Mrs Gay Harrington
Teaching Awards 2008 Winner
The DCSF Award for Governor of the Year in London
Cubitt Town Junior School, LONDON
This junior school so valued the tireless work of the chair of governors, that it dispatched the school choir to sing carols at her office at Christmas. Gay Harrington cried!
Gay is the perfect school governor – a lively, warm team player who is also able to be a probing critical friend to her school, and a firm leader. She remains involved with the school and is also chair of Newham Sixth Form College.
During her decade as chair of governors she helped steer her school away from a £100,000 budgetary deficit and onto a firm financial footing. She oversaw the school’s workforce remodelling, helped develop a new ICT suite, and has skilfully used her many contacts through her job as business liaison manager for Canary Wharf Ltd to build business links with the school, some with big name companies such as British Telecom and Morgan Stanley.
Gay is a strategic leader with a clear vision and sense of direction, but also always made time to listen to pupils and hear their views. Under her leadership the school governors closely monitored standards, and focused their efforts on developments to improve those standards.
“I cannot express how much time, effort and commitment Gay has given to the school in her role as chair,” said one colleague. Another said she had “accessed thousand of pounds worth of grants for the school, and millions for the wider community.”
Gay is a resident of the Isle of Dogs, and active in working for her community on many fronts. She has helped develop the Isle of Dogs Excellence in Cities action zone programme, and is the brains behind a local social corporate responsibility forum.
The Teaching Awards judges said, “Everyone acknowledges Gay as a very skilful, dedicated and outstanding school leader - the epitome of a truly excellent chair of governors.”
