1. PRIMARY EDUCATION
KAREN WILLIS
Nominated by: Freeman Professor Rosie Rafferty
Karen Willis is the Headteacher of St James' Church of England Primary School in Bermondsey, in one of the most deprived areas of London.
Karen was appointed in 2005 to a school that was one of the four lowest achieving schools in Southwark. It is above average on many counts: of pupils eligible for free school meals; of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities; with speech and language difficulties. Plus - a high proportion of children from minority ethnic backgrounds for whom English is a second language.
5 years later, in 2010, it was recognised as one of the highest achieving schools in London.
Karen's vision is of a curriculum grounded in advanced literacy skills where child poverty is not a barrier to excellence. In 2006, to support children with emotional and behavioural difficulties, Karen opened a pupil development centre at the school. Under her leadership, the culture of the school is one of inspirational teaching and learning where pupils experience a deep sense of belonging, stability and personal effectiveness. The school reaches out to parents, families, and the community, imaginatively leveraging professional and business resource to support the school.
Her work at St James' - developing it into a centre for educational excellence, has been recognised by OFSTED and the National College where she has National Leader of Education status.
Southwark local authority draws upon Karen's leadership skills to support other schools in the area, including nearby Alma Primary School, where Karen has been executive head since September 2010. Parents and governors have already seen the school transformed from one struggling in special measures to one whose Key Stage 2 SAT results are expected to rise from 42% at Level 4 to over 80%. Karen has given Alma Primary a new sense of purpose, has inspired the staff and engendered a sense of confidence among parents and children.
Professor Rafferty says ' Karen has built a vibrant learning culture with the needs of the child at the heart of all endeavours.'
2. SECONDARY EDUCATION
PETER LONSDALE
Nominated by: Freeman Dame Mary Richardson
Peter Lonsdale joined Longhill School in Brighton as a history teacher in 1974. He stayed for 33 years - as head of history, head of year, head of careers and from 1988 as Deputy Head where he played a prominent role in guiding the school in becoming one of the most popular in Brighton, expanding from 600 to the 1000 students it has now.
Peter has always believed in the importance to young people's development and well-being of extra curriculum activities, particularly challenging outdoor activities. It was the success he had with these that led him to set up the Longhill Combined Cadet Force in 1985. The CCF is now in its 26th year; hundreds of students and staff have benefited from this initiative to which he was devoted.
Peter took early retirement from Longhill in 2007 - in theory. In fact, in 2008, he was appointed Cadet Manager for the London Challenge Pilot Scheme. His task was to form partnerships between independent and maintained schools, with the independent school supporting the maintained school to set up cadet units. His target was 12 partnerships with 24 schools in 2 years, - and to develop a sustainable model for the future. The pilot is due to end this July.
The project has been outstandingly successful, thanks in no small part to Peter's inspirational leadership in encouraging schools to participate. In one girls' maintained school, he so inspired the girls that the whole year group wanted to join and, with their parental forms signed, queued down the corridor leading to the headteacher's study. By March this year, over 500 young people have had an opportunity to take part in cadet life, who would not have done so without Peter’s work.
Dame Mary Richardson, who is Chairman of the Cadet Partnerships Strategy Group said: 'Peter has brought about a living and achieving example of the Big Society and has successfully built bridges between young people of diverse backgrounds and between their teachers.'
3. FURTHER AND HIGHER EDUCATION
TESSA WILLY
Nominated by: Freeman Margaret Carter-Pegg
Tessa Willy is a Senior Lecturer in Primary Education at Roehampton University, specialising in geography. She works on the Initial Teacher Education programme covering both PGCE and the BA in Education. Tessa joined Roehampton in 2007 after teaching in primary and secondary schools in the U.K. and overseas. She is a passionate advocate of environmental and sustainability education and through this was herself inspired to develop an outdoor education area on the campus together with an allotment for students and staff. The aim is to enable them to gain a better understanding of the environment and how best it can be protected and conserved whilst at the same time put to effective and productive use. This has led to involvement of learners from across the university and stimulated a programme to embed issues of sustainability in the general curriculum. Best of all, perhaps, is that student teachers have been encouraged to take the ideas they have formed into their schools to help children and staff develop similar skills and understanding.
Tessa has been able, too, to extend her work to the wider community. A group working with disaffected young people have also been involved in the allotment and outdoor education area, with training to grow their own food. This has led to links between the students and the community with students working on a voluntary basis with youth groups during the summer vacation.
