Paul Claydon

Senior School Improvement Adviser, Secondary

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Full Biography

Paul is an accomplished senior leader with a successful record in Primary and Secondary education. An English specialist, Paul began his career in Essex and has held leadership positions in five schools, two of which were successfully moved out of Special Measures and one which was deemed to be Outstanding. He has worked in Essex, Havering, Barking and Dagenham and Tower Hamlets to improve the quality of staff development, teaching and learning and leadership. Successfully completing the NPQH in 2020, Paul has a deep knowledge of educational frameworks, is an expert facilitator, and enjoys coordinating and delivering the National Professional Qualifications in partnership with colleagues across East London.

Most recently, Paul has been part of the Educational Leadership Team at an expanding Multi Academy Trust where he has worked to develop Frameworks across the Trust to improve the quality of education. Implementing a process that allows leaders to gather relevant information to identify specific aspects of whole school priorities, Paul is able to work with Heads, leaders and teachers to set goals and identify the steps needed to bring about improvement. In this role Paul has worked with Barking and Dagenham secondary schools one day a week, providing curriculum specific support for English. He has also been lending his expertise to a school in Tower Hamlets, helping to build and develop their capacity, refocusing and refining monitoring and evaluation processes, and supporting leaders to identify effective practices for implementing the agreed changes.

Additionally, Paul has developed a bespoke offer for the private sector, where he works with C-suite clients to develop training and development for leaders in the financial sector. Successfully working with a number of institutions in London and Dublin, Paul offers sessions on Change Management, Building Resilience, Leading Effective Meetings and Developing Teams. This work has led to Paul being asked to facilitate full leadership team ‘away days’ in Oxford, Dublin and London. He has applied some of the relevant sessions from this work to the education sector, successfully delivering training for newly formed or changing leadership teams, so that leaders can harness each other’s strengths and develop where needed. Paul has led whole Trust residential training as well as governor training, and is able to design bespoke conferences for all levels. He also leads training for Early Career Teachers and mentors, and was heavily involved in the roll out of the Early Career Framework. Paul is a founding organiser of a Festival of Education which engages schools from three London boroughs, reaching over a thousand teachers over a week of events.

Keen to share his knowledge, Paul is also a governor at two primary schools and enjoys a position on two local Boards that are involved in the strategic decision making for the Teaching School Hub and the Academy of Leadership. Paul actively advocates the importance of collaboration in Education and is keen to support schools to learn from each other and apply their learning to their specific context. Welcoming delegations from the Zhengzhou region in China and establishing contacts with Uncommon Schools in the United States and colleagues in the UAE, Paul is cognisant of the lessons schools can learn from each other and promotes the sharing of effective practices to secure the best possible outcomes for young people.

Driven by an unwavering commitment to an inclusive approach and to developing teachers and leaders for the betterment of young peoples’ life chances, Paul brings an up-to-date, evidence informed knowledge to the team.

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