Phonics expert Ruth Miskin has been appointed Dame for services to education in the King’s New Year Honours list.
Ms Miskin, a former headteacher who developed the government-backed phonics programme Read Write Inc, has been appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
The New Year Honours, announced on Friday night, also include a number of leaders from the schools sector.
Vanessa Ogden, the chief executive of Mulberry Schools Trust, a seven-school trust in London, and Gayle Gorman, a former HM chief inspector and chief executive of Education Scotland, have both been appointed CBE.
New Year Honours for the schools sector
Ms Gorman held those positions from December 2017 until leaving in March this year to take up a role abroad.
Having started as a primary teacher, Ms Gorman progressed her career with roles including national senior director for literacy in England, director of learning in Cambridgeshire and, from 2013 to 2017, education director in Aberdeen.
Meanwhile, Scotland’s 2018 Teacher of the Year has been appointed MBE for services to maths education and the East Ayrshire community. Chris Smith, who works at Grange Academy in Kilmarnock, is known around the world for a weekly maths newsletter that is approaching 700 issues and has thousands of subscribers.
Other prominent names in the honours list include Joshua MacAlister, who chaired the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care and is founder of Frontline. He is appointed OBE for services to vulnerable children.
Tiffany Beck, chair of trustees at the Maritime Academy Trust and head of education at the PLMR Group communications firm,has been appointed OBE.
She said: “I am completely blown away by this honour. This is very much thanks to the people both within Maritime Academy Trust and my dear friends and colleagues across the sector and at PLMR who have taught me so much about what makes schools so special, what makes education so powerful and why it is so important that together we are not just trying to do things better, but actually doing better things.”
Jayne Clarke, executive principal at The Pinnacle Learning Trust in West Yorkshire; Jonathan McGoh, chair and co-founder of The Reach Foundation and co-founder and trustee at Reach Academy Feltham; and Beryce Nixon, chief executive of the Exceed Learning Partnership in South Yorkshire, have also been appointed OBE.
The education sector is well represented with MBEs in the 2024 New Year Honours list.
Appointees include Sarah Armitage, chair of trustees at the Embark Federation, a 19-school trust based in Derby; and Karen Shepperson, director of people and operations at Ofsted.
Keith Sorrell, lately chief executive officer at Windsor Academy Trust, a 15-school trust based in Birmingham; and Dr Gillian Eatough, lately chief executive officer at 11-school Learning Community Trust, in Shropshire, have also been appointed MBE.
Ms Armitage, of the Embark Federation, who has also advised Department for Education regional directors on system development, said it was an “honour and a surprise” to be appointed MBE.
Matt Crawford, trust leader for Embark Federation, said that her honour was fully deserved. “Sarah has improved so many children’s lives through her volunteer work as a governor/trustee and has dedicated so many hours to it. Her passion shines through and she is such an asset to our trust and leads the board so skilfully,” he said.
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