The Glossopdale headteacher who expects excellence as the norm

Glossopdale School and Sixth Form Headteacher, Ms Kate Smith, recently welcomed us to the school to chat about her reflections on her first term. 

Can you give us some background about the school? 

We have a really long and proud history, having served the town since the early twentieth century. Until early 2018, we were based on three separate sites, but then moved into our fantastic new building. We have around 1200 students, including almost a hundred students in the sixth form.  

We now have a new CEO, Professor Jeff Baker, who has significant experience of school improvement, and really clear intentions to grow and improve the trust. Glossopdale was judged by Ofsted to be ‘Inadequate’ in 2018, however many improvements were made resulting in the Ofsted grading of ‘Good’ in all areas in November 2023. I am proud to have been part of the team that led on that journey.  

The building had an extension in 2022. Is the school now at capacity?  

The extension was needed as a result of our growing numbers. In 2022, our Published Admission Number (PAN) was 200 per year group, but the applications year on year to join the school exceeded this. The new extension allowed us to change our PAN to 240, to ensure that all children in the local community can have a place at their local school. The extension now houses our sixth form centre.  

What is your background?  

I’ve been headteacher here since January 2025. I originally trained as an English teacher in London and worked in a number of schools there, but I am a proud Northerner, and so returned in 2017 becoming deputy head here, working alongside headteacher Debbie McGloin. I learnt so much from her, and that then enabled me to move to my first headship in 2023. A couple of years later, Debbie decided that she was going to move to a trust role, which was bittersweet as she contributed so much, however, selfishly, it was an opportunity for me to return to Glossopdale as headteacher in January. What I want to do now is aim is for excellence. We have a team of really passionate and experienced teachers and leaders, and we’ve got truly wonderful students, so excellence is very much in our sights, and we’re relentlessly determined to reach that standard.  

Reflecting on your first term - what are you particularly proud of?  

I’ve loved seeing how proud the students are of their rewards badges. We have a whole variety of badges that the students wear linked to our Thrive culture, and it is the Thrive culture that I’m proud of and which makes the school so special.  

To explain for those who don’t know, each of the letters stands for one of the values that we want to develop in the students: Tenacity, Hard work, Responsibility, Independence, Vision and Excellence. I’m really proud of how confidently and enthusiastically the students talk about those values and how much that culture means to them.  

I’m also proud of our work on personal development. We’re doing a lot of work this term on respect in the community - whether that’s a tutor group, a year group, or the whole school community. We have so many achievements and we celebrate them regularly, and that’s something I want to make sure we continue, as well as tightening up and refining lots of processes. This is always an ongoing process, but I’ve been really impressed with how reflective the teachers and support staff have been and how determined to keep getting better.   

 As with every school, there are often issues that parents are unhappy about. Currently on social media parents are talking about toilets being locked during class time and your provisions for SEND pupils. There is a feeling of a lack of communication from the school. What are your thoughts on that?  

We are aware of comments on social media. They don’t always provide an accurate picture of events in school, but we do welcome feedback from parents. And where parents raise issues with us directly, which we would rather they did, we address those individually. We’re very open to receiving feedback from parents and carers, and we work really hard at communicating, but we’re constantly reviewing and reflecting on all of our systems, including our communication systems.  

Currently we have a weekly newsletter, a ‘My Child at School’ app and a weekly Year 11 bulletin in the run up to the exams. We also hold a lot of events for parents - we have parents’ information evenings and forums, and have sought out parents’ views on the areas that they would like addressing and improving. We’ll follow up on those areas focused on when we get the feedback. We’re constantly seeking their views, and I think it’s really important that we work in partnership with parents.  

You will be aware that sadly SEND funding is a national issue, and there is now a national focus on making much needed improvements. When Ofsted came, inspectors recognised our commitment to support students with SEND, and they commented on how well staff know them and how effective our personalised support strategies are. However, I know that there are improvements that we need to make, and this was one of my first priorities when I joined the school in January.  

I’m delighted that we’ve just recruited two new leaders into our SEND department, but I know that the department still needs more capacity and expertise, along with a number of teaching assistants. However, this will enable us to liaise with parents more frequently because I know that’s been a frustration.  

We do aim to be genuinely inclusive and our pastoral provision is very strong. We have three family support workers, we’ve got a Thrive Centre, a Calm Zone, an Inclusion Hub, a head of year and two year managers for each year group, as well as having the Compass Mental Health Team based here in the school.  

Alongside that, we do also have three additional planning days a year where teaching staff receive training, and have the time to plan their lessons to address any gaps or adapt their resources to address specific needs. We also have regular staff training on classroom strategies to support all students, but particularly those with additional needs.   

With regard to the toilet issue, we urge all students to use the toilet at the start of the day or break and lunchtime so that lesson time is focused on learning. There is always a toilet for students to use should they need to do so, and we allocate one set of toilets during lesson times for safeguarding reasons.  

How might the school better integrate more with the wider community in general?  

I do feel we are very much part of the community. We have some really strong links with local charities, for example the Hummingbird Project. Also, a huge number of our students follow the Duke of Edinburgh scheme, which involves working within the community.  

Next door is ‘The Place’, which is part of our provision, but also a private provision in the evenings and weekends. That offers us the opportunity to invite the local community into the school regularly. We recently welcomed the cadets and we hold an annual careers fair with representatives from local businesses. We’ve also got a really strong student leadership group who regularly raise money for local charities.  

I’m keen to do more work with the community, for example with activities based on reducing litter and hopefully an art project in the town as well. We enjoy visitors from the local community who support us in a variety of different ways with our curriculum, for example we had the chefs from the Two Hares visit recently to support our catering students.  

We also work with the local primary schools and I’m very keen for us to do that with the other secondary schools in Glossop. We have similar challenges and we’re always stronger when we review and address them collectively. So, that’s something that I’ve started to do and will develop.  

Finally, I’ll mention the Manchester United Foundation, which is a real strength to the school. Our affiliation with them and what they offer has been so positive and powerful regardless of who you may support!  One provision is free ‘Street Reds’ football sessions for young people of all age groups.  

We are now in exam season how is that going?  

Really well! The year 11’s and 13’s have been absolutely fantastic - they’re so motivated and driven to succeed. We’ve had so many really well attended revision sessions and I’m immensely proud of the way that the students have shown that level of dedication. Last year, we received our best ever GCSE results, but this year’s are predicted to be even better.  

Are there future plans/developments taking place at Glossopdale that you can share with us?  

Our biggest priority is strengthening our SEND provision. As mentioned, we’ve recruited two new leadership roles - one is an assistant SENCO and one is a SEND liaison manager, so that will enable us to target our support and communicate more effectively with parents, making sure that barriers are identified early and addressed both in and out of the classroom.  

We’re planning what is called our ‘Journey to Excellence’ with our staff teams at the moment, and this is a really invigorating process. The aim is to establish excellence as the norm across all our areas of provision.  The results of our parent survey will also guide us as how we can develop further.  

We have a number of community projects being planned, and a trip to our partner school in Kenya in 2026. 

My final words are that I love this school. I’ve grown here personally and professionally, and I’ve seen so many students do the same. It’s improved so much since I’ve been here, but we’ll never rest on our laurels. We will always look to improve, especially in the areas that support the most vulnerable students and those areas that parents are concerned about.   

We are ambitious for all students. We’re investing more resources, more staffing, more training to support SEND and all students, and we’ll continue to offer our strong pastoral support. 

It’s a journey towards ongoing improvement, and throughout the whole of our provision, we expect excellence to be the norm.