After eight and a half years at Felsted, Daniel Emmerson is set to embark on a new enterprise later this year.
 

My time at Felsted up to this point has been life changing. When I joined this thriving and vibrant community back in March 2014, I had no idea how much of a huge step I was taking in terms of my career and development both personal and professional.

When I first began, my role was to grow and develop revenue streams for the school while finding ways of creating synergy between a broad range of departments. I was asked to magnify the school brand so that it resonated not just regionally, but globally, and that I should find ways of providing financial diversification for the school at the same time. 

The level of autonomy that I had in achieving those aims was substantial enough that during my first summer, Felsted was transformed into a television production location, featuring Konnie Huq riding a gigantic, fire breathing dragon on the roof of the Grignon Hall. In those first few months, I was also lucky enough to take part in the school’s 450th celebrations, held numerous events on site, from Christmas concerts to elaborate birthday parties and banquets and became significantly involved in the LEAP programme and in Round Square. 

As I learned more about the school and the various roles that existed here, I began to take on more responsibilities and to develop stronger ties, not just on site, but globally, as the international recruitment strategy really began to take shape. My department, in all of its various guises, alongside the Heads of Operational Departments, the Operational Management Team and later on the Senior Leadership Team, provided me with an essential foundation in developing a global strategy and creating partnerships while also remaining rooted in school life. I travelled a lot as it dawned on me just how much was involved in establishing and developing the relationships and projects essential to overseas recruitment.

I travelled almost constantly, from September through until May, sometimes even June, each year in order to grow Felsted’s Summer School from a fledgling programme of 17 students in 2014, to an immersive community of over 500 students in 2022. Every year this involved recruiting all of our residential staff, developing the curriculum, engaging as many Old Felstedians as possible, developing UK partnerships and ensuring that Felsted became a leading school in the sector. This would not have been possible without the outstanding staff that went above and beyond expectation each and every year in prioritising the experiences of young people so that they could find ways to collaborate, learn, create and forge friendships, regardless of where they came from.

But it has never just been about the final product at the end of each year. The relationships that have been forged on the road during my time at Felsted have been vital to the operational success of every Summer School since I started, as well as recruitment of students into the Senior and Prep Schools and management of our isolation programmes. It has involved a huge amount of professional development, not only in areas of Reputational Risk, Safeguarding and Financial Management, but also in Teaching and Learning, Online Programme Development and Business Administration. Indeed, Felsted granted me the opportunity of completing both a Level 7 Teaching Diploma in English Language Teaching as well as an MBA at Anglia Ruskin University. I also became a board member for the Global Education Benchmark Group, an organisation that was imperative in developing our Global Studies programme back in 2016. 

Living out of a suitcase throughout most of the academic year, and then in school accommodation during the summer, means that there are so many experiences to recount, it is not possible to focus on any one in particular. Of all the deeply moving and inspiring moments that I have been impeccably lucky to experience while working at Felsted, delivering the first on site Summer School and LEAP programme since the Global Pandemic has been one of the most intense, certainly, but also one of the most important periods of my life. As the summer draws to a close, I am pleased to announce that I will be starting on a new adventure in the coming months, and handing over to an equally dedicated and enthusiastic team who are ready to lead this department forward. 

The work that we continue to do at Felsted is tremendously important. Connecting young people with each other and providing them with an environment to develop outside of their mandatory curriculums at school is vital for the next generation. I applaud all of the independent schools who are making the effort to deliver their own programmes, our fourth terms, and who realise the importance of what they are doing. Felsted is in a strong position moving forward, for sure, but there is a massive amount of scope as to what can be achieved in the future, and I’m excited to see how that will continue to evolve.

I will not leave Felsted until mid-November, so I have some time to meet with many of our partners around the world and introduce them to new members of the team, while also talking through plans and provisions for global initiatives of the future. I look forward to sharing those ideas with you soon. But in the meantime, please know that I am grateful to everyone I have had the pleasure of working with up to this point, and for my time at this remarkable school.

Global Education at Felsted