Meet the Head: Rebecca Bennett’s Journey from Theatre to Transforming Education

People would agree that I can be a bit intense. I've got an opinion on things. I'm not scared to say it out loud. I've kind of been education a little bit by accident. It was a big culture shock. We really honest. I believe if you're going to be a good head teacher you need to not take yourselves too seriously. Hello and welcome to the only way is Wessex, the podcast from the Southwest leading multi-academy Trust, the Wessex Learning Trust, where we share stories, insights and inspiration from across our incredible family of schools. My name is Eden Simpson and I handle marketing, PR and communications for the Trust. Today we are thrilled to be joined by Rebecca Bennett, head teacher at Fairland's middle school. Rebecca's been leading the way at Fairland since September 2024 with real passion for learning, community and opportunity and today we're getting to know her a little better. Hello Rebecca. Good morning Eden, lovely to be here with you on the very first episode really exciting opportunity to talk about who we are and what we do. Yes, thank you so much for taking a time out of your busy schedule and joining us today. No problem. I'm going to ask you some real easy questions to get going and let's get the listeners knowing a little bit better. So easy questions here to your coffee. Coffee, frothy. A favourite subject when you were at school. Had to be drama. Perfect. Yeah, mine too. A book, film or podcast that is inspired you recently. I really like listening to the Vantillican brothers. You know the doctors that do operation out. Oh yes. They also do a medical podcast which is all about different things about medical science, diet, nutrition, all of those things. So when I'm cooking of an afternoon or when I've got a spare 10 minutes in the car, I often listen to those guys. I find them really interesting to sort of get to know that world really. They are super engaging. Do you have a favourite place in Somerset? Yeah, I do. So when I first moved from London in 2009, I moved from the middle of Campbellwell next to a railway bridge. So right in the centre of South London and I got a job in Somerset and I basically had to rent a house. And I found this most beautiful cottage. Essentially next to the stowahead estate, I don't know if you know stowahead. Absolutely. Now it's obviously really popular, especially this time of year in the autumn. Yes. All the changing of colours and everything else. But we found this place to rent and basically the rent was less than my one bedroom flat in London. I hadn't really thought about the commute. I hadn't really thought about the fact that it was in the middle of nowhere or anything like that. I didn't have central heating. Oh wow. But it was so beautiful. It was a Georgian like chocolate box cottage. That's the only way I can describe it. So stowahead and the surrounding woods and estate which is really sprawling in that part of right on the edge of Somerset really. It's a border with Dorset and Wiltshire. Yes. We've probably always been my favourite part of the county and I was lucky enough to get married in my garden. And there. So yeah, that's really special to me that place. And luckily enough we go back with my family quite a lot and have a good walk around the woods and explore and yeah it's a really special place. That's is an excellent choice if I do say so myself. I frequent stowahead and it is stunning so yeah really love that. Amazing. Okay, my final question in terms of Quick Fire Round is if you want in education what do you think you'd be doing instead? Yeah that's a really interesting one. I'm kind of in education a little bit by accident. I don't know about you but I certainly had lots of different ideas about what my career was going to be when I was younger. I think if I wasn't in education I would probably be working in a charitable sector. I've got a background in disability rights, things like that. At university I was the students with disabilities officer. I spent part of my life at uni actually with really difficult situation with my leg. I had loads of surgeries so I was quite disabled for quite a long time and that made me realise how life can be for people with disabilities and so I think I'd probably be working for a charity or something like that. Wow amazing. I mean this interview is only getting started and I can already sense that there are billion strings to your bow right now. I feel like you've got so much going on. Okay so let's get into knowing you a little bit better. Yeah. I'm talking about your journey into education. Okay so I've already said haven't I moved out of London in 2009 so I trained to be a teacher that year so I was quite late in terms of my adult life. I trained when I was 28, 29. I tried to avoid education right for a really long time because my dad was a secondary head and my mum was a child protection social worker and so now I'm like a combination of both of those things so I wanted initially to be a performer, a director, I've got a driver degree and I did lots and lots of theatre in education and I've worked with children and people since 1998 so my first ever job was in New Crossgate in the after school club at my garden primary school so a wonderful diverse primary school in the middle of South London and my job in the after school club was counting up the money. So you had a belt like a market stall you had to put the change in the children used to come with their 50 Ps and I had to make 90 sandwiches every single night for all the children. That shows how many people how many children were coming to that after school club in the late 90s so I started there I became a one-to-one teaching assistant for children with special educational needs and during my degree I worked in schools as well. Nice. And then after I finished I ended up doing a lot of theatre in education so I was going into schools doing drama workshops I worked in a museum used to dress up as Florence Nightingale and do workshops for children things like that and I would go and work in a school and there's one school that has got a place in my heart called Oliver Goldsmith's Primary School in Peckham in South London and at the time so we're talking around late 90s into the millennium let's say I started working in that area and I was going in doing projects for those children on different bits of theatre things like that and I'd work with them for let's say six weeks