I am truly determined to creating a culture in which children can flourish and self-develop. I believe passionately in ‘every child matters’ and that all children should be given the opportunity to reach their potential regardless of their context. In my current role as Headteacher, I have the privilege of working closely with children where over one third of them come from disadvantaged backgrounds. I see my role as being pivotal in raising the aspirations of these children, in creating willingness to learn, further their skills and knowledge, and essentially improve their life opportunities. I feel that hard work when coupled with a growth mind-set can give children the empowerment to be successful in life. I want to remove any barriers to success and give children the opportunities they truly deserve. I have a desire to see young people visualise a dream, believe in themselves and then go on to achieve this dream through hard work and determination.

Having first joined Upper Batley as an Assistant Headteacher back in 2014, I was promoted to Deputy Headteacher in 2015 and held this post for over 5 years before being promoted to Head of School in 2020 and now Headteacher in 2022. During my time at the school, I have helped raise quality standards across all departments and developed leadership and the professional development of colleagues in school. The increase in GCSE results coupled with continued development of both learners and colleagues has led to our school being graded as Good during our last Ofsted Inspection in March 2019 and we achieved a Good rating in January 2016 prior to this.

Prior to my appointment at Upper Batley High School, I served as a Curriculum Leader for ICT and Business at a school in Kirklees for over 5 years. During my time there I supported my team through two successful Ofsted Inspections graded as Outstanding in both 2009 and then in 2012. As part of my leadership role I have worked with a number of senior leaders to help them develop teaching and learning and middle leaders within their schools.

I was accredited as a middle leader development programme (MLDP) course facilitator via the National College for Teaching and Leadership in 2014. Since the accreditation I have worked with numerous primary and secondary schools to help develop leadership capacity within the Kirklees cluster of schools. More recently I have completed my NPQH qualification with Ambition Leadership (2020).

My areas of expertise are:

• - Middle Leader Development
• - Quality Assurance Process
• - Leadership of CPD
• - ICT/Computing

Professional background

I have been working in education for over 10 years now and have worked tirelessly in that time to drive change and endeavoured to provide a high standard of education for learners of all abilities, in all subject areas but with a particular focus on Design and Technology.

SLE areas of specialism

My main areas of specialism are in Design Technology and the leadership of the curriculum.

Current role and responsibilities

I am currently the Deputy Headteacher at Upper Batley High school. My main responsibilities are to raise attainment and achievement for all through our bespoke curriculum provision. As a school we have been able to develop and transform our curriculum offer in a relatively short amount of time by introducing several new courses to meet the needs of our learners. We have now seen a vast shift in uptake of several subjects and our Creative subjects, amongst others, have been particularly popular. As part of my role I also oversee Inclusion and Attendance and in recent years we have seen a vast reduction in persistent absence. We have also seen attendance for all improve, this has been achieved through our hard working and committed attendance support team, who work closely with families to support their individual needs and actively engage our harder to reach learners in their education. We have also recently set up our own in-house Absence and Learner support service, where we offer transport to and from school as well as other personalised interventions. Another one of my key responsibilities is our own off-site alternative provision SMART Academy, which we have set up recently. Although it is only relatively new, we have already seen improvement in attitudes and attendance of learners as well as improved engagement in learning. Again we have built a dedicated team of staff to work with our SMART learners to ensure they get the very best education possible.

CPD/Training Delivered

During my career in education I have delivered various CPD and training sessions mainly in the area of teaching, learning and assessment and more recently around behavior, attendance and curriculum design. These have included sessions on lesson planning and planning for SEND learners, differentiation and challenge, behavior management, curriculum planning and curriculum implementation. More recently I have worked with new Heads of Department to support them in how to run a department effectively, successfully and how to bring about rapid improvement.

Why I became an SLE

I have previously worked with an SLE to drive change within my own department at the time. I have seen first-hand what the role of an SLE entails and I was able to transform my own department to give all learners the best possible Design and Technology education with the support of the SLE process. I now feel that I would like to share what I find to be best practice with colleagues in other schools, as well as here at UBHS.

I enjoy working with and supporting others, seeing improvement as a result of positive change for the benefit of all learners. Within my various roles I have enjoyed working with other colleagues to bring out the best in them also.

