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.

 

Following a rigorous recruitment process in partnership with Academy Ambassadors, the Members of The Corinium Education Trust formally appointed two new trustees to the Board at their meeting on Thursday 25 June 2020 and Trustees welcomed them to their first formal meeting on Tuesday 14 July 2020.

 

Prospective candidates initially expressed an interest through Academy Ambassadors and who then passed on those with relevant skills sets and experience to the Trust for further consideration, formal application and interview.

 

Our recruitment strategy was informed by our annual skills audit and both our Members and existing Trustees strongly feel that the skills of our new recruits will complement those of our existing team. However, they both come from very different backgrounds.

 

Aaron Griffiths is an experienced Headteacher and Chief Executive of a small multi-academy trust in Swindon. He brings a wealth of experience to the Board having previously worked as an Ofsted Inspector and in the analysis of primary school performance data. He has been very open about his motivation and, there is no doubt that we will be able to learn from each other:

 

‘I am delighted to be joining Corinium Education Trust’s Board of Trustees. I have been eager to contribute my time, skills and experience to a team that is focused on the pupils, their learning and life opportunities. The Corinium Education Trust is at the heart of its local community and I am excited to be joining its governance team as a trustee. I hope to bring my skills and experience from a different local setting as a serving primary executive headteacher and CEO of a different multi academy trust. I am keen to support The Corinium Education Trust’s Board of Trustees and executive leadership to ensure that the schools, their staff and pupils go from strength to strength and benefit from high quality, local collaboration.’

 

In contrast, Mark Horwood-James, is an experienced businessman. He is currently the UK CEO and Global CIO for international technology business Appellon, leading their UK business and the development of their software and IT solutions. He brings a range of skills and new expertise to the Board, including marketing and communication.

 

‘It is a privilege to be invited to join the Trustees of The Corinium Education Trust. Being able to support such a fantastic organisation, here in the Cotswolds, will be an honour and is something I very much look forward to doing. Our Schools and educators play such a pivotal role in our local communities, so being able to assist the Trust in continuing its great work is very exciting.’

 

These vacancies on The Corinium Education Trust’s Board came about as a result of the resignation of Dr Claire Mould in the Autumn 2019 when she moved to take up a new job in Bristol and, more recently, of Susannah Gilbert, a Foundation Trustee, who has re-trained as a Maths teacher in 2019-20 and takes up her first post in September 2020.

 

Catherine Leahy, who joined The Corinium Education Trust’s Board of Trustees in September 2019, has been appointed by the Diocese of Gloucester as our new Foundation Trustee. She is especially well placed to take on this role as prior to becoming an HMI and during her career as headteacher, Catherine led two Church Schools on Voluntary Aided and one Voluntary Controlled.

Since the start of lockdown in March 2020 teachers at Cirencester Deer Park School have collectively delivered over 2,500 live lessons. These have been provided for pupils in all year groups and by the end of the Summer term there will have been over 2,900 lesson taught online. This has enabled pupils to interact with their teachers and peers.

Liz Lang, Head of School, said: ‘Our staff have been brilliant at adapting their teaching to ensure pupils have been able to continue with live lessons as part of their home learning diet.  Pupils have been really positive about this experience too, although some were initially a little camera shy!’

Rob Carmichael, Teacher of Maths, has taught many lessons through Teams now: ‘Teams has been a fantastic tool to teach with, allowing real-time connection to pupils as they work. It has enabled instant feedback on work as well as providing the opportunity for pupils who are finding work challenging a source of immediate help and assistance. Pupils in all year groups have made use of the chance to set up extra Teams meetings when in need of help. The impact of this to tackle difficulties, compared with back and forth email/SMHW messages, has been phenomenal. It has already made me consider ways to utilise technology to enhance my practice in the future.’

Through Microsoft Teams pupils have been able to attend scheduled online lessons where they can talk with the teacher and each other. Teachers can share useful resources whilst teaching the classes and can quickly respond to questions the pupils might have about the work that they are focused on.

Joe, in Year 9, said: ‘I have loved my online Teams lessons. Before the online lessons started I was sometimes struggling to find motivation but now with my online lessons I find it a lot easier to do work. It has also helped me cope with lockdown as a whole because it gives me a daily routine: the lessons make me feel like life is starting to feel somewhat normal again.’

Tom, a pupil moving into Year 11 said: ‘I have to say I think it's brilliant and because of it I have been able to join my lessons like I would if I was in school, so I haven't got too far behind in my lessons working towards my GCSEs. With Teams I still felt connected to Deer Park School getting all the support from my teachers in the safety of my own home. I have loved it.’

 

In September Cirencester Deer Park School plans on having all pupils returning to school, as outlined by the government, however should there be a need to move to remote learning again in the future the school is very well set up to move back to the provision it has been using in recent weeks.  Learning definitely hasn’t stopped at Deer Park School and nor will it!