New principal announced at Nene Education Trust School

With more than 27 years’ of extensive education experience, newly appointed Principal, Mrs Turner, has taken the helm at Newton Road School in Rushden.

Previously the deputy head at a large primary school in neighbouring Bedfordshire, where she was also Head of Inclusion, Mrs Turner is embarking on her new role as Principal at Newton Road, one of eight schools within the Nene Education Trust network.

Nene Education Trust CEO, Chris Hill, said of Mrs Turner’s appointment: “Liz Turner has exceptional experience working within education and is the perfect person to take Newton Road School forward with her focus on ensuring children and staff can succeed and plans to help improve results at the school.”

Mrs Turner, who is a mother of three and a grandmother of four, is delighted to join the Nene Education Trust family of schools and plans to further forge strong relationships with families and the local community, to help children succeed and aims to improve results at the school.

She said: “The Trust’s values, their educational outlook and what they want perfectly aligns with what I want, and I could see real potential in Newton Road School, and wanted to be part of it. I am all about developing and supporting the whole child. Our children will be moving into secondary school and life in a big world, and I want them to have all the skills that will make them successful.

“When it comes to results, what we need is an upward trend, which ultimately means I need to make sure our children are happy, safe and want to learn. If we can make those things happen, then everything will fall into place and results will improve.”

Originally starting her career as a hairdresser, the newly appointed Principal switched to working in education in 1996 where she predominately worked in early years settings, managing nurseries and crèches.

Seeing a teacher with a class of Year 2 pupils inspired her to enter the teaching profession. She studied for her degree while working as an unqualified teacher, studying for GCSEs at night school, all while raising her three children, to achieve her ambition to become a teacher.

On her future plans, she added: “Looking ahead, I would like to have a more creative curriculum at Newton Road that engages pupils so that they want to come to school and learn. There will be challenges; however, the school staff are fantastic, they’re an amazing team and have welcomed me with open arms.

“I cannot do anything without working with the families of Newton Road who are vitally important to me. I am used to working with families to support their children, to ensure we’re all pulling in the same direction. I would like to build my relationship with our families and have that open, honest, kind and professional conversation to develop their child in our school.

“Ultimately, it is all about relationships. If you build relationships with the families and the community, the staff and the children, everything else will fall into place.”