About

Why I started..

My Blogposts are entitled Things I’ve learned and things I’m learning as I use it to reflect on exactly those things.  Life is a long learning adventure – sometimes exciting and sometimes painful, but always worthwhile.  I always feel flattered when people add comments to my blogs as this adds to the learning and I hope that others find it helpful too.

I now support school and system leaders through my work with RMCeducation after 20 years of headship ‘of one sort or another’.  I was a LA head in Wigan back in 2000,  established one of the first academies (the first in Yorkshire) in 2006, and my last role was an Executive Principal of four secondary schools.

Most of my blogging focuses on education, but I am also interested in community organising, politics, and religious issues.

Bio

As a LA head, academy principal, and executive principal, I have always led schools in what are referred to as “challenging circumstances”.   My commitment to social justice, rooted in catholic social teaching, has driven my career and I campaign professionally and politically for the powerful to take a preferential option for the poor.

I worked as an NLE from 2011 and I help a number of organisations in a non-executive capacity.

I am one of the original @HeadsRoundtable gang and continue to work as a member of the core group.

I adore malt whisky, horse racing, watching The West Wing, and being with my family. My greatest wish would be to buy a barge and live on the canals of England.  On the other hand, spending summers in Umbria is very dear to my heart too.

I have a wonderful saintly, long-suffering husband and three offspring + an extra daughter!  The big girls have graduated, my son is studying at Newcastle University, and my baby is studying for her A-levels.