Maureen Brennan

Dame Maureen Brennan (born March 1954) is currently the Executive Headteacher of the Matrix Academy Trust. She took the position at this school after spending several years as headteacher at Barr Beacon School and principal at Hillcrest School and Community College in Netherton, West Midlands.

Before this she worked at Great Barr School in Great Barr, Birmingham as a senior staff member. Brennan let it be known that Hillcrest School had "no structures, systems or routines" when she took over in September 2002. In 2002 the school came out of special measures. By the beginning of 2003, Ofsted inspectors described it as "one of the most outstanding schools in the country".

One of her recipes for changing that was the introduction of a "house system and a prefectorial system". She introduced formal routines such as pupils standing up when someone walks into the classroom; she also got rid of the bells that sounded the end of each lesson. Other measures included a sin bin or exclusion room (dubbed the "doom room" by the pupils) where misbehaving pupils could go for a period of isolation from their peers.

Brennan was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005.

On 12 December 2007 it was reported that Brennan and her recent senior management team was under investigation for fraudulent reporting of attendance figures during the time she was headteacher at Hillcrest School and Community College.

Dudley Council's investigations ended and the case was passed to the West Midlands Police Economic Crime Team. Brennan was identified in the Dudley report for leading a team of senior managers who EWS (Educational Welfare Service) investigators claim manipulated registers to make the school appear more successful than it actually was. In their interim report, EWS officers alleged that the records created a false impression of improved attendance which promoted the school's image and resulted in higher pupil numbers. West Midlands Police decided there was no case to pursue.

On 13 November 2012 Brennan faced a Teaching Agency professional conduct panel in Coventry with teachers Shelley Derham and Linda Westwood, members of her former senior management team. All faced charges of unacceptable professional conduct. Teaching Agency presenting officer, Bradley Albuery, claimed evidence linked the pair to the “deliberate” misrecording to “pretend attendance was better than it was” and to boost perceptions of Hillcrest School.

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