Beech Academy
Turning 'I can't' into 'I can'
Inclusivity
Ambition
Integrity
Resilience
Endeavour
Neil Davies
Headteacher
Neil is a proud Welshman who originates from the South West corner of Wales (Welsh being his first language). He studied for his degree in London (1994-1998) and began his teaching career as a PE Teacher at the London Nautical School (Waterloo) in 1998, later becoming Head of PE at Archbishop Tensions School (Kennington Oval) in 2001.
Neil relocated from London to the East Midlands and began a role at The Brunts Academy, Mansfield as Head of PE in 2005, moving on to the roles of Head of House and Assistant Headteacher (Head of Sixth Form & CIAG) during his 15 years at Brunts.
In September 2019, Neil began in a new role at Beech Academy as Deputy Headteacher (Behaviour & Attitudes) and became Head of School from January 2020, and Principal from September April 2021. When not at work, Neil is most likely to be found supporting Welsh rugby, fly fishing or playing the occasional game of golf.
Katy Craig
Deputy Headteacher
Katy started her teaching career as a Teacher of Geography in an inner-city secondary school in Birmingham in 2000, having studied for her PGCE at Birmingham University.
Katy worked as Head of Geography and as a Head of Year before taking up her first senior leadership position in 2007. In 2017 Katy became the Headteacher of the school that she started her teaching career in. Having worked in mainstream education for the majority of her career, Katy chose to experience education within a specialist setting and joined Beech Academy in September 2021. Katy loves every minute of her time at Beech!
Katy is passionate about working hard to improve the life chances of young people. She is motivated by seeing the progress that pupils make on a daily basis and developing colleagues to be the best that they can be.
In her time away from school Katy enjoys spending time with her family; this usually involves watching her son playing rugby in the rain or enjoying seeing her daughter dance! She likes to walk her French Bull Dogs, Reggie and Bonnie, but her favourite place is spending time skiing in the mountains.
Matthew Heartfield
Assistant Headteacher
Matt was born in Mansfield, where he spent the majority of his child growing up. He studied for his degree in Sport and Education at Bishop Grosseteste University (2012 – 2015) and then began his teaching career at the Brunts Academy.
Matt started life in education as a Cover Supervisor with some responsibility for teaching PE, before completing his QTS at Nottingham Trent University. Once he had completed his teacher training, he moved onto a role as Head of Year for Years 10 and 11, supporting students pastorally. Matt then moved to Beech Academy in September 2021 to take up responsibility as Assistant Headteacher (Behaviour and Attitudes). When not at work, Matt can be found coaching, watching football and spending quality time with his family.
Peter Lane
Specialist Provision Lead
Originally hailing from Liverpool where he trained as a PE Teacher, Peter began his teaching career as a Teacher of PE at Linton Village College in Cambridgeshire in 2003.
In 2006 Peter was promoted to the post of Partnership Development Manager for the Forest Heath School Sports Partnership where he was responsible for increasing the physical activity levels of young people in 24 different schools across West Suffolk. He relocated to the East Midlands in 2011 and took on the post of Senior Teacher at Wings Residential Special School. In 2014 Peter completed a year at Ellis Guildford School in Nottingham as Teacher in Charge of behaviour.
In 2015 he returned to a position linked to residential Children’s homes as the East Midlands Lead Teacher for the Caldecott Foundation. In 2022 Peter took up the post of Assistant Headteacher at Beech Academy. Outside of his professional life Peter usually fills his time with watching and coaching football or running.