"This is an exceptional programme about empowering women to find their voice, developing their critical leadership skills and building the courage and confidence required to be an effective leader"
Lisa Fathers
The Northwest hub has been created to raise the profile of women in education; providing support, advice, coaching and mentoring, to ensure career satisfaction, progression and retention, hopefully encouraging more women to step up to senior leadership roles in education.
Taking on the role of Hub Leads are Lisa Fathers, Director of the Alliance’s Teaching School, in Altrincham, and Melanie Wicks, Principal at Wellacre Academy, Flixton.
Together with other female teachers and leaders from across the Northwest, they will access government funding to deliver a proactive programme supporting female teachers all over the region. In addition to a range of planned one on one mentoring sessions and online training programmes, the team is organising a Coaching Conference, to be held in Manchester on 30th June.
Lisa Fathers comments: “We are delighted to be a part of the Women Leading in Education initiative. This is an exceptional programme about empowering women to find their voice, developing their critical leadership skills and building the courage and confidence required to be an effective leader.”
Melanie Wicks, Principal at Wellacre Academy added: “I’m really excited to be leading on this initiative for the Alliance for learning. Being able to work together to inspire and support more women into leadership is a wonderful opportunity and we are looking forward to strengthening our network through events and networking opportunities.’’
Dr John Stephens, CEO of Bright Futures Educational Trust, adds: “We have a large number of high profile female leaders within BFET; as well as Lisa, seven of our eight schools are headed up by women and we also have senior female leaders in HR and strategy. It’s vital for our organisation to be fair and diverse and we are delighted to be working on this, and to have Melanie join us from one of the Alliance’s Teaching Schools.”
