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02/12/23

One of our Sports Academy partners invited our academy players to attend a stadium tour of the home of Watford FC, Vicarage Road Stadium. Our thanks to our partners at Watford FC and their Trust members for their hospitality.https://t.co/WdfdssGwUW pic.twitter.com/sIGT8zosNU

02/12/23

Christmas has started at Harpenden Academy....with our magical foyer! pic.twitter.com/ywHho4A7Gj

02/12/23

* Music Academy Rock Band Workshop *Yesterday some of our Year 9, Year 10 and Sixth Form students took part in a brilliant Music Academy Rock Band Workshop.We thank Mr Wilkinson, a professional drummer, for delivering such a fantastic session.#rockband pic.twitter.com/K7kQZXINgI

02/12/23

RBA ‘Thoughtful Decorations’ - students busy preparing our Christmas 🎄 decorations which have a deeper meaning. pic.twitter.com/s6yrKj1Xia

02/12/23

We’ve had some incredible entrants into our design a Christmas Card competition, with 225 entries this year. We will be sharing some of the fantastic designs on our countdown to Christmas over the next few weeks.First up is this gorgeous digital drawing from Charm in Year 10. pic.twitter.com/XTS85kcAl6

02/12/23

Oak class taught the naughty elves how to decorate the tree, with the help of Rudolph! 🎄 pic.twitter.com/wyZXvFSZYP

02/12/23

This morning Year 11 were treated to a performance of A Christmas Carol by to support their learning of this GCSE Lit set text. Absolutely fantastic - students and staff were equally impressed. Would highly recommend to schools that teach this text. pic.twitter.com/J81JEJfJ19

02/12/23

Our fabulous and talented library assistants have been hard at work today to make the library look fun ‘n’ festive. They have done a great job! pic.twitter.com/LyldphvOHD

01/12/23

Oh no… some cheeky elves got into the school overnight and have tried to decorate for Christmas! They haven’t done a very good job so I think we’d better help them today… 🎄 pic.twitter.com/ZeJt4h923L

01/12/23

Year 9 Enrichment PEAfter learning about different Methods of Training the students braved the sub-zero conditions to take part in a Continuous Training Session down the Lee Valley Path. Amazing effort this morning! 👏 pic.twitter.com/uxbqv8wI7T

01/12/23

* Latest News * joins Scholars' Education Trust. Read full news story here https://t.co/Otup4WGqKQ pic.twitter.com/EPPst54s33

30/11/23

Sounding great! https://t.co/Cj3goXdC5O

30/11/23

Providing high-quality education for more than 5000 children across 7 schools, has chosen Alps to support the sharing of best practice across the Trust. You can find more information around Alps and how we support Trusts here: https://t.co/ypAWTzwgRJ pic.twitter.com/954u8KEq0N

30/11/23

Ladybirds have had a fantastic time learning new skills on the iPad this morning with Nick from Select Academy. pic.twitter.com/Vd2dn5LVOy

30/11/23

* Samuel Ryder Rugby Academy Trials *NEXT MONDAY, 4th December: 4.15pm-5.45pmTrials for current Year 11 students for a Sept 2024 place at our academy for a rugby programme alongside A-Levels.Register here: https://t.co/NRnbqI02jIhttps://t.co/WdfdssGwUW#rugby pic.twitter.com/YwSrwKGUlf

30/11/23

Support roles closing soon! Highly sought after term time vacancies including:▶️After School Club Asst▶️Cover Supervisor▶️First Aid Co-ordinator▶️Teaching Assistant▶️Wraparound Care Managerhttps://t.co/aB9AAKLNmT#schooljobs pic.twitter.com/Ajs5hEu4k0

30/11/23

Congratulations to the students in yr8 who were recognised for their effort and achievement this month. pic.twitter.com/fN8YjZkIb8

30/11/23

JLT Virtual Reality! JLT being RBA Ambassadors testing out the new RBA VR system 🖥️😀 pic.twitter.com/iL8g1HLltR

30/11/23

We are so impressed by the confidence of Yr8s leading Yr12 form promoting Maths! pic.twitter.com/1ZAGadX8Kx

30/11/23

Thank you to Miss Pett for organising. Lovely get together for year 7, friendship & pizza 🍕 pic.twitter.com/FwVd7q0oNZ

30/11/23

In Oak class, the Message Centre is our favourite place to play. Today, we made a rainbow pen and used it to create lots of interesting marks. Even Mrs Ward wanted to join in the fun! pic.twitter.com/l85Go9sywe

30/11/23

Teaching vacancies closing soon! Join a supportive and expanding MAT across Beds and Herts including :🟢Asst Head of Science🟢Design & Technology🟢English🟢Geography (MAT)https://t.co/aB9AAKLNmT#teachingvacancies pic.twitter.com/4pRxeDhdx4

30/11/23

Year 13 students in A Level Chemistry class were measuring the pH of acids using data loggers as part of their practical assessment. pic.twitter.com/FQZeTwd7xP

30/11/23

Wonderful design. Congratulations Anna. https://t.co/MjnijtVa09

30/11/23

Workshop wonders. Great creativity seen from the students, in the session on ‘strange designs’. A design and make brief on taking an existing ‘boring’ but functional product and creating something new and fun. pic.twitter.com/i7Htpa3Azj

Education Improvement Team

CLAIRE ROBINS OBE - Chief Executive Officer
Claire Robins

After over 20 years working as a senior leader in education, I particularly enjoy working with leadership teams to help them identify the key priorities that will move their schools forward. Having been a National Leader of Education since 2009, I have had the opportunity of providing improvement support to a wide range of schools, and of coaching and mentoring many leaders. I am proud to say that in my time as a headteacher, 6 members of my senior team went on to become heads themselves and I am particularly keen to encourage women into senior leadership roles.

