John Conway

School Principal, Sheikh Zayed Private Academy for Boys, Abu Dhabi

I am in my third year as Founding Principal / CEO at The Sheikh Zayed Private Academy for Boys in Abu Dhabi, a new and expanding 3 – 18 school with very high expectations and aspirations for its students.

Band A, High Performing School.

Previously, I was Headteacher at La Retraite RC Girls’ School in Lambeth, London for four years.

La Retraite was awarded ‘Outstanding’ status by OFSTED in May 2013 and ‘Outstanding’ status by the RC Diocese of Southwark in April 2013. The school consistently found itself at the top of the Local Authority examination performance league tables.

In January 2015, La Retraite was commended for holding first place in its ‘Family of Schools’ and was recognised by the Schools Minister, David Laws, as one of the highest performing schools in England in terms of its work with pupils eligible for the Pupil Premium.

Then, in May 2016, La Retraite, on the strength of its GCSE results in 2015, beat the other 2,368 secondary schools in England and Wales to the coveted National Pupil Premium Award (the only National Award contested by secondary schools in England and Wales). The credit for this fantastic achievement must go to the amazing leadership team, teachers, governors, students and their parents, whose inspiration and hard work over the four years of my headship led to this stunning achievement.

I was a School Improvement Advisor for Lambeth Local Authority and was one of two Education Strategy Consultants working for the City of London.

Before departing to the Middle East, I delivered training for the ASCL in schools around the south-east of England on Leadership, Dealing with Challenging People and Coaching.

As a qualified OFSTED inspector, I joined SERCO’s inspection team for the latter part of 2014-15 and am now using these skills to lead Reviews within the GEMS schools network in the UAE.

Events John Conway has attended as a speaker: