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Leader stories: Patricia Sowter

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Teaching and leading in a range of challenging inner-city London primary schools has been a lifelong interest for Patricia Sowter.

Her expertise has always been in school improvement, particularly in those schools facing significant challenges. She is currently the headteacher of Cuckoo Hall Primary School in Edmonton, north London. When she took over the school in 2002 Cuckoo Hall had just emerged from special measures, staff morale was low and standards still needed to improve. Now she has two Outstanding Ofsted reports, the most recent in 2009. It is her belief that school-to-school work, whether through formal federations and trusts or through informal partnerships, is a powerful strategy to achieve improved consistency in the quality of education across all schools.

To learn more about leadership at Cuckoo Hall, listen to an interview with Patricia's deputy, Sarah Oliver.