The King’s School’s New Principal of the Infant & Junior Division
It’s home from home for the King’s School’s new Principal of the Infant & Junior Division, Rachel Cookson, who has returned to Macclesfield for the challenge of her life time.
Mother of two Rachel was born and bred in Macclesfield and was one of the very first team of just four teachers who opened King’s Infant department in 1997. Now she has returned as their new Principal and will be a key member of the senior leadership team planning for the transition to the new £60 million campus on Alderley Road in two years.
Rachel went to South Bank University to read Modern Foreign Languages with Economics and Law, then taking her PGCE at Bristol. She taught at two state schools before moving to King’s in 1997 as the first ever Reception Teacher in the school’s 500-year history, part of team that saw the Infants’ roll double in just four years. From King’s she joined Terra Nova as their Head of Early Years and then Pre-Prep before taking up the position of Head of Lower School at the prestigious Queen’s School in Chester in 2014.
She has come back to Macclesfield and re-joined what she says: “is widely seen as one of the most innovative and forward-thinking schools in the United Kingdom.”
Rachel added: “On a professional basis, King’s is an outstanding school with an ambitious plan for 2020 and I very much wanted to be part of that vision. On a personal level, I feel I am returning to the school that made me the practitioner I am today: someone who believes in a child-centred approach, where the needs of each and every individual child are assessed and valued, someone who aims to instil a collaborative approach where children reason for themselves and are resilient to all life’s challenges.”
Known as an innovator, Rachel was invited to meet the Queen while she was Head at Queen’s Chester to showcase their partnership with the town’s Storyhouse Arts Centre and now she is keen to develop further King’s IT and languages provision. “The sooner children start to develop new skills the better and I am continually surprised at how easily three-year-olds will assimilate knowledge and develop good learning habits when given the opportunity.”
An national swimmer and athlete in her younger days, Rachel is also keen to uphold King’s holistic view, “academic performance is important, indeed vital, but just as important is what the child learns outside the classroom and the passions they develop that will stay with them throughout their lives and King’s has always been exceptional in that regard.”
