Tina Farr

Tina is all about the ‘and’.

At a time when so many school leaders want to create the joyful school cultures children and staff deserve but are fearful of standing out in our high-stakes education system, Tina shows you can have the best of both worlds.

Joyful and accountable.

Academic results and a playful environment.

Happy inspectors and happy staff (and children and parents).

Knowledge rich and compassionately human.

Great behaviour and autonomy in the hands of teachers and children.

And, as a leader, you can be both strong and vulnerable.

The debate may be polarised online but Tina, with many years of school leadership behind her, is proof of the power of 'and'.

Driven to make a difference through school leadership (with a nudge from the late great Sir Ken Robinson), Tina knows not to fight the system but to work to influence it from within. And, as any visitor to her CofE primary school in Oxford will tell you, she is very much walking the talk.

From a play-based curriculum working its way up from EYFS into KS1 and beyond to the flexibility and autonomy teachers and children have over their teaching and learning to the inspirational way families are greeted each morning, come rain or shine, Tina is living proof of the mantra, 'there is another way'.