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Experienced former Headteacher joins EduCare’s leadership team
Doug Watt has a background in education that encompasses every challenge there is. Starting off as an English Literature and Language teacher in a co-educational, fee-paying secondary school in his native Scotland, Doug’s career moved on to encompass Pastoral Care with a focus on working with children with emotional and behavioral disorders and led to him heading up a secure training centre and earning an outstanding accreditation from Ofsted.
Working in a Secure Training Centre
Whilst working with children and young people in the secure training centre, where offenders have to continue with their education as part of their sentence, Doug sought to ensure that everyone was given the opportunity to access a full curriculum and take the exams available to them. Often this meant working with young people from rival gangs to ensure they could work side by side.
Doug’s approach was to earn the trust and respect of the people in his care, taking time outside of lessons to get to know them and their backgrounds, and for them to learn more about him.
Speaking of his appointment, Doug commented:
“I have seen only too well the negative effects of where children and young people have not been safeguarded from harm as many of the people in the centre were vulnerable and had often been in the care system at some point in their lives.
“My role as a headteacher in the secure training unit was to help everyone succeed in their rehabilitation. To do this, we invested in wellbeing and promoted good welfare. By working with EduCare to deliver their online duty of care learning service to a broader market place, I can help ensure that everyone has access to that essential knowledge that can make a difference and help keep everyone safe.”
Kate Atwell, EduCare’s Executive Director continued:
“Doug’s background demonstrates clearly that he has shown a true understanding of the importance of our duty of care, not just to the most vulnerable people in our society but to everyone. This echoes EduCare’s own mission and so we are delighted that he has joined us to head up our commercial team - aligning EduCare’s services with those who need it and use it the most.
“EduCare was founded as part of our owner’s own philanthropic mission to help keep everyone safe by sharing essential knowledge and we’re delighted that a member of our senior leadership team has such a strong background to continue this work.”
What are the challenges facing schools today?
Having faced three Ofsted inspections under Sir Michael Wilshaw, Doug knows from his own personal experience the pressures that schools face today. His role at EduCare is to ensure that all products and services help schools overcome the challenges involved in promoting good wellbeing and delivering their duty of care.
“Working to a tight budget requires imagination and determination. By working with EduCare, I am involved with a company that can make a real difference, both to the knowledge staff have via access to the exceptional courses that EduCare have been developing, to the hard and fast facts and figures of a school’s bottom line.
“EduCare’s pricing model is so unique that when overcoming budget challenges we know that we cannot be beaten in terms of value. That’s a great place to be in - where quality and price are aligned.”
Safeguarding in September
Doug will be presenting a free webinar at the end of June that will help schools prepare for the usual safeguarding challenges that September brings - with an influx of new students and existing students returning after the long summer break - as well as looking at how the changes to Ofsted’s Inspection Framework will affect a school’s duty of care responsibilities, particularly with a focus on staff wellbeing, and the new PSHE guidelines.
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