Professional background:

I have been teaching for over twenty years and have worked in a range of different schools across Cheshire and West Yorkshire during that time. My previous roles have included being Head of Sixth Form in two schools, Whole-school Lead Practitioner, Assistant Head of English, Head of English and Research Lead/CPD co-ordinator. I have an MA in Education and Professional Enquiry from the University of Leeds and I also work with a national examination board as a senior examiner for GCSE English and Lead English Expert.

SLE areas of specialism:

Leadership of continuous professional development (CPD) and curriculum development, Leadership of English and Literacy including supporting high attaining learners.

Current role and responsibilities:

In September 2020 I was appointed as Lead Practitioner for Teaching and Learning at Upper Batley High School. My main focus is to raise the attainment and achievement of our learners through use of educational research, provision of bespoke CPD, and supporting all staff to provide high quality teaching and learning experiences for all of our learners. I also work with colleagues to help review and improve the curriculum in their subject areas.

CPD / Training Delivered:

In my previous roles I have delivered various CPD and training sessions. These have included:

• Implementation of retrieval practice;
• Use of Lesson Study to improve outcomes and professional practice;
• Curriculum Development within English and Humanities;
• Co-operative and collaborative learning within the classroom;
• Developing the use of Reciprocal Reading;
• Improving word consciousness and word confidence;
• Establishing research-informed classroom practice to raise attainment;
• Supporting higher attainers to attain grade 7-9 in English and Science;
• EEF regional trainer for Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools programme.

Why I became an SLE:

Having worked in a wide range of schools and roles during my teaching career, including middle and senior leadership roles, I feel well placed to support the work of other colleagues. This extensive experience has led to positive experiences when working with others to improve school performance and curriculum provision.

I have always worked with integrity and believe that every colleague and learner deserve to be supported well to achieve their academic and wider career goals. I enjoy working with committed colleagues in a range of settings and seeing the transformational change that the support of an SLE can have. The pace of educational change can be rapid and I am passionate about supporting colleagues to develop a challenging, engaging and inclusive curriculum that will empower their learners to achieve academic, personal and career success.

Professional background:

Since gaining my degree in Geography (Ba) I decided that I wanted to share my passion for the subject and to give back to young people in education so embarked upon the Graduate Teaching Programme soon after. After graduating in 2013 I have been teaching and continue to work tirelessly to drive change and to provide a high standard of education for all learners in the area of Humanities. Throughout all of my teaching roles, my belief has always been to push learners to be the very best that they can be.

SLE areas of specialism:

Geography and the leadership of Humanities Subjects.

Current role and responsibilities:

In September 2020 I was appointed Assistant Headteacher with responsibility for Teaching and Learning at Upper Batley High School. My main responsibilities are to raise the attainment and achievement of all our learners through research, development, and the quality assurance of Teaching and Learning to maximise all learner’s potential.  Another key aspect of my role is the development of our ITT and NQT provision within school, ensuring that we provide a bespoke CPD programme.

CPD / Training Delivered:

I have delivered various CPD and training sessions mainly in the area of Teaching and Learning. These have included sessions on;

• Use of AfL strategies within the classroom
• Effective us of plenaries
• Differentiation- Matching Learning to Need
• Use of DARTs activities across all subjects
• QA at a department level
• Use of SOLO Taxonomy, across subjects. 
• Development of cognitive learning and retrieval practice

Why I became an SLE:

My current role is extremely rewarding; not only am I committed to ensuring high quality Teaching and Learning at UBHS, I am also passionate about making a more significant contribution to the quality of education where ever I can have a positive impact.

As Assistant Headteacher I have demonstrated integrity and accountability and I thrive on challenge, problem-solving and strategizing within a team setting. I am an extremely motivated and driven person, with high expectations of both myself and my team. I am also someone who is able to listen to others, and I value ideas from my team in order to facilitate positive change.

Since joining UBHS I have led on the implementation of several whole-school teaching and learning strategies. I always lead by example, and I am extremely driven to support positive change across the school, and to bring out the best in others. Being an SLE gives me the opportunity to offer support and positive change within new settings.

