Vow as headteacher Clair takes role at Lady Lumley’s
Lady Lumley’s School in Pickering has welcomed its new headteacher – the first woman to hold the top job in the school’s 350-year history.
Clair Foden takes up her position as the mixed secondary school, for children and young people aged 11-18, including a sixth form, prepares to become an academy and join the Scalby Learning Trust. The conversion is due to take place on May 1.
In a positive monitoring inspection carried out before all classrooms reopened last month, school inspectors Ofsted said Lady Lumley’s School leaders and those responsible for governance “are taking effective action to provide education in the current circumstances.”
Ms Foden joins the school, which has 921 pupils, after four years at Temple Moor High School in Leeds most recently as associate principal.
She has led strategies that have resulted in significant improvement in the quality of teaching and learning, resulting in improved student outcomes at Key Stages 4 and 5.
A belief in developing high quality staff and investing in leadership is central to Ms Foden’s view on school improvement.
Ms Foden worked as a senior leader at Thirsk School and Sixth Form College and then King James’s in Knaresborough, where her contribution ranged from leading the history department to director of sixth form.
Originally from Essex, she moved to Shrewsbury for A Levels then progressed to Leeds University where she read Art History and Politics before training to be a teacher.
“Lady Lumley’s deserves an ambitious and determined headteacher to deliver the school of choice for the area,” said Ms Foden.
“I will lead Lady Lum
‘School deserves am ambitious and determined headteacher’
ley’s in a way that means it’s a school students want to learn at, colleagues want to work at, and that has the community’s full support.”