so I go in every week do the workshop be with the children and then I had to say goodbye and it got to the point where I was like why am I saying goodbye to this group of children because maybe I could be their class teacher and have that real connection with them because that's what really matters if you you know of all the things in school improvement that I've learned over them many years that I've been in education that that's what matters most. Somebody in your school really cares about you knows you investing you believes in you that's what makes a difference so I suppose I ended up thinking I've got to find the way through training now because I think that's where I need to go next that's the where I need to be lots of the children that I met in that world in that area of Peckham also I'd had some fairly difficult things happen to them so at that time there were lots of refugees from a lot of war zones all around the world so it opened your eyes doesn't it those experiences to what's going on for children and children's lives and I decided that I was going to try and make a difference so I guess my motivation for being an educator is social mobility is social change is protecting children from harm that's the reason I'm here I love academia I could have just as easily been a professor of drama and theatre arts I would I love that love sitting in the library researching historical productions of ballet or theatre from years ago I loved all of that uni but I guess the reason I'm sat here today is about that that passion for changing children's lives for the better and and making a real difference and I had some really inspiring educators myself as you can imagine we all have those teachers we remember and mine would be my English and German teachers in secondary school that really made me think I had something to offer and I was I was special I was important they cared about me they noticed if I didn't show up yeah so that's how I kind of ended up it being an educator myself amazing that's a quite a journey and it sounds like you know you touched on kind of all the diversity within being a teacher and dealing with children within London and you know the wealth of that brings you how I suppose do you bring that here how do you end up from that kind of experience of vast differences and different children from all walks of life and moving to Somerset and kind of kind of an area that has less diversity absolutely it was a big culture shock I'll be really honest because to move from the middle of Campbell well I mean a lot of my friends I may as well be dead to them you know because when I left London they were like yeah we'll come and see you yeah yeah yeah they don't they don't because this is not a country yeah it literally is yeah so yeah I did find that hard initially but the other the way I the way I look at it here it's about exposing children to all the different realities of life so the assembly I did this morning was about inclusion it's about belonging it's about what if you had a disability what if you're from a war zone what if you're a refugee and you have to live in cheddar what's that like for you and how do we make that okay so I guess my job as as a Londoner in the countryside which I will forever be yeah I'm not I'm not from this area and I suppose you feel you can't you can feel a bit of an outsider to an extent so my job is definitely here to you know I'm here to help broaden those horizons for children but also for my own family my own children have grown up in this area and I've absolutely loved it being outside did that access to the woods the forests the beaches yeah you know the southwest is a great place to live it has loads of opportunities in it itself so whilst it was a culture change I think it's just that embracing all the different opportunities that Somerset has and it's a bit hidden most of my friends in London they go to Cornwall and they go I'm driving to Cornwall like why driving all that way because Somerset's really beautiful absolutely and cheaper to stay you know all these things they're like we might come and see you on the way back from Cornwall I'm like okay thanks for that because there's all the cool places to go if you see what I mean but um so I think there's a lot of a lot of hidden things in Somerset that are amazing about it and this county has the most unbelievable history as well yeah and the stories of people who've lived here I find fascinating I don't if you've ever been to the Glastonbury Royal Life Museum but that that museum I love because it's the story of all of the working people over time and all the different things that have gone on in the area um from the farming to the levels to the you know all the different industries I find that fascinating um and I love a bit of history as well so yeah I love I love Somerset I don't know if I could move back if I'm on this oh it sounds like you really embedded yourself here and that's what we like to hear because you're singing Somerset's praises and like you say there are so many hidden gems absolutely and Somerset has so much to offer and in fact I'd recommend it to anybody if anyone was looking to relocate in the UK and they wanted to consider a place to work Somerset I would say is is a great a great place to work and live um I love I love living here oh amazing amazing to hear and again you spoke a little bit about kind of how you wanted to you know help children and at it's cool that's what we need out of our teachers out of our head teachers and so you also touch upon you know the empathy like it radiates from you the empathy that you have and like the very fact that the topic that you bring into your school and how you talk about that with your learners you know they're going to thrive hopefully and become wonderful humans with that empathetic mindset which is brilliant stuff hopefully I think schools in fact I think all organisations are built on relationships that's all that's all we are is a group of people isn't it absolutely so we have to really think about how are we interacting as that group of people what does that mean to be the head teacher of a school or a teacher or a teaching assistant or the premises manager what does that actually mean because at the end of the day all it is is about how we relate to each other yeah and if we can't relate to each other then we definitely can't do the best job for children and young people so my whole focus is about believing in adults believing in teachers