My friend Kate Curtis, who has died aged 59 after a short illness, was a courageous, outspoken and committed head of Wheatley Park, a large Oxfordshire comprehensive. Kate steered the school out of special measures, setting ambitious standards in the process. Of the inspection report judging the school to have pulled through, she said: “This report is going to be a milestone for us, not just a stopping point.”
In 2016 Kate spoke out against Theresa May’s plan to scrap the ban on establishing new grammar schools. May had been a pupil at Wheatley Park when it was Holton Park girls grammar; in 1971, during her time at the school, it became a co-educational comprehensive. Kate had told her pupils to take inspiration from May’s achievement in becoming prime minister, and aim for the top in whatever they choose to do. But she could not accept May’s argument that grammar schools would boost social mobility. Kate’s view, which she expressed publicly, was that the selective system risked damaging those who failed an exam at 11, and that it promoted segregation.
Kate was born in Chester, the second of eight children. Her mother, Marian (nee Sherman), was a social worker, and her father, Peter Curtis, a vet and lecturer at Liverpool University. Kate attended Whitby comprehensive in Ellesmere Port and read European Studies at Bath University, spending a year in East Berlin. A socialist, she met a group of like-minded friends at Bath. Kate confessed to a pronounced curiosity about other people; she also wanted, and encouraged, them to live life as fully as possible. This brought her a wide circle of friends and made her an imaginative teacher.
After a PGCE in York, she started her career as a teacher of German and French. She joined Wheatley Park in 1999, initially as deputy head, becoming headteacher in 2005. Her empathy for other people, as well an ability to think strategically and the impulse to challenge herself and others, made her an inspirational leader. Behind her talents was the belief that education can transform lives.
When Wheatley Park was put into special measures in 2009, Kate saw it as a challenge. She told me that it was a relief to realise that she was “in charge”; she could imprint her optimism on the process, as well as her determination that hard work and community effort should transform the school. Which they did.
In her retirement, from 2016, Kate worked with the multi-academy River Learning Trust as a support and challenge partner with particular responsibility for leadership development across the trust.
Kate married Peter Corcutt in 2009 and they had three children, Louis, Phoebe and Martha. They and her mother survive her.
