Congratulations to our CEO who received an OBE
As a trust we are absolutely delighted that our CEO has been recognised for her commitment, drive and dedication to education spanning over the past 22 years. Tracy attended Windsor Castle on Wednesday 27th September and was awarded her OBE by Princess Anne.
Tracy Swinburne has been relentless in her pursuit of excellence over her varied educational career. She has a passion for ensuring all children achieve and has been driven by this ambition since becoming a newly qualified teacher. She started her career in a private school in Yarm in the North East of England. This placement was the impetus for her ambition to follow. She was adamant and driven to ensure every child had the best and why couldn’t they, she would constantly ask.
Following this she worked in some of the most economically deprived areas of Stockton, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough where she passionately taught and led with the underlying ambition of ensuring all children received a quality education. Following this Tracy, resided, taught and led in the Middle East where she played a pivotal role in setting up a brand-new through school that went on to be hugely successful. She also led on international reading initiatives and brought this learning back to the UK in 2014. Since moving to Wakefield, Tracy has been on a mission to help more children and empower more staff teams. She made it her mission to work with the team of excellent staff at Jerry Clay Academy in Wakefield to make it the very best school for children and their community. This aim was then that JCA became a support school for developing others. Her motto is always, ‘collaboration not competition’ and drives to remove these barriers as the name above the door shouldn’t matter, the children in the region matter more!
In 2017, following an excellent Ofsted inspection, JCA became a National Support School. Tracy became a National Leader of Education as a result. This meant that she and her team have gone on to lead over 20 large school improvement projects. All the schools involved in North, West and South Yorkshire have all benefitted from the support and each one improving their outcomes and Ofsted gradings.
In 2018 JCA was successfully chosen to become a DfE English Hub. As a consequence, Tracy has led an excellent team to support over 900 schools with early reading, early language and Reading for pleasure. The hub takes great pride in supporting so many professionals and have seen results over the years soar and be well above national averages in Phonics for the region.
Tracy has been a member of the DfE English Hub Council for the past 2 years and enjoys being part of the national drive to help shape policy and move to close the reading gap for our most vulnerable children.
In her pursuit of collaboration and developing strong research-informed practice, she and her excellent team have opened the Accomplishing Great Things Centre in Castleford. Having already trained over 90 schools since the start of term, it is the ambition of accomplish to continue to break down barriers so that more children benefit from a highly skilled and knowledgeable teams of professionals.
Undeterred by the challenge ahead, Tracy and her teams will continue to do the right thing for children in the region and beyond – realising the ambition that all children can accomplish great things if given the best education and support.