and helping them to do the very best job they can because if I do that then the children will benefit and they have to help me too so my my target what I guess the thing I said to staff at the beginning of the term this year is we're all going to be better teachers than we were last year and I'm going to be a better head teacher this year than I was last year that's that's it how are we going to grow how are we going to develop and we we have to do that together we don't always agree no yeah we can have differing opinions we can have different pedagogy we can have different experiences but you have to believe in people no matter what and if you do that with adults and you do that with children you can get the change that you want to see but you have to believe it right to your core and I'm so lucky because I've had like I say lots and lots of different experiences working with young people in a variety of context so children who've been permanently excluded from school for example I spent a period of time as a deputy head of a people referral unit believing in those children that have been had a such a tricky time and I've made big mistakes you know done bad stuff yeah how do you turn that around well I've done it and I can tell you how you do it it's by loving them and believing in them every single day no matter what absolutely and it's easy to say oh yeah that's really simple that's really glib that's really this that and the other but I'm telling you it is possible and if you can get people to believe that they can do amazing things and it gives me you know so much pleasure seeing other people develop seeing other colleagues move forward in their work we're not perfect in my school or any school or any organisation are we but there is definitely a core belief and culture here in this school that's about caring for each other doing the right thing making things better amazing amazing amazing amazing but I'm going to ask you now a little bit about how do you think others perceive you so talking about friends and colleagues yeah if they have three words to describe you what three words do you think that they would use I think it depends on who you are right so I think I think people would agree that I can be a bit intense I've got an opinion on things I'm not scared to say it out loud so definitely there's an intensity to you know having a conversation with me and I suppose my brother who's probably my biggest advocate but also my strongest critic would say just just just can you just turn it down a bit you know now and energetic but that comes from passion so there is really yeah I'm really passionate about getting things right and I guess what I would want to have written on my gravestone would be she really cared about kids you did her best for kids yeah that's it yeah so I guess there's also a thing about being a women in leadership that I think is about women being seen as too much yes 100% too big taking up too much space could I fit that criteria yes possibly but I would always sort of counteract that with would you feel like that about a male colleague and how are those how are those characters and interactions framed does that make sense absolutely but I've certainly learnt to modify so for example my telephone volume my brother would be the person who would be like that I actually am holding the phone like a foot away from my face I've learnt to quiet and down but I haven't quietened down my vision and my passion for what I can achieve but I have learnt how to relate to people in a better way each year and I'm still I'm still working on that and I guess what people don't understand about me is I come across as really confident I come across as having a view I'm just testing it out yeah because I'm just as scared as the next person yeah about am I right is this the right thing to do I think a lot about the decisions that I make because the decisions I make affect a lot of people yes and so I take that incredibly seriously so there is a bit of it a bit of me which is a performer yeah but there's also a bit of me which is is a real thinker it's a good combination I think someone who enjoys performing myself that's someone who is passionate about you know our future children like I think it's a really important combination to have and you spoke a little bit about you know taking up space and coming across as loud and you know I can attest from having children myself and also you know not in a necessarily school setting but working with with children and and kind of groups musical theatre groups with you need that volume you need it you can be inspiring so when I put this lanyard on every day I can inspire a child today I can do that and how I choose to be with children matters and they if they can believe that I believe in them then they might believe themselves and then they might try something then they haven't tried before does that make sense absolutely so you do have to be a bit fun and a bit silly my heart is in early years so I'm an early years teacher originally I was reception and nursery so I used to be in charge of planning for babies and toddlers like you have to be fun and you have to be silly now that has to be tempered with seriousness of course but I believe if you're going to be a good headteacher you need to not take yourselves too seriously yeah yeah because your day can be completely surreal yeah and I know you know one thing children would definitely say here when you asked them is I had teacher is French cares about us and she's fun and she's you know they rolled their eyes at me I walked around dressed as um clear patron world book day and playing walk like an Egyptian on a speaker down the corridor you know some of the kids are like what is this woman like what is she on uh but loads of them are like yeah who are you we want to know about clear patron but we'll have the next thing we have a conversation about Shakespeare there we go so you know being silly matters to me is how I do it there's loads of ways to do this job but I choose to be a bit silly some of the time because otherwise you know what the serious stuff would get to you yeah and you can't let that happen no yeah you need that spark you absolutely do and yeah just very you're a very engaging wonderful person thank you for saying I appreciate so you I love talking to you haven't seen you for a while and I appreciate you showing up in my office today for the best start to my day I have to say okay so you've touched quite