Ms L Clarke

Regional Director

Before joining Ark Blacklands Primary Academy and Ark Little Ridge Primary Academy as Executive Principal, Lorraine Clarke was Principal of Blacklands, successfully leading the school from special measures to outstanding in all areas within 3 years. Blacklands continues to achieve results that are significantly above national averages.

Prior to her current role, Lorraine worked as the Deputy Head of a large primary school in Little Common. The school raised its early years, Phonics and end of key stage 2 standards significantly in the three years Lorraine worked there, moving the school from an Ofsted category of Requires Improvement to Good. Prior to that Lorraine worked as an Assistant Headteacher in Hailsham, once again being part of the leadership team that moved the school from a category of Requires Improvement to Good. In 2005, Lorraine was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to relocate to Arizona, U.S.A. in order to teach in the local community and lead on innovation based on her experience and knowledge of the British education system and curriculum.   

Lorraine graduated from the University of Plymouth with a 2:1 Degree (Hons) in Psychology.  She has since obtained a Post-Graduate degree from the University of Sussex in Policing Studies and a Post Graduate Certificate of Education from the University of Brighton.

As a teacher, Lorraine spent a number of years supporting colleagues in both England and America to improve literacy standards within the classroom, whilst also delivering end of KS2 results in her own school that increased year on year. With a passion for literacy and the performing arts, she has choreographed several amateur stage productions, including Hairspray, Bugsy Malone and Joseph & his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.  She has also coached an American cheerleading squad to success in their state and national championships.

Mrs M Quinn

Deputy Headteacher

Mary Quinn joined Ark Blacklands Primary as Assistant Headteacher in 2016 and became Deputy in September 2018. She has a proven track record of consistently improving Key Stage 2 results. Before joining Ark Blacklands, she worked for ten years at a large primary school in Bexhill, most recently working as Leader of years 3, 4, 5 & 6. Under her leadership of Upper Juniors, KS2 attainment and progress results improved in all areas of the curriculum every single year since 2012.  She has also successfully nurtured and coached teachers, developing their skills and raising their performance, from good to outstanding within a year. As Instructional Lead Teacher at Ark Blacklands, Mary will continue with this role of improving teachers' practice.

During her time at Little Common, Mary led Art and then English across the whole school. Mary has a passion for reading and the necessity for children to keep reading as they progress through school, in order to reach their full potential. She has been instrumental in changing the function of school libraries and the teaching of Guided Reading in order to support and encourage children to read widely.

Prior to teaching, Mary achieved a 2:1 Hons degree in History and Politics from Reading University. She worked for an academic publishing company before securing a Post Graduate Certificate of Education from the University of Chichester. She has taught in primary schools in West Sussex and Shropshire, teaching years 2 through to 6.  She lived in Shropshire for ten years, where she working part-time for SureStart, developing community relationships with travellers' families  as well as bringing up her three daughters.

Miss R Saxby

SENCO

Prior to joining Ark Blacklands as a SENCo, Rachael was a Year Two teacher for five years at a local primary school. In her time there, she was a part of the development and implementation of a writing scheme which later lead to the school becoming a training centre. Rachael would be observed teaching in class and make presentations to teachers and heads of school from far away as Brighton to support their understanding of the writing scheme. 

Rachael was also a member of SLT as the joint KS1 lead and helped the EYFS team earn the grade of 'outstanding' at a November 2016 Ofsted inspection. During her time teaching Year Two, Rachael was able to achieve strong KS1 results consistently, often exceeding national expectations. Rachael was also a leader of PE, introducing new clubs each year and ensuring the children took part in as many of the local competitions as possible. Her dedication to improving the PE provision meant the the school was awarded back to back 'gold' sports marks. Science was another subject that Rachael was a leader of, creating targets for each child to support teachers with their science assessments and setting up two science weeks a year to promote enthusiasm for the subject. In her final year, Rachael was also an NQT mentor and completed her NPQML course. 

Rachael's career started at a small village primary school where she taught Year five/six. During her time, she achieved some of the school's best SATs results in recent times and lead PE. Rachael has always worked with children, working at a local private nursery while at university and volunteering as a TA and MDSA during her gap year. 

She graduated from the University of Greenwich in 2009 with a 2:1 BA Hons degree in education with recommendation for QTS. When she isn't teaching, Rachael enjoys days out with her family, particularly going to theme parks and the cinema.

Ms C Shaw

Phase Leader: KS2 & Year 5 Class teacher       

Catherine Shaw joined Ark Blacklands in 2003 as a class teacher and leader of the Core Curriculum Team. Previous teaching roles in primary and middle schools were in schools in Staffordshire and Buckinghamshire and Los Angeles, USA, after graduating and gaining Qualified Teacher Status from Nottingham University with specialism in Art and Education. She moved to USA in 1985 where she worked in Los Angeles as an elementary school teacher with special responsibility for planning and developing the art curriculum. In 1992 she returned to Scotland (her home country) and returned to Stirling University where she gained a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing and Business Management. Mrs Shaw also qualified as a Counsellor with the Scottish Counselling Authority and worked on a voluntary basis with The Samaritans until 2003.

Mrs Shaw worked as a Marketing Manager for a map publishing company in Central Scotland while raising her now grown-up children, until 2003, when she moved to East Sussex due to her husband’s job relocation. At this time she returned to teaching. She has held the roles of Core Curriculum Leader, Maths Leader and now Leader of Upper Key Stage Two.

In her early years of teaching Mrs Shaw was qualified to teach gymnastics and swimming as well as organising inter-school sports events and leading many outdoor pursuits trips. Her out of school interests lie in sport (particularly ski-ing), reading, theatre and art. She has participated and help produce amateur drama productions in addition to being involved in designing and creating props and costumes for many plays and musicals. Mrs Shaw has worked extensively at the upper end of primary education and particularly loves to see children develop a love of writing and feel success in their understanding of maths.

Mr D Barton

Leader of Learning: Maths Mastery & Year 2 Class teacher

Dan joined Ark Blacklands as a Year 5 Teacher in 2015. Prior to training as a teacher though Teach First, Dan worked as a TA in a special needs school in his hometown of Reading.
Dan achieved a 2:1 degree in History from Oxford Brookes University and is currently studying for a Masters in Educational Leadership through Canterbury Christ Church. His dissertation will explore a topic that means a lot to him; how developing reading for pleasure can close the gap for lower attaining students.
Last academic year, Dan ran inset training for the staff of Ark Blacklands and Ark Little Ridge that was aimed to get children to think more critically and creatively.