From September 2012 Rachel Macfarlane will be the Principal of a new Ark Academy which will open in Ilford, in the London borough of Redbridge. The school will be a non-selective, co-ed school for 1250 students, starting with Year 7 and building up yearly. Prior to this Rachel was the headteacher of Walthamstow School For Girls (WSFG) for seven years, which is an urban, multi-cultural girls’ comprehensive school for 11-16 year olds.

Rachel Macfarlane joined the London Leadership Strategy in 2007 as a mentor headteacher, supporting new headteachers through the London Leadership Strategy’s Moving to New Headship programme. Since then, Rachel has mentored five new headteachers in London over a four year period.

In 2009 Rachel set up a new London Leadership Strategy Programme entitled Going for Great (G4G) designed for leaders of outstanding schools. The objective was to focus on succession planning for schools graduating from the Good to Great programme. The aim is to help schools that are Ofsted rated ‘outstanding’ continue to develop and become world class schools.

Rachel took on the role as programme leader for the Good to Great programme in June 2010. Good to Great currently supports over 90 Ofsted rated ‘Good’ London secondary schools, on their journey towards outstanding and beyond. Leading both the Good to Great and Going for Great programmes, Rachel states “the contact I have with other school leaders through these various programmes has been enormously enriching and my school and I have learnt an incredible amount from our links”.

Rachel is a visiting fellow of the London Centre of Leadership and Learning at the Institute of Education.