New John Willmott Headteacher honoured to lead school

The new Headteacher of John Willmott School says she feels ‘honoured’ to be given the opportunity to lead the Sutton Coldfield school.

Nicola Gould was appointed headteacher in December, after running the school in an acting role for 12 months.

She says she is now determined to make John Willmott a ‘school of choice’ for more students each year.

The married mum- of-three said:

“I feel very privileged to be at John Willmott – there is so much potential in this school, and it’s an honour to be able to work with this community.

“We want John Willmott to be school of choice, and we’re working to raise the aspirations of children who come here, through or motto ‘Potential into Reality’.

“That means going back to basics, in valuing simple standards and thinking about the skills the children need to be really successful.”

The school, which is part of the respected Arthur Terry Learning Partnership (ATLP), recently launched eight ‘virtues’ that students are being encouraged to adopt: Self-Discipline, Integrity, Kindness, Gratitude, Courage, Respect, Commitment and Service.

The virtues are a key part of Mrs Gould’s vision for John Willmott.

She explained: “These values form the bedrock of how the students can reach their potential, because by explicitly teaching these virtues they’ll become motivated to want to be successful.

“The result is children who aspire to be successful. Through the virtues they’ll develop the personal skills they need to succeed, and we’ll teach them the academic knowledge they need too.

“We want our children to make a positive contribution to the wider community. We’re building these children to be citizens for the future, with strong moral and civic values.

“We want everyone to feel proud that they come here, and we’re already seeing a response to the virtues. The children can clearly see their value.”

Mrs Gould began her career as a geography teacher and worked at Bournville School for 23 years before joining ATLP.

She said: “I’m a geography teacher, which is really important to me, as geographers are analytical people, who ask questions about the world around us – I think that approach has given me a strong grounding for school improvement.”

Those skills were put to use after Mrs Gould joined ATLP. After spending a year as acting headteacher of Stockland Green School, she joined the Partnership’s School Improvement team, helping to drive up standards.

She said: “I really enjoyed my work in school improvement. I did a lot of ATLP outreach work, supporting schools that needed help, such as King Solomon in Aston.

“But it also gave me an opportunity to work with all of ATLP’s schools, both Primary and Secondary, so I have a lot of knowledge of them and our local feeder schools too.

“Being part of ATLP is wonderful because of the Partnership’s commitment to learning and improving teaching, through access to training courses and also through in-house support. John Willmott hugely benefits from being a member of that larger family.”

Most of all, Mrs Gould is relishing working with the John Willmott School community – students, parents and staff.

She said: “John Willmott has nearly 1000 students, and it’s a very mixed group. it’s a diverse community which I believe is a real strength because it reflects the make-up of Birmingham, and modern Britain.

“I’m also lucky to have brilliant staff, who have really bought into what we are doing here. I feel very fortunate to be able to work with them.

“I’ve got great teachers, who are subject specialists, which really makes a difference too. It means we can drive our standards up and work around the eight virtues backed by a strong academic body.

“The challenge we have is about persuading more parents to pick our school as a first choice, but I think we’re in a different place already, even after a year. The pace of change has been quite quick, and I think people are realising that the school has changed.”

The facilities at John Willmott are also being improved. Building work over the summer saw a new reception area constructed, along with improvements to the school’s décor – and there is more to come.

Mrs Gould said: “We’ve revamped our library and will be opening a brand-new facility in the next couple of months. We’ve also got some renovation work for our grounds in the pipeline.

“I think it’s very important that we involve the students in improvements like this and get their input into what they would like to see. Everything we do is driven by the students.

“Again, that’s about developing their pride in the school, and building a sense of community here.”