I believe it is vital to consider the context of any organisation before starting to suggest strategies and I am also very aware that ‘one size does not fit all’ when it comes to school improvement.

My training as an Ofsted Inspector has sharpened my understanding of the inspection process – something that has been very useful to SET schools going through the process, both primary and secondary. I have the privilege of leading the SET Leaders of Education team, a group of highly skilled staff who are able to provide specialist expertise as well as a very high level of pedagogical input.

MATT GAUTHIER - Deputy Chief Executive Officer
Matt Gauthier to follow
HAZEL WALE - Chief Operations Officer
Hazel

I have been working at a senior level in education for more years than I care to mention, I have also had the privilege over my career of working in primary, secondary, all through and special schools so have a broad spectrum of experience of what life is like on the “frontline” in a number of settings.

I have extensive experience of school finance, estates, HR, admin, operations, IT, payroll, attendance and governance; as well as having been a DSL in a large secondary school with the additional responsibility for pastoral care at KS3 and KS4.

I believe I have the skills to be a sounding board and support for schools in a whole host of areas, am happy to roll my sleeves up and give practical help if needed, alongside the leadership support that is a key to success. I am very proud to manage the central team; a team of first-class experts in every sphere of school operational life who are there to support and advise our headteachers and schools. Our headteachers run their schools and are always complimentary on the support they receive from them; it gives them the time to concentrate on that “frontline”.

My passion lies with our students, their educational experience and well-being, it is why I have stayed in education all this time. I am also very keen to promote and support our support staff.

Ladan Shirazi - Director of SEND & Safeguarding
LS 2

I am a Chemist and have been teaching for 26 years. I have extensive knowledge and understanding of both primary and secondary phases of the education and have been the Head of Inclusion, SENDCo, the DSL and in the past few years lead the primary phase of the Samuel Ryder Academy.

I also hold Post Graduate qualifications in Science, Special Educational Needs and Education studies and am a member of the British Psychological Society as a specialist assessor.

I will be working very closely with the Headteachers, SENDCos, Designated Senior Leads and Governors to ensure that the provision for all our learners is of the highest quality and that they receive the best quality of education, care and support.   

 

Leaders of Education

Leaders of Education are allocated via the termly Strategy Meetings or where required in a bespoke plan. Their role is:

  • To support an individual member of teaching staff
  • To provide guidance and support on curriculum planning and schemes of learning
  • To support all aspects of subject specific leadership
  • To form part of a Peer Review team

 

LUCY CALDICOTT - Science
Lucy C

Lucy Caldicott is Assistant Head of Science at Sir John Lawes School where she has taught for almost seven years, starting as a Schools Direct trainee with the Alban Federation (now known as Alban TSH) in 2015. She is a chemistry specialist but has a background in neuroscience which has led to a deep interest in cognitive science and evidence-based education - especially in regards to pedagogy and curriculum development. Over the course of her time at SJL Lucy has led CPD sessions on many aspects of cognitive science, at a departmental level as well as whole school and trust wide, leading to a keen interest in teacher development and effective CPD. Lucy has recently completed the Chartered College of Teachers CTeach programme where she carried out research into the testing effect, retrieval and metacognition.

DR ELIZABETH MOUNTSTEVENS - Science
EM Picture

Dr Elizabeth Mountstevens has been teaching Science at Sir John Lawes School for 10 years.  She is passionate about evidence-informed teaching and in 2019 was one of the first teachers in the country to be awarded Chartered Teacher status through the Chartered College of Teaching. Elizabeth works as an Evidence Lead in Education with Sandringham Research School, delivering training on metacognition, memory and feedback. She looks forward to sharing evidence-informed strategies with other schools across the trust.

Over the past 5 years at Sir John Lawes School Elizabeth has combined ideas from cognitive science with the spiral curriculum to develop a new teaching sequence for KS4 chemistry. She has carried out her own research into using metacognition to support KS5 students and presented her work on problem-solving in Science at the Association of Science Education national conference. Elizabeth has supported early career Chemistry students at other schools through a programme run by the Royal Society of Chemistry and looks forward to supporting other teachers across the trust schools.

SOPHIE SCOTT - IT and Computing
SScott

Sophie Scott currently Head of Computing & Lead Practitioner in New Technologies, based at Sir John Lawes School. During her time at SJL she has taught on a variety of courses at Key Stage 4 and 5 and currently delivers the OCR GCSE and A Level in Computer Science. Sophie is also an Assessment Team Leader for the OCR GCSE in Computer Science, giving her additional insight into how to successfully prepare students for exams. She leads a successful department where students regularly achieve results significantly above the national average, and am well-placed to support the delivery of Computing across the Trust. She also has expertise in embedding new technologies into teaching and learning.

KATE WATSON - English (Primary)
Kate Watson

Kate Watson was part of the team who set up Harpenden Academy in 2012 so has extensive experience in setting up and embedding new systems and initiatives. Kate has been Maths, PSHE, Mental Health and Science lead during her time at Harpenden Academy and is currently the KS2 and English lead as well as being on the SLT. She has introduced and embedded many successful English initiatives for children and staff alike; she is passionate about bringing English learning alive through cross curricular links and first-hand experiences to ensure a love of reading and writing alongside excellent outcomes for all children.

Kate is equally passionate about staff development and wellbeing and has delivered and facilitated a wide variety of English and Mental Health CPD within the Trust. Kate is also an SLE within the Luton Teaching Alliance and has just completed her National Professional Qualification for Senior Leaders (NPQSL). Outside work, Kate loves spending time with her two daughters, reading, going to the theatre and outdoor swimming (whatever the weather!)

 

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