|
|
As a lead art psychotherapist, I worked closely with Sharon at Beormund Special School for five years.
Sharon was inspiring to work with and I personally learnt so much from her. She has a unique spirit of real commitment and care for the emotional and physical wellbeing of children and staff.
I won’t forget the extraordinary sensitivity Sharon had for a mother and son, when we went on a home visit shortly after another sibling had died. I won’t forget how we worked together and she supported me as child tried to take his own life in a therapy session. I won’t forget our joint visit to a child in a secure psychiatric unit, and watching how she spoke and supported the child who had been put in the unit’s padded room. I won’t forget the years where I brought many concerns about children following their disclosures in art therapy, of sexual abuse, severe neglect, witnessing extreme violence. On every single occasion, she listened, witnessed, took action and tirelessly pursued other agencies to help support children and their families.
I have worked for many different children’s organisations in the UK, in war zones and in post-conflict countries. I have not come across anybody that deserves recognition for their extraordinary work as much as Sharon Gray.
Yours faithfully, Caroline Christie
Sharon’s beliefs in providing a fully inclusive learning environment are unbounded. She has incredible drive and commitment to creating a hub of learning for all in our school and community.
Her great and sometimes mischievous sense of humour and fun generates an aura of happy well being amongst all people she comes into contact with. She creates a climate of success and achievement through her infectious energy, drive and compassion for others.
Sharon sees the best in everyone, nurturing strengths and unlocking talents in a selfless and caring way. Her solution-focused nature means that no obstacle is insurmountable; ‘Where there is a will, there is a way’ is a favourite phrase and is an ethos which enables all to conceive and create extraordinary learning opportunities for the children and adults. She empowers people to believe that they too have the ability to do this and supports them to find it. Sharon enables people to reach their potential and to exceed expectations of themselves, therefore inspiring and developing a new generation of school leaders who are child centred and devoted to making a difference in the lives of young people and their families.
Our vulnerable community needs a leader like Sharon. In a culture of low ambition she strives to raise the aspirations of the children and their families. Experiences and opportunities which may have once seemed inconceivable, not even on anyone’s radar, are now a regular occurrence. Children love coming to school and achieve well; attendance has risen to an all-time high and parents are engaging not only in their children’s learning but also seeking out learning opportunities and career development for themselves.
Sharon is a risk taker. She is not afraid to challenge systems which do not put children and their needs first. She works long hours to carry out research, build relationships and develop networks of support to create new and exciting opportunities and improved provision for all children, not only here in netherfield but also in many other schools which have sought her support.
Working with Sharon has had a profound impact on me as a teacher, leader and on my outlook on life. She is quite truly one of the most inspirational people that I have ever had the opportunity to know and I count myself incredibly lucky to work alongside her at Netherfield Primary School.
Emma Essex, Deputy Head Teacher, Netherfield Primary School
Her great and sometimes mischievous sense of humour and fun generates an aura of happy well being amongst all people she comes into contact with. She creates a climate of success and achievement through her infectious energy, drive and compassion for others.
Sharon sees the best in everyone, nurturing strengths and unlocking talents in a selfless and caring way. Her solution-focused nature means that no obstacle is insurmountable; ‘Where there is a will, there is a way’ is a favourite phrase and is an ethos which enables all to conceive and create extraordinary learning opportunities for the children and adults. She empowers people to believe that they too have the ability to do this and supports them to find it. Sharon enables people to reach their potential and to exceed expectations of themselves, therefore inspiring and developing a new generation of school leaders who are child centred and devoted to making a difference in the lives of young people and their families.
Our vulnerable community needs a leader like Sharon. In a culture of low ambition she strives to raise the aspirations of the children and their families. Experiences and opportunities which may have once seemed inconceivable, not even on anyone’s radar, are now a regular occurrence. Children love coming to school and achieve well; attendance has risen to an all-time high and parents are engaging not only in their children’s learning but also seeking out learning opportunities and career development for themselves.
Sharon is a risk taker. She is not afraid to challenge systems which do not put children and their needs first. She works long hours to carry out research, build relationships and develop networks of support to create new and exciting opportunities and improved provision for all children, not only here in netherfield but also in many other schools which have sought her support.
Working with Sharon has had a profound impact on me as a teacher, leader and on my outlook on life. She is quite truly one of the most inspirational people that I have ever had the opportunity to know and I count myself incredibly lucky to work alongside her at Netherfield Primary School.
