First Year as Principal: Josh Deery, Harris Lowe Academy Willesden

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Stepping into the role of Principal is a profound opportunity to make a lasting impact, not only on the students of that academy, but also on the dedicated staff who make their success possible. Last year, Josh Deery joined the newly formed Harris Lowe Academy Willesden (HLAW) with a focus on transformation, ambition, and providing an exceptional education for every child at the school. 

After being Principal for a year, we sat down with Josh to discuss his career journey, his leadership style, his vision for the academy, and reflections on his first year of Principalship. 

 

What experience did you have before joining Harris?

In 2012, I joined the ‘Teach First’ programme straight out of Oxford. I had no idea if I would be of any use in a school, but I knew that it would challenge me and I’ve tried to continue pursuing roles I knew I’d find really hard throughout my career. 

I was assigned to teach mathematics at an Outstanding school in Newham and the Principal at the time was excellent. She was highly visible, appeared to know everything about the students, and was a role model for me to emulate all these years later. I became second in charge of maths at that school and our students achieved strong results.  

When I felt ready, I took on a Head of Maths role at a school near Margate. Before I started, the executive head talked to me about deprivation in the local area and took me to some of the more challenging parts of town where some of the students came from. Whilst most of my career has been spent in inner city London, it was eye opening and confirmed my commitment to comprehensive and inclusive education. 

I then moved back to London and became a senior leader. As an assistant head, I focused on data, exams and assessment, before transitioning to pastoral leadership as a deputy headteacher at Regent High School. It was clear that, post-pandemic, we had to ensure we supported families and students knew exactly what excellent behaviour looked like so we could address the gaps created by time out of school. This was predicated on high levels of trust and personal relationships. 

This experience was pivotal before stepping up to be the Principal of Harris Lowe Academy Willesden as it joined the Harris Federation in September 2023. 

 

Did you always have aspirations to become a school leader?

Yes. I wanted to be in a position where I could bring about change and have a positive impact on a school.  

Before the existence of multi-academy trusts, being a headteacher was the pinnacle. Of course, now there is a whole new range of roles when it comes to multi-academy trusts.  

We now have incredibly experienced colleagues who have transformed multiple schools and can therefore provide invaluable advice to someone in my position. Their support has enabled me to get up to speed quickly and focus on making Harris Lowe Academy Willesden an exceptional place to work and learn.  

 

Why did you choose to join the Harris Federation?

I joined Harris because it's the best at what it does. I know that if I want to be effective, I'm in a uniquely privileged position to have both an Executive Principal and also the whole of the Federation to support me. The economies of scale within the Federation mean I can call upon experts which no stand-alone academy could afford. This gives me access to the best advice, not just concerning the curriculum but also on legal, estates and recruitment matters. This means I can make decisions more quickly and confidently in the best interests of our community. 

 

What has been your main focus over the past year?

For me, the difference between being the Principal, rather than a Deputy, is that you shift your focus to your staff. I remember an experienced Head once telling me that being Principal is like being the Head of Year, but for the adults in the building. I’ve certainly found that true in my first year. 

As long as I’m looking after my colleagues then there are dozens of adults enabled to do the best for the children. Whilst I love interacting with the students, and it’s really enjoyable to see the immediate impact on them, there is a finite number of children I can affect directly. So, my focus has been on making sure that staff are as supported as possible, whether that is by leveraging the Federation’s support via the Consultant Team, redesigning timetables to reduce workload, or improving our options process so we have students who feel more empowered about their curriculum and feel happier in every single classroom they’re in.  

That's been the real priority to make sure my colleagues have the best possible working experience day to day. Nationally, we're still feeling the legacy of the pandemic, especially when it comes to attendance. It is also true that everyone in the Harris Federation has chosen to serve in challenging contexts. I see it as my job to make sure that every member of staff has the right sort of challenge and that they have every opportunity to be successful.  

I’ve also been focused on what I’ve always enjoyed the most, which is pastoral engagement with the students. My senior leadership team and I have prioritised visible leadership; all students see us in lessons, on every duty, and after school in the neighbourhood. This also means a teacher in the early stages of their career can focus on planning an inspiring lesson rather than worrying about all the other areas of school life.   

 

What is your vision for Harris Lowe Academy Willesden?

I want to Harris Lowe Academy Willesden to be the school of choice for our community. We will achieve this by ensuring students achieve great results, have exemplary conduct, and benefit from enriching extra-curricular experiences throughout their seven year journey with us. 

I want families in Brent to know they have an incredible school on their doorstep that they want to send their children to. I want them to know that their children will achieve significantly better outcomes at the end of Year 11 at HLAW than in a typical school. I want them to know that in our Sixth Form they will receive expert teaching and personalised support to access the best possible careers and elite universities. 

