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Zoe Kirby

Forma Headteacher
About

An approachable and friendly Professional Head Teacher with over 18 years' experience gained from within Senior Schools and Specialist Education provisions. A people person, with many transferable skills, able to build and develop teams, passionate about motivating students to achieve their goals whilst maintaining high standards and adding value to any business. Strong work ethic, excelled in fast paced, high-pressure working environments; a respected leader, with excellent communication skills and forms lasting working relationships.

Previous Brands
Acorn Park School
Beats Learning Cambridge and Peterborough Provisions.
Clare Lodge School
Gretton School
Juventas Services
the Fen Rivers Academy
the Grays School
The Mulberry School
Work Experience
Headteacher
Mar ‘22 - Now
Beats Learning Cambridge and Peterborough Provisions.

Headteacher
May ‘21 - Mar ‘22
The Mulberry School

The Mulberry School is a small independent school (brand new) for children with ASC, SEMH and additional SEND. I have overseen the registration process and achieved registration with the DfE through meeting ALL independent Special School Standards through OFSTED. The school opened successfully (fully) in September 2021 to students aged between 8 and 16 years CAREER HISTORY

Home Manager
Aug ‘20 - May ‘21
Juventas Services

Juventas Services is a small independent company overseeing children's homes and services. Home Manager: Setting up a children's home from house sale to fully occupied provision. Full registration process through OFSTED, safer recruitment processes in place, house renovations and appropriate environment oversight, liaison with other professionals, local authorities and community, including schools, social workers and all persons associated with LAC with SEND. •Leadership of the school and its staff in order to achieve extremely high standards of teaching and learning, behaviour and attainment •Leadership of effective external relationships, including with the community and other stakeholders •Instil an ethos of high expectations for behaviour and achievement of all pupils •Lead the development of the school's curriculum culture including introducing of Forest School •Maintain strong working relationships with the community, agencies, and stakeholders, including parents and the Governing Body •The line management of the Deputy Head, Middle Leaders and all education staff including regular supervisions and appraisals. •Develop appropriate planning processes and plans and ensure their implementation to enable the strategic vision to be realised, with targets against which delivery can be monitored and measured and within which priorities and costs are clearly identified and maintained, using robust self-evaluation and sound commercial sense. •Develop and maintain relationships with the Local Authorities (LAs) •Evaluate, monitor and plan strategies for all risks •Maintain and develop appropriate recruitment strategies •Keep abreast of current educational trends and implement them as deemed appropriate for the school including by attending workshops/seminars, by reading DfE and other publications, and by doing personal research •Attend Governing Body Meetings and Senior Leadership Team Meetings •Designated Safeguarding Lead •Organised and overseen parent meetings •Organised and overseen fundraising events CAREER HISTORY

INTERIM HEAD OF EDUCATION
Feb ‘20 - Aug ‘20
Acorn Park School

Acorn Park School is an Independent School for children from 4 to 19 with ASC INTERIM HEAD OF EDUCATION •Leadership of the school and its staff in order to achieve extremely high standards of teaching and learning, behaviour and attainment •Leadership of effective external relationships, including with the community and other stakeholders •Instil an ethos of high expectations for behaviour and achievement of all pupils •Lead the development of the school's curriculum culture including introducing of Forest School •Maintain strong working relationships with the community, agencies, and stakeholders, including parents and the Governing Body •The line management of the Deputy Head, Middle Leaders and all education staff including regular supervisions and appraisals. •Develop appropriate planning processes and plans and ensure their implementation to enable the strategic vision to be realised, with targets against which delivery can be monitored and measured and within which priorities and costs are clearly identified and maintained, using robust self-evaluation and sound commercial sense. •Develop and maintain relationships with the Local Authorities (LAs) •Evaluate, monitor and plan strategies for all risks •Maintain and develop appropriate recruitment strategies •Keep abreast of current educational trends and implement them as deemed appropriate for the school including by attending workshops/seminars, by reading DfE and other publications, and by doing personal research •Attend Governing Body Meetings and Senior Leadership Team Meetings •Designated Safeguarding Lead •Organised and overseen parent meetings •Organised and overseen fundraising events

