associates, Mary Hurst and Izzy Winton and with Learn-AT and Oval Multi-Academy Trusts as well as school across Leicestershire, Leicester City and Rotherham. 

Academic Year 2017/18: I still work with schools in a range of counties and local authorities, including Leicester City. I continue to work extensively with the Learn-AT Multi-Academy Trust and have started to also work with the Oval Trust. Both are school led Trusts and led by excellent CEOs. A large number of school reviews are planned for this year, which I very much enjoy as I use the school’s senior leaders as the ‘team’ undertaking these reviews, with myself coordinating the discussions and helping the team to agree the outcomes based on the evidence. The Using and Analysing Data courses are fully booked as usual, 12 courses running across the county. Headship Support now also works with a couple of associate partners, Mary Hirst, a very experienced ex headteacher and Izzy Winton, a headteacher in the private sector. 

Academic Year 2016/17: I have continued to work in a number of Leicester City, Leicestershire, Sheffield and Rotherham schools. In Market Harborough I am supporting the schools in the new Learn-AT Multi Academy Trust. My analysing and using data courses have proved very popular this year with over 250 delegates, mainly headteachers and deputy heads attending. Updates will  be run in the summer term to help schools to analyse their internal and Year 2 and 6 data.

Academic Year 2015/16: This year has so far seen me take on a number of new schools, including an academy group, which should prove to be a very effective and efficient way of supporting headteachers and senior leaders. I have led some training for LLEs and NLEs for the Affinity Teaching Alliance, which was most enjoyable. There are a variety of courses I am offering this year, most completely rewritten in the light of so many recent changes in education including the new curriculum and its assessment. If schools would like these courses, or their own bespoke ones for Teacher Training Days, then do please contact me.

Academic Year 2014/15: I continue to support schools from inner city to small rural schools. Particularly popular this year, have been whole school reviews and  work to support headteachers to write School Development Plans. I have continued to work with Forest Way Teaching School Alliance for their ‘Health Checks’ and again, trained the NLEs and LLEs for Affinity Teaching School. I have undertaken a number of Teacher Days for schools, mainly lecturing on aspects of Outstanding Teaching from my course. My data courses have continued to be popular with well over 100 headteachers and senior staff attending one of the courses. The challenge for this year and next will be to continue to support schools in their data analysis as we move to an assessment system without levels.

Academic Year 2013/14: New for this year, by popular request from headteachers and teachers to write one, is my outstanding teaching course (course 6). This is a course run over two days, which explores a wide range of aspects of teaching. It uses extensive video clips and activities based on the teachers’ own teaching to help them to understand how they can adapt or change their teaching to ensure that pupils make the very best progress in their lessons and over time. I continue to support individual schools in Leicestershire, Leicester City, Sheffield and Rotherham. This year I am also working with Forest Way Teaching School Alliance (FWTSA Leicestershire) to support their group of schools. I have also undertaken some work with Affinity Teaching Alliance to train their National and Local Leading Headteachers. I continue to lead Ofsted inspections for Tribal and Serco, and still offer training for governors. Due to the large number of schools I am supporting this year, I will be running less centrally based courses than usual (these are based at Beaumanor Hall, Leicestershire). However, groups of schools and individual schools are welcome, as usual are welcome to book me to run these on Teacher Days and at other times.

Academic Year 2012/13: This year I have continued to support schools, mainly in Leicestershire and Sheffield areas, but also including some schools in Rotherham and Leicester City. I continue to offer courses for schools to book and have included a new course, ‘Subject Leadership for Foundation Subject Leaders’ (course 4) which has had excellent reviews from both new and experienced subject leaders. I have continued to work with Leicestershire Governors Development Service, and have updated the Ofsted course and handbook for governors so that it reflects the changes in the September 2012 Ofsted Framework. New courses for 2013, include a full day course, aimed at senior and middle leaders in evaluating the strengths and areas for improvement in teaching through lesson observations and learning walks (course 5). This course includes how to give effective feedback to help teachers to improve their teaching. I continue to work for Tribal and Serco as a lead and a team inspector of primary schools.

Academic Year 2011/12: I worked with a large Development Group of schools in Sheffield, delivering centrally based courses and individual support for many of the schools throughout the year. I also worked with a number of schools across Leicestershire supporting their self-evaluation through focus reviews, joint lesson observations, data tracking, book and planning audits, pupil interviews and general staff training. Earlier in the year I completed updating the Ofsted training course and handbook for governors on the January 2012 framework commissioned by Leicestershire Governor Services. I  focused on three main courses, ‘Using Data’ for headteachers and senior leaders (which looks in detail at your school’s RAISEonline and internal tracking data), ‘Improving Whole School Monitoring and Evaluation’ for headteachers and senior leaders and ‘Monitoring and Evaluation for Senior and Middle Leaders’. I have also developed a course for National and Local Leaders of Education to support their work in schools, which has been well received by LLEs and NLEs in Leicestershire. I also have a number of other courses available for schools. I continue to lead Ofsted inspections in the Midlands and the South of England.

Academic Year 2010/11:  Have developed a number of new courses/ lectures, including one on Using Data, aimed at headteachers and senior leaders. Still working as a Lead Ofsted Inspector and as a School Improvement Partner. A large number of Ofsted inspections undertaken.

With Leicestershire and many other local authority SIP contracts finishing at Easter, I am now taking on a number of schools independently on contracted work across the year to replace their SIP.

Academic Year 2009/10: Undertook a large number of school Ofsted inspections, many as the lead Additional Inspector. Worked with a number of schools as an independent consultant on a range of issues, ensuring the senior team have a good understanding of school data/ analysis and supporting them through the requirements of school self evaluation, SEF evaluation, effective use of tracking and assessment data for senior leaders etc. Continued with Leicestershire School Improvement Partner work.

School Improvement Adviser with Sheffield, on a 63 day contract. This work consisted of working with 10 schools to improve the quality of their self evaluation through training headteachers and senior staff in lesson observation, tracking data, work scrutinies, subject evaluations etc. Quality assurance work in a number of other schools as part of the Sheffield ‘Placement Schools’ programme.

Contract with Governors Services in Leicestershire to write and deliver a course, ‘Understanding the Ofsted Framework: A Handbook for School governors’ to approximately 500 school governors over time, plus a 66 page book to be given to every governor in Leicestershire. This booklet is now available for sale to individual schools or to local authorities, from Leicestershire Governors Services.

Academic Year 2008/09: Undertook a number of Ofsted inspections, many as the lead Additional Inspector. Worked as a School Improvement Partner in Leicestershire and undertook a range of independent work with individual schools including support for new senior appointments, training on the use of data and tracking and governor RAISEonline training.

30 day contact with Leicestershire Arts in Education to monitor the quality of the music Wider Opportunities programme in city and county schools. The project involved training Leicestershire Arts staff and five selected teachers from local schools to jointly undertake the monitoring (with a view to leading it in future years). A report was completed following the project, which was sent to all city and county schools.

Academic Year 2007/08: Undertook Ofsted inspection work, worked as a School Improvement Partner and supported a number of schools as an independent consultant.

I have Professional Indemnity Insurance and a full enhanced DBS check.