and has strongly supported you over the past four
years. How important has he been as a mentor?
He's been extremely supportive right from the
beginning. I was on the Search Committee when
he was appointed and we hit it off pretty well from
the get-go. So we've always worked closely together.
He's given me fantastic autonomy in my role here.
He believes in allowing his senior leaders to lead;
he obviously holds you to account and has an
expectation of your performance being of a high
level, but he gives you that autonomy with which
you can really grow. It's been a fantastic preparation.
past few months?
I can. One of the biggest things we did to start
with was to physically move me into Woodlands so
we could speak a lot more easily. I've been trying to
put a focus on areas I haven't had too much experience
in up to now. I've been very focussed on teaching
and learning, but there are all the other areas of
school leadership that we've been working to
address--finance, advancement, student discipline,
building issues, Board meetings, etc. Ted's making
sure that as things turn up in the normal business
of the School, if it's something I wouldn't ordinarily
have dealt with in the past, he's including me on
those. For my part, I'm learning all I can: what do
I need to make sure I've talked through with him
or taken from him? We have a close working
relationship and that really helps.
you feel you were the one for the job?
home now in lots of ways. The student body is, I
think, made up of the best students you could hope
with; they have so much potential. They do fantastic
things. If you're choosing a school, the biggest
thing is the student body--is it a student body you
want to work with? For me, Saltus is the community
I wanted to be a part of and wanted to lead.
of changes. We have raised standards in the School
significantly, but there is still a way to go. Having
been a part of that process, I felt I knew what
needed to be done, that I could seamlessly move
the School from where we are right now to
continue the initiatives we've started and also to
develop some new ones that would really be a good
fit--that would allow people to grow and move
forward as painlessly as possible. Change is not
easy. But we're in a good place and I believe with
the developments we have planned, we will be the
best school in Bermuda.
under Ted's leadership?
improvement in examination results. We went from
76 percent of our students passing with five grades
from A* to C in 2009 to 89 percent in 2012, which
is substantial. So that's the most visible impact. But
it's much more than just results; they are just one
part of the picture. If you walk around the School,
you will see a much more focussed learning environ-
ment than the one we had several years ago. To me,
it's the quality of the teaching and learning in the
School. That's my proudest achievement. And it's a
work in progress. I'm very excited at the moment as
we are redesigning our teaching and learning policy
and so are going into a consultation process with
students, teachers, parents, and other interested
stakeholders--our Board of Trustees, local business,
university admission officers--to make sure our
the best
candidate
for the job
and had an
amazing
vision for
the School.
It also didn't
go unnoticed
that she had
assisted Ted
on the
School's
journey over
the past four
years. The
icing on the
cake is
that her
appointment
expands the
School's
diversity by
having a
woman as
the first Head
of School'