Welcome to Hannah Nemko!

As the new school years gets underway, we are looking forward to working with Hannah Nemko who has replaced Alan Davison as Headteacher of Dame Alice Owen's School. Hannah remains proud of being an Essex girl and fondly remembers the smell of the brewing hops during her childhood in Romford! This makes her perfectly suited to work at a school so closely linked to the Worshipful Company of Brewers.

Hannah has worked in a number of schools in the independent sector as well as state; in the grammar school system as well as comprehensive. Beginning as an enthusiastic teacher of French at Immanuel College, Bushey, Hannah was quickly promoted to the role of Head of Year 11 where she stayed for 5 years. A move to the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, followed, where her pastoral role extended to improving the transfer process and year experience of the year 7s. When the opportunity arose to help build a new school from scratch, however, Hannah’s head was turned and she was appointed Assistant Headteacher at Yavneh College in Borehamwood. Her work there was as much a labour of love as a means of paying the mortgage, as she was given carte blanche to create the ideal school experience for students. The move from Assistant Head to Head of Teaching and Learning at Yavneh grew out of her desire to improve outcomes for students by improving the quality of lessons and hence also quash the starting of poor behaviour! It was only the possibility of working with such a committed staff, supportive governor and trustee body, in such a vibrant and educationally exciting school such as Owen’s which finally convinced her to move.

Having spent the last year as Deputy Headteacher at Owen's, Hannah is in the perfect position to drive the school forward to continued success. She will certainly be aiming high after the school achieved excellent exam results this summer, with 96.5% of students achieving 5 A*-C grades in GCSEs and 82% of A levels being graded A*-B. We congratulate the students and the staff on the great success and wish Hannah the best of luck in the coming year.