Rob Lancaster
Rob Lancaster Acting Group Manager SEBD Policy and Provision The Learning Centre Children, Families & Cultural Services
Nottinghamshire County Council
In my role as the Group Manager for Nottinghamshire Pupil Referral Units we had an established link to support our continued improvements in the Daybrook Learning Centre which had been in place over the past 18 months.
Sharon and her team provided extensive CPD for all of the staff at our southern PRU called Daybrook Learning Centre. The support included facilitating high quality training opportunities in the management of behaviour, improving leadership and raising the aspirations of staff and students who have experienced past failure.
We had a brilliant 4 day closure led by Netherfield staff which enabled us to transform the learning environment and bring in outstanding staff to model best practice in an SEBD setting. In addition, staff at Daybrook Learning Centre have completed placements at Netherfield to develop their skills particularly by spending time in the outstanding nurture groups.
Students also benefitted directly by having placements at Netherfield, including Sharon and her team accommodating two ex pupils who had been permanently excluded and benefitted from having their education at Netherfield.
Throughout this period all staff have the opportunity to visit Netherfield as a partner school to Daybrook to attend joint training and events. We also had the privilege of being in the school during the week long extraordinary ‘out of space event’ which attracted widespread media coverage and most importantly inspired the children there including one of our students to go on a magical learning journey. Not only that this event reflected what the schools does magnificently well which is to build the confidence and aspirations of the local community in Netherfield. After this event I wrote to Sharon and stated:
‘What can I say? Truly awesome and inspirational in terms of what can be achieved in the right environment with the right people. I wish my grandchildren lived in Netherfield!!!’
OFSTED, when it visited Daybrook Learning Centre acknowledged the involvement of Netherfield when it wrote:
‘The centre has strong partnerships with parents and other schools. The acting group manager actively sought support from a local outstanding primary school. He has used this collaborative partnership to sharpen up several improvement initiatives, including teacher appraisal, in order to hold teachers and leaders further to account for their work’
I am also aware that the school has acted as hub for some of our most vulnerable learners across the Gedling district who have made rapid progress by being placed in the nurture groups. In addition the school is actively supporting other primary schools, yet in my many visits to the school never loses sight of the wider progress of its own pupils. The generation of new ideas, activities and events at Netherfield to inspire learning is truly awesome. Having spent time and visited many schools in my 38 years of being a teacher, youth worker, leader and local authority adviser this is by far the most impressive and outstanding school I have ever spent time in.
Mark Featherstone-Witty OBE
Chief Executive of LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts)
"Sir Ken Robinson, then Richard Gerver (head Teacher, Grange Primary School) and then Sharon Gray: that was our journey when we were looking for a mentor to help us turn our vision for a primary school into reality. The corner stones were project based learning, using the creative and performing arts. Sharon instantly joined the working party that got their hands dirty turning a dream into reality and, after the school was up and running, joined the first Governors. To say that we benefitted from her expertise would be an understatement. As far as we were concerned, Sharon was primary learning, the best of it. Be it meetings with the DfE, selecting our Head Teacher or assisting with our vision with her optimism and good humour, we wouldn’t be where we are today; a primary school recently singled out for praise in the House of Lords."
Chief Executive of LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts)
"Sir Ken Robinson, then Richard Gerver (head Teacher, Grange Primary School) and then Sharon Gray: that was our journey when we were looking for a mentor to help us turn our vision for a primary school into reality. The corner stones were project based learning, using the creative and performing arts. Sharon instantly joined the working party that got their hands dirty turning a dream into reality and, after the school was up and running, joined the first Governors. To say that we benefitted from her expertise would be an understatement. As far as we were concerned, Sharon was primary learning, the best of it. Be it meetings with the DfE, selecting our Head Teacher or assisting with our vision with her optimism and good humour, we wouldn’t be where we are today; a primary school recently singled out for praise in the House of Lords."
John Slater Former Service Director Education Standards & Inclusion
Nottinghamshire County Council
"Sharon has led the Netherfield Primary School through an extraordinarily successful journey of improvement . Six years ago the school, which is situated in one of the most deprived areas of Nottingham, was judged by Ofsted to be inadequate and to require Special Measures. The appointment of Sharon as their inspirational Headteacher in 2009 began the transformation that resulted in the school being judged as “Outstanding” five years later in 2013. ‘Everyone a Leader, Everyone a Learner’ is the empowering vision of Netherfield – and this is a lived reality which affects all those whose lives are touched by the school. It is this principle that underlies the change at Netherfield, where all staff and children share the responsibility for being the best they can. The strength of the school is the ability of its leadership and staff to engage the community in their vision and the determination to ‘go the extra mile’. This can be seen by the extraordinary range of learning opportunities created by the school. Netherfield Primary is now making a significant contribution to schools across Nottinghamshire. Under Sharon’s leadership the staff have developed their own leadership capacity and the knowledge and resilience needed to support other struggling schools. Both governors and staff have the generosity to share their outstanding practice.
