Director of Development, Strategy and TKAT ACE (A Champion for Every Child) at The Kemnal Academies Trust

I am, and always have been, passionate about improving the life chances of children and young people.  Having worked in education for over 30 years, 14 of these as a Headteacher or Director, I know the importance of knowing each child really well, building strong and trusting relationships with them and their families, as a contributor to their wider academic success.

TKAT (The Kemnal Academies Trust) is one of the UK’s leading and largest Multi-Academy Trusts in the South and East of England. Led by a team of educationalists, the Trust is a family of 45 primary, secondary and special academies offering a welcoming and empowering learning environment for pupils and their staff. Driven by a desire to ensure every child, no matter their background, gets a high quality education, the Trust’s leadership team focuses on “doing what’s right over doing what’s easy”.

My work oversees Trust wide strategy on inclusion approaches and within this our flagship strategy to support pupils from poorer backgrounds through TKAT ACE  (A Champion for Every Child).

TKAT ACE is a highly successful pastoral mentoring programme which ensures that each of our 8500 PP pupils (and their families) have regular one-to-one contact with their ACE Tutor,  which builds trusting relationships and helps children to overcome actual and perceived barriers.  

TKAT ACE is improving motivation, school engagement, goal orientation and wellbeing, raising attendance, and enabling our children to be mentally and physically 'fit' to access their education and be successful.