GEMMA JOHNSON

Experienced and highly successful Senior/Assistant Headteacher with over 20 years of educational leadership and teaching experience across secondary and post-16 settings. Proven track record of driving whole-school improvement, leading curriculum innovation, strengthening pastoral systems, and developing high-performing teams. Extensive experience leading strategic initiatives across personal development, teaching and learning, behaviour, safeguarding, careers education, and sixth form provision. Recognised for a collaborative and people-centred leadership style that empowers staff, raises student outcomes, and creates inclusive learning environments. Instrumental in delivering three successful Ofsted inspections and transforming sixth form provision and personal development through strategic growth. Passionate about ensuring every young person achieves their full potential both academically and personally through high expectations, strong relationships, and outstanding educational opportunities.

• Advanced Leadership for Senior Leaders – National College (2025)
• Strategic Leadership in Post-16 Education – SSAT (2025)
• Advanced Safeguarding and Prevent in Post-16 – NSPCC (2025)
• Effective Line Management and Staff Wellbeing (2025)
• Trauma Informed Approaches to Behaviour (2025)
• Restorative Practice in Secondary Schools (2026)
• Coaching and Mentoring – ILM
• Curriculum Design and Implementation – PiXL
• Leading PSHE and RSE
• Character Education and Values
• Developing High Performing Teams
• Mental Health and Wellbeing in Education

• Led whole school initiative on Personal Development and character education
• Leadership contributor to three successful Ofsted inspections
• Increased sixth form recruitment by 38%.
• Expanded curriculum offer to over 45 subjects.
• Raised over £25,000 through community engagement projects.
• Developed whole-school Futures Programme adopted across all key stages.
• Designed innovative safeguarding and pastoral tracking systems.
• Established scholarship opportunities for disadvantaged students.
• Successfully mentored and developed future senior leaders.
• Led curriculum and pastoral initiatives recognised by Ofsted.

I am a dedicated and experienced Assistant Headteacher with extensive experience in education, including the last 6 as an assistant headteacher at my current school, during which time the school has successfully achieved three positive Ofsted inspections. I am committed to creating an enriching, inclusive, and aspirational environment in which both students and staff can thrive. My leadership approach is forward-thinking and people-centred, reflected in my 2025 Insights Discovery assessment, which identified me as a visionary leader with a strong focus on growth, collaboration, and continuous improvement, alongside a perceptive and empathetic approach to supporting others.

Throughout my career, I have deliberately sought a breadth of leadership experience across curriculum, pastoral systems, and personal development. This has enabled me to lead from a position of authenticity and credibility, underpinned by firsthand experience and a deep understanding of whole-school improvement. As a result, I have earned the trust of staff, students, governors, and parents, and have been able to lead change with clarity, confidence, and impact.

As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, I have contributed to shaping whole-school strategy and ensuring its effective implementation. I have built strong relationships with governors, ensuring alignment between strategic priorities and operational delivery. Their confidence in my leadership was reflected in their comment: “Give Gemma a seed, and she will grow a tree.” This captures my approach of nurturing ideas, investing in people, and delivering sustained improvement. I am particularly passionate about developing staff, recognising that empowered and supported colleagues are central to achieving long-term success and under my leadership our current AHT was recruited by myself as a ECT and I have mentored her consistently throughout the past 8 years.

One of the many significant aspects of my leadership has been the transformation of the post-16 provision and transition, underpinned by both academic and pastoral improvement. I led the development of a three-year strategic vision to modernise the sixth form, ensuring it responded to the evolving educational and social landscape. This included a full redesign of the curriculum offer, developed collaboratively with staff to secure buy-in and long-term sustainability. Alongside this, I strengthened pastoral systems, introducing clearer structures for monitoring attendance, wellbeing, and student progress, alongside targeted interventions and mentoring support. As a result:

• Student numbers increased by 38% (140 – 198 students in each year group) and oversubscribed (going from 200 - 456 applications with 280 as first choice) under my leadership
• Developed a marketing strategy involving online content, imagery, and rebranding to establish a refreshed vision for the Sixth Form
• Outcomes improved to an average grade of C+, and 31% of students achieving A/D*
• Attendance improved and was above national

Students demonstrated greater engagement and independence. The provision was recognised by Ofsted (Jan 2024) as “a strength of the school,” with students able to “articulate their learning with confidence and enthusiasm.”

