HELENA MCVEIGH
Director of G2G Education, Helena has a first class degree in physics and post graduate qualifications in education. She has over 30 years experience in education, with management positions in schools and local authorities, most recently as Chief Inspector of schools for the Cayman Islands Government.
Helena was one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools for nearly ten years, where she was involved in evaluating a wide range of institutions as well as leading inspections of local education authorities and all phases of schools. She helped develop the system for quality assuring inspections for Ofsted and trained and assessed team and registered inspectors.
As principal consultant for CEA, she was responsible for quality assurance of inspections and training as well as advising local authorities and developing review procedures for the Knowledge is Power Program in the USA. She has inspected KIPP schools across the USA and also been involved in external evaluations and support for charter schools in New York City. Helena spearheaded a major reform in the Cayman Islands, that of the development of a new national curriculum for schools and promoted the introduction of the International Baccalaureate primary and middle years programmes in schools.
Helena has considerable experience of preparing and running training programmes for school staff and leaders and is a trainer in emotional intelligence. Helena is an accredited school improvement partner for secondary schools. She is a firm believer in team work and in the development of learning organisations through investing in and empowering individuals. She led her team through the successful achievement of the IIP standard in 2007 and her leadership was praised in the assessor's report: "Visible leadership and a genuine interest in people ... create an organization where people enjoy the challenge of their work. People commented on the Chief Inspector's vision and sense of purpose, wealth of experience and high standards combined with human professionalism."
Since April 2008, Helena has been involved in a number of projects, including Project Director for the Piscari Monitoring Agency that monitored private companies' work with a number of government schools, on behalf of the Abu Dhabi Education Council. She is also a City (London) Challenge Adviser for primary schools. She has led a team that undertook a very successful developmental review/ inspection of a large private school in Abu Dhabi and advised on setting up of two new schools. She has led training of Nigerian inspectors in December 2009 and worked with school leaders in two districts in Trinidad on a project to introduce school based management.
Helena is a governor of a local Catholic primary school.