If there is one thing I have learned during my career in education, it is that no two school days are ever quite the same. You can begin the morning discussing long-term strategy and school improvement priorities, before lunch, find yourself searching for a missing inhaler, reassuring an anxious parent and attempting to resolve an unexpectedly passionate disagreement about playground football.
That unpredictability is part of what makes working in schools both challenging and enormously rewarding.
Before joining One Education as an Educational Consultant, I spent twenty years working in primary education. Having only recently stepped away from day-to-day school leadership, I understand the reality of the role: the privilege of making a genuine difference, the pride that comes from seeing children and colleagues flourish, and the relentless pressure of trying to give everyone what they need, often simultaneously.
I know what it is like to arrive with a carefully planned list and leave having completed almost none of it, despite not having stopped all day. I also know that school improvement rarely happens in the neat, linear way suggested by an action plan.
A career rooted in teaching and learning
English has always been a particular passion of mine. Before moving into senior leadership, I was an experienced English lead, supporting colleagues to strengthen teaching, curriculum and outcomes. I remain fascinated by the way that strong language and literacy provision can transform children’s access to the entire curriculum—and, more importantly, their ability to understand and express themselves within the wider world.
As my leadership responsibilities grew, so did the breadth of my experience. I have led work across curriculum development, teaching and learning, assessment, safeguarding, attendance, behaviour, inclusion, staff development and organisational culture. I have worked alongside governors, local-authority colleagues, external professionals, families and, of course, the committed staff who make schools work every day.
Throughout that time, I learned that sustainable improvement is rarely about introducing the next shiny initiative. It begins with understanding a school properly: its children, staff, community, strengths and pressures. Data matters, but so do the stories behind it. Policies matter, but only when they translate into effective daily practice. Above all, improvement must be achievable for the people expected to deliver it.
Support from someone who understands
School leaders operate within an education system that rarely stands still. Expectations evolve, guidance changes and new priorities arrive—sometimes before schools have had the opportunity to embed the previous ones. Leaders must keep an eye on long-term improvement while responding to immediate operational demands, all with finite time and resources.
I have lived that reality very recently. I understand the responsibility leaders carry, including the less visible emotional weight of the role. That experience shapes the way I work with schools now.
My aim is not to arrive with a generic solution or a clipboard full of judgement. It is to listen carefully, ask useful questions and help leaders identify practical ways forward. Sometimes
that means offering challenge; sometimes it means bringing clarity to a complex issue; and sometimes it means helping a leadership team recognise that it is already doing far better than it realises.
The most effective consultancy, in my view, should feel like a genuine professional partnership. Schools deserve advice that is evidence-informed and appropriately ambitious, but also grounded in the realities of classrooms, corridors and crowded calendars.
A new chapter
Moving into consultancy has been an exciting and intentional next step in my career. It allows me to draw on everything I have learned in schools while working with a wider range of leaders and communities.
I believe passionately that every child should have the opportunity to be successful and happy – whatever success and happiness may look like for them. Achieving that requires high expectations, thoughtful leadership and schools in which both children and adults can thrive.
I also know that leadership can occasionally feel like trying to complete a jigsaw while someone keeps changing the picture on the box. If your school is navigating change, tackling a persistent challenge or simply looking for a knowledgeable and supportive professional perspective, I would be delighted to work alongside you.
After all, I may have recently left the school gates behind, but the realities, and the joys, of school life remain very close to me.
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