Shropshire education supremo honoured with MBE wants 'fantastic' colleagues recognised
A man who has dedicated his life to teaching says his New Year Honours award for services to education recognises the dedication of the profession.
Married father-of-two Mike Cladingbowl, who lives in Wem, received the MBE in the New Year Honours after a career that took him from teacher to Ofsted chief to academy trustee.
Mr Cladingbowl, 65, said: "I am thrilled and really excited that my work has been recognised in this way.
"But the real reason I am pleased is that it is recognition of the fantastic people I have worked with over the years.
"I would like to give a big shout-out to colleagues past and present at the Fields and Empower multi-academy trusts, plus all the teachers, support staff and all the fantastic staff who support schools."
Mike said he received a letter a few weeks ago recommending him for an award.
"It just landed on the mat like all the other post, and probably bills," he said. "It was a surprise to receive it and it was not expected."
After working as a teacher and headteacher at a school in Cheshire, he moved to schools inspector Ofsted where he worked for 13 years.
He left the organisation as national director of inspection reform in 2015 to take up the post of executive principal at Knutsford Multi-Academy Trust.
After working as the chief executive of The Learning Alliance in Cheshire, he set up his own bespoke educational consultancy company, Education Associates Limited.
He has lived in north Shropshire for 20 years, is married to Valerie Bernard with whom he had two children, a son who attends Thomas Adams School, and a daughter who is in her third year studying classics at Oxford University.
He says his own children's academic success is all about the excellence of the teachers at their schools.
Mike is also well known at two multi-academy trusts in Shropshire.
He retired from Fields last Spring but had been chair of the board of trustees from from when it was first set up. The trust runs Clive CE School & Nursery, Prees CE School & Nursery and Whixall CE School & Nursery in north Shropshire.
He remains a trustee at Empower Multi-Academy Trust which has schools including in Market Drayton and Shrewsbury.
Mike added that he would like to give a "shout-out" to all the people who work in education and wished them a Happy New Year.
