Shelley College is an amazing place, located in a supportive community, with brilliant students and staff. Being Executive Principal is an honour and something that I am very proud of. 

Respect and commitment underpin our ethos of 'Valuing People, Supporting Personal Best'. Our aim is to help students leave Shelley fully equipped with the life skills, experiences and educational outcomes to have a happy and successful future. To achieve this students need to enjoy what they’re doing, feel safe and be rewarded for their commitment and success. We therefore support and invest in our students and staff, whilst maintaining high expectations.

Let's all 'work hard, play hard and enjoy life'

My primary role at Shelley College is to help our pupils to be highly effective learners and to support our excellent teachers in delivering high quality lessons. I work very closely with all of our teachers and leaders to ensure that we offer an excellent quality of education through supporting our pupils to learn more, remember more and do more across all of their subjects.

Our mantra here at Shelley College is “Gain, Retain, Train”. We ask our pupils and teachers commit to ensuring that important knowledge and essential skills are taught, learnt, remembered and put into practise. This philosophy supports our pupils in amassing an ever-increasing set of academic and interpersonal skills that will help to set them up for a successful life.

I am deeply passionate about teaching and learning and subscribe to the mind-set that every minute of every lesson in every subject should be “taught well” by teachers and “learnt well” by pupils. 

I'm very proud to be Assistant Principal at Shelley College. Having worked here now for 13 years, and having had experience of working in roles in both lower school and in our sixth form, I can confidently say that this is a brilliant place to work and to study. The school ethos of 'Valuing People, Supporting Personal Best' is something I can confidently say is at the heart of everything that we do here at Shelley, and something which has played a huge part in my own career progression and eagerness to stay here as a staff member for an extended period of time.

Our students are part of a community who work together, have high expectations of themselves and who we as staff at school are proud to have representing Shelley College.

Overseeing Inclusion and Safeguarding, I have the great joy of seeing amazing progress being made by our students both academically and personally during their time with us. Overseeing these two areas of school is something I take great pride in; we work closely with parents, carers and external agencies to do all we can to remove barriers to learning, as well as supporting families in any way possible.

Outside of work I am involved in a variety of sports, including cycling, golf and cricket, but most of all, enjoy the time I get to spend with friends and family

I joined Shelley College in 2007 initially as a teacher of dance.  After seeing the pastoral team in action, I realised this was my calling and trained further in counselling young people and safeguarding children. I am incredibly proud to be a member of the pastoral team. When asked what our pastoral team 'dream' was, we decided it was to equip students with the skills to be successful in life. This continues to drive me as part of an outstanding team in an outstanding school, to challenge students to be the best version of themselves they can be. 

After qualifying as an English teacher in 2013, I very quickly realised that SEND was my passion and that supporting students with additional needs, and helping them progress, was the most rewarding aspect of teaching for me personally. I joined Shelley College in 2018 and was immediately struck by the level of care that the college has for all its students and staff members; everyone is highly valued and is supported to achieve their best.

I have always had a keen interest in Psychology and as my teaching career progressed, I became very interested in Educational Psychology in particular. I decided to do a Masters degree in Psychology and wrote my thesis on classroom engagement in students who struggle to engage in learning, which was incredibly rewarding and gave me a real insight into students’ varied experiences of the classroom. My MSc studies led me to teaching A-Level Psychology to our sixth-form students, which I absolutely love.

I was incredibly excited to commence my role as the school SENDCo in April 2024, as I knew that I could make a real difference. I really enjoy working closely with our students and their families and supporting them in overcoming barriers to learning. Our Student Support Centre is a wonderful place with a fantastic team of HLTAs and TAs, who care deeply about our students and support them unfailingly. I am very proud to be part of the team and look forward to supporting Shelley students for many years to come.

Joining Shelley College in 2012, I work in the post of Assistant Principal Student Progress, Exams and Director of Sixth Form.  In this role I oversee the student monitoring and tracking, helping teachers and curriculum leaders identify and target students to help and support.  Working with the Examinations Officer we ensure that internal assessments are purposeful, and prepare students for external assessments.  We ensure that formal external assessments are run in a way that supports all students to concentrate on the exam in order to achieve the best grade they can. 

As Director of Sixth Form I work to make sure that all students in Post 16 education are well supported, contribute to the wider school community and are well prepared for their next steps.  I am proud of the amazing staff I work with here at Shelley College.  I enjoy the far-reaching nature of my role, and that it allows me to help many students in their time with us at Shelley College.

After working in another school within the trust for many years, I welcomed the opportunity to come and join the team at Shelley College. I have been in education for twenty years and I am a Science teacher by trade. Although I still keep my hand in delivering some Science lessons the vast majority of my role is leading the Pastoral team in order to help students develop into adults with the values needed to contribute to society.

I like to keep things simple. Students need to get themselves in, get on with the job and make the most of the opportunities available to them. They need to be rewarded when doing things correctly and challenged when making poor choices. If an extra layer of support is needed, then the Pastoral team will provide it.

Everything we do here at Shelley College focuses on two aspects; 100% effort,100% respect. If students put in the effort and show respect the rewards will undoubtedly come their way.

I feel privileged to have worked at Shelley College since 2004. I have held a variety of positions in my time at Shelley College ranging from a curriculum leader, Head of Sixth Form and Assistant Principal. In my current role, I have the opportunity to work closely with the Principal influencing and designing the curriculum we offer. An essential element of this offer is ensuring the curriculum has both breadth and depth for our learners, allowing the acquisition of knowledge and skills vital to be successful in future life. I also develop and produce a whole school timetable which enables us to operate a two-week timetable for students. Through running a comprehensive options programme for Year 9 and Year 11 students I am able to adapt and amend our curriculum providing information and support for all students throughout the process.

Our learners never cease to amaze me with their talents, skills and energy. Helping to shape and channel this through my curriculum work is both rewarding and inspiring. I consider myself very lucky to be in a senior role that allows me to see learners achieve their personal best before moving into the big wide world beyond Shelley College.

TBC