Outwood Family Catch Up...Lisa Allott

As part of our new feature, we are talking with members of the Outwood Family and finding out how life has changed for them since the wider reopening of the secondary academies.

This time we chat with Lisa Allott, Principal at Outwood Academy Freeston. 

Read on to see how Lisa and the team at OA Freeston dealt with the wider reopening of the academy to students.

[Outwood.com] Hi Lisa, thanks for taking the time to chat with us. We appreciate you’re busy, so let’s get to it! Things have been turned upside down recently, for reasons we are all too aware of. So, as we begin to enter a new ‘normal’, how were you feeling prior to the academy reopening?

“Hi, It’s great to speak to you again. Well, overall I felt nervous. I wanted everyone to feel safe, secure and be aware that we had put into place everything we could think of to help support both our staff and students.  

“Yet in addition to this nervousness, I felt excited. I was really looking forward to having face-to-face contact with our Year 10 students, so that we could support them further with their education.”

That is a combination of feelings we have heard many people were experiencing, so you aren’t alone there. What would you say was the most challenging aspect of the whole process for you?

“The most challenging part was the overall preparation. It was such an immense task, making sure that we had everything in place and ticked off before the INSET sessions started and ensuring we had made phone calls to parents of our Year 10 students to discuss the next steps. 

“I believed these phone calls were vitally important, and made sure that we did this 100%.”

We have heard from many principals that the preparation was the biggest challenge, but you and your team definitely did a fantastic job with it. So what has been the biggest surprise of the whole reopening process for you?

“I found I was most surprised by how happy our Year 10 students were to return into the academy. Not only this but also I was surprised by their revised look on the importance of education, how lucky they were to be able to go to school and how they now want to get on with their last year.

“It was quite inspiring to be honest, and to see them so grateful to have revision guides and workbooks waiting for them, so they had a choice again of how to learn, was really positive.”

What a positive note to end on. Thank you for your time, Lisa.