Page 81 - Powerlist 2020

Dr Cheron Byfield
Governor and Founder, King Solomon
International Business School; CEO, Excell3 Public Sector & Third Sector

Dr Byfield’s acclaimed Excell3 Apex Universities Programme,
which supports under-represented groups of students to
access Britain’s top universities, has gone from strength to
strength.
The programme runs over four years starting with students
in Year 10 and seeks to inspire confidence and equip them
with the requisite knowledge and skills to make successful
applications to the nation’s top universities. Over 90 per cent
of the students on the programme who have sat their A Levels
over the past two years have gained university places, a
significant number heading to red brick universities.
In conjunction with university staff and education
professionals the Apex programme delivers specialised
workshops on everything from “The Admissions Process”
to “The University Admissions Interview”. The events are
hosted at the nation’s top universities including Oxford and
Cambridge. The Apex programme also offers an accredited
qualification for students and parents via completion of
Excell3’s “Overcoming Barriers to Education” course. The
parents’ edition provides advice and strategies for supporting
a child into Higher Education.
Dr Byfield’s King Solomon International Business
School is a free school for more than 1,000 students in
Birmingham. Having opened three years ago, it offers the
elite International Baccalaureate and was established to NEW Dr Dayo Olukoshi, OBE
help prepare its students to live, work and trade in the global 2020 Executive Principal, Brampton Academy
economy. Prior to this, Dr Byfield had her own training
and enterprise company and was the managing director of
Coventry Women’s Business Development Agency, where In 2018 Brampton Manor Academy hit the headlines as a
she developed a number of schemes to support women in state school that managed to get 41 students into Oxbridge.
business, including a Women’s Business Club. An author and
an avid supporter of educational projects, Dr Byfield oversees In 2019 the school achieved even better results. Dr Dayo
more than 30 franchised community educational projects for Olukoshi OBE, the school’s principal, is renowned in
thousands of children across the UK. educational circles and beyond, with an outstanding
reputation in the communities in which he serves.
During his years as an educational leader, he has helped
to transform schools, and has had a lasting, powerful,
inspiring impact on the next generation.
A decade ago, Dr Olukoshi worked as deputy headteacher
of Phoenix high school in west London, which was once
dubbed ‘possibly the worst school in Britain’. The school
became the most improved secondary school in England
during Dr Olukoshi’s time there.
While at Brampton Manor Academy in east London,
where he is currently executive principal, Dr Olukoshi’s
achievements led to him being invited in 2013 to be one of
the select head teachers appointed to the role of National
Leader of Education.
Speaking at the time, Dr Olukoshi said of his appointment:
“This is great news for Brampton Manor. We believe strongly
that the most effective way to secure system-wide school
improvement is through school-to-school support. Becoming
a National Support School will bring additional resources to
help us develop exciting partnerships with other schools for
the benefit of all our students.”
The secret of Brampton Manor Academy’s success, says Dr
Olukoshi, is that the school focuses “very strongly on what
really matters: the quality of teaching and learning”. And
the school’s own motto is undoubtedly apt for the man at its
helm: ‘success through effort & determination’.

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