I am lucky that Willesden is now part of the highest-performing large multi-academy trust in the country, and is also situated in one of the highest-performing boroughs. We are surrounded by outstanding schools who routinely achieve significantly positive outcomes. It’s great competition and I want to make sure that we are up there with all the other exceptional schools that are in Brent and in the Federation. 

In our founding year, I am delighted by the exceptional results achieved by our Sixth Form and Year 11 cohorts. Our Sixth formers achieved the best results in this site’s history, with 58% of grades being A*-B, over 90% of students attending their first choice of university and ¼ heading off to a Russell Group university. Likewise, our Year 11 students, improved their average attainment by half a grade compared to 2023. As an academy we are at the beginning of a journey of rapid improvement, but what we are most proud of is that, at HLAW, your gender, prior ability, special education needs or free school meal status didn’t define your results; all achieved better here than national averages. We know achieving this sort of consistency is a perpetual challenge for schools, and I am proud that my staff and students have started as we mean to go on. 

I’m also committed to ensuring our students feel relaxed about applying to the world’s best universities and careers. I’ve seen lots of students who needed a boost in self-confidence to secure places on competitive courses.  In my introductory assemblies I said to our students that that I was looking out at a group of future Oxbridge graduates, doctors, teachers, architects and, more importantly, people who would work hard to improve the world around them. Every member of staff at HLAW is committed to providing an outstanding seven-year curriculum for every student, so that they can fulfil their potential. This doesn’t mean 180 children are going to want to go to Oxbridge. We want them to make sure that whatever their chosen career path, they have access to the best possible version of that, whilst having had an enriching experience at school. 

Put simply, I want all students to leave here feeling proud and privileged to have attended Harris Lowe Academy Willesden. 

 

What's been the most challenging part of the role? 

Like all schools, HLAW operates within its own particular context. Therefore, I saw it as vital to balance the desire to improve the academy for our community with the duty to retain the knowledge and skills that already exist within our building. Of course, we are ambitious and seek every possible opportunity to find the most impactful ways of making our systems, routines, and processes better in every single way for our students and staff. However, there was an academy here before us, and it is always important to make sure that people feel enabled to sometimes do exactly what they've done previously and not feel the need to reinvent the wheel. We don’t want to create change just for change’s sake. 

Speaking more broadly, I think all Principals and Headteachers are acutely aware of the financial challenges schools face. Budgets have become tighter year on year for the majority of my career. For the long-term health of the community, I knew it was vital to ensure we were spending in the right way to secure our children's futures. 

 

What are you most proud of?

I'm most proud of my staff. What they have already achieved is remarkable. 

Before I was even in post, they had to embrace a huge amount of a change. Yes, these changes were a consequence of benefiting from joining the most successful large multi-academy trust, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t challenging. Everything was new to them, yet they have thrived at embracing the new ideas I’ve introduced and bought into this new culture. I can't ask for more from my colleagues in this building; every single day I am grateful that they arrive eager to serve our students and ensure they receive their entitlement to an exceptional education. 

 

What advice would you give someone who is about to step into principalship for the first time? 

Listen, listen again and keeping listening! Gather as much information as you possibly can before you even start. The moment you get the job, listen to people. Of course, you want to know what your SLT think, but make a conscious effort to seek broader voices, especially of those who have served the academy for a long time, as absorbing that institutional wisdom is invaluable. Ensure you take the time to absorb the knowledge and experience that other people have about the school you're joining and leading.  

To complement this, having invested time in listening, make sure you make those key decisions, even if they are unpopular, sooner rather than later. This is a key reflection from this year; there are some things where I thought ‘that’s not right, I want to change that’ and I didn’t at the time, and now we are making the change anyway. 

 

What do you want your next year as Principal to look like?

I want my next year as Principal to be about ensuring it is as easy as possible for every adult in the building to have the greatest impact that they can, whether that be in the classroom, in pastoral positions, and any other role in our academy. Everyone needs to be at the top of their game if we are to provide the best possible for our students. 

We’ve made so many positive changes in our founding year. We had a lot to do – when we started our canteen was so small that we fed KS3 lunch at 10:50am! Now is about ensuring those changes become embedded and make it easier for my wonderful team to have an impact. I want to retain the wonderful staff who stood by my side in that challenging first year. 

What I tell our students is that I want them to attend the most predictable school in the country. These children are wonderful, delightful, and charming, but naturally, they sometimes make mistakes, and they are far less likely to make mistakes when they attend an entirely predictable environment.  

My colleagues worked incredibly hard last year to implement the fundamentals of a well-functioning school; in the coming academic year we want to focus on further improving the core business of our academy, which must always be teaching and learning. We are calling this the “Willesden Way”. This evidence-based approach to teaching and student culture will create a predictable environment in a way that that frees teachers up to be creative about what really matters so they can deliver the specific knowledge to their specific students. 

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