a lot actually on your background the fact that you didn't necessarily start off in education that you grew up you're all you you know you were earlier on in your life in London is there something about your background that you've not maybe mentioned um that people might be surprised to learn any fun factor unique thing that you can think uh oh that's a really good one um I feel like you've let you've given us a lot so well I yeah it's really really tricky that one I can't ride a bike oh and I I use this example with the children quite a lot actually because they obviously look at teachers and think teachers can do stuff grownups can do stuff and and you're learning or whatever and I usually give it as an example in like a growth mindset assembly and I'd say what would it take for me to be able to run a bike now I've tried so many times he'd done and the thing is once you get past a certain age it really hurts you fall off yes and I think I mentioned you had loads and yet I've got a history of loads of knee surgery and stuff like that so I'm a bit scared yeah and um they just don't believe me the kids do not believe me when I say that but um anybody who knows me would know that I physically I'm a bit clumsy like don't throw a ball at me because I can't catch it and I cannot ride a bike oh two so I guess I use that as an example of you know what we can all be good at some things and not good at other things here's the thing that I'm not very good at does it really matter in the grand scheme of my life no I guess I am missing out on like cycling around you know beautiful places in Somerset but I also really like the idea of a tricycle yeah and you know occasionally on Facebook Marketplace there's a decent tricycle comes up and I'm like you know what I say to my husband excuse me can I and he's like I can't cycle with you yeah there you go I can't ride a bike there we go I'm going to book you and for your bike ability thank you even then I'm sick like I'd be scared of that if you said you've got to join in with bike ability with the kids I genuinely would be scared but maybe that's something I need to just get on with and sort out at the age of 45 you heard it here first yeah right we're going to circle back round to this we're going to circle back round I'm going to give you six months to a year and I'm going to cycle back round to it there we go you can't do it all you're a busy woman right so yeah okay let's have a little talk about a bit more about this lovely office that we're in we're recording this episode in felons and I suppose it would be a good starting point to ask what how you would describe the atmosphere of felons to someone who's never been here before so admitted schools are really interesting opportunity the reason I came to be interviewed here for the head she was because I I looked at the the age range and I thought wow imagine taking 9 to 13 year olds through that period of their life which is fairly turbulent isn't it it's where adolescence comes in you know you walk in quite a young child and you leave essentially a fully fledged teenager lots of things going on lots of things going on a very interesting period in your life and you will know that obviously in in our trust we have three tier structure of education in this area and we also have two tier going on you know as a real mixed bank isn't there in the area and so I was really intrigued about that age group I've worked with children from well I've taught babies to year 11 in my career so I'm not precious about which group of children I teach but I thought it was a really interesting opportunity so felons is a is a fairly small school with just over 400 pupils so that means we can offer a really nurturing experience we're basically like an an ordinary sized you know primary school in terms of London we're not even a big primary school you know so that means we can have the atmosphere and culture of a primary school the nurturing approach it means I pretty much know everyone in the school lovely and I know something about most of the children and I've got those connections personally that you just can't have where you have you know larger numbers of pupils the other thing I would say about the atmosphere and culture here is it's really inclusive place to be we're so lucky that we had funding from the local authorities to run what's called an enhanced learning provision here so it means that we can provide for pupils who've got real challenges in their learning and help them accelerate in their English and Mass in particular so that's a lovely sort of part of the school the school has been open here since 1976 in fact it's our 50th anniversary in 2026 so we're having a big party for that either on the 8th of July so please can you put that in the calendar and I actually have an archive in the drawer over there of all the sort of opening events the church service that was held all of the publications that came out for the community so I'm so privileged to be essentially just a custodian of the school that's all you are as a head teacher it's a bit like if you buy a grade two listed house it's not your house you're going to take care of it and hopefully when you go it's in a better state than when you arrive do you know but it's it's so special here because there's just this atmosphere of friendliness of tea of teamwork yeah in this office you can hear so all the walls are cardboard basically so you can hear what was going on in the staff room and you know when things are getting better in a school when there's more laughter in the staff room when people are gathering together we're so lucky on the last insect day we had one of our TAs is going off to work somewhere else and we had a bring-and-chair lunch and somebody said to me oh that's the best thing you've brought in Rebecca is the bring-and-chair lunch and I was like okay I don't know how to take that but I know what you mean yeah because we all bring a dish and everyone shares their lunch together teacher support staff premises operations whoever everybody joins as as one team lovely and that I just absolutely love we're so lucky here that we've also got a real mixture of colleagues so some extremely experienced colleagues that have been at failings for many many years there's not anything they don't know about the school right to newly qualified teachers this year but who are joining us at the beginning of their teaching journey and this he was so lucky to find a lady called Julia