School improvement – What do we mean by this and who is it for?

Sir Paul Grant is a native of Liverpool, with an inspirational story out of poverty to knighthood. Paul’s school, Robert Clack, in Barking & Dagenham, was highlighted for best practice in a DFE report (Creating a culture: how school leaders can optimise behaviour) on how outstanding behaviour is created and embedded in UK Schools. His transformative work at this school and with the community led to him being bestowed with the Freedom of Barking and Dagenham in 2009.

Paul has served as a National Leader in Education and was a member of Business in the Community’s Education Board for over ten years. He has been actively involved in school and system Improvement having been involved with the London Challenge from the outset. Paul was knighted for services to local and national education and appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Greater London. He has had roles as an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Education at the University of Hull, and Visiting Professor of the Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education at Anglia Ruskin University. Paul is the most senior education advisor to the Liverpool City Region Mayor

Janice Allen was a Headteacher of a large, multi-cultural Secondary School in Rochdale from 2015- 2023. She had 25 years in education across Greater Manchester before leaving to set up The Education Community Partnership which seeks to connect schools to their communities in order to address the ‘wicked problems’ of poverty, youth violence, substance misuse, mental health, racism and gender based violence. As a Headteacher, she framed the wider curriculum around the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and was innovative in working with family and third sector partners with a strong belief that what happens in school has an impact in the community and what happens in the community matters in school. She was the Chair of the Raising Rochdale Inclusion Board working in conjunction with Right to Succeed to look at school improvement and inclusive practice across all Secondaries in Rochdale. She continues to work with Right to Succeed providing educational consultancy support to projects across Merseyside.

Andy Moor is the CEO of Holy Family Catholic Multi Academy Trust in the NW of England. Prior to this he worked across the system to build strong partnerships, develop leaders and improve outcomes for children and young people across Cheshire, Wirral and Liverpool. 

As a Headteacher, Andy led outstanding schools and was able to support others through his work as a National Leader in Education. His work to drive improvement saw him take roles as educational consultant, school improvement partner, pupil premium reviewer and Ofsted inspector. He worked as an executive leader across Cheshire before becoming CEO in 2019.

Andy has always been passionate about the system and building strong partnerships to drive improvement at all levels. As such, he was the founder and director of Ignite Teaching School Alliance across Cheshire, Wirral, Liverpool and Derbyshire. He worked for a number of years as Sub Regional Lead in Cheshire for the Teaching School Council.

Since 2020, Andy has led, ‘Inspire Learning Teaching School Hub’ across Wirral and Liverpool which has now been redesignated for a 4-year period up to 2028. Over the last 3 years, he has led the CChange collaborative – one of only 8 across the country building leadership and pedagogy around creativity and creative thinking.

Purpose, community and pupil agency sits at the centre of Andy’s work to create powerful outcomes for pupils and teachers.