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EMBA student wins School Business Leader TES award

Nottingham Business School (NBS) student, Louise Barber, has won the 2020 TES School Business Leader award for her innovative approaches to flexible working and apprentice mentoring all whilst studying for her MBA at NBS.

EMBA student wins School Business Leader TES award

Held annually, the TES School Awards celebrate the work of teachers, leaders and schools that happens every day all around the UK. After a record amount of nominations for 2020, all of an exceptional quality and each with a different creative, inspiring story to tell, a shortlist of nominees is made for each award and a winner then announced at the award ceremony. This year saw the awards ceremony move online due to coronavirus.

Louise was awarded the School Business Leader award, which had only been running for a few years prior to her win. This award recognises exceptional school business leaders who have either harnessed the challenges faced by their school or trust and turned them into opportunities or supported other schools and professionals. Louise was nominated by the CEO of the Discovery Schools Trust in recognition of her leadership skills and approaches to promoting flexible working and diversity.

Commenting on her nomination, Louise said:

I had no idea that I had been nominated until a couple of weeks before the event. The CEO of the Trust emailed me to ask if I had received anything exciting that day. I hadn’t, so he forwarded me his email that announced my nomination. It took me completely by surprise and didn’t sink in until I saw the full TES award article in the TES supplement announcing all nominees for each category.

Head Judge for the School Business Leader category stated that Louise ‘ticked all the boxes’ and praised her for expertise and positive attitude throughout. Louise mentors women to take on leadership roles and has developed policies and procedures within the trust to empower them to take on new roles. Deputy lead of the trust, James Brown, stated: “Louise is an extremely positive role model for girls and the women she works alongside.”

When asked about winning the award, Louise said:

I feel very proud to have won the award and at the same time, raise the profile of School Business Leaders across the country. All nominees deserved to win especially after the challenging year we have had to navigate through. The job is not an easy one and you get to wear many hats throughout the course of a day, but I also get to work with incredible people who share the same commitment: to improve outcomes for children and provide limitless learning opportunities both to children and adults alike.

Alongside all her hard work at the Trust, Louise has been developing her leadership skills studying for her MBA at Nottingham Business School and lecturing on School Business Leadership national courses.

  • Notes for editors

    About Nottingham Trent University

    Nottingham Trent University (NTU) was named University of the Year 2019 in the Guardian University Awards. The award was based on performance and improvement in the Guardian University Guide, retention of students from low-participation areas and attainment of BME students.

    NTU was also the Times Higher Education University of the Year 2017, and The Times and Sunday Times Modern University of the Year 2018. These awards recognise NTU for its high levels of student satisfaction, its quality of teaching, its engagement with employers, and its overall student experience.

    The university has been rated Gold in the Government’s Teaching Excellence Framework – the highest ranking available.

    It is one of the largest UK universities. With nearly 32,000 students and more than 4,000 staff located across four campuses, the University contributes £900m to the UK economy every year. With an international student population of more than 3,000 from around 100 countries, the University prides itself on its global outlook.

    The university is passionate about creating opportunities and its extensive outreach programme is designed to enable NTU to be a vehicle for social mobility. NTU is among the UK’s top five recruiters of students from disadvantaged backgrounds and was awarded University of the Year in the UK Social Mobility Awards 2019.

    A total of 82% of its graduates go on to graduate entry employment or graduate entry education or training within six months of leaving. Student satisfaction is high: NTU achieved an 87% satisfaction score in the 2020 National Student Survey, above the sector average of 83%.

Published on 7 January 2021
  • Category: Nottingham Business School