Harris-Somenko who's come from the Ukraine and she has a doctorate in English literature so she's teaching English here in key stage three and for our for our staff body that's amazing to have have a proper academic on the staff team you know someone with a doctorate amazing her knowledge of English literature is fantastic she's already running poetry club for Ukrainian students here just like we said Somerset can feel a bit isolating if you're from somewhere else in the world so to have a Ukrainian teacher here for our Ukrainian students their their eyes just lit up he didn't like they were so pleased to meet her so yeah we're so lucky here it's the people that make this a really really special place it is a 1970s building but it's nestled into the side of a hill I've no idea why they put it into a hill because it basically goes up in sl, you know kind of slopes up yes but on a Friday I do this thing called funky Friday I don't know if you know about this I think I've heard of it right yeah probably heard it from your office down the road and Liam's actually sat next to the biggest speaker you've ever seen yeah so I wheeled that up to the playground and we blast out the tunes the children can request songs on the playlist and apparently you can hear it at St. Petersburg and we did have to turn down the bass because we did get a couple of neighbors who are like we love it but seriously guys like you're vibrating my house yeah so on a Friday I stand up there and the reason I say this is because it's the most beautiful view from my playground so you can see the quarry you can see sort of up into the gorge and because you're standing above everything it's just so beautiful and it's on those days that even when things have been tough even if I've been dealing with challenges in my role I realize how lucky I am to be here and those those children that come up to me and talk about the song that they put on the playlist or you know before the before the half term he had like Halloween tunes so guys must there's something like that and then at the end I take the speaker around through the school at the end of lunch and I think the first time I did it everyone looked at me I think the staff in the office say they were like what is that yeah okay okay and I think they might have thought it was a one-off oh no and it happens every single week without fail and if I'm ever not here on a Friday for some reason it's like who's going to do it who's going to cover someone's got to do it and then the kids come and like yeah well Mr Sonso did it but wasn't good you know you set the president yeah so and I guess that's a really silly example or maybe a brilliant example of of the atmosphere that we have here and and the fun and all the learning that's going on because school should be fun yeah yeah 100% 100% well that sounds very exciting and I feel like I'm gonna have to book and come down next Friday I feel like you've just given one very clear example of a project that you've been running yet are there any other projects or initiatives here at felons that you're particularly excited about or yeah so so the biggie for us is reading okay now reading is the golden thread right of how a school runs everything really rests on your ability to read it is the greatest gift that you can give to a child okay so we're so proud that in the last 12 months we've seen massive improvement in the skill the fluency and the vocabulary of the children here we put a lot of resource into ensuring that children particularly as they leave key stage two have got the fluency they need to access the key stage 3 curriculum yeah because you need to be able to read to understand the content in all the other subjects yeah and we're so proud so our stats results this year are we're on an upward trajectory here in terms of outcomes and our stats result showed that we had nearly 40% of children reading it a greater depth standard by the end of year six and that's just we were really really pleased with that because that sets those children up so well for accessing the next stage of their education yeah so I think that's what I would be sort of most excited about and there's so much more to do so even we need volunteers yeah right I'm using this as a shameless part of do okay because we really really want to have people coming in from the community to listen to children read it's as simple as that yeah it's nothing fancy right it's just having somebody to sit next to you and hear you reading because the research says that if you do that and if you do it every day for 10 minutes your reading age will go up and it will go up rapidly yeah so if anybody's out there in the local area that would like to come and join us as a volunteer you get tea you get biscuits you get appreciation what could you want exactly right and you get to work with our lovely lovely students here who are just phenomenal yeah so if anyone would like to help us with that we would we would love to see them here get in touch absolutely yeah head to the website the felons website and coming soon will be a plan to sort of reinvigorate our library we've moved our library space around we've got rid of all the books at the library moved all the books into classes that was kind of a big deal yeah but a library just wasn't really being used it was kind of out of the way yeah not all the children were accessing it and so we were like we need to shape this up so I guess our big fundraising project that might be coming along the way and I've entered in a few prize draws of companies that kind of come in and fix you up a library and design one but I think that will be the next thing is to have a 21st century library for felons because at the moment the children's books are all around the school they can still borrow them we'll still have librarians helping them out and things like that but yeah wouldn't it be amazing to have like a state of the art library space and maybe for the community to use as well yeah like maybe it isn't about having it just for the school maybe it's something for Cheddar I know there's a little library in Cheddar that's open some of the time and as local libraries have closed haven't they across the country really yeah I guess we have to look at reading a bit differently yeah and try and work out new ways of inspiring children and with text we have visitors coming in children went to the Wells literary festival last week I think in our head of English we're doing loads and loads of work