Emma Essex, Deputy Head Teacher, Netherfield Primary School
|
|
|
|
|
|
Karen Charles
Netherfield Primary School Chandos Street Netherfield
NG4 2LR
29 April 2013
To whom it may concern
Sharon Gray
I have worked with dozens of head teachers over the past 30 years in my capacity as a head teacher, consultant, expert witness and trainer. Sharon Gray is quite simply the most inspirational leader I have worked with so far.
I first visited her school for young children with significant social, emotional and behavioural difficulties in 2006. It was located on a cramped site in Bermondsey, just south of London Bridge. I usually like to arrive early when I deliver training, but when I came to Sharon’s school it was exceptionally early. I had decided to beat the London congestion charge by arriving before 7am and was fully expecting to have to wait to be let in. I was surprised to find I was not the first on site. Several staff, including Sharon, were already there making preparations for the day. I was struck at how motivated the whole staff team had become. It seemed like a fun place to work and a fun place to learn. Not surprisingly, the achievements of the pupils improved dramatically during her time there. The school was an explosion of colour with vibrant displays covering every surface. Children and staff were equally enthusiastic and keen to explain how wonderful their school was, how it worked and to tell me about their optimistic and exciting plans for the future. Everybody seemed to be happy and I was particularly struck at how well the children could articulate strategies they used to manage their own behaviour and explain to an outsider how the staff helped them. The interviews I recorded with those young students are now used across the country in training courses in behaviour management.
I also happen to have an office in Nottingham and a few years later was talking to one of my own staff who was expressing concern about her local primary school. It was a large mainstream school in special measures receiving poor press and she was adamant that she did not want her own child to go there. At that time I knew that Sharon was leaving London, to return to her home town of Nottingham, and by coincidence had accepted the headship of the school. I reassured my colleague to wait and see before she made a final decision.
Over the past three years I have visited the school several times, each time to find out about new developments underway and new achievements being recorded. It has been a privilege to see the staff team unite and the school blossom into one of the best in the country. Once again, she has established an optimistic and enthusiastic team of adults and children who refuse to accept limitations in their belief about what they can achieve.
At the same time, somehow she has managed to find the time to support colleague head teachers to turn around a number of other schools in difficulties. She has also taken on responsibility for pushing forward the boundaries of good practice at local and national level, working with Ofsted and Engage.The sheer amount of time and energy she has committed to improving the quality of education around her is hugely impressive. She is a highly effective and influential leader who deserves recognition.
Yours,
Bernard Allen
(Director - Steaming Ltd)
PUBLISHING - TRAINING - CONSULTANCY - EXPERT WITNESS SERVICES
www.engageintheirfuture.org (Formerly NAES) Registered Charity No 1110473
Avocet House
Specialist Education Services Ltd
The Old Vicarage
School Lane
Heckingham
NR14 6QP
TEL: 01508 549320
[email protected]
Dear Ms Charles
In response to your request for information about the contribution of Sharon Jackson I can offer the following:
I’ve known Sharon for approximately twelve years principally through our membership of, and activity within, “Engage In Their Future” (formally known as NAES), The National Association for Leaders in BESD Education. Throughout that time I have been a member of the National Committee and Sharon was subsequently co-opted onto the National Committee in 2007. I have been the Chair since July 2008.
In short Sharon is an outstanding leader and educator of the absolute highest calibre. I have been well informed of much of her work when she was based in London as Heateacher of Beormund School, a day Primary special school for children with severe behavioural, emotional and social difficulties. She was Headteacher of Beormund for nine years, the school gained many accolades and awards and in 2007 Ofsted judged the school as Outstanding. From 2005 to 2008 Sharon worked with NCSL (National College) as part of The London Challenge on the pilot programme for Consultant Leaders in Special schools. In September 2005 she was invited along with a select number of other Headteachers to Downing Street as a guest of the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair for a reception and thank you for her outstanding contribution to education. She has done a range of strategic consultancy work at a number of levels including working with whole local authorities.
I think the nine-year contribution to Beormund is significant. There are many heads who very effectively turn round schools and in doing so bring with them high levels of efficiency and acumen and then move on. Sharon brings all of that and more. She has a creative edge that is beyond that of so many of her contemporaries. Most of all, the school community for whom she is responsible benefit from the devotion of a very significant part of her ‘heart’. She is extremely dedicated to the children and communities within which she serves, to a level, which, in my opinion, marks Sharon out as different. None of this comes at the expense of a sense of fun. This is no accident, Sharon has a very astute understanding of the importance of fun, not only as an important component of children’s learning but for those who are working for, and alongside, her. On one occasion when I was in London, Sharon took the trouble to arrange for me a brief and impromptu visit to the school and her care and pride for it were palpable.
