Tamsin Poulter, the current vice-principal at Cliff Park Ormiston academy in Great Yarmouth will take the reins from September following Rob Sherington’s retirement.
Poulter, who previously spent 13 years as head of year and then vice-principal at Haileybury Turnford school in Cheshunt, says her main priority will be to oversee the introduction of the new national curriculum in a “fun” way for students.
“Given that the government has made such big changes, I want to, along with providing excellent academic results, ensure that lessons will still be fun and engaging.”
Poulter also plans to expand “even further” the school’s enrichment programme with links to local music clubs, nearby Great Yarmouth college and Nexus Engineering.
The school hopes to partner with “artistic” organisations after her research of the local jobs market showed many were arts and engineering based.
“Hopefully, with those partnerships, we can increase employability opportunities for our pupils and ensure that school is really fun as well.”
Poulter studied history at Kings College London followed by a PGCE at the Institute of Education.
Jane Fletcher is to join Ark as its new regional director for secondary schools in Hastings and London.
She has been principal of Harris Girls’ Academy in East Dulwich, south London,
since 2008.
Her new role will involve overseeing a number of schools in Ark’s chain of academies and will be, she says, a challenge that she “really wants to take on”.
“I’ll be visiting all the schools regularly to work with leaders as well as listening to the communities, understanding what the issues are, and supporting them in progressing.”
She adds that high expectations will be at the forefront of what she will be looking for in each school leadership team.
Fletcher has a degree in music from the University of Southampton and a masters in education.
She did her teacher training through the Graduate Teacher Programme.
Carly Wilkins has been appointed head of Halcon primary school in Taunton, following its link-up with the Redstart Learning Partnership.
From September the school will re-launch as Minerva primary as its moves over to academy status.
Wilkins joins from Hamp academy in Bridgwater where she was the assistant head and a year 6 class teacher.
She says her main focus will be to collaborate with the other schools in the trust to share good practice, and to lean on other leader experience and expertise to get “the best teaching and learning possible”.
Wilkins, who has been a teacher for 11 years, says: “In the few weeks that I’ve been head of school I’ve seen a real willingness to work together to bring back families to their community school.”
She has a joint degree in education and history, as well as a PGCE, from the University of Plymouth.
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