Mrs Debra Massey
Teaching Awards 2008 Winner
The NCSL Award for Headteacher of the Year in a Primary School in East
Howe Dell Primary School, HATFIELD
Three years ago Howe Dell was a dilapidated school struggling with poor behaviour and achievement. Today it inhabits a stunning new eco-building and is a vibrant, modern learning community that is growing fast.
Governors and teachers say this total transformation is all down to Debra’s “passion, energy and resilience.” “She is,” says one teacher, “like the Duracell bunny. She just keeps going.”
Debra put on her hard hat and became a frequent visitor to the new school site, where she insisted on the highest standards for her pupils, and kept up pressure on contractors to push on with the job. She then ditched the traditional job of school caretaker and appointed a highly-skilled site manager to run her new school, which has innovative power and water systems. Governors say “she has brought us into a different age.”
She has a vision for life-long learning for both pupils and staff. Teachers say she has confidence and trust in them, which is reciprocated, and that she supports their well-being and professional development. There is a yoga class for teachers at the school, and individual staff members have taken study visits to Finland, the Gambia and Croatia.
Debra believes her school is for everyone, and made sure that pupils from the economically-deprived community that the school historically served could still access the new building by successfully lobbying for a free school bus service.
She has worked to shape an inventive new primary school curriculum that will shortly be published by her local education authority. She is also energetic about building links with the community.
Pupils say they feel “special” and that “Mrs Massey listens to our ideas.” “In the morning you feel you want to jump out and run to school,” says one.
The governors say she has brought higher expectations to everyone. “Whizz bang,” one governor says.