Sharon has been valuable member of The Engage National Committee for five Years. Significantly Sharon has stayed loyal to Engage and continued to be involved, even at points in time where the scale of pressures in taking on new roles have been significant. She has remained on the committee, has contributed in a high quality way at National and Regional Conferences. The results in her own settings have demonstrated that she never loses sight of her primary responsibilities.
In the 2008 / 09 year The Governing Body of a school that was in significant crisis approached The Engage National Executive. Subsequently, with the knowledge I have now, I remain in no doubt that it was a school in terminal decline. At the time Sharon was working for Concentra. It was Sharon’s’ name that we put forward as the key lead person who may be able to help. Fortunately, Sharon did take on the challenge in an executive leadership role. I have just written an extensive reference for the DFE detailing much of the effectiveness of the input under Sharon’s leadership in respect of this particular school. That information is probably too detailed and cumbersome for the purposes of this reference but in short I have no doubt that Sharon’s leadership saved the school. Sharon also ‘brokered’ through her contacts an appropriate exit strategy for herself that has ensured a continued and sustained improvement in her subsequent absence. It is a credit to Sharon and those who grew under her leadership that the school began to thrive. In February of this year the school was judged as outstanding. Many people have worked hard since to achieve such a result and Sharon would be the last person to claim all the credit for that. However, the current Headteacher, members of the team and other observers such as myself would undoubtedly say that Sharon was the turning point.
Since Sharon’s appointment to Netherfield I have been a distant observer to the transformation that has ensued. What has been achieved within such a timescale is quite remarkable. I have visited the school on three occasions in the last year and I have no doubt that it will be judged outstanding at its next Ofsted inspection. Further to this Sharon’s impact extends way beyond the school and deep into the Netherfield community. There is real tangible evidence of a school’s transformation, starting to be an agent of change for a whole community, where Dad’s who couldn’t read, now read to their children, where mothers who had little confidence and sense of worth are now effective members of staff at the school. I’m sure colleagues within the Netherfield environment are better placed than me to bring alive innumerable other similar examples.
My understanding is that you intend to submit Sharon’s name for some form of National Recognition and that is something I would wholeheartedly endorse. I hope this information proves informative and useful to you. If there is anything else you feel I may be able to add, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely
Jon Lees (National Chair, Engage in Their Future)
Robert Mellors Primary and Nursery School
Bonington Drive Arnold Nottingham NG5 7EX
www.robertmellors.notts.sch.uk/ E-mail: [email protected]
Head Teacher: Mrs Susan Laplanche Office Manager: Hayley Brentnall
May 19th 2013
To Whom it May Concern,
Re: Supporting letter for Sharon Gray
I would like to write to offer my support for the nomination of Sharon Gray for a UK National Honour for which I believe she is strongly deserving of.
I have only known Sharon for a relatively short time but during that period of time she has had a significant positive influence in the school for which I am head. She responded to a plea she heard me make to the Local Authority for support for a child with challenging behaviour. This she did of her own volition without any remuneration for herself or her school but out of her own passion for wanting to help this child even though he was not a pupil at her school. As a direct result of Sharon’s support this pupil who was on the verge of being permanently excluded is still a pupil at our school and achieving really well.
Through our collaboration with Netherfield the staff in my school have become more secure and confident in providing the right sort of environment for pupils who are experiencing challenge in their lives. It was through visits to Netherfield Primary that this message really came across to staff as the ethos at her school clearly permeates through everything they do. The care for pupils ‘jumps out at you’ from the moment you step into the school. The air of positivity is really tangible and the pupils clearly love and take great pride in their school. They all feel included whatever their need.
I know from conversations with Sharon that she is really passionate about wanting to make a positive difference to all pupils and that given the right support they can all achieve. She is unrelenting in this mission. She keeps children at the heart of everything she does. Sharon devotes an enormous amount of her time to this end despite all the heavy demands of running a school as head teacher. I know from experience that she is frequently still working at weekends organising events in school, writing letters to get funding, following up on school issues and finding time to offer support to others too.
Sharon’s commitment and passion to providing the very best provision for children clearly ‘shines through’. I think she is fully deserving of receiving recognition for all that she has done already for children and services to education. She has my unreserved support for her nomination and I really hope she is successful.
