BSA Award Winner
Dr Mary Plint, Deputy Head (Learning and Wellbeing), Wins BSA Award
Cheltenham College is proud to announce that Deputy Head (Learning and Wellbeing), Dr Mary Plint, is the winner of the very special Emma Pattison Award for Compassionate Leadership, received at the BSA Supporting Excellence Awards 2025.
The awards evening was held on Tuesday 6 May, designed to commend those making a significant difference within the Boarding school community. This year, only 45 schools were shortlisted for the finals from over 300 entries in 14 categories, highlighting what an incredible achievement it was to be selected as a finalist alone.
The Boarding School Association (BSA) commented;
“Highlights included the special moment when the Emma Pattison Award for Compassionate Leadership was awarded jointly to both Lotte Tulloch, Head, Denstone College and Dr Mary Plint, Deputy Head, Learning and Wellbeing, Cheltenham College. Judges said both individuals were “shining examples” of compassionate leadership in their own right, so much so that they were deemed equally worthy of this special award.”
Dr Plint worked her way up from running nursery schools in South Africa, to working in primary and secondary schools in the UK, undertaking a Masters in Inclusive Education, and gaining expertise and experience as a SENCO. For a decade now, she has been the highly respected Deputy Head of Learning and Wellbeing here at Cheltenham College.
Some of her most recent projects include involvement in a whole-school anti-bullying programme called ‘Say you’re in, call it out’ which consistently draws the whole school together every year. She has led a new approach to supporting pupils with Executive Function needs and championed an inclusion agenda through many LGBTQ+ initiatives. Dr Plint teaches Learning Support, is a tutor, mentors staff and is always to be found watching the pupils play sport, sing in concerts, perform in plays and so on.
Mrs Nicola Huggett, Head of Cheltenham College said;
“Dr Mary Plint embodies exactly what this award seeks to celebrate. Mary combines a demonstrable sense of empathy and kindness with an impressive clarity of leadership and creativity. In a career that spans well over 40 years in schools – from Nurseries to Sixth Forms, Mary’s constancy and care for her charges and her colleagues, no matter what their needs, goals or aspirations, set her apart from the crowd.
Mary is the most genuine and positive person. No-one fosters trust and team morale more than she does and she truly deserves to follow in the footsteps of the wonderful leader that Emma Pattison was.”
Dr Plint expressed;
“It is a real honour to receive the award for Compassionate Leadership. I feel incredibly fortunate to be working at Cheltenham College, a supportive and empowering environment in which I have had the privilege to work with creative, wise and generous leaders who have provided scope for growth and many opportunities for development. The Compassionate Leadership award could rightly have been made to current and former Senior Leaders who have been willing to entrust me with responsibility and nurture fledgling ideas. In my own leadership I aim to mentor others with the same compassion that has been modelled to me.”