Mrs Karen Hearne has been appointed the Brooke Weston Trust’s first Director of Science. Mrs Hearne is a very experienced teacher, having been at Brooke Weston Academy in Northamptonshire since it opened, and Head of Science for the past three years.

She is looking forward to working with colleagues from across our Trust secondary schools to improve outcomes for students, sharing ideas and best practice between departments. The new role is about building relationships and offering support where needed:

She said ‘I am relishing going into different schools across the Trust and learning how the science departments work. The role is about working with departments to put systems in place to enable good outcomes. Our ultimate aim is that every student achieves at the level they should be. There is a lot of expertise in each of the schools so we will be sharing ideas across the Trust. It will be a big learning curve as I visit the schools, get to know people and build relationships.’

Mrs Hearne won’t be severing her links with Brooke Weston entirely, as she will teach for two days a week, but it has been pivotal in her career:  ‘That was the hardest decision to make because I have worked at Brooke Weston for 25 years and am now moving on, not leaving completely but the focus will be quite different. My new role starts in September but when exams finish here I’ll be picking up some aspects of it.

‘I get on with people and have a lot of experience of working in a science department and have been head of science for three years. I am quite organised and strategic and I like curriculum planning and have worked through four sets of GCSE changes and put different curriculum structures in place during my career.’

Mrs Hearne has a vision for how science will look across the Trust schools in five years’ time: ‘That lessons are practically based, that every child has a chance to achieve and that there is a lot of learning by doing. Collaboration is the way to go. If one person is doing something really well then everyone can learn from that, not just as in 12 people in that department, but why not make it all the science practitioners across five schools?’

Although Mrs Hearne’s focus will be as secondary Director of Science, there may be some overlap with our younger students: ‘Certainly with primary schools it would be great to have a better understanding of how science is taught at that level then we can build on that more efficiently and effectively going into the secondary phase. We have some understanding of what is going on at primary schools but it would be good to have that bigger picture. We still do a lot of practical science at secondary level when appropriate, but our task as teachers is to look at the curriculum and add in fascination, awe and wonder.’