Our subject Leaders
Our English Leader is Heather Ogden. Heather is a first class honours graduate from University of Cumbria and successfully gained an N.P.Q.M.L. in 2021. She has also supported a fellow member of staff in their N.P.Q.M.L., with a drive on improving spelling outcomes across the school.
She is proud of our Literacy led curriculum and was key in our “Excellence in Literacy” award from U.C.L. in 2018, and again in our S.I.L./ N.L.T. 2022 Reading Quality Mark She has recently led the development of our virtual book club and has increased our use of local libraries. Heather likes to provide children with access to authors who will inspire the children in their work and in their love of reading. She has facilitated Skype work with Christina Balit, and has brought in authors such as Danielle Corrigan, Crystal Bennici and National Literacy Hero, Richard O'Neill, to work face to face with the children.
Our Early Reading Leader is Sara Machin. Sara is also our Foundation Stage and Key Stage One leader, and she has overseen our Foundation Stage children achieving among the highest outcomes in the borough for a number of years. She supports the local authority as one of the town’s main assessment moderators. Hey with Zion pupils’ achievement at Year One phonics, in Early Years writing and in terms of “Good Level of Development” was in the highest quintile throughout the country in the most recent national standardized data (2019). Sara has recently brought in a validated systematic, synthetic phonics scheme (Supersonic Phonic Friends) to secure further development of our already good phonics outcomes.
Our Geography Leader is Heather Ogden. Heather is a first class honours graduate from University of Cumbria and successfully gained an N.P.Q.M.L. in 2021, with a primary focus on improving outcomes in Geography in KS1. She led our school towards its first ever Geography award (bronze) in 2018 from the Geography Association and continued this for us to achieve silver in 2021. She has liaised with author Julia Tanner and a number of pieces of work from Hey with Zion pupils have been included as case studies for the books, “Leading Primary Geography” and “The Everyday Guide to Primary Geography: Maths” She has recently been approached to work with the Geographical Association to support all of Oldham’s primary schools in the borough’s Geography network.
Our Art and Design Leader is Sara Machin. Sara is our Deputy Head and recently completed a Christian Leadership course. She has overseen a major boost in our Art and Design curriculum, and enthused the children with our growing Art Gallery. It includes drawings, paintings, photography and more. Around school there are examples of high quality art linking to our Literacy curriculum, designed and created by our children in conjunction with a commissioned artist. Sara is a firm believer in the importance of children having exposure to the highest quality of work available, so has begun to welcome artists into school not just to talk with the children, but to create art alongside them. She regularly arranges art exhibitions where all of our children have their work presented
professionally. Our children have had their art displayed locally such as in an interfaith Oldham competition, and as far afield as the Jubilee Art Centre in London.
Our Music leader is the headteacher, Andrew Clowes. Andrew has a Master’s Degree in Education and is a former pupil of Chetham’s School of Music. He is proud that our school has been awarded the Music Mark in recent years for the value we place on music. In recent years the school has provided free brass instrument tuition in lesson time for all Year Three children, as well as small group guitar lessons for those who want them. There is an after school choir run by staff from Oldham Music Centre and the children regularly perform at events, such as carol services and harvest festivals at our local churches, for residents in local nursing homes, or in musical theatre or choral speaking productions at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Last year the children even managed to perform at the Bridgewater Hall alongside the Hale Orchestra.
Our Maths leader is Sarah Patterson. She has previously followed the Maths Specialist Teacher programme and has more recently completed her N.P.Q.S.L. in which she focussed on developing children’s mastery of multiplication tables. She is closely involved with the N.C.E.T.M.’s local research hub and is proud of the high standards which have been maintained in Maths at Hey with Zion. Her links with N.C.E.T.M. have facilitated access to high quality training for staff in our younger classes to ensure our staff have optimal professional development. From 2013 to 2019, 42 of our Year Six children passed their Maths GCSE to grade c (4) and higher. Our 2017 Ofsted report referred to “exceptional achievement in Mathematics.”
