Welcome
Message from Peter Gaul, Principal of King’s Leadership Academy Hawthornes
Hello, my name is Peter Gaul and I am the Principal of King’s Leadership Academy Hawthornes.
Our school is part of The Great Schools Trust, a small but growing multi-academy trust situated in the Northwest of England. There are currently four King’s Leadership Academy schools within the GST in Warrington, Liverpool and Bolton and a pupil referral unit next to our Liverpool school, the Aspire Centre. There are also currently plans for two more to be built in Bolton and Walton.
Why King’s Leadership Academy Hawthornes?
We are a growing school of committed friendly staff and a cohort of students who are polite, enthusiastic, and keen to learn right across the curriculum. We are a school centred in our Aspire Values – Achievement, Aspiration, Self-awareness, Professionalism, Integrity, Respect and Endeavour. It is these values that drive our behaviours and relationships, a ‘lingua franca’ that helps to bind our community together. An inspector captured the mission of the school when he observed that we were ‘building better people,’ something we are proud of.
Our aim is to provide a curriculum for our students that enables them to access real knowledge and a chance to progress to high quality higher education or training. We also aim to create an enriched offer that provides cultural capital for all our students, irrespective of their personal circumstances. We also privilege diversity and inclusivity and pride ourselves on the welcome we give every student and their families.
We tackle disadvantage rigorously. We provide every student with a chrome book, free breakfast and breaktime food, free residential experiences to build self-esteem and teamwork, free opportunities to join the Duke of Edinburgh scheme. We have won national recognition for Combined Cadet Force sponsored by the Royal Marines. No student is left behind and we remove barriers to learning at every opportunity.
We take the development and well-being of our staff equally as seriously.
Everyone is provided with a laptop and we have recently invested in state of the art ICT infrastructure for every classroom. We hold CPD on two evenings a week – our late finish for Thursday Enrichment allows an early finish on a Friday for a second CPD session. This collaborative approach has allowed the Trust to develop a common curriculum and strong assessment policies that allow staff to focus on work life balance and having the energy to focus on the classroom, not clutter beyond it.
These approaches have led to extremely high levels of staff retention and attendance. It is place where people want to teach, where parents want to send their children and where children want to study.
If you are interested in a post at King’s Leadership Academy Hawthornes, I strongly recommend you come to Bootle and see the work we do for yourself. We are situated in Bootle, two miles from Liverpool city centre. The school is within Sefton local authority.
Have a tour of the school and meet the members of our community. Please contact Hannah Connell to arrange a visit.
I look forward to meeting you.
Pete Gaul
Prinicipal