Yours sincerely
Susan Laplanche
Susan Laplanche
Head Teacher
Netherfield Primary School Chandos Street Netherfield
NG4 2LR
29 April 2013
To whom it may concern
Sharon Gray
I have worked with dozens of head teachers over the past 30 years in my capacity as a head teacher, consultant, expert witness and trainer. Sharon Gray is quite simply the most inspirational leader I have worked with so far.
I first visited her school for young children with significant social, emotional and behavioural difficulties in 2006. It was located on a cramped site in Bermondsey, just south of London Bridge. I usually like to arrive early when I deliver training, but when I came to Sharon’s school it was exceptionally early. I had decided to beat the London congestion charge by arriving before 7am and was fully expecting to have to wait to be let in. I was surprised to find I was not the first on site. Several staff, including Sharon, were already there making preparations for the day. I was struck at how motivated the whole staff team had become. It seemed like a fun place to work and a fun place to learn. Not surprisingly, the achievements of the pupils improved dramatically during her time there. The school was an explosion of colour with vibrant displays covering every surface. Children and staff were equally enthusiastic and keen to explain how wonderful their school was, how it worked and to tell me about their optimistic and exciting plans for the future. Everybody seemed to be happy and I was particularly struck at how well the children could articulate strategies they used to manage their own behaviour and explain to an outsider how the staff helped them. The interviews I recorded with those young students are now used across the country in training courses in behaviour management.
I also happen to have an office in Nottingham and a few years later was talking to one of my own staff who was expressing concern about her local primary school. It was a large mainstream school in special measures receiving poor press and she was adamant that she did not want her own child to go there. At that time I knew that Sharon was leaving London, to return to her home town of Nottingham, and by coincidence had accepted the headship of the school. I reassured my colleague to wait and see before she made a final decision.
Over the past three years I have visited the school several times, each time to find out about new developments underway and new achievements being recorded. It has been a privilege to see the staff team unite and the school blossom into one of the best in the country. Once again, she has established an optimistic and enthusiastic team of adults and children who refuse to accept limitations in their belief about what they can achieve.
At the same time, somehow she has managed to find the time to support colleague head teachers to turn around a number of other schools in difficulties. She has also taken on responsibility for pushing forward the boundaries of good practice at local and national level, working with Ofsted and Engage.The sheer amount of time and energy she has committed to improving the quality of education around her is hugely impressive. She is a highly effective and influential leader who deserves recognition.
Yours,
Bernard Allen
(Director - Steaming Ltd)
PUBLISHING - TRAINING - CONSULTANCY - EXPERT WITNESS SERVICES
www.engageintheirfuture.org (Formerly NAES) Registered Charity No 1110473
Avocet House
Specialist Education Services Ltd
The Old Vicarage
School Lane
Heckingham
NR14 6QP
TEL: 01508 549320
[email protected]
Dear Ms Charles
In response to your request for information about the contribution of Sharon Jackson I can offer the following:
I’ve known Sharon for approximately twelve years principally through our membership of, and activity within, “Engage In Their Future” (formally known as NAES), The National Association for Leaders in BESD Education. Throughout that time I have been a member of the National Committee and Sharon was subsequently co-opted onto the National Committee in 2007. I have been the Chair since July 2008.
In short Sharon is an outstanding leader and educator of the absolute highest calibre. I have been well informed of much of her work when she was based in London as Heateacher of Beormund School, a day Primary special school for children with severe behavioural, emotional and social difficulties. She was Headteacher of Beormund for nine years, the school gained many accolades and awards and in 2007 Ofsted judged the school as Outstanding. From 2005 to 2008 Sharon worked with NCSL (National College) as part of The London Challenge on the pilot programme for Consultant Leaders in Special schools. In September 2005 she was invited along with a select number of other Headteachers to Downing Street as a guest of the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair for a reception and thank you for her outstanding contribution to education. She has done a range of strategic consultancy work at a number of levels including working with whole local authorities.
I think the nine-year contribution to Beormund is significant. There are many heads who very effectively turn round schools and in doing so bring with them high levels of efficiency and acumen and then move on. Sharon brings all of that and more. She has a creative edge that is beyond that of so many of her contemporaries. Most of all, the school community for whom she is responsible benefit from the devotion of a very significant part of her ‘heart’. She is extremely dedicated to the children and communities within which she serves, to a level, which, in my opinion, marks Sharon out as different. None of this comes at the expense of a sense of fun. This is no accident, Sharon has a very astute understanding of the importance of fun, not only as an important component of children’s learning but for those who are working for, and alongside, her. On one occasion when I was in London, Sharon took the trouble to arrange for me a brief and impromptu visit to the school and her care and pride for it were palpable.
