My friend Jennifer Hill, who has died aged 57 in a cycling accident in the Pyrenees, was the director of education for the Vale of Glamorgan. She had a lasting impact on education in the region.
Jennifer arrived in Wales in 2012. A quiet English woman of slight build in a culture dominated by dark-suited, Welsh-speaking men, she was unrelenting in demanding raised standards in the face of much resistance. She had a clear vision that her authority would become the best in Wales and match the best in England, and successfully oversaw year-on-year improvements in results. While she set high standards at work, her sense of humour and integrity earned the affection of staff and colleagues.
Jennifer worked closely with Robert Hill, an adviser to former prime minister Tony Blair, whose June 2013 report on education in Wales recommended the creation of local authority consortiums. She was the first lead director of the Central South Consortium and overcame political differences to create a successful partnership covering some of the most and least deprived communities in Wales.
Outside work, Jennifer was devoted to her two daughters, Hannah and Imogen. She met her husband, Adam Spector, an IT project manager, in the Islington Cyclists Action Group and at Islington CND in 1985, when I also came to know her through Adam, and the couple married in 1990. They shared a love of cycling, and together rode prodigious distances.
The family lived in Hertfordshire, but had a holiday home in Wales. Jennifer loved Wales, the beautiful countryside and the warmth of the people. She would have been pleased that the papers who reported her cycling accident described her as being Welsh.
Born in Dartford, Kent, the daughter of Margaret (nee Clarke), a primary schoolteacher, and Roger Hill, a materials scientist, Jennifer grew up in Bexley and attended Parkwood primary school there. At Dartford grammar school for girls, she won the prize for geography. She studied the subject at degree level at Manchester University, then went to Birmingham for an MSc in meteorology.
Jennifer spent her whole working life in the field of education, though she never worked as a teacher. Her first job after graduating in 1981 was at the Business and Technology Education Council (BTec) as a research and development officer. She joined the Secondary Schools Examination Council in 1984 when O-levels changed to GCSEs, before moving to local authorities. She was appointed assistant director in Enfield’s education department in 2001, led the change to a commissioning model for schools and created the borough’s first academy in 2007.
Jennifer is survived by Adam, Hannah and Imogen, Margaret and Roger, her sister, Jane, and brother, Richard.
