Not everyone will have the chance to lead a brand new school. Karen Edwards was in that lucky – and challenging – position at The Heights Primary in Caversham, Reading in 2014.
“I was presented with the opportunity to build and develop a school in a community that needed one,” she explained. “There were 50 four-year-olds in Caversham that weren’t getting their first, second or even third choice schools. It was a growing problem.”
The local authority proposed that the community put together an application for a free school – the only way that a new school can now be created.
Ms Edwards’ appointment in the summer of 2014 was an exciting new chapter in a long teaching and school leadership career: “I’d worked in both primary and secondary schools for 24 years up to that point. It became clear to me when I moved into primary that if you get it right at the Foundation Stage everything develops and blossoms from there. But if you don’t get it right at that stage it becomes really hard work.”
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