Trevor brings to Naming Elephants a wealth, breadth and depth of educational understanding and practice.  Recognised by OSFTED for his ‘astute leadership and outstanding clarity and purpose’ while head teacher of a large secondary school, Trevor has contributed at national level to strategic educational policy development and debate.  He is fascinated by the neuroscience of well-being, and not just in relation to human beings; until recently Trevor kept a small flock of sheep, which he insists are remarkably intelligent creatures …

Until August 2010, Trevor was head teacher of Worle Community School in Weston-super-Mare, his second headship.  In 2009, Ofsted reported that ‘The head teacher has provided outstanding clarity of purpose and direction and his astute leadership has been key in raising aspirations and securing the support of all those involved in the school.  A strong commitment to school improvement is threaded through every aspect of the school’s work.’

Trevor led the school for nine years and through a period of significant change.  He developed a distributed leadership culture in which colleagues were empowered and encouraged to initiate change and development, and was committed to their professional growth.  He successfully promoted an ethos in which the emotional health and well-being of all stakeholders was attended to, alongside the promotion of effective learning.  He played a key leadership role in the development of the Weston Federation of Schools and, together with the head of a local special school, led the school into the Trust School Pathfinder.  He sat on the North Somerset Admissions Forum and was a member of the North Somerset Safeguarding Children Board.

Trevor has spoken to a wide variety of audiences at conferences and seminars and has published a number of articles in education and other journals.  He has a particular interest in emotional health and well-being and neuroscience, and their implications for learning and the leadership and management of schools. Until 2007, he was Chair of the Centre for the Study of Comprehensive Schools (CSCS) and is currently a trustee of ViTaL Partnerships Ltd. He is a fellow both of the Human Givens Institute and the RSA and is a member of the British Education Leadership, Management and Administration Society (BELMAS).  He is also a qualified counsellor and therapist and has experience of 1:1 therapeutic work.

He hopes to bring this experience to Naming Elephants, together with skills ranging from leading and managing a large organisation with a staff of 200 people and a budget in excess of £6m on the one hand, to high level interpersonal and 1:1 skills on the other.

Trevor enjoys walking and cycling in the countryside and until recently kept a small flock of sheep, which he says are remarkably intelligent creatures! He has a strong interest in poetry, especially contemporary poets and in a wide range of music.