Dan is currently Deputy Headteacher at Westfield School: a privileged role in which he is excited to help lead forward-thinking change and development under Chorus Education Trust’s pledge of outstanding achievement for all.

Dan’s formal education up to the age of 18, was in Ipswich, Suffolk. He moved to South Yorkshire in 1999 to study for a BA (Hons) Degree in Music, after which he completed his teacher training in Sheffield in 2005. As a newly qualified teacher, Dan took on the role of Head of Music in a North London comprehensive girls’ school, where he remained for 10 years, later becoming Head of Performing Arts and Assistant Headteacher. Whilst there, he developed strong links between the school and the wider community, setting up and participating in a variety of community performance projects involving children from local feeder primaries, charities and other community organisations.

In 2015, Dan took up the post of Assistant Principal at Bottisham Village College in Cambridge, where he was later promoted to Deputy Principal. During his time there, much of his work focused on improving outcomes for students from disadvantaged starting points. He is proud to have closed almost entirely the attainment gap between disadvantaged students and non-disadvantaged students after his first year in post. Dan was heavily influenced by Henry Morris’s philosophy of ‘roots-to-tips’ education which permeated the college’s ethos and the life of the school community.

Excited to return to Sheffield to further develop his practice, Dan was appointed to the leadership team at Silverdale School in 2018, subsequently taking up the post of Deputy Headteacher at Westfield School.