Our History leader is our SENDCO, Janet Light. Janet completed her SENDCO qualification in 2020, and has been instrumental in leading our school towards various awards in History. Janet made our school a member of the Historical Association and since then has led our school to achieve their silver award (2015) then gold in 2016 and 2020. Also we were awarded the Heritage Schools Award in 2018 from Historic England for work on women’s suffrage in our locality. Janet has led our children to have a much better grasp of chronology and their connectedness with history.
Our Design and Technology leader is Jessica Holt. Jessica has made our school a member of the Design and Technology Association. She has led c.p.d. for the whole teaching staff around the design process, and has overseen a significant rise in standards in children’s work in the subject. She takes great pride in seeing children’s projects win outside school events, such as a town “design a reindeer” competition which one of our children won in 2020, or in our annual entries to the primary engineer competition.
Our Science leader is Helen Morton. Helen has led our school to two successive primary science quality marks (2016 and 2020) and has done so by an incremental process
of prioritising the five principles of Scientific enquiry in school. Helen has also overseen our annual entries into the Primary Engineers S.T.E.M. competition. Helen is proud that the school has had a Greater Manchester winner (2017) who designed an app for a fridge magnet which could scan food for sell by dates, so as to reduce food wastage. Since taking over as subject leader, Helen has significantly raised the profile of Science, for example by bringing in now established “Science Weeks” and nurturing the school’s status as an Ogden Trust Partnership school.
Our Physical Education leader is currently Andrew Clowes, the headteacher. He is proud that the school received the top (platinum) Oldham Healthy Schools Award 2016 to 2019, and has overseen a major increase in extra curricular sport provision. He has made Hey with Zion an Oldham Athletic partner school, more recently also a Manchester City school. This has provided specialist provision and on site training for teachers. It has also allowed the school to access elite venues such as playing on the pitch at Oldham Athletic, at the Etihad training complex; and at Manchester United’s “The Cliff” training ground. To inspire the children, he has brought in elite athletes such as world champions, world record holders and Olympic gold medallists- Nicola White, Rebecca Gallantree, Roger Lawrence, Ash Randall, Laura Jackson. These have had a dual purpose of inspiring all children, also particularly of inspiring girls to participate in sport. The school has made strong steps towards inclusivity by removing the impact of gender in sports participation.
Our Spanish leader is Haydee Seton-Jones. She is a first class honours graduate from Edge Hill University in Primary Teaching with a Modern Foreign Languages specialism. Haydee teaches Spanish lessons throughout Key Stage Two. Haydee has visited Spain twice in her own time to support our learning in school, in initiatives funded by the British Council. She has set up a link for us with a school in Santander and continues her own learning in Spanish in an evening course. Haydee is considered our best teacher of Spanish, so is taking on the challenge of teaching every KS2 class in a drive to raise standards at our school. This is in the light of Ofsted research about what has worked well in other schools.
Susan Soanes is our Computing leader. She is currently studying for a NPQML with a focus on developing digital literacy across the school, and has also followed an extended Digital Champions course run by Oldham Council and supported by the local sixth form college. Susan is driving our development of digital learning and has provided much training for teachers and teaching assistants, also making herself available to support parents and carers as required. Susan is involved in NCCE (National Centre for Computing Education) Saddleworth group which enables her to keep up to date with best practice from other local schools so that Hey with Zion is never left behind. She has overseen the effective implementation of much new hardware in our school and a significant increase in digital learning over the last two years.
Sonia Tammi is our Religious Education Leader. A Muslim in a church school, Sonia is committed to education as a means of increasing love and understanding between people of different faiths and of none. She has worked with Oldham’s Interfaith forum to facilitate a Catholic priest and a Muslim imam in an Anglican church leading a session to our children about how friendship exists across faiths. In 2020 she supported our successful school submission for the Global Neighbours award.