But Tessa has not stopped there. An orchard has been planted on the campus; students volunteer as tree guardians, learning skills around planting, maintaining and nurturing fruit trees, environmental skills they can take with them into their teaching careers.
Future plans include new projects working with students and community groups - the regeneration of an old orchard on site; the creation of a forest garden using permaculture methods; the use of a natural amphitheatre as an additional outdoor teaching area.
Margaret Carter-Pegg says: 'none of this would have been achieved without Tessa Willy's inspirational leadership.'
4. LIFELONG LEARNING
ROSANNE BARTLETT
Nominated by: Freeman Andrea Charman
Ros Bartlett is Deputy Head at the Earls High School in Dudley, which has the status of a Teaching School under the National College for Schools Leadership.
The Outstanding Teacher Programme is one of a variety of teacher effectiveness programmes and it is this in which Ros has been involved for the past 5 years.
Ros, as a Teaching Schools Leader has made a significant contribution, firmly linked to her philosophy of education, core values around the quality of leadership, and the importance of high quality teaching for all children. The starting point of her work has been the use of facilitation and coaching to increase the capacity of individual teachers in their teaching roles, together with the open sharing of knowledge of what outstanding practice looks like. Ros has carried out this programme with over 300 teaching staff in some 30 schools across the Black Country and Birmingham. Her work has been identified as making a major contribution to improvements in partner and affiliated schools, confirmed by the staff and school leaders.
Her example has not only transformed previously stale and demotivated staff into willing participants in their own improvement; it has also inspired high performing staff in both their desire to be outstanding and their own commitment to coach and support others towards more effective practice. Ros' innovative use of newly designated Specialist leaders of Education is an example of her constant search for improving the impact of staff development in schools for children.
Ros is described as demonstrating fierce and determined support for putting learning at the centre of the Earls High School and the schools with which it is partnered. The Head of Earls High, Tom Johnston has said that Ros has been an inspirational facilitator, characterised by her ability to follow through and support participants in ensuring that changed practice actually happens in the classroom.
Earls High is the vehicle for these developments; itself a high performing and risk-taking school that, by the admission of its dynamic head, does not always get it right, but who realises that we as teachers are ourselves lifelong learners always pushing the boundaries of continuous improvement.
Andrea Charman says that whilst it is clear that it is collaborative effort that truly supports improvement, this should never detract from the powerful example of individual leadership.
5. THE MASTER’S AWARD
FAMIDA NOOR MAHOMED
Famida joined Little Ilford School in the east London Borough of Newham in January 2001 as a supply science teacher, becoming a permanent member of staff in December of that year. She has been involved in the pastoral care of students since 2003 and, since 2008 has been the Pastoral Achievement Leader for Year 9.
In 2007 Famida began Little Ilford's Engineering Club as part of the London Engineering Project. She has established a 30 strong Young Engineers club which runs every Saturday morning. The club takes part in the activity programmes provided by Young Engineers and the London Engineering Project. A major achievement, thanks to Famida, is the number of girls she has been able to encourage to join the club. Indeed, the September 2009 edition of the Teachers Magazine featured Famida and some of the girls who are club members. In the article the girls talk about the inspiration they get from Famida; and how they use her as a role model because, as they say, being female and a Muslim can be perceived as a barrier but Famida has shown them that anything is possible if you persevere. This may well include her own extra-curricular pastimes of karate competitions, go-karting and free-fall sky-diving.
Since its establishment, Famida's club has entered an impressive list of competitions:
In 2008, they were judged Best Newcomer at the Greenpower races
In 2009, at the Young Engineers’ Club awards, they won Best Club in the South-East.
At the Big Bang Fair in 2009, they won a Special Merit award. This was followed at the 2010 Fair with a Teamwork award.
Also in 2010, in the Greenpower Dunfold Race, they won the award for 'Innovative Use of Recycled Materials'.
This year, they are entering 4 teams to the Royal Navy Challenge and 4 teams for the BAA Challenge.
In February this year the club students were involved in a cross-curricular project with Maths and Science - they
built rockets and launched them from the school playground. They are now taking this project forward into the 2011 Big
Bang Fair.
Famida herself has said that she never ceases to be amazed by the number of students who turn up on Saturday mornings. Think about it - teenagers getting up early on Saturday mornings to go back into school and do engineering. I was going to use the phrase 'it's not rocket science except that in this particular case it is. And what's more it's the rocket science of an inspirational educator.
