Lee Smith

As site manager, Lee has created an inclusive environment where students thrive and staff feel privileged to work. His dedication to providing the best facilities imaginable, while also saving money, ensures that staff never want to leave. Lee’s recent initiatives include project–managing a new build at the school, and collaborating with a colleague to construct design and technology workbenches that more than meet industry standards. Always looking for ways to enhance the surroundings for the whole school community, Lee has installed ramps to avoid steps and improve access, and created polytunnels for the allotment club from an old trampoline, and then rigged up an irrigation system. His commitment to going above and beyond is evident every day, especially in his care for colleagues. It is not an exaggeration to say he saved the life of one colleague, and then ensured that their home was adapted for their disability, providing a comfortable and safe environment. Unfailingly modest and unassuming, Lee is an absolute hero at Hethersett Academy.