About the Academy
The Principal
Until his appointment as Principal Designate of The Isle of Sheppey Academy Dr Paul Mortimer was the country's first Chief Executive of a Governing Body of a comprehensive school (Hollingworth Business and Enterprise College, Rochdale), responsible for developing the concept of Governance as Leadership in response to the 21st Century demands on schools and the need to radically change the nature of Headship and current succession planning models.
He has been a teacher for thirty-four years and a Headteacher for nineteen years with four Headship experiences - two substantive Headships whilst also the Executive Headteacher of two challenging schools...
His previous school was regarded as being at the forefront of remodelling and had an unusual school week. It was a former Government top 100 school for continued success at GCSE 5 A*-C. The school, under Dr Mortimer's leadership, was the first in the country to develop and implement the post of classroom assistant to cover for absent teachers back in 2001.
Dr Mortimer is:
- A trained NCSL Consultant Leader and former NRT Consultant
- A trained mentor to new Headteachers
- A trained NCSL ICT Consultant
- A former Associate Headteacher of the then DFES Innovation Unit
- A member of the Think Tank, Steering Group and Design Group of the NCSL Building Schools for the Future Leadership programme
- A Think Tank member of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust personalised learning group
- A member of BECTA's E-Strategy Expert Group
He was a 'Thought Leader' to the former National Remodelling Team and also served as a member of then DfES advisory group for Building Schools for the Future. He has facilitated three international Headteacher study visits for 36 Headteachers on behalf of the British Council to Utrecht, Warsaw (as part of the London Challenge strategy) and Hong Kong. He spent the month of April 2006 with the British Council in Washington DC and New York as an adviser on UK-USA education policy.
He has been consulted by a number of LEAs, schools and other organisations, and specialises in the structure of school time, governance and leadership of schools of the future, preparation for personalised learning, and the development of federations. He was seconded as a consultant to Australia's Schools of the Future back in 1992/3. He was also a consultant Headteacher to the GTC for six months prior to its incorporation. For three years he was an Accredited External Advisor to Governing Bodies and a consultant to the former DfES School Workforce Unit. He has published articles on management and leadership over the years. He also speaks at regional and national conferences.
Professor David Hargreaves (then of Cambridge University but now a Director of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust) wrote about what he did in his first Headship in the TES in March 1990:
"Dr. Mortimer is clever enough to realise that sometimes you have to introduce a reform in order to implement other reforms successfully... another example of how the most important reforms in education are based not on the dreams of politicians or the theories of academics but on the inspiration of practitioners like Ken Saxby, Brian Knight and now Paul Mortimer."
