To see our latest vacancies, simply click here.

 Working at Outwood - Lauren Knowles

Lauren Knowles and I’m Regional Vice Principal at Outwood Haydock and Outwood Hindley.

I’ve been part of the Outwood Family since 2014, in numerous positions. I began as a Teacher of Science, then became Head of Biology before holding other senior leadership team positions before landing my current role.

What do you find most rewarding about working for Outwood?

The overall supportive culture is most rewarding for me. I found that it is clear, very quickly, how the infrastructure of Outwood helps and supports colleagues to progress into the best versions of themselves, both personally and professionally, which has a direct impact on student outcomes.

I feel incredibly supported in the classroom as I know that senior leadership have confidence in me. I find the learning routines that we use through instructional coaching extremely helpful for me as a teacher and helps the school to foster greater instructional coherence and support for teachers. For example, all lessons start and end in the same way, from all classrooms.

In addition, there is lots of support to help colleagues use positive framing when communicating with children; I particularly appreciate how this helps our students who are disadvantaged, with no surprises, students know exactly what is expected of them so that they can overcome barriers to learning sooner.

What is one of the highlights of your time with Outwood?

I have so many highlights, it is hard to choose one! Receiving an email from a student to share where they are now and their successes has to be one of the top highlights and one student particularly stands out to me.

I worked with them for four years and made it my mission to remove their negative neuro associations with school, largely down to having a lot to deal with at home. With help from colleagues we managed to help them to make the transition to sixth-form, to continue studying Level 3 qualifications whilst learning to believe in themselves.

Every day presented a new challenge but with that also brought lessons and the most profounding wins. For example, one morning after many attempts to persuade them to use study periods to revise, they came into my room at 8am(!) and asked to sit at the back whilst I taught in the morning to revise as they felt comfort in noise, not so much in the silent library. I agreed and this continued for two months until the Easter holidays.

On the last day the student came and said goodbye and left a note on my desk that read "Thank-you for always smiling and cheering me up, it is the reason I turn up everyday". Since that day, I have never stopped reminding myself to keep smiling, even when it's the last thing on my mind.

The student has since contacted me to share that they are loving university, studying a course that they at one point didn't know existed, with the aim to work in public services. What an achievement for this young person!