Gary is Director of Improvement and Development for BET, focused on developing the trust’s strategy for improvement and leading our trust improvement team.
Gary is deeply passionate about ensuring every child has the same chance in life and has devoted his career to driving equity across the education landscape. He has a strong record of success in school improvement and culture change, having served as a senior leader in a number of challenging schools and as acting Co-Headteacher in two schools as they have joined or been supported by the trust. Before becoming Director of Improvement, Gary was responsible for the trust’s strategy and work for disadvantaged students, and this continues to be a key focus of his role.
Gary’s approach is underpinned by a philosophy of relational leadership and unconditional positive expectations of alland this has guided the evolution of BET’s improvement strategy and systems.
Through his work around equity, Gary has also been the driving force for the trust’s highly impactful work around literacy. Gary believes every learner has the right to learn to read, and every adult in schools has a responsibility to make this happen. Gary has developed the trust’s vision and strategy for literacy culture and developing cross-trust approaches to professional learning and practice, leading to significant improvements in students’ reading progress.
Gary is a Future Leader (Cohort ’16) and is currently studying his NPQEL with Ambition Institute. He is a keen (slow) runner and cyclist, completing his first marathon in 2021 (which he thinks he may have started in 2020).
