Karen Willis entered headship 9 years ago, and is currently the head of St James Church of England Primary School, a large primary school in Southwark.

The school has a high proportion of pupils receiving free school meals. The school has a creative curriculum, and the children chose the topics that they learn about. The school is one of the top 200 in England, and was judged as Outstanding in 2009 by Ofsted. Karen worked on the Priority Learning Local Authority project with 6 Local Authorities throughout the country facilitating co-construction and collaborative school to school support. She is an National Leader of Education and St James’ is a National Support School (NSS).

St James’ staff have learnt a lot from working collaboratively with other schools, helping heads and staff to build capacity and ensure that improvement can be sustained.