Claire joined the Central Education Team at Abbey MAT in July 2022 as the Strategic Lead for Safeguarding and Attendance.
Responsible for promoting the very best standards in safeguarding at all the schools across the Trust, Claire works alongside Senior Leaders and Designated Safeguarding Leads to promote the welfare of children, protect them from harm and working strategically to enable all children to have the best outcomes. She is on hand to offer advice, support and direction about child protection and safeguarding issues.
Claire also works closely with the Director of Education to improve the outcomes for children by ensuring regular school attendance. Following the pandemic school attendance has been a significant challenge in the Education sector and Claire is passionate about removing the barriers that stop children attending school, so they can have a happy time at school and make the most out of their education.
Prior to joining our Trust, Claire worked as Attendance Lead and Deputy DSL in a Pupil Referral Unit and has considerable experience of ‘looked after children’ from both personal experience and voluntary work in the adoption field. Prior to moving into the Education sector Claire worked in banking both in operational, training and project management roles.
Linked to our Trust-wide focus on Oracy, Claire has chosen ‘culture’ as her favourite word. She can often be heard talking about ‘culture’, as she feels very strongly that culture underpins who we are and our values and is the foundation to a successful learning environment for our children.
