History

Hampshire LEA is one of the biggest in England: consequently it has always been able to maintain a strong, educational ICT support team. Geoff Parkin joined the original IT Support team in 1981. When Graham Bevis arrived in 1986, he set up the Hampshire Microetchnology Centre in Winchester: Anthony Hunt succeeded Ron Gatfield as Primary Advisory Head teacher for IT in 1987. The GEST monies of 1988 saw the appointment of over 20 full-time teacher advisers for ICT. Tony Cook joined Anthony as a primary adviser and they have worked together since that date. Anthony organised the RSA Certificate training programme for teachers from 1988 whilst Tony was responsible for providing various software toolboxes for the LEA's 600 primary schools. Geoff, meanwhile, set up the HMTC Technical Support Team.

The New Opportunities Funded ICT training proved successful in Hampshire. Anthony coordinated this process between 1999 and 2003 and set up a large team of primary school trainers, including Tony. A new recruit was Gale Freshwater, head teacher of Kings Furlong Infant School in Basingstoke.

When NOF finished, the LEA was successful in its bid to become a national provider for the National College of Strategic Leadership's SLICT programme and Anthony, Tony and Gale were half of the original team chosen to represent the LEA.

Anthony retired full-time from Hampshire in the Summer of 2003 but continued to work on an independent basis with the LEA. Tony followed suit in the Summer of 2004 by which time Gale had arranged a two-term secondment from her school to work with them both in the formation of a new company, Gatehouse Partnership Limited. Gale resigned from headship in August 2005 and joined the company full-time. Geoff left Hampshire also at the end of August and joined the Company in September 2005.

Gale, Tony and Anthony were accredited as registered Naacemark Assessors in 2004 and worked with that programme up to its conclusion in April 2006. Anthony and Gale continue to work as Senior ICT Mark Assessors and Moderators, supporting schools using the ICT Self Review Framework that was introduced in April 2006.

Registered in May 2004, the company started trading officially from September 1st 2004 to support schools, teachers and children in Hampshire and nationally. The company has proved highly successful, both in education and financial terms, and Gatehouse has already begun to employ other personnel with different areas of expertise, to complement the talents already within the Company. This has proved to be an exciting development for us, providing us with the freedom to support teachers and children in a way that will suit their needs, and free from any organisational constraints.

Page Updated: September 2007