School Improvement Offer

Mark HazzardSchool Improvement Partner

Mark is an Executive Headteacher and School Improvement Partner in The Good Shepherd Trust. He is a qualified teacher, holds the national professional qualification for headship and a post graduate degree in Leadership Practice. He has delivered projects for the department for education, including for RSHE and Early Years. He particular expertise in leadership and management, in curriculum development, SEND and in early years. He leads on all NPQ delivery across the trust, as a delivery partner for the Church of England Foundation for Educational Leadership provider.

Sue StaintonSchool Improvement Consultant

Sue became a member of the Good Shepherd Trust school improvement team in 2021. Prior to this she was a teaching head of an outstanding C of E primary school for 19 years.  She has varied teaching experience in both a large city junior school and a village primary school. 

Sue also has experience as an executive headteacher; she has led a teaching school; supported colleagues as a LLE and NLE, as well as developing county wide CPD and collaborative partnership projects. 

Sue refers to being a teaching head as “the best of both worlds – coming alongside children and helping develop their progress as learners and young people as well as working in partnership with the school community to create the best possible learning opportunities for the children in our care”.

Sue has expertise in the effective use of data, developing subject leadership, curriculum development (with first-hand experience of CUSP/CLUSP) and working with leaders at all levels to develop their potential and skills.

Jo LakerSchool Improvement Consultant

Jo is currently an Executive Headteacher in the Good Shepherd Trust, Dean and Braithwaite.  She has also become a member of the Good Shepherd Trust school improvement team in 2022.   She was a teaching head at Braithwaite from 2007 to 2019 when she took on the Executive Headteacher role.  She has teaching experience in both large and small schools and has also worked for Cumbria in the Learning Improvement Service as an Associate General Advisor, where she particularly focused on induction of new Headteachers and was part of a research project about Headteacher wellbeing.

Jo has a particular interest in leadership development, mentoring and supporting new Headteachers, and is working with staff at both schools at the moment using the ‘Great Teaching Toolkit’. This brings the latest research in cognitive science to teachers so they can enable pupils to learn most effectively.  She has day to day experience of working with both staff and Local Governing Body Members on school action planning and monitoring, along with analysis of data, developing subject leadership, curriculum development and safeguarding.