INTERIM HEADTEACER
Sep ‘19 - Feb ‘20
the Fen Rivers Academy

The Fen Rivers Academy is a MAT special school for students with Social, Emotional and Mental Health INTERIM HEADTEACER •Leadership of the school and its staff in order to achieve extremely high standards of teaching and learning, behaviour and attainment •Leadership of effective external relationships, including with the community and other stakeholders •Instil an ethos of high expectations for behaviour and achievement of all pupils •Lead the development of the school's curriculum culture including introducing of Forest School •Maintain strong working relationships with the community, agencies, and stakeholders, including parents and the Governing Body •The line management of the Deputy Head including regular supervisions and appraisals. •Develop appropriate planning processes and plans and ensure their implementation to enable the strategic vision to be realised, with targets against which delivery can be monitored and measured and within which priorities and costs are clearly identified and maintained, using robust self-evaluation and sound commercial sense. •Develop and maintain relationships with the Local Authorities (LAs) •Evaluate, monitor and plan strategies for all risks •Maintain and develop appropriate recruitment strategies •Keep abreast of current educational trends and implement them as deemed appropriate for the school including by attending workshops/seminars, by reading DfE and other publications, and by doing personal research •Attend Governing Body Meetings and Senior Leadership Team Meetings •Designated Safeguarding Lead •Teaching of NC (primary) •Organised and overseen parent meetings •Organised and overseen fundraising events •Attended and contributed to building planning meetings •Fire and Safety training

HEADTEACHER
Sep ‘14 - Mar ‘19
Gretton School

Gretton School in Girton, Cambridgeshire, is an independent, specialist day and residential school for boys and girls with Autism Spectrum Condition, including high functioning autism and Asperger's syndrome. The School provides individually tailored programmes of education, care and therapy for pupils from 5 to 19 years of age.

Acting Deputy Head
Jan ‘11 - Sep ‘14
Clare Lodge School

A small 'special' school, working with young ladies whose liberty has been taken away from them in order to keep them safe. •To deputise for the Head in every way and to organise the daily running of the school. •To train all staff, on school policies and introduce expectations and standards required. Researched and prepared a PowerPoint presentation with individual and group associated activities, to enhance learning and or progression. All staff had understanding of all policies and procedures expected of them at Clare Lodge, which maintained and improved on-going teaching standards. •Trained all school staff, teachers and teaching assistants on all matters relating to OFSTED assessment criteria. Taking the latest OFSTED assessment criteria for schools / teaching and learning specifically, explained how to meet these standards. This enabled teachers to plan and produce more effective lessons, to enhance pupil progression and teaching assistants, to have a better knowledge about how to assist and support teachers. •Trained all teaching staff about the new government policy of Literacy Across the Curriculum. Designed a workshop supported by individual associated activities and delegated each teacher to incorporate within their specific curriculum areas. Literacy was introduced, to each and every subject and lessons taught within the school. •Assisted my Headteacher to write the School Development Plan and School Self Evaluation Form. These are two important documents create a focus for the coming year and an evaluation from the previous year. By interviewing each Head of Department, disseminated data, fed this back and co-wrote an appropriate evaluation of that department. Documents were distributed to all interested parties. •Introduced an appropriate and effective assessment tool for a secure welfare unit for young ladies. In this small special education unit, mainstream assessment processes are not always relevant to our children. Took the government's 'Assessment of Pupil Progress' criteria for each subject area. Created the Clare Lodge criteria strands, and instructed staff to annotate each students progress, keeping records of achievement and a paper audit trail of progress.

EARLIER HISTORY Teacher of Science /Head of Year
Jan ‘01 - Jan ‘05
the Grays School

Languages
English
Cambridge, UK