Netherfield Primary School has made a major contribution to developing the behaviour strategy for the County and are ambassadors for the authority wherever they go. Sharon Gray has a clear commitment to ensuring that the needs of vulnerable pupils are met. She works tirelessly to pursue positive outcomes for pupils who often challenge schools. Sharon has championed the cause of pupils who have social, emotional and mental health difficulties. The behaviours of these children and young people mean they are at risk of exclusion. Sharon has been exceptionally creative in support of these pupils, using innovative curricular and environmental approaches, with the individual needs of pupils at their core.
Sharon is a dedicated and driven practitioner and an influential and proven school and wider education system leader."
Netherfield Primary School has made a major contribution to developing the behaviour strategy for the County and are ambassadors for the authority wherever they go. Sharon Gray has a clear commitment to ensuring that the needs of vulnerable pupils are met. She works tirelessly to pursue positive outcomes for pupils who often challenge schools. Sharon has championed the cause of pupils who have social, emotional and mental health difficulties. The behaviours of these children and young people mean they are at risk of exclusion. Sharon has been exceptionally creative in support of these pupils, using innovative curricular and environmental approaches, with the individual needs of pupils at their core.
Sharon is a dedicated and driven practitioner and an influential and proven school and wider education system leader."
Jean Gross CBE Independent consultant and expert, Associate Fellow, University of Warwick
Founding Trustee Early Intervention Foundation, Director, The SEAL Community
"I first met Sharon Gray when she was head of a special school and then later in her role as head at Netherfield Primary. She is an exceptional leader- I was totally bowled over by everything I saw at Netherfield – from inspirational literacy work and the successful inclusion of children with special needs and very challenging behaviour, to support for children’s social and emotional development and amazing enrichment opportunities. Also outstanding was Sharon’s vision and commitment to supporting the whole community around the school.
I was so impressed that I used the school as a case study in a number of publications, and recommended that national leaders take time to visit it. Sharon is a person who should have a role beyond her own school, and in my view a national role inspiring and advising on inclusive education and tackling disadvantage".
I was so impressed that I used the school as a case study in a number of publications, and recommended that national leaders take time to visit it. Sharon is a person who should have a role beyond her own school, and in my view a national role inspiring and advising on inclusive education and tackling disadvantage".
Nadeem Shah
Headteacher – St. Edmund’s C of E Primary School and Foundation Unit, Nottinghamshire
Having worked closely and extremely successfully with Sharon in the past, I worked quickly to secure her support upon the commencement of my headship here at St. Edmund’s C of E Primary School and Foundation Unit.
Sharon has delivered numerous staff training inputs here, including whole-school visioning, using a holistic/systemic approach to focus on the whole child and Team Teach training (positive and pre-emptive approaches to supporting behaviour through mood management and engagement). She has also supported the leadership team with practical and up-to-date advice and guidance, all of which have been crucial in supporting us on our journey of school improvement.
Moving a school forward cannot be down to one person alone, Sharon works incredibly hard to develop the skills and confidence of those she works with, empowering them to be creative and develop a solution-focussed approach. I have been fortunate enough to witness the benefits of this first hand in my own staff team.
Sharon’s own commitment to being a life-long learner inspires those around her. It enables them to realise that we may not have all the answers ourselves but we can learn from best practice models around us. With her access to so many schools in her different roles (leadership partner, advisory head, teaching school alliance founder, national and regional education committee member, Ofsted inspector etc), including numerous outstanding schools she has a personal role in, Sharon is at the forefront of educational thinking and evidence-based approaches. She has a fantastic skillset, knowledge base and set of experiences personally and also an extensive range of contacts to draw upon too.
Having said all this, what truly impresses me the most about Sharon is that she has actually done it for real herself. She’s not reading from a manual, she has actually lived and breathed school improvement in her own settings as a substantive headteacher, leading teams who have turned around under-performing schools, as well as schools that are working hard to maintain excellent practice, across the country.
I sincerely thank Sharon for all her excellent work in our school and look forward to working closely with her in the future!
