Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT) has today appointed its first national director for learning, who will be tasked with “providing high-quality professional development” for its staff.
Jennifer Barker previously worked as a senior dean at Ambition Institute - a charity that provides professional development to teachers and school leaders.
Ms Barker will now make the move to the 42-school trust, where her role will involve working in partnership across OAT’s schools “to develop [its] theory of change and educational strategy”.
The move comes after OAT - one of the country’s biggest multi-academy trusts - appointed Tom Rees as its new chief executive officer.
Mr Rees also joined the trust from Ambition Institute, where he was executive director of programmes.
Before working at Ambition, Ms Barker spent almost a decade as a teacher and then leader in primary schools. She also led the learning design team at Teach First.
New director for learning ‘excited’
Ms Barker said it was a privilege to join OAT and she was ”excited to start building on the work of the trust to ensure brilliant professional development opportunities for staff”.
She added: “I am genuinely grateful for my time at Ambition and so proud of everything we have achieved in the last five years. The opportunity to take this and work directly with colleagues across Ormiston’s schools is one I couldn’t be more excited about.”
Mr Rees said the trust was prioritising professional development and support for its teachers because it believes this is “key” to helping every pupil “thrive”.
The appointment follows a number of others at OAT in recent months. Natasha Rancins was recently appointed as its national director of secondary education, while Ed Vainker will be on part-time secondment until the end of this academic year as national director of transformation.
And former teacher Dr Elizabeth Walton, now professor of education at the School of Education, University of Nottingham, joined OAT as a trustee, alongside Tariq Syed, CEO of the company RVU.
Additionally, Professor Rob Coe, of the Education Endowment Foundation, joined the board’s school improvement committee.
