Heather Barnett

Heather joined the board in November 2020. She has worked in education for her whole career, starting as a science teacher in a secondary school in 1983. Heather then moved into further education where she taught in a further education college in Nottingham and a sixth form college in Rotherham. In her last college post, at Thomas Rotherham College, she was a head of department and then a student support manager.

In 2004, Heather moved into a policy and performance role with Barnsley Education Services, before joining Ofsted in 2005 as one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors. During her time with Ofsted, Heather led and worked as a team member on inspections across further education and skills, and schools. As a specialist advisor within Ofsted, Heather worked on the development of new frameworks, international links and the support and challenge programme, operating across further education and skills, schools, early years, and social care. She left Ofsted in 2017 and has been busy as an education consultant alongside being a governor of Longley Park Sixth Form College (2017-18), a governor of Newman School and volunteer at Rotherham Chapel on the Bridge.