A Windrush Generation Education Leader: my story

We are delighted to welcome Ava Sturridge -Packer CBE to lead on our next ELA seminar.

Ava will talk about leadership as a Black Windrush Generation headteacher and the learning for those aspiring to and leading schools currently.

The seminar will be chaired by Sukhbir Farrar, currently interim Executive Principal at Waverley Education Foundation and winner of the DfE sponsored Lifetime Achievement Award 2022.

The audience will be able to ask questions of the speakers and Chair.

About the speaker

Ava Sturridge -Packer CBE was Headteacher at St Mary’s C of E Primary school Handsworth, Birmingham, for 22 years. She led the school from ‘special measure’ to ‘outstanding’ with Ofsted and it maintained the highest levels of performance throughout her headship. A member of the Windrush Generation, she overcame many obstacles to reach the pinnacle of her profession along the way. Her experiences early on were chilling and a reminder that institutional racism is never far from the surface today.

In January 2000, she was awarded a CBE for Services to Education.

For over a decade, Ava was a member of the National College, Primary reference group.

In 2009 she was designated a National Leader of Education. Since this time, she has led school-to-school support including taking St Michael’s C of E Primary Handsworth, from ‘special measures’ to Ofsted ‘good’. Ava has previously been an Ofsted additional Inspector.

In 2012, she was a member of the writing group, for the DFE Teachers’ Standards. Her school was designated a Teaching School in 2013. In 2018 Ava was appointed as a DFE retention and recruitment adviser for a 2-year project. In 2022 she was appointed as Honorary Fellow at the University of Birmingham. She has been a judge for the Pearson Teaching Awards for the last 15 years.

Since 2018, she has been working as a school Improvement adviser for Birmingham Education Partnership, as well as working with a range of Academies and Trusts. She is also a founding member of the Birmingham BAME Leadership Forum which lends support to members of the community who are establishing themselves as leaders right now.