Senior Leadership Team

Areas of responsibility: 
Quality of Education

What do you do within your role at the Academy?
My main role as Vice Principal for the Quality of Education is to make sure that the curriculum, teaching and learning, and assessment across the academy is of the highest possible standard. I work closely with all teachers and support staff to ensure that the lessons that we plan and deliver are challenging, engaging and engineered towards making sure students have the best possible outcomes. I help staff to be the best teachers they can be by coaching, guiding and mentoring them based on my own experience and based on proven educational research.

When did you join the Academy?
I joined Corby Business Academy in January 2024 as Vice Principal. In my previous school, I was an Assistant Headteacher responsible for Teaching and Learning.

Why did you apply for your role at the Academy?
The core values at Corby Business Academy really appealed to me when I was looking for my next challenge. I knew I wanted to work somewhere that had a strong community feel and a place that really championed strong teaching and learning as the main driver for student success. Having been a Senior Leader for eight years at my previous school, I felt the time was right to tackle my next challenge and take the next step up in leadership.

What is your background and experience?
I have been a teacher for almost 20 years having completed my PGCE with The Grand Union Training Partnership in the academic year 2005/2006. I started as a teacher of English (with a bit of Media Studies thrown in!) and was appointed as Key Stage 4 co-ordinator at the end of my NQT year. Following this, I became an Assistant Head of English before reaching the level of Head of English in my second school. I loved this role as it meant I could really focus on curriculum and staff development. After having my children, I returned to work in a new school as a Lead Practitioner until I was promoted to the Senior Leadership Team as Assistant Head Teacher for Teaching and Learning in my third school (which was also the secondary school I attended as a pupil!). I remained in this role for eight years until finally joining Corby Business Academy as Vice Principal in 2024.

Why did you want a career in teaching and to work in the education sector?
We are privileged in this country to have access to free education and education really does open doors in life. I wanted to be a part of building those foundations for people and for passing on a love of learning to the next generation. When I was doing my GCSEs, I had a brilliant Maths teacher, and he inspired me to want to be a teacher. I have his photo on my office wall!

Why specifically did you want to become a Senior Leader?
I love working with and inspiring people and my love of teaching students has developed into a love of teaching adults. I enjoy training and developing teachers of all levels immensely and find it incredibly rewarding. As a senior leader, I get to do this on a larger scale and have a wider circle of influence. I can help to directly impact change in a school and be part of making decisions that really count towards ensuring a school can be its best.

What skills and expertise do you need that you bring to your role?
I need lots of knowledge about teaching, learning, curriculum and assessment. This changes all the time so I have to be able to keep up to date with this through reading, research and engaging with lots of different people. I need to be motivated and passionate to make changes. I have to be inspiring and make sure that I make the right decisions so people have faith in me. I have to be adaptable as what I need to do each day in my role can change very quickly. I need to be supportive, a good listener, a good role model and lead by example.

What are your personal aims/goals/achievements that you hope to achieve in your role at the Academy?
Ultimately, to make sure that our students have access to the best curricula, the best teachers and the best lessons. 

What things have you implemented so far in your role and what has been the impact/effect?
So far, we have increased the frequency of training so that our teachers are having regular access to continued professional development. This is rooted in internal quality assurance data – the areas for development that we identify form within our own classes, so everything is relevant and focused. We are visiting more lessons and making sure that we are creating a culture where all staff want to continually improve and share their practice and expertise with others. We have spent lots of time improving how we start our lessons and how we use Do Now tasks to check that students have retained key information. We have been refreshing our learning about the memory and how learning happens so that we can talk more confidently about this to students. Teachers tell us that their lessons now start much more smoothly and that they feel more confident in challenging students’ memory and retention.

What are some of the current projects/area of focus you are working on?
Currently, I am planning what training we will be offering to staff next year and how this can be more bespoke and targeted. We have grown the teaching and learning team to a core group of four staff, so next year we can do even more to help develop the skills and expertise of our teachers. We want the CPD offer here at Corby Business Academy to be the best in the trust and a model that others will want to follow.A big area of work next year will be how we can improve our adaptive teaching approaches and support students of all needs and abilities effectively. This work will help us to remain the inclusive school that we are, and ensure that all of our students can achieve the best possible outcomes.

What do you enjoy most about working at the Academy as well as your role?
I like that I get to have a direct impact on the day to day running of the academy. I enjoy how positive our students are and the interactions I have with them all on a daily basis. Being a school leader is a real challenge and no two days are the same – but that is one of the best things about the job!

What positive changes have you seen throughout your time at Corby Business Academy?
I have only been with the academy a short time but I am already impressed with the high standards of behaviour and how polite and friendly all of our students are. 

In your opinion, what are the strengths of the Academy?
We have a staff body who want the absolute best for all of our students and who work tirelessly to make sure this happens. We are truly inclusive; everyone is supported and there is always someone to lend a listening ear.