Sharon has been valuable member of The Engage National Committee for five Years. Significantly Sharon has stayed loyal to Engage and continued to be involved, even at points in time where the scale of pressures in taking on new roles have been significant. She has remained on the committee, has contributed in a high quality way at National and Regional Conferences. The results in her own settings have demonstrated that she never loses sight of her primary responsibilities.
In the 2008 / 09 year The Governing Body of a school that was in significant crisis approached The Engage National Executive. Subsequently, with the knowledge I have now, I remain in no doubt that it was a school in terminal decline. At the time Sharon was working for Concentra. It was Sharon’s’ name that we put forward as the key lead person who may be able to help. Fortunately, Sharon did take on the challenge in an executive leadership role. I have just written an extensive reference for the DFE detailing much of the effectiveness of the input under Sharon’s leadership in respect of this particular school. That information is probably too detailed and cumbersome for the purposes of this reference but in short I have no doubt that Sharon’s leadership saved the school. Sharon also ‘brokered’ through her contacts an appropriate exit strategy for herself that has ensured a continued and sustained improvement in her subsequent absence. It is a credit to Sharon and those who grew under her leadership that the school began to thrive. In February of this year the school was judged as outstanding. Many people have worked hard since to achieve such a result and Sharon would be the last person to claim all the credit for that. However, the current Headteacher, members of the team and other observers such as myself would undoubtedly say that Sharon was the turning point.
Since Sharon’s appointment to Netherfield I have been a distant observer to the transformation that has ensued. What has been achieved within such a timescale is quite remarkable. I have visited the school on three occasions in the last year and I have no doubt that it will be judged outstanding at its next Ofsted inspection. Further to this Sharon’s impact extends way beyond the school and deep into the Netherfield community. There is real tangible evidence of a school’s transformation, starting to be an agent of change for a whole community, where Dad’s who couldn’t read, now read to their children, where mothers who had little confidence and sense of worth are now effective members of staff at the school. I’m sure colleagues within the Netherfield environment are better placed than me to bring alive innumerable other similar examples.
My understanding is that you intend to submit Sharon’s name for some form of National Recognition and that is something I would wholeheartedly endorse. I hope this information proves informative and useful to you. If there is anything else you feel I may be able to add, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely
Jon Lees (National Chair, Engage in Their Future)
Robert Mellors Primary and Nursery School
Bonington Drive Arnold Nottingham NG5 7EX
www.robertmellors.notts.sch.uk/ E-mail: [email protected]
Head Teacher: Mrs Susan Laplanche Office Manager: Hayley Brentnall
May 19th 2013
To Whom it May Concern,
Re: Supporting letter for Sharon Gray
I would like to write to offer my support for the nomination of Sharon Gray for a UK National Honour for which I believe she is strongly deserving of.
I have only known Sharon for a relatively short time but during that period of time she has had a significant positive influence in the school for which I am head. She responded to a plea she heard me make to the Local Authority for support for a child with challenging behaviour. This she did of her own volition without any remuneration for herself or her school but out of her own passion for wanting to help this child even though he was not a pupil at her school. As a direct result of Sharon’s support this pupil who was on the verge of being permanently excluded is still a pupil at our school and achieving really well.
Through our collaboration with Netherfield the staff in my school have become more secure and confident in providing the right sort of environment for pupils who are experiencing challenge in their lives. It was through visits to Netherfield Primary that this message really came across to staff as the ethos at her school clearly permeates through everything they do. The care for pupils ‘jumps out at you’ from the moment you step into the school. The air of positivity is really tangible and the pupils clearly love and take great pride in their school. They all feel included whatever their need.
I know from conversations with Sharon that she is really passionate about wanting to make a positive difference to all pupils and that given the right support they can all achieve. She is unrelenting in this mission. She keeps children at the heart of everything she does. Sharon devotes an enormous amount of her time to this end despite all the heavy demands of running a school as head teacher. I know from experience that she is frequently still working at weekends organising events in school, writing letters to get funding, following up on school issues and finding time to offer support to others too.
Sharon’s commitment and passion to providing the very best provision for children clearly ‘shines through’. I think she is fully deserving of receiving recognition for all that she has done already for children and services to education. She has my unreserved support for her nomination and I really hope she is successful.
Yours sincerely
Susan Laplanche
Susan Laplanche
Head Teacher
