About us
Our vision
Annie Gammon has been a successful headteacher of a large inner city secondary schools and has been Director of Education for an inner city local authority which reduced exclusions by over 35% and oversaw school Ofsted gradings rise to 98% good or outstanding.
Kat Stern is the author of “The Excludables” and a consultant and trainer on issues linked to children who are vulnerable to exclusion and the school systems which can lead to exclusion.
Both Annie and Kat are committed to the inclusion of children wherever possible, while recognising that mainstream schools are not right for every child.
Who are we?
Annie Gammon
Annie Gammon is a highly skilled educational senior leader. Annie brings experience of local authority leadership within Children and Education Services at Director level, having been Director of Education for a high achieving LA, as well as successful secondary school headship.
Annie has experience as Chair of Trustees for an academy trust and governorship at a sixth form college.
Annie led education in Hackney for four years. As Director of Education she Led school system in Hackney to 98% of schools being good or outstanding. Hackney primary schools ranked 7th in the country for outcomes Summer 2022. Chaired cross Children Services Reducing Exclusions work leading to improved inclusion
approaches in schools and a significant reduction in permanent exclusions and suspensions
Chair of SEND Local Area Partnership
Co-author: Educational Success: the Hackney Picture.
As headteacher
Led inclusive secondary comprehensive school of 1600 pupils for ten years through successful Ofsted inspections;
Improved outcomes: Progress 8, English and Maths GCSE well above national average.
NPQH Institute of Education 2007
National Qualification for Executive Headteachers 2017
Common Purpose: 2021/22 Cross Boundary Leadership
Kat Stern
Kat is a behaviour consultant, speaker and trainer, offering support in mainstream and alternative provision settings. She was previously a Therapeutic Education Consultant within a Young Offenders’ Institution and an associate member of their Senior Leadership Team. Within this role she performed a trial of unlimited time-out in a room with sensory tools with significant differences in behavioural outcomes when compared to the control group.
Prior to this, she spent five years as a Director of Teaching and Learning for Behaviour in a large inner-city academy, as well as running an educational provision for students at risk of exclusion and training mainstream teachers in classroom management and teaching pedagogy. Most of her teaching career has been in large, inner-city schools within some of the most deprived boroughs in London and her lessons have been persistently judged as outstanding.
Kat is the author of “The Excludables: from mainstream classroom to prison education” which is published by John Catt Educational. It is an important resource that gathers a huge amount of research around a broad range of factors that influence behaviour in schools. It combines data and clinical studies about poverty, trust, resilience, mental health, trauma, bias and much more, in a way that provides an objective and critical viewpoint. Kat consistently uses data and clinical trials to inform her strategic work, which is evident throughout the book.