there but that's the gift that I feel like if we can get that right for every single job here then we'll be doing a really good job perfect that was really nice to hear about and like you know in a day and age I'm going to start sounding old here in a day and age where technology is overtaking there was nothing you know better than tucking into a good book so yeah reading is really really key not you say it's like a building block for everything else and the evidence is it doesn't actually matter what you know to an extent what you're reading you know if you're engaged in reading you can engage in so many different things whether that's magazines cookbooks articles you know stories all of that just just brilliant and I don't know about you but I love being in a bookshop and if you haven't been in waterstones in Wells it's my favourite bookshop to go in it's beautiful and if I if I had an unlimited part of cash to spend on books I think I'd have a field day in there yeah some of the most beautiful books aren't they with a especially for little children I've got a little daughter Juliette who's two and she loves those books that you press and they make music and we've got one which is the planets by host and you press the different planets and not only does she know the tune now but she knows which planets which and things like that and yet the joy of a good book that's everything isn't it it is it is especially and you know like you say when you're sharing so volunteer coming and reading with the woman is amazing okay I'm moving on to how you can maybe get a feel for how the schools are evolving is there any kind of goals that you have or ways in which you want it to evolve under your leadership yeah so Eden we've set ourselves a challenge of being the best middle school in England by 2028 I mean you know how do you decide what the best is so we we ask the children a lot what that could be yeah every time parents come in for open evenings and events we ask them if we were the best middle school in England what would you see here and you know what they say the same things a parent student staff they say happy children yeah and we're well on the way to to doing a really good job around supporting our children's well-being their general happiness you all know that when you listen to the the news it's all doom and gloom isn't it yes about well-being yeah happiness scale and how we do in England for children young people yeah we have some amazing projects here we've got pastoral leads staff in both key stages that support the well-being needs of all of our students we have a really strong pastoral programme around developing confidence and self-esteem and we're so pleased to work in partnership with people like the space here in cheddar and young Somerset as well who come in and deliver brilliant work for us in terms of giving that rounded experience for children so happiness and well-being is the first thing yeah and children in the main when we survey them say they're happy in school brilliant amazing and where children aren't happy they do have someone they can talk to and they have somebody that helps them solve solve problems and challenges so that's that's really strong the next thing they said was brilliant facilities well wouldn't it be great if we could work really hard to upgrade a failing middle school from its 1976 roots where you know there was no wi-fi things came memos came to the head teacher on pink paper yes in an envelope so we're so pleased to be on that journey recent improvements include brilliant wi-fi and super fast fiber is now all through the school perfect we've had some new roof sounds really boring but actually so important yeah and we're nearly at the point where we can switch on our solar panels we think again we've got some solar panels but they're not currently on yeah so we'd love to be a greener school be more sustainable and we've upgraded every single classroom now has a brand new interactive board nice and lots of resources for teachers so in every classroom here Eden you'll see two key things that don't cost very much money but have made a massive difference to education they are a standing desk yes okay next to the interactive board and a visualiser okay and if you you probably remember an overhead project yes I do I do so it's basically similar to that but it's a camera that just goes over the top of the teachers desk and it's meant that every teacher in the school can model at the front of the class they can model the writing they can model a mathematical calculation they can model music so yesterday I taught a music lesson to year seven and I had the visualiser over the piano perfect so that I could model the correct way that they needed to play it perfect so those things are very low cost but they've had a massive impact so those facilities really really important and meeting meeting the needs of children with special educational needs and disabilities that's the big thing that comes up for parents is will you meet my children's needs how inclusive are you really yes when you say you're inclusive what does that actually do yeah and so we've done lots and lots towards that so all of our children who have special educational needs are tracked really really closely we've got a really really strong plan around how we support children and adapt learning for them we don't give children a ceiling on their attainment we scaffold them we support them to get to where they where they need to be we're so lucky here we have a lady called Daniel Durston who's got a master's in special educational needs she runs our enhanced learning provision and to be in that class Eden you see children who had such low confidence in their learning they didn't believe in themselves and now they have the skills to access the curriculum the progress that some of those children have made is absolutely outstanding and that's what makes our school really really special and the final thing is those outcomes those outcomes do matter but interestingly when you ask parents what parents really care about is are they're children happy and do they have a pathway do they have a way through to what their career might be or the choices that might be available to them so a really strong careers programs at the heart of what we're doing and I'm not sure if you're aware but the DFE's guidance has recently been released around key stage three opportunities for careers so my deputy head is currently running and developing that