Five Acre Wood School

Peggy Murphy is an experienced education leader and former National Leader of Education. She leads Five Acre Wood School, a special school for pupils with severe and complex needs. She led LEAF Teaching School Alliance, delivering ITT across mainstream primary and special school settings. Peggy works nationally as a regional Makaton Tutor and a Lead Reviewer for Challenge Partners, with a strong focus on inclusive practice and SEND.

A Career Journey Rooted in Purpose

My training began at a time when initial teacher training offered special education, severe learning difficulties (SLD) and profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD), as a discrete qualification. I was trained to teach children from the age of two through to nineteen with special educational needs, alongside mainstream three- to eight-year-olds. That training placed me within the final cohort to complete initial teacher training specifically for special education.

My early career was shaped by working in specialist settings supporting pupils with physical disabilities and complex learning needs, including leading nursery provision within a specialist unit attached to a mainstream primary school. These roles taught me the importance of early intervention, multidisciplinary working, and high expectations from the very beginning of a child’s education.

I spent several subsequent years working across London at SLD/PMLD schools, building extensive experience supporting children with complex needs. During this time, I completed a degree in autism while continuing to work directly with children, strengthening my commitment to evidence-informed practice. That pathway led to ten years as deputy headteacher at a secondary SLD/PMLD school introducing autism focused approaches to education.

Seventeen years ago, my journey brought me to Five Acre Wood School, where my experience, training, and belief in inclusive education came together around a shared purpose: creating meaningful futures for young people who are too often underestimated.

Leadership Shaped by Responsibility for Every Learner

At the heart of my role is vision-setting: creating shared ownership and the conditions for staff and pupils to thrive together. For a vision to be lived, it must belong to everyone, from staff to governors. Although we have revisited our vision a number of times over the past 17 years, its core purpose has remained constant: preparing young people for adulthood in a safe, creative, and engaging way that inspires learning.

“Everything we do is about giving young people the best possible future. Our Preparation for Adulthood Hub sits at the heart of this, creating clear pathways into employment while making learning engaging and meaningful.”

Leadership also requires open-mindedness, embracing new ideas and new ways of working, and setting pride aside. If an initiative has a positive impact elsewhere, I explore whether it can be adapted to our culture at Five Acre Wood. Central to this is holistic education that supports academic progress, wellbeing, and personal development.

Being outward-looking is equally about developing people. We invest in coaching, mentoring, and trust, enabling staff to lead projects, take considered risks, and work within a psychologically safe culture.

Turning Values into Systems That Deliver Progress

Quality of provision is led by a deputy headteacher, working closely with senior leaders responsible for learning approaches. Our curriculum is deliberately organic, written by staff, for our pupils, and shaped around their needs. Unlike mainstream settings where teaching and learning responsibility holders lead subjects such as maths or science, our specialists focus on pupils’ learning profiles and the approaches that best support them.

This work is underpinned by the Five Acre Wood Way and our values. The first is Pupils First, which drives our non-negotiables. Every learning approach has clear expectations present in every classroom, while allowing professional autonomy to meet pupils where they are.

Our second principle, Every Moment Matters, ensures learning is engaging and inspiring. This has led to innovative projects such as our plane-fuselage library, forest school, and outdoor learning spaces that support skill development across multiple domains.

The third principle, Together Stronger, focuses on teamwork and belonging. To support this, all staff are profiled using Spotlight, a tool developed by the high-performance psychologists at Mindflick, helping individuals understand and flex their strengths and take cares.

We measure pupil progress through a basket of indicators focused on what pupils can do. Each learning approach has its own assessment framework, moderated internally and externally to ensure rigour and consistency.

Authentic Inclusion That Shapes Meaningful Futures

I believe strongly in equity, not equality. It is not about offering everyone the same thing; it is about creating the right offer so everyone has the same opportunities. We meet each child where they are and build authentic pathways to inclusion through meaningful partnerships with industry that connect directly into the community.

