MARY SUMMERS
Mary has 30 years of experience in education in England and Scotland, initially as a class teacher and subsequently as deputy then principal of a large primary school with a unit serving children with special educational needs. In the last 10 years, she has worked as an associate adviser in the largest school district in the country and led more than 150 inspections mainly in and around London for Ofsted.
Mary is an excellent trainer and has been involved in training new inspectors for Ofsted and in delivering courses on educational inclusion, special educational needs and self-evaluation. She also supports individual schools, advising and coaching newly appointed principals and senior staff. With her considerable experience, Mary has been able to advise and support a number of education agencies overseas in developing their own school evaluation and review systems as well as writing courses for and training reviewers. She has worked in Hong Kong, the Caribbean, Kuwait and the USA, most recently in New York where she has conducted quality reviews for the Department of Education. Mary has received very positive feedback from schools, for example:
"We .... deeply appreciated (the) presence of Mary Summers. We want to thank her for both her insights and warmth. Her genuine concern for education was evident throughout the review process. What she said about us has helped us to feel very positive about incredible efforts we are making to serve our students well. In her report, she captured the essence of what we have been trying to do, and what still needs to be tackled, and I am grateful for that."
Mary led a review of Red Bay Primary School in Grand Cayman in 2007- following up issues identified during the 2005 inspection (of which Mary was a team member).Mary has taken part in and led numerous Ofsted inspections, including the 2009 framework. She has also been involved in training inspectors in Nigeria between 2008 and 2009.