3rd June 2026
Since joining Ark Academy fifteen years ago, in its founding years as a classroom teacher, Despina has grown with the network. She has gone on to lead a department, helped to improve Modern Foreign Languages across Ark, and now serves as Vice Principal for Culture and Ethos and is the DSL at Ark Putney Academy.
Her story reflects what teacher development at Ark looks like in practice: being trusted with responsibility, learning from colleagues, and receiving the CPD to keep improving. Or, as Despina puts it, “Ark is looking for people’s potential.”
Trusted to grow, supported to lead
One phrase from her principal at Ark Academy has stayed with Despina: “We learn best when we learn together.”
“As a new teacher to the school, you could go and observe experienced teachers. Experienced teachers could come and observe you. There was no hierarchy,” Despina says. “In addition, planning and classroom practice was collaborative to its very core”. “Everything focussed on how we could improve our practice. By the end of that first year at Ark Academy, I felt like I’d learnt more than I had in the prior five years of teaching.”
For Despina, one of Ark’s strengths is that teachers are not isolated within their own school. If someone is teaching a particular subject or leading a particular area, there are colleagues across the network you can reach out to and find out what works in their context.
“I have always found that colleagues in Ark are selfless in sharing their knowledge and expertise. As a result, I have never hesitated to reach out when needed,” she says. “I think that makes Ark quite special.”
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Despina has benefited from structured professional development throughout her career, including a National Professional Qualification in both Middle and Senior Leadership. She found the leadership training particularly valuable in areas such as having difficult conversations, line management and leading outside her original subject specialism.
Now, she is part of Ark’s Lead Programme along with other Vice Principals in the network. This is an 18-month leadership journey for aspiring Principals where she has the opportunity to see models of educational excellence, for example through visits and Masterclasses. “The sessions they’ve planned for us are excellent – very practical, but really high quality,” she says. In addition, she also has access to a coach who is an Ark principal and says “I always look forward to our coaching sessions – I am really challenged to think and to problem-solve. The idea is we can always get better at what we’re doing.”
Speaking of her fellow LEAD participants, “We have become a really close-knit group, we collaborate together, we lean on each other.”
Creating a culture where teachers feel supported
As Vice Principal for Culture and Ethos, Despina spends much of her time thinking about how schools create the conditions for students and staff to thrive.
For her, teacher wellbeing is not simply about one-off activities or surface-level initiatives. “Often when people talk about wellbeing, they imagine yoga sessions and mindfulness,” she says. “But actually, proper teacher wellbeing is linked to good school culture.”
At Ark Putney, Despina’s role covers behaviour, systems, routines, and pastoral support. Much of that work is about clarity: making expectations simple, visible and consistent for students to thrive and feel safe. For example, after every school holiday, the school holds a reset assembly to revisit key routines, such as line-up expectations and behaviour in shared spaces. “These might seem like little things, but they add up,” Despina says. That consistency helps create calm, purposeful classrooms where teachers can focus on teaching and students can focus on learning.
Despina fosters a culture where staff feel confident that they are not working alone, especially when challenges arise. If a student needs to be removed from a lesson, restorative conversations are always used to rebuild the relationship. Staff are not expected to manage this alone; if needed, they can be supported by a head of year or senior leader. This helps teachers feel backed.
Recognition is another important part of the culture. Staff nominate one another for weekly shout-outs in the bulletin, and at the end of each half term, can be recognised through the school’s pillar badges, linked to the school’s values. “Just like students, staff also want to hear that they’re doing a good job,” Despina says.
Changing lives through education
Ark’s mission is built on high expectations, knowing every child and believing every child can achieve, regardless of their starting point. “I think staff who are drawn to Ark are drawn to that,” she says. “Even though the work is hard, that shared sense of purpose is motivating.”
One story that stays with Despina is of a Year 10 student who joined her previous school through the Fair Access Panel. He had been permanently excluded from two secondary schools and was attending a Pupil Referral Unit. When his case was presented, his record suggested there would be challenges, but his story made Despina feel he deserved another chance. With the support of the principal, the school welcomed him back into mainstream education.
It was not always straightforward. There were moments when things became difficult, and the team had to think carefully about how best to support him. But staff across the school came together – the Head of Year, the behaviour support team and his classroom teachers, united by a shared determination not to give up on him.
“Everybody came together to help this child,” Despina says.
Over time, that collective support made a lasting difference. The student completed his secondary education in a mainstream setting and, at his Year 11 leavers’ assembly, received the school’s highest accolade after being nominated by several teachers.
“That was huge,” Despina reflects. “It was really special to see how far he had come.”
Later, the student’s mother wrote to the school to say how proud she felt. She said that the school and the recognition he had received would be “positive school memories that he will have for the rest of his life.” Stories like this show Ark’s mission in practice. It is visible in the students who are given another chance, the teachers who are supported to do their best work, and the schools that keep asking how they can continue to improve.
At its heart is the belief that has shaped Despina’s own journey: with high expectations, the right support and people who believe in you, you can achieve your potential.