program so we're going to be a pilot for westings around key stage three children having more and more work experience opportunities than ever before here so we're delighted to be working with frambole from the central team who's supporting us with our employability and careers agenda fantastic because again we are in a a small town in a semi rural area we want children to have aspiration don't we we want them to have as many options as they can in terms of career and development and I guess in the 21st century we don't even know the jobs that are going to exist by the time these children are adults yeah and so we have to prepare them in a different way than perhaps we did in in generations past so true actually so yeah I think we are well on our way to to moving that forward to become the best middle school in England there are only 97 of them so I think it's doable don't you I mean I feel like you're unstoppable so anything is doable for you I started here thinking like how is it how are you doing this well I'm telling time it's your team yeah that how you do it is having the right people in the right places do you like things and that that really matters so as as I had teacher you're essentially the conductor of the orchestra right you're not playing the instrument anymore it doesn't matter how good you are on the flute okay nobody cares because it's you who has to lead the other people and that's the difference and you you don't always get taught those things you learn about leadership over time yes and you um have different versions of the kind of leader that you are and so people often ask leaders don't they what kind of leader are you what type of leader are you are you this type you know there's all these frankly quacks that talk about types of people yes I don't I don't really believe in that what I believe is using the right approach at the right time for the school that you're in yeah and that has to be different for different schools at different stations there's only not one right way it's got to be adaptable no and you need the team around you and I'm extremely lucky here to have um a senior team who are absolutely expert in in the things that they do um recently we had a damn frost join us she's our new operations manager and she's come from you know with a wealth of experience for project management um in in various industries and to hear her walking the site and talking about all the upgrades that are in process just so exciting yeah and being part of where six means that we have access to a family of expertise I would say and it means that we also have a lot of support in terms of um myself not having to worry about the I don't have to worry about the detail of the roof does that make sense yes because the central team of the trust will really support us in in that delivery um and that means I can be concerned with the key part of my role which is about better teaching and learning yeah um because the truth is head teachers have such a wide portfolio from health and safety to finance to education to HR you have to learn about all these different things yeah and that's the reason I chose to work for a multi academy trust amazing because I wanted to have that support I wanted to be part of something that's bigger than just this school yeah yeah that's perfect perfect answer yeah is so so really just yeah it's really inspiring to hear you speak um because your passion just comes through so clearly and I genuinely feel like these kids here are so lucky to have you steering the ship here well thank you for saying I appreciate that you just bring such a freshness and like engagement that yeah not you know it's not hard to maintain when you're doing this job yeah I would say you know headteachering is hard it's hard and anybody who's out there who's a senior leader who's thinking can I make the next leap can I make the next jump particularly if you're a woman okay yeah you can you absolutely can and don't let anybody make you think that it isn't possible because it is it is possible to to do this job to do it well to have a family to do all of those things you need to make some choices right and you need to think about what it is that you're going to focus on and that's the that's the challenging bit because the truth is this job could could take up 24 hours a day for the whole year okay I could find things to do but some of that is total noise yes some of that isn't really going to move things on for tuning on people and I I use my inbox it's a really good tester for this okay so we all get loads of emails right if you work in education it's email-tastic yeah for some reason and I try and see what what sticks in my emails obviously I deal with the most important things but some emails I just leave and see whether they actually are important or not does that make sense yeah obviously acknowledge them if someone wants to talk to me of course come and talk to me but actually it's sort of thinking about what's important and what's not and and I think I think it is possible I'm an example of it being possible do I have difficult days absolutely do I drive home in the car crying sometimes of course I do yeah I'm just a human person yeah and you know do I find things challenging and you know at the moment we've got a couple of challenges here that are like how are we going to solve them what what support are we going to get you know whatever it is curriculum teaching supporting children supporting families you know those things weigh on weigh on your mind yeah of course I go to sleep every day and I don't go to sleep unless I've done this okay is I taught myself through my day in a way right did this I did that I made this decision I made that decision and I go to sleep knowing that I did my very best for those children today yeah and if I feel like there's something that hasn't been done then I go back to it for 10 minutes or I make a phone call or I send an email do you see what I mean yeah a little quick follow up little follow up to clear it out of my out of my brain before I go to bed and my mom as I mentioned too is a child protection social worker she just used this phrase which is so simple are you going to stand up for kids or not yeah so that when it comes to the crunch yeah are you actually going to be their biggest advocate because we can as adults we can get wrapped up in adult stuff yeah and actually what really matters is those children there so what are we doing for those children and how are we making it better for them so yeah I would recommend headship to anyone and I know there'll be so many people listening that just wouldn't believe me yeah but I'm telling you it's one of the most rewarding jobs I think it has potential to be the most rewarding job and to see children so on the funky Friday at the end of the day I put the speaker outside that door and I blast out when children are going home yeah right and there are children who come and give me a little high five there are children who want to come and give me a hug or they bring me a cake they've made in cooking so lovely or there are children from King's Academy who know me from last year who they come on the coach and they're all waving manically out of the coach window that that's that's priceless so yeah it really matters what you do and if you're sitting there as a senior leader thinking can I do it come and see me because I'll convince you that you can you can convince anyone of anything I have no doubt absolutely I'm in terms of recruiting I think that's a massive issue isn't it recruiting and retaining staff and education across England at the moment is really challenging but I tell you what in summer set you're going to get to work in some of the most wonderful schools you're going to get a beautiful drive my commute is across the levels nice or the more as I should say yes and I see herons and stags and beautiful sunsets and you know foggy you know missy morning all of that that beats the tube you know every single day of the week so particularly if you know we've been trying really hard here as well when we recruit our staff to make our adverts as broad as possible if you're returning from maternity leave something I'm really passionate about if you've had a career break for whatever reason maybe you've been a carer maybe you've had your children maybe you went part-time you know all of that come and see us because you have you know an amazing plethora of skills to offer don't be afraid of coming back into education yeah and it is about finding the right school and sometimes when people have had a bad experiences to do with the school you know it's to do with what's gone on the story of that school but I promise you that here we've got that real passionate approach to getting it right for our staff so if you're coming back from a career break and you feel like your brain is fried and you've forgotten everything that certainly happened to me when I had children you know there's nothing that rocks your world more than that absolutely yeah but if you can come back and we can support you with building our building your confidence up as a teacher then we absolutely want to help you we I'm really lucky to be on the mailing list for something called women ed I don't know if you know the organisation it's for you I think yeah championing women particularly in education and making sure that women get the support that they need to engage in education at whatever stage of life they might be yeah we are really passionate about that here at Fairland's in fact we had a meeting in the summer term with female members as members of staff talking about how we can promote and support women in their career and how we can develop them as the leaders of the future and we've also got those things going on for men as well so they're not neglecting their well-being programme but making sure that in particular women you know believe that they can reach those highest positions because unfortunately the gender pay gap tells us the story that we still don't have equality and the gap for ethnic minorities also in education is really big and we need to address that so we're under no illusion we might be in leafy Somerset but we have a duty to to fight for the leader of the future absolutely inspiring and thought-provoking messages there I'm going to finish up with one very last question here you've given us so much food for thought here but if there is one last message that you might want to share with perspective and current Fairland pupils and families that are listening in what would it be? I think it would be the quote from Rita Pearson that I always put on my PowerPoint in my opening evening now you might not know Rita if you don't I haven't she's an American educator sadly not with us anymore but she gave a speech and so various TED talks at the end of her career about education and it's this every child deserves a champion somebody who will never give up on them and believes that they can be the best they can be and that's what we do yeah so even when things are difficult even when you know families are in crisis even when something's going on here and something's not okay we don't give up we push through that difficult period we might have to have a difficult conversation we might not agree but we try and find a solution because that's what drives us here is never giving up on joining your people amazing well Rebecca that's been such a phenomenal conversation you are at absolute powerhouse and I just want to thank you for taking the time out of your very busy day I mean you are running the world here but thank you so much for your time that brings us to the end of our wonderful conversation and it has been so inspiring to hear about how you and your colleagues have created such a wonderful space here at Verlands Middle School with I feel like there are so many words I could pick but certainly a strong sense of community inclusivity connection and ultimately kindness so yeah it shines through and it's been a delight to hear that I'm sure our listeners will also feel that too so open invitation then to you Eden and to anybody who wants to come and see what we're about you're very welcome anytime come for lunch okay come for lunch sit in my lunch hall and you really feel the spirit of Verlands Middle School there I do that quite often sit with the children and it's it's so fascinating listening to the things they're talking about from the guinea pig to their football match to their you know wherever it is and an open invitation to anyone in our community who wants to find out a bit more about us or just wants to come and talk and have a real conversation about what leadership is like genuine offer there if you're in this family of schools and you're thinking about the next stage come and see me come and have a chat I'll give you at Watson or around what it's like to be a leader and believe it's possible thank you thank you lovely to see you thanks for coming down