Ruth Beckett

Ruth joined the trust in 2013 under School Partnership Trust Academies, when Willows Primary School converted to an academy. She started her career teaching in at Eldon Junior School in Edmonton, London. She absolutely loved her time at Eldon but decided to leave in 2003 to move back to Grimsby to be closer to her family.

In September 2003, she joined the team at Macaulay Junior School and became a part of the Senior Leadership Team. During her time at Macaulay, the infant and junior schools amalgamated and became Macaulay Primary School. Ruth was Upper Key Stage Leader and before she left to join Willows Primary School, was the Acting Deputy Head for a term.

In April 2009, Ruth started at Willows Primary School as the Assistant Head and SENCO. She was given a Y1 class for the first time and boy was this a baptism of fire!  The children had completed all the work she had planned for the day within about 5 minutes! It was a steep learning curve but she thoroughly enjoyed it.

When Willows was placed in Special Measures, it converted to an academy with School Partnership Trust and Ruth was appointed as the Head of Academy when it opened in May 2013. In March 2015, Ofsted arrived and they achieved Good – this was a huge achievement for the whole team. At that time, they were the first academy within SPTA to go from Special Measures to Good and were the only school within the Freshney Ward of Grimsby to have a Good Ofsted rating.

In September 2016, Ruth became an Associate Executive Principal. Her role was split between Willows and Strand Primary Academy. Since September 2019, her time has been split between Willows, where she is also the Head of Academy, Strand Primary Academy and Willoughby Road.

Ruth has an amazing talent for nurturing children with additional needs; she is a qualified SENCO and her experience is invaluable in the schools she works in. Ruth has the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award and encourages anyone to take part and develop their skill set to use in later life; her talents for climbing Everest with her eyes closed come in handy day to day!

Ruth isn't sure how to describe an average day – does one exist? Ruth's days can be very different depending on where she is. Sometimes she will be in class observing or talking to children, looking at books and meeting with teachers. Other times, she might be supporting colleagues in different academies during Ofsted visits or attending Network Meetings and Challenge Meetings.  

What Ruth can say is that life is never dull, the time flies and there never seem to be enough hours in the day to do everything that she wants to do. She love having such a varied job that gives her the opportunity to learn from others and work with some very talented and dedicated people.

Outside of work Ruth loves to combine her two loves; food and red wine! It's even better if she can do it on holiday and she's been lucky enough to travel to some amazing places (whilst enjoying food and red wine!). She loves chilling out by a pool with a good book….and maybe participate in a little bit of people watching!