Since January 2021 I have been working as an Independent Education Consultant, supporting both headteachers and governors across the North West and Yorkshire.

This role has drawn upon my experience as a teacher, a school Governor and Local Authority Advisor and School Improvement Officer. 

 

Throughout the last 12 years of my career, I carried out the role of a School Improvement Partner, working in a wide variety of schools across each of the Ofsted categories.

I was privileged to work with committed, hard-working headteachers supporting them to identify and tackle barriers to achievement and celebrate their successes.

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My  career in education started over 30 years ago. For the first part of my career I taught both key stage 2 and key stage 1 pupils, building my teaching experience by working in four different schools in contrasting contexts. 

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 I became a nursery teacher in 1999, which started me off on a journey to develop my expertise in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). During the next few years I focused on teaching in reception and nursery classes including the role as Foundation Stage Coordinator. My enthusiasm and love of the EYFS inspired me to engage in postgraduate study and to learn more about early years education, child development and the 0-3 phase of education.

 

I continued to develop my leadership skills, gaining an additional qualification, Leadership and Management in Education, and the National Professional Qualification in Headship (NPQH). Having undertaken various leadership roles in primary schools, I became Deputy Headteacher, leading and managing 0-11 provision in a primary school, with oversight of learning across school and management of the 0-5 childcare provision.

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I then spent  three  years working in the School Improvement Service of a local authority, leading and managing the Early Years Improvement  team which supported both the maintained school sector and private and voluntary childcare settings on the Birth to Five remit.  In this role I gained wide experience in the development of wider children's services also leading  and managing the team of  children’s centre teachers.

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I then moved to another LA as Senior Learning Partner 0-5 and School Improvement Partner.  Here I continued to oversee and have strategic responsibility for quality improvement of early years settings and the educational outcomes in EYFS. 

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 I became the Senior Learning Partner 0-11 for the local authority in 2016, with strategic responsibility for outcomes across   the primary phase leading on the development of the local authority school support for schools, including LA-wide strategic projects and curriculum support. I also managed the team of school improvement partners and the commissioning and monitoring of external school support from the wider school system. 

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