Rachel Macfarlane is the Director of Education Services at HFL Education. From 2007 until
2018 she was a National Leader of Education, serving as Headteacher of three contrasting
schools over a sixteen year period. In 2011 Rachel joined Ark Schools to set up a new co-
educational, all-through academy for 4-18 year olds in Ilford, East London. This was judged
to be outstanding in all areas by Ofsted in 2014 and again in 2018. From 2009-2018 Rachel was Project Director of The London Leadership Strategy’s Going
For Great (G4G) Programme, which involved working with leaders of outstanding schools to
share good practice and produce case studies for dissemination to London schools.
Rachel sat on the RSC’s Headteacher Board for NE London & the East of England Region.
Rachel is an honorary fellow at the UCL Institute of Education’s Centre for Educational
Leadership. She is a fellow of the CCT. She is a Trustee of Big Education and part of the
core team at Rethinking Assessment.
Rachel has written and contributed to a number of books on the themes of educational
disadvantage, the features of great schools and learning power approaches to education.
Her 2021 book, Obstetrics for Schools, addresses the disadvantaged gap and how to
overcome it. In June 2023 her book Unity In Diversity will be published. This addresses
race inequity in the education sector and is a practical guide for school leaders keen to
develop their schools as anti-racist institutions. Rachel is passionate about supporting
schools to effect social mobility and achieve equity for all learners.