• Through collaboration within the trust, including partnership with Invicta Grammar School, we expanded the curriculum to over 45 subjects, introducing courses such as Personal Finance, Criminology, and Ethics and Philosophy
• Led careers provision, ensuring students are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and experiences needed for future success. Ofsted recognised this work (Jan2024 and 2020), noting that careers guidance is “well established and of high quality”
• Students have progressed to prestigious destinations, including Oxford and other Russell Group universities, as well as high-quality apprenticeships and employment. I am proud of our alumni and their achievements, with former students regularly returning to speak; notably, one alumnus has gone on to work with NASA and recently spoke to students at the start of the year.
• Strengthened parental engagement through initiatives such as coffee mornings and careers events, where parents contribute directly to students’ learning through workshops and mentoring.

Alongside this, a strengthened pastoral culture, rooted in high expectations, strong relationships, and consistent support contributed to improved retention, positive student conduct, and a reputation for providing both academic excellence and exceptional pastoral care.

A key priority has been ensuring equity of opportunity, particularly for disadvantaged and SEND students. I developed a structured programme to guarantee access to meaningful work experience for all students, regardless of barriers. Through tailored pathways, pre-placement preparation, employer engagement, and targeted support, 100% of students secured placements last year. This resulted in increased confidence, improved communication skills, and clearer progression pathways. Collaboration with SEND teams and employers also increased inclusive placement opportunities and reduced drop-off rates.

In addition to my work in post-16, I have led whole-school curriculum development. Working with an external advisor, Sir R Bosher to implement a Mastery based curriculum with a clear focus on sequencing, challenge, and knowledge retention. I line managed eleven subject leaders, providing tailored support and challenge to drive improvement. As a result, ten subjects achieved a Progress 8 score of 0 or above with art achieving 2.11. This work was recognised during Ofsted, particularly in relation to the collaborative approach and the positive impact on staff workload and wellbeing with art being particularly recognised as ‘world class’ under my leadership. For my own personal outcomes in Art and Textiles have been consistently strong and the highest grades within the school, with last year’s A Level Textiles cohort achieving 70% A–A* and GCSE results reaching 100% grades 5–9, with 40% at grades 7–9. These successes have also been closely linked to community-based learning opportunities, including the Dementia Café initiative, where student creativity has been used to support engagement and wellbeing.I have also addressed underperformance through structured support and accountability. Where professional standards have not been met, I have led Performance Improvement Plans with clarity and consistency, combining high expectations with strong coaching. This has resulted in leaders successfully exiting formal support processes and going on to support others, strengthening leadership capacity and improving whole school consistency.

My leadership of Personal Development as Senior Assistant Headteacher has been a key driver of cultural change within my current school. Over the past 18 months, I have introduced a whole-school vision centred on character, aspiration, and inclusion. Central to this has been the Futures Programme, which I initially developed for the Sixth Form and, due to its success and impact, have since embedded across all key stages. This spiral curriculum approach programme brings together career’s education, student leadership, enrichment, PSHE, and wider experiences within a coherent, progressive framework. In addition, I have developed an innovative digital tracking system enabling students to reflect on and map their Personal Development journey over time.The impact has been hugely significant. Extracurricular participation has increased from below 50% to over 72% across the school, and over 85% in Key Stage 3. Students are more engaged, confident, and aspirational, and staff report greater clarity and confidence in delivering personal development. A recent staff survey showed that 88% feel empowered to contribute to developing student character.

A particular success has been improving engagement with the Relationships and Sex Education curriculum. Through targeted parental engagement, clear communication, and careful implementation, I reduced the number of withdrawn students from over 80 to just 6 in the space of 3 months. This demonstrates my ability to manage sensitive issues with professionalism, clarity, and respect, while maintaining a commitment to understand parental views.

