The School Partnerships Alliance (S.P.A.) is delighted to announce the appointment of OLIVER BLOND as our new Chief Executive Officer from 1st September 2023.
Oliver has led prestigious schools in both state and independent sectors, as Head of The Henrietta Barnett School in Barnet, named State School of the Year during his tenure, and Head of Roedean School in Brighton. He is the Academic Director of the PTI (Prince’s Teaching Institute), an educational charity delivering high quality subject-based professional development to hundreds of school teachers and leaders, and has been involved in this innovative start-up from inception to influence.
Oliver brings to the role decades of successful leadership experience in schools and charities, along with a deep understanding of partnership and its potential. He speaks with sincerity and passion about the potential and power of school collaboration and will work closely with the community of partnership professionals to share best practice and develop really powerful metrics for impact assessment.
Tom Arbuthnott, the S.P.A. Chair, said, “Oliver was the outstanding candidate in a very strong field; he has made a very significant contribution to educational leadership in schools and partnerships in different sectors, including the charity sector over 25 years, and we’re delighted to have him leading in this vital area of school development and collaboration.”
Oliver takes over from Ian Davenport, and the S.P.A. would like to formally thank Ian for his outstanding work as Interim Lead between February and August 2023. Ian has shown a complete commitment to the difference that effective partnerships can make to the lives of the most disadvantaged children, and remains an example of the very best that cross-sector partnership can offer. The S.P.A. is very pleased to have appointed someone of Oliver’s calibre to take that legacy on and develop it further.
The School Partnerships Alliance (S.P.A.) is a membership organisation founded as a charity in 2021 to support school partnership work and the development of practitioners by researching, enabling and promoting meaningful and impactful partnerships between different schools across the state and independent sectors for the benefit of children throughout the national education system.