A key example is our work with Costa Coffee and Hope Espresso, which led to The FAWrient Express, a working café housed in a refurbished train buffet carriage on site. Pupils encounter the space from an early age and progress into barista training as they grow older, creating credible routes into employment.

Each week, around 100 pupils train through The FAWrient Express, with a further 150 developing essential life skills. In the past four months, six students have accessed formal work placements, and one has secured paid employment. We have also established a coffee roastery, supported by Hope Espresso, where pupils roast and sell our own coffee. The structured, visual process makes the work accessible and empowering.

This is not simulation but real work in real settings. We collaborate with employers to make recruitment and workplaces more accessible through visual supports. By analysing local labour market data, we design a preparation for adulthood curriculum that leads directly to employment. Currently, our focus includes hospitality, horticulture, catering, retail, and production-line work.

Demonstrating Impact through Clear and Honest Evaluation

While academic progress data matters, our most powerful evidence is soft data, particularly the impact on family life. A parent once told us she never expected to hear her child speak until one day he said, “I love you.” That moment may not fit a spreadsheet, but it represents transformational progress.

Another family described how their young autistic child was able to wait for a parade at Disney for the first time, supported by the Attention Autism work they had undertaken at school.

We are currently recording a documentary capturing this impact. One young man joined us at four; he was unable to participate in learning, follow instructions or focus. After leaving briefly at eight, he returned at eleven and is now nineteen, a qualified barista who completed an apprenticeship with Costa and confidently serves customers. His father never believed this future was possible.

This is how we measure success: by the difference it makes when pupils leave us. In England, Ofsted provides an important external measure of quality, but we do not build our practice around a framework. We believe strong fundamentals lead to strong outcomes.

We also engage in external quality assurance through Challenge Partners, hosting and contributing to reviews. As a lead reviewer, I bring learning from multiple reviews back into our own practice, ensuring our standards are robust, informed, and reflective of what exceptional provision looks like.

Guiding Change without Losing Trust or Morale

My approach to change is hybrid but always begins with engagement. Staff need to accept the change, so we prioritise honest dialogue and a clear sense of urgency by acknowledging both risks and possibilities. We then work with a small group to shape plans. Those early adopters become advocates, because change can feel frightening until you see it working in practice.

Watching others try something new and succeed gives people the confidence to follow.

Central to this is clarity of vision, including where we are going, why, and how the change supports that direction. Senior leaders must model the change and communicate consistently. Starting small allows barriers to be addressed before upscaling the initiative.

We focus on short-term wins, implementing change in phases so impact is visible. The challenge is sustaining momentum through honest reflection and refinement rather than reverting to old habits. For change to stick, it must be consistently applied, shared, and monitored until it becomes embedded in daily practice.

Leadership Priorities Shaping Inclusive Education’s Future

Across the UK, school leaders face shrinking budgets alongside pressure to expand provision, often when growth is not appropriate. At the same time, inclusion is strongly promoted, and balancing this with individual need is complex. Leaders navigate conflicting demands, with local authorities urging schools not to increase pupil numbers, while tribunals and admission pressures make that position increasingly difficult to sustain.

Budget reductions place pressure on staffing, and without the right people, in the right place, at the right time, maintaining quality becomes increasingly difficult. This is compounded by changing workforce attitudes. Teaching is no longer viewed as a career for life, making recruitment and retention harder. When expertise cannot be secured, young people ultimately feel the impact.

The Guidance Principals Can’t Ignore

The first value is trust in yourself and others, alongside authenticity. I lead strongly through instinct, informed by experience. That instinct is strengthened through conversation, reflection, and challenge. I value having the time and space to talk ideas through, to test them, and to be honest about what feels right and what does not.

The era of the “superhero headteacher” is over. With more than 500 staff and 875 pupils, leadership cannot sit with one person alone. Leadership is a jigsaw made up of many pieces, each bringing different strengths, perspectives, and expertise. When those pieces come together, they create something far more powerful than any individual could achieve.

Education is truly about preparing young people for life, where inclusive, values-led leadership is the future.