Pastoral leadership is central to my experience. I have overseen behaviour, attendance, and culture across both sixth form and lower school, including leading transition into Year 7. Through strong line management of pastoral leaders, I have ensured consistency and high expectations, contributing to low exclusion rates across the school and improved student engagement. I have embedded a relational approach to support our school vision using Thrive, a whole-school framework designed to support children and young people’s social, emotional, and mental wellbeing, by targeted interventions and personalised support, ensuring that behaviour systems are both robust and inclusive.

As a Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (DDSL) over the past year, I have developed a proactive, data-informed approach to safeguarding. By analysing trends across year groups, I have implemented targeted responses through assemblies, tutor programmes, and curriculum development. This has ensured safeguarding is not purely reactive, but preventative in nature, with staff better equipped to respond effectively and students receiving timely, appropriate support. This work has contributed to embedding a whole-school culture of safeguarding.

In addition, I designed the PASC system (Pastoral and Safeguarding Chronology), a structured tracking tool that brings together key strands of student information, including attendance, behaviour, rewards, communication with home, and intervention history. This provides a chronological overview of each student’s support journey, enabling staff to make more informed, joined up decisions. Working in collaboration with IT, I helped develop and implement this system to streamline information sharing across departments, ensuring a consistent and coordinated approach to supporting student welfare.

My leadership extends beyond the school into the wider community through sustained charitable and partnership work. I led the development of the DECAF initiative and Dementia Café, providing students with meaningful leadership opportunities while strengthening intergenerational community engagement. This work has been recognised through the Kent Dementia Award in 2023 and positively referenced in Ofsted feedback. Through these initiatives, we have raised over £25,000 for associated charities. Events have included hosting a Christmas experience for over 10 local care homes, where students prepared and served a three-course meal, as well as Easter community events featuring student performances alongside the delivery of care packages. We have also organised a live-streamed online art auction and a student-led art exhibition to further raise funds and engagement.

In parallel, I have sustained a scholarship programme, developed in partnership with Kent County Council, which supports disadvantaged students across year groups. This has enabled increased access to the school outside the catchment area or students from underrepresented backgrounds, with a significant proportion going on to achieve strong academic outcomes and progress to competitive higher education and career pathways.

I am committed to continuous improvement and have demonstrated my ability to lead effectively in the absence of senior colleagues. As an Assistant Head I have overseen key aspects of school operations, including events, open evenings and trust-wide initiatives ensuring smooth and effective running of the school. My experience within a Multi-Academy Trust has strengthened my understanding of collaboration, allowing me to contribute to wider strategic discussions and support school improvement across multiple settings including primary settings.

My appointment and involvement in the establishment of the new School of Science and Technology STEM school (2020) highlighted my contribution to developing a broad and balanced curriculum. I led the design of the Arts faculty curriculum, supported effective communication across teams, and delivered training for new staff to ensure consistent and high-quality curriculum implementation.Additionally, I have actively engaged in regular meetings with Headteachers and Deputy Headteachers to lead discussions on character education, drawing on shared expertise and insight for the mutual benefit of all schools within the MAT. I have also presented my work at MAT level, including the Futures Programme and the associated tracking of student progress, highlighting the impact of these initiatives and the value of cross-school collaboration.

Through this work, I have seen the power of collaboration in driving innovation, particularly through the use of technology. This includes the introduction of tools such as Padlet and QR codes to enhance student participation and engagement with their Personal Development journey. These platforms support students in maintaining a reflective journal, enabling them to review their progress and articulate their experiences effectively for UCAS applications and future employment pathways.

In summary, I bring a strong track record of strategic leadership, operational effectiveness, and values-driven practice. I am so excited by your school and ready to take the next steps into a different setting, contributing to a high-performing team while ensuring that relationships, wellbeing, and inclusion remain central to success. I am committed to raising standards, empowering staff, and ensuring every student is supported to achieve their full potential. I would welcome the opportunity to contribute to your community and play a key role in supporting the continued success and future development.

Achieved a Black belt in Karate

Play padel weekly. play netball for a league

I am a qualified Foster Carer