Professional background:

I was always interested in Science as a young learner. I wanted to become a Physio for Liverpool FC, the only way I thought I could be associated with them! I did Sports Science/ Biology at University. I instantly took a liking to how the human body worked and operated at so many different levels. I then qualified as a Personal Trainer as I was always so interested in helping people achieve their goals. During my time as PT I realised I really enjoyed breaking processes down and explaining them to my trainees. I did a 1 week placement in Batley Grammar and applied for my PGCE, the rest is history.

SLE areas of specialism:

• Science
• Coaching Middle Leaders

Current role and responsibilities:

In September 2019 I was appointed Assistant Headteacher with responsibility for Teaching and Learning at Upper Batley High School. My main responsibilities are to raise the attainment and achievement of all our learners through research, development, and the quality assurance of Teaching and Learning to maximise all learner’s potential.  Since then I have moved onto leading on Outcomes and Data which has been great for my own personal development.

CPD / Training Delivered:

I have delivered various CPD and training sessions mainly in the area of Teaching and Learning. These have included sessions on;

• Use of AfL strategies within the classroom
• Effective use of plenaries
• Differentiation- Matching Learning to Need
• Use of DARTs activities across all subjects
• QA at a department level  
• Development of cognitive learning and retrieval practice

Why I became an SLE:

I became an SLE when my school at the time turned into a Trust. To be able to perform my new role within the Trust I needed to first qualify as an SLE. Since then I have used my experience to help 2 different Trusts and their Science departments. This involved undertaking Deep Dives of the department and then writing up a report for the HoD’s of that particular school within the Trust. This was a great experience as I got to work alongside the Senior Leadership Team for the school and help move the department forward. It was a shame that I changed roles/schools before I got to see the impact of the work we had put in. This role was perfect for me as I had spent 4 years as a HoD implementing changes to the schemes of learning and practices within the department; I had an absolutely fantastic team with me and we consistently got the best results the school had ever achieved for Science and Triple Science. I now had the opportunity to analyse how underperforming departments were working and how best to resolve the issues within those faculties.

Professional background:

I have been teaching for 25 years and feel passionate about the job that I do. I came into teaching through an opportunity to teach Art in a prison which I enjoyed so much it inspired me to choose teaching as a career. I have held numerous roles in school over the years and feel it has given me a real sense breadth of how the school operates at all levels. I am driven to provide opportunities for all learners to succeed and leave us with the knowledge gained to set them up for the future. I am passionate about the arts and giving learners a chance to express themselves in creative forms.

SLE specialism

Main areas of specialism are Art and Design alongside the leadership and delivery of CEIAG across the whole school.

Current role and responsibilities

I am currently an Assistant Headteacher at Upper Batley High School where I am responsible for Careers across school and wellbeing. As a leader of careers, I have been able to build a team to deliver an outstanding careers provision across school which was noted by a recent OFSTED inspection as a strength of the school. We currently hold 100% in all 8 Gatsby benchmarks and are a lead school for one of the government’s initial 20 national careers hubs. As a school we are in the top 7% in the country for providing outstanding careers guidance. As part of our hub work our focus is looking at parental engagement and social mobility. We work closely with 23 other schools in Kirklees with the addition of a number of Calderdale schools soon to follow who need support with delivering a quality careers provision.

I am passionate about the arts and opening children’s eyes to look at the world in new ways, encouraging them to express themselves and think creatively outside the box. I have been Head of art for 10 years and have led a very successful department having large numbers of learners opting for the subject at GCSE (bucking the national trend) year after year with great success. Currently we run Fine Art , Photography and Btec Art and Design.

CPD/Training delivered

As a HOD and within my leadership role I have delivered many CPD sessions upskilling colleagues within the department alongside a variety of whole school CPD looking at CEIAG, The Gatsby Benchmarks, teaching and learning as well as looking at closing the gap with disadvantaged learners and non-disadvantaged learners.

Why I became an SLE

I became an SLE as I saw it as the next natural progression forward. I enjoy working with people and if I can support and help to bring about positive change in any way I can then I will. I enjoy a challenge and believe I am at a stage in my career where I am able to look subjectively and evaluate the impact I have made and what helped me to succeed in building a successful Art department and an outstanding careers provision.