School Support

Adam started his career at Littleport Community Primary School in 2008 and was proud to become the Headteacher of the school in 2019.

As a strong advocate of evidence-informed practice, Adam was pleased to also inherit the role as Director of the East Cambs and Fenland Research School in 2018. This enabled him to fully align school policy and practice with evidence heavily influenced by the EEF’s Guidance Reports.

Championing positive outcomes for disadvantaged pupils has always been a focus of the work Adam has undertaken. This continues through his involvement with the East Cambs and Fenland Evidence Network.

Littleport Community Primary School is a larger than average-sized local authority maintained primary school. There are two classes per year group and the school has recently adopted the pre-school situated on the school site under Section 27 Community Powers. Littleport is a growing rural setting situated just north of the historic city of Ely in Cambridgeshire. We are an inclusive school, with a quarter of children in receipt of Pupil Premium.

Kate has taught in rural schools in Cambridgeshire and Wiltshire having started her education career on the Fast Track following a career in advertising. Kate has been Headteacher at Robert Arkenstall for the past seven years having been Deputy Headteacher since 2013.

She sits as Academy Chair of an SEMH special school, supporting the amazing work they do working with some of our most vulnerable children. Her school’s recent Ofsted commented on the strength of SEND in her school. She was a Farmington Scholar in 2022, studying teacher expertise in non-specialist primary teaching in order to build rigour and excellence into the school curriculum. Communication, aspiration and wellbeing lie at the heart of her work.

Robert Arkenstall Primary School is in the rural village parish of Haddenham and Aldredth, between Ely and Cambridge cities. It is a community primary school situated in the centre of the village of Haddenham, with single and mixed age classes from Reception to Year Six. We are a fully inclusive school with above average percentage of children in receipt of Pupil Premium.

Elaine is passionate about school improvement as the route to empowering children to become successful, life-long learners who understand and can influence their world. This is underpinned by valuing and developing all school staff so they have agency and enthusiasm when carrying out their important work. 

Having worked in a variety of settings, including rural primary schools, a Bedfordshire middle school and Lincolnshire secondary schools, as subject leader, Assistant Headteacher, Deputy and Head Teacher, she has extensive knowledge and understanding of school improvement. Her work focuses on developing distributed leadership throughout the school, enabling teachers’ engagement with research and improving pupil outcomes through collaborative policy development in the areas of teaching and learning, curriculum and assessment. 

Elaine has an MA in education, her work focusing on organisational support for CPD, curriculum development for pupil engagement and curriculum policy creation in relation to government ideology. Elaine is proud to be an Implementation Advocate for the East Fenland and Cambridgeshire Evidence Network, and looks forward to working with school leaders across the region to enable research-informed school improvement. 

Alderman Jacobs Primary School is a 3 form entry primary academy and preschool in Whittlesey, Fenland. We currently have 28% of children in receipt of Pupil Premium.

Rob Litten has been a headteacher and SENCo in four very different schools in Fenland and East Cambridgeshire, three of which he led from either special measures or requires improvement to a good Ofsted judgement. The other to the top 200 performing schools in England for SAT results. He is currently the Executive Headteacher of New Road Primary and Nursery School and Park Lane Primary and Nursery School, Whittlesey. New Road recently received its first good Ofsted judgement in 25 years (a Fenland school in the top 5% for most deprivation measures). 

Rob began his teaching career when completing a PhD in Race Relations at the University of Bradford before transferring to the University of Leicester, teaching sociology and social psychology to undergraduates.  Before training to be a primary teacher, he led the Key Stage 4 alternative education provision for Darlington Local Authority and a number of outreach and research projects for Save the Children Fund’s only UK based project in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Both New Road and Park Lane Primary and Nursery Schools are two form entry schools with nurseries. They serve the market town of Whittlesey, a small Fenland market town that is rapidly growing due to new housing developments. Both schools have been on a ‘Requires Improvement to Good’ journey in recent years.

Shelley worked as a Research Manager at King’s College, London before moving to the Fens in 2015 and retraining as a teacher. She joined one of the first cohorts on the Cambridgeshire Internship Programme for graduates and spent two years training: as a TA in year one and an unqualified teacher in year two at Townley Primary School. Having qualified, she became a member of the Chartered College of Teaching and joined the pilot cohort for the Accelerate Programme for early career teachers. Having worked as a Research Manager for many years, Shelley has a good understanding of the value of research and is excited to explore ways in which research can inform her teaching. She recently gained a Certificate in Evidence Informed Practice from the Chartered College of Teaching.

Shelley has been a class teacher at Townley Primary for five years and has a wide range of experience as a STEPS behaviour tutor and subject lead, in particular for Science. She is passionate about working alongside colleagues, using research effectively to reflect and improve upon our classroom practice, leading to better outcomes for all children.

Townley Primary School is a small inclusive primary and preschool in the village of Christchurch, close to the fenland town of Wisbech. 

Nick Clark is Deputy Headteacher at Littleport Community Primary School and teaches a range of subjects across Key Stage 2. After a BA and MA in English and a PGCE at Cambridge University, Nick started his career at Littleport Community Primary School and has been there ever since! In his time, Nick has taught KS2 and led a variety of curriculum subjects, including Art and Design, PSHE, History and English as well as phase leadership.

As Deputy Head at Littleport since 2016, Nick has been responsible for curriculum design, progression, pedagogy and assessment as well as subject leader development. He works extensively with colleagues from across the school: coaching subject leads on leadership and supporting teachers at the beginning of their careers. Nick is on the steering committee for the Local Cultural Education Partnership (LCEP) in East Cambs, to support links between cultural organisations in Cambridgeshire and schools. He is also currently on the steering committee for the primary PGCE at Cambridge University. 

Littleport Community Primary School is a larger than average-sized local authority maintained primary school. There are two classes per year group and the school has recently adopted the pre-school situated on the school site under Section 27 Community Powers. Littleport is a growing rural setting in Cambridgeshire. We are an inclusive school, with a quarter of children in receipt of Pupil Premium.

Becky started her teaching career as a TEFL teacher with the British Council in Alexandria, Egypt. She then completed her Primary PGCE at the Institute of Education, teaching in schools in central London. She has wide experience of teaching in International Primary schools across the Middle East and Central Asia. Since returning to the UK, Becky has lived and worked in Cambridgeshire and is currently a Year 3/4 class teacher and Curriculum Lead at Robert Arkenstall Primary School. She has been responsible for implementing an exciting new Foundation curriculum across KS2, working closely with colleagues across school to ensure progression, alignment with our whole school focus on vocabulary-rich learning and relevance to our local context. 

Becky firmly believes in collaboration and seeking opportunities to share best practice to ensure rich, high-quality educational experiences for all. She is excited to be working together with teaching colleagues in our rural area to build a network which will provide practical support in understanding and using evidence-informed practice to enable school improvement.

Robert Arkenstall Primary School is in the rural village parish of Haddenham and Aldredth, between Ely and Cambridge cities. It is a community primary school situated in the centre of the village of Haddenham, with single and mixed age classes from Reception to Year Six. We are a fully inclusive school with above average percentage of children in receipt of Pupil Premium.