Who are we
Isabelle Boyd CBE
A well-known face in education, both locally and nationally, Isabelle’s connection with Lanarkshire is a long standing one. Born and bred in Coatbridge, Isabelle is the third of four daughters and is married to local boy Ronnie Boyd.
Isabelle began her teaching career in 1978 as a teacher of Modern Studies in Glasgow. She became Principal Teacher curriculum in St Andrew’s Secondary School, Glasgow in 1983 and remained there until she joined the Education Department in Dumbarton as Parent Support officer in 1993. She held senior management posts in Our Lady’s High School, Cumbernauld and Taylor High School, before taking up post in Cardinal Newman High School as Headteacher in 2002.
Under her leadership, Cardinal Newman High School was selected as one of the first Schools of Ambition in Scotland. The school became an enhanced comprehensive school using ‘enterprise’ to raise achievement, build self-confidence of pupils and enhance teaching and learning in all areas.
Cardinal Newman High School achieved an excellent HMIe inspection report in 2008 and Isabelle’s leadership received particular mention. HMIe judged the following areas to be excellent: developing people and partnerships; leadership of the headteacher; engagement of staff in the life and work of the school; success in involving parents, carers and families; and care, welfare and development. However, Isabelle believes that the most professionally satisfying comment from the inspectors was that “The school was very successful in taking forward its vision of making a significant difference to the life choices of its pupils”.
Isabelle was awarded a CBE for Services to Education in the 2008 New Year Honours. The CBE endorsed HMIe’ s findings that, “The head teacher provided outstanding leadership for the school community. She was very successful at sharing her vision for the school and engaging staff in delivering it”.
As a headteacher, Isabelle was recognised as an ‘early adopter’ of Curriculum for Excellence as her approaches to personal support, curriculum design and collaborative working were ground breaking and nationally recognised.
Isabelle has a national profile and is invited to serve on local and national working groups, address conferences and write for a variety of media. She was seconded by Scottish Government to help bring to life recommendations from the Donaldson Report as one of the national coordinators for the establishment of the Scottish College for Educational Leadership (SCEL).
From 2014 to 2018, Isabelle was the senior leader of a large local authority, latterly as Assistant Chief Executive: Education, Youth and Communities. Under her stewardship the education services were recognised as both innovative and collaborative. In July 2018 an Education Scotland inspection of the local authority highlighted Isabelle’s clear vision and drive which was “leading to improvement in outcomes for children”.
Isabelle displays strong commitment to improving learning, raising attainment and closing the poverty-related attainment gap and in the development of leaders for the future.
Throughout her career, she has been committed to ensuring the best for children, young people, their families and communities and this has been underpinned by values of wisdom, justice, compassion and integrity.
Isabelle has played a significant role in the success of Catholic Education in Scotland for 40 of its 100 years and no doubt will continue to do so in the future.
From 2019 to 2023, Isabelle lectured in Master level leadership programmes at a Scottish University. These post graduate programmes involve working with people from both the public and private sector at home and abroad.
In 2020, she was one of the initiators of exam.scot - a collective of individuals and organisations from across the country exploring possibilities for new approaches to examinations and certification in Scotland.
Ronnie Boyd
Ronnie has had a 40 year successful career as an educationist across 3 different Scottish Local Authorities. He is a life long learner and has achieved SQH and a Master's degree.
Before moving into local authority leadership posts, Ronnie was a Secondary Depute Headteacher with a wide range of experiences in all the key remit areas.
He was innovative and realistic and has strong proven leadership skills. Many of his colleagues - both peers and team members - describe him as one of the finest leaders they have worked with.
He excels at building and developing teams.
In particular as Education Officer and Quality Improvement Manager he has a strong record of developing staff many of whom have gone onto senior leadership roles. He is experienced in leading a large CLPL team focussing on the needs of school practitioners.
He is a very wise counsellor
All of Ronnie's work focuses on improvements in children’s learning and he has a special interest in gender and attainment.
Since retiring from full time local authority education posts, Ronnie has been involved in football. For 3 years he was the chairman of a Scottish lower league football team. In this role he utilised his skills in management and leadership during periods of austerity and adversity.
From 2019 to 2024, Ronnie has been an Associate Tutor with a Scottish university and is involved in the initial teacher education programme and other Master level education programmes. He is also a Masters’ students dissertation supervisor.
Ronnie is dedicated to career long professional learning. His key strengths for Cor ad Cor lie in his successful experience in
* self evaluation and quality assurance
* early career development
* developing Young Workforce
* HMI inspection preparation and follow through
Together with Isabelle and Ronnie, we have a range of associates of highly regarded and successful school leaders from both primary and secondary sectors together with professional officers who have worked and led in education and care at national level on a range of issues and initiatives.
Teresa Verrecchia
Teresa Verrecchia is a recently retired head teacher of a primary school in North Lanarkshire. She held this post for 22 years and was as inspirational and successful at the end of her headship as at the outset. Her school received very positive reports from both the local authority and from HMIe.
Teresa has taught in many schools across Lanarkshire and has made significant differences to families and communities.
She is an inspirational leader and she possess a key characteristic of successful leaders – she is a magnificent story teller. She uses story telling to build relationships and to build community - all designed to improve outcomes for children.
Her innovative approaches to inspire and motivate children include links with Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Lanarkshire Beekeepers. The school’s approaches to nurture and parental engagement were ground breaking and continue to inspire and motivate colleagues.
Teresa was a long-standing member of the executive committee of the Catholic Primary Headteachers Association of Scotland and a career long active member of the EIS. She was recently awarded EIS Fellowship status.
Teresa is a current Associate Tutor (Creativity Culture & Faith) at Glasgow University and is assisting in the formation and moulding of teachers for the future.