Exciting
new role
Passionate educator and former Head of English, Helaina Coote, has been appointed as the Assistant Head of Secondary School (Academic). The new position was created following a restructure of the Senior Leadership Team due to the departure of long-time Head of Operations, Alister Newton, who was with St Andrew’s for 44 years. Rector Christine Leighton says Helaina is a great addition to the leadership team. “Helaina brings a wealth of curriculum experience, team management, leadership, a good analytical brain, and a solution focused approach to her new role. It is also good to have another woman in a senior leadership position.” Helaina has been teaching for nearly 20 years, the last eight at St Andrew’s. She became Head of English in 2012, and for the last 10 years has also been a member of the National English Teachers’ Council. One of the biggest challenges she faces as Assistant Head of Secondary School has been establishing the parameters of the new position given the vast institutional knowledge that was held by Alister Newton. “It will take a while to bed down and find out where the gaps are. I am conscious of leaning in to the role and the idea that I don’t have to be a fully formed senior leader from day one. It is fantastic that I already have well-established relationships with the teachers and students and a good insight into the systems and how we might make them work even better.”
Helaina Coote, new Assistant Head of Secondary School (Academic).
Helaina is working closely with Head of Teaching and Learning, David Bevin, and Head of Secondary School, Roland Burrows, in the new role. She says one of her key focuses is to facilitate staff professional development and professional learning groups to ensure teachers are supported and programmes are responsive, dynamic and cater for a diverse range of learners. Appraising a number of HODs, running an innovation and research group around teaching and learning, supporting teacher trainees on their placements, organising several scholarships, and providing an overview of the Student Exchange Programme are among the other functions of her role. “It is an incredibly diverse and exciting position in a complex and varied school. I love it,” she says.
Grass roots support benefits teachers and students One of Helaina Coote’s strengths as the new Assistant Head of Secondary School (Academic) is the development of clear and supportive systems that assist teachers to be efficient and effective. An example of this is her enhancement of the Professional Learning Group (PLG) programme. The PLG sessions are held around seven times a year, with up to 12 or 13 groups of teachers meeting in different locations throughout the College during each session to discuss a variety of focused questions relating to specific problems or challenges they are facing in the classroom.
“Teachers of varying levels of experience and expertise meet in groups of eight to discuss these challenges and the strategies that could be implemented to overcome them. It is a grass roots support system of people helping one another, rather than the leadership team taking a top down approach.” Helaina says this explicit inquiry process has also been aligned more effectively to Whole School Goals, and the new Appraisal Connector tool, introduced last year, through which teachers can reflect on their work and collate evidence for their Practising Teacher Certificate. “Teachers have a much clearer pathway from
professional learning in the PLG, to contributing to school teaching and learning goals, and providing evidence for their Practising Teacher Certificate. It is a more cohesive, interconnected process.” She says the power of the crosscurricular PLG inquiry groups is the ability for teachers with a wide range of experiences, knowledge and understandings to connect. “Teachers often meet as a department but don’t necessarily get to discuss teaching and learning with a range of different people. It is an exciting process.”
