At the end of the Summer 2020 term, The Corinium Education Trust sadly bid farewell to one of its founding school leaders, Carol Dougill, who has made the decision to take early retirement.

Carol Dougill, as Executive Head of Kemble and Siddington C of E Primary School, worked collaboratively with Chiquita Henson, Headteacher of Cirencester Deer Park School and their respective local governing bodies over a two year period to form The Corinium Education Trust in April 2018.

‘I am extremely grateful to Carol for the leadership she has shown and the contribution she has made to the development of our multi-academy trust. She has worked relentlessly to bring about improvements within her own and our partner schools. Her observations are insightful and her commitment to children, their education and futures is irrefutable. Her achievements at Kemble and Siddington C of E Primary Schools have been recognised by Ofsted (2017) and more recently, SIAMs (2019).’  Chiquita Henson, Chief Executive.

Carol Dougill was appointed to the post of Executive Headteacher at Kemble and Siddington C of E Primary Schools in January 2015 and over the last 5 years Carol has grown both schools.

Ian Smith, Chair of the schools’ local governing body, highly commended her contribution to raising the standards and reputations of both schools in his recent letter to staff and parents:

‘Carol’s passion for the education of our children led to her being instrumental in Kemble and Siddington forming part of the Corinium Education Multi-Academy Trust to help secure the futures of both schools and to ensure our children and the staff were further supported. There have been many other successes and achievements led by Carol, including the very significant improvements to outside spaces such as installing large scale play equipment and running tracks, improving Forest School provision and buying of new games equipment. Our school buildings have also been radically improved by Carol’s efforts, from complete site re-development to substantial classroom refurbishment, boosting site security and safety measures, and big investment in new IT infrastructure, iPads and new websites. Carol also established numerous regular whole school and class trips like the one to the Science Museum in January this year and Arts Evenings to showcase the children’s talents. All this and much more has been achieved thanks to Carol, even being willing to get things done herself by painting, tiling or even unblocking toilets!’

Before joining Kemble and Siddington C of E Primary Schools, Carol was the headteacher at Lydiard Millicent C of E Primary School in Wiltshire for 9 years. Whilst working for Wiltshire Council, Carol worked as a School Improvement Advisor, and supported a range of schools with differing needs. As an experienced mentor, Carol brought these skills into The Corinium Education Trust and supported other headteachers. During her career, she effectively carried out external peer reviews and initiated our local ‘Schools’ Partnership Programme’ in 2018. Carol also acted as a shadow head for others following the National Professional Qualification for Headship.

Carol’s career in schools spanned over 30 years and, on retirement, she is still as passionate about children being happy and achieving well as she was when she started teaching. In her letter of resignation she reflected:

‘On the whole my job has been a pleasure. I shall miss seeing children have fun in their school lives with all the activities that are planned for their all-round development. I shall miss seeing children grow in confidence and develop into wonderful young people ready for their next stage of their education.’

We will definitely miss Carol! We are very pleased to join Ian Smith in ‘thanking Carol for her energy and enthusiasm, for her sense of fun and determination to make sure that every child in her care has had a wonderfully rich school experience, both in the classroom and beyond.’ We wish her every success and happiness in the future.