Trevor Averre-Beeson

Trevor Averre-Beeson

Trevor Averre-Beeson (born c. 1961) is a British schoolteacher who at 35 became the youngest secondary Headteacher at the time in the UK,^[1] when he was appointed, in 1996, Head of Mayfield School, Redbridge, London, a post he held for 7 years.

Education

He attended the Sunbury Grammar School. He obtained a BSc degree in economics at Bradford and a DipEd at Leeds.^[2]

Career

A decade earlier, and within a few years of qualifying, Trevor Averre-Beeson had attained a head of year position at the Boswells Comprehensive School, quickly progressing to become the Head of the School's Six form College in 1988. He moved to Islington Green School in 2002. Islington Green had a troubled past. It was the school Tony Blair refused to send his children to despite his public commitment to comprehensive education. It controversially failed its Ofsted inspection in 1997 with many saying the decision was a political one; to excuse the Blair's decision to choose another school.It was also the school that provided students to sing, controversially, on Pink Floyd's album The Wall - adding their voices to the infamous chorus 'We don't need no education'.^{[citation needed]}

Nine months after Averre-Beeson joined the school it passed its inspection and the Registered Inspector described him as “Visionary and Transformational” – communicating his effective vision to parents, teachers and students alike. In 2004 Tony Blair’s former speech writer Peter Hyman joined the school and wrote his book One out of ten, comparing Averre-Beeson's leadership style favourably with Blair. Hyman and Averre-Beeson worked together to start the process of Islington Green becoming an Academy in 2008.^[3] The decision for the school to become an Academy was instigated by Averre-Beeson to improve the resources available to the school. Some including the NUT thought there were political considerations. They protested that becoming an Academy meant handing over the power of the school governors to the private city investors. The decision to become an Academy was unsuccessfully resisted. ^{[citation needed]}

In 2007 Averre-Beeson was appointed Executive Head of Salisbury School in North London by the private firm Edison Schools, to effect his brand of transformation on the second poorest school in London.^[4]

Soon along with his team, he had reduced 200 exclusions to zero, doubled the key exam indicator and set the ground work to successfully pass its OFSTED inspection 5 terms after joining the school. Meanwhile the school had been refurbished in his trademark purple and changed its name to Turin Grove. ^{[citation needed]} The school's results improved including English and Maths and in 2009 it had a successful Ofsted inspection.^[5] The school later become an Academy and improved its results to 41.5% 5 A*-C inc E&M in 2011 ^[6]

In January 2009 Trevor co-founded Lilac Sky Schools with his educational partner and became its Director of Education – broadening his chance to influence education throughout the UK.^{[citation needed]}

FRSA

In 2007, Trevor Averre-Beeson was named as one of the top 100 up and coming most influential people in London in the Evening Standard’s Poll and became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).^{[citation needed]}

Lilac Sky Schools has worked with over 30 schools since its inception. The company runs 4 schools. Notably Sky College in Somerset which was taken out of special measures within 12 months of being taken over. The HMI noted the influence of the Lilac Sky Team led by Trevor in its energy & enthusiasm supporting the school transforming from failure to success.^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

• Lilac Sky Schools
• Wilby, Peter (6 August 2007). "Down to business". The Guardian.
• "People". TES. 11 May 2007