Mrs Carol Penney
Teaching Awards 2007 Winner
The Ted Wragg Award for Lifetime Achievement, sponsored by the Innovation Unit in West of England
Baytree School, WESTON-SUPER-MARE
Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said “we can only be human together”. Carol Penney has taken the words of the South African churchman to her heart.
There can be few headteachers anywhere as committed to inclusion as she has been for the whole of her 40 year career, her achievements acknowledged internationally.
Carol has worked at Baytree, a school for children with severe and complex learning difficulties, for the past 22 years, leading it as head since 1991. She heard Archbishop Tutu speaking at a conference in South Africa, but she has been living his words throughout her professional calling.
Her contribution has been groundbreaking. In the last five years she achieved her life-long ambition by creating The Campus, a living testament to inclusion, with Baytree sharing a site with a mainstream primary, nursery and community centre, enabling her students to have daily opportunities to work alongside mainstream pupils while retaining Baytree’s unique identity and the special teaching and learning they require with a dedicated staff.
She was also a pioneer of the “achievable small steps” approach to special education which enabled special need pupils to experience success through manageable, targeted tasks. She has been described as a “visionary” at the heart of what’s happening in SEN internationally while establishing an outstanding curriculum for her own pupils.
She believes everything is possible for the young people at Baytree and pursues endless opportunities in the wider community – her students attending dance festivals, sports events, speaking to the Youth Parliament, running an eco-committee. Parents and staff praise her questing nature, but also her humanity, warmth, wisdom and empathy. Nearly all say it is a privilege to have known and worked with her.
Although about to retire she has not stopped training and developing others in special education, mentoring other heads and deputies, determined that groundbreaking developments will continue.
