This week’s movers and shakers include a leader who served breakfast to a former prime minister and almost starred in Hollyoaks and a principal who lived in a rainforest for two months.
This column is our fortnightly guide to who is moving where in the schools community.
We are keen to hear about appointments at a senior level. Please send submissions for this section to news@schoolsweek.co.uk with ‘Movers and shakers’ in the subject line.
Kat Howard
Executive school improvement lead (secondary), Windsor Academy Trust
Start date: March 4
Current/previous job: Executive director of school improvement, CORE Education Trust
Interesting fact: Kat once served former PM John Major a full English breakfast in her first job in silver service at a local country house.
She also got down to the final audition for soap opera Hollyoaks but didn’t make the cut.
Summer Turner
Deputy chief executive,
Broad Horizons Education Trust
Start date: September
Current/previous job: Principal, Jane Austen College in Norwich
Interesting fact: Summer likes to travel and once spent two months living in the rainforest in Belize sleeping in a hammock in the trees, clearing trails during the day and narrowly avoiding dangerous encounters with curious snakes and tarantulas.
James Biddulph
CEO designate, Avanti Schools Trust
Start date: May
Current/previous job: Executive headteacher, University of Cambridge Primary School
Interesting fact: James is a budding author and has two book series for which he is concept editor. He has also written a crime novel, but can’t work out who did it. He is currently on sabbatical, travelling in Nepal and India.
Majella McCarthy
Director of children’s services, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council
Start date: April
Current/previous job: Director of children’s social care, Together For Children
Interesting fact: Majella also has a love of travel and adventure, including zip wiring across a tropical rainforest in Costa Rica, hot-air ballooning in Morocco and horse riding in Spain.
Four new trustees at EPI
The Education Policy Institute think-tank has appointed four new trustees.
Professor Sir Chris Husbands, Professor Tim Leunig and Anne-Marie Canning MBE will join next month. Meanwhile Hardip Begol, an Ofqual board member and former senior civil servant at the Department for Education, joins in May.
Leunig worked in policy roles across government departments and is now a director at Public First consultants.
Husbands is a former vice-chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University, while Canning is chief executive of The Brilliant Club, a university access charity focused on increasing the number of less advantaged students at top institutions.
They join the chair David Laws, Baroness Sally Morgan, Charles Brand and Dr Kitty Stewart on the EPI board.
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