Hackney People
Anna Hassan
I'm meant to be retired!” declares Dame Anna Hassan, making her way through a group of children gathered around her as she steps forward to greet me, clearly delighted to be with them.
Until April, she was headteacher at Millfields Community School, E5, where she was widely praised for turning it around from being a ‘failing’ primary when she started there 16 years ago to the respected centre of excellence that it is regarded as today.
But a life of retired leisure is not for her. The 63-year-old now works as a consultant offering advice to schools such as Daubney Primary in Clapton, where she has found a ‘window’ in which to be interviewed. She explains: “I can’t be one of these people who says ‘oh, I’m retired – I’m going to take the dog for a walk’ – although the exercise would probably do me good!”
Being a ‘workaholic’ is in her blood, she says. Born to Italian Catholic parents in Northern Ireland, her family owned a chain of ice-cream parlours and fish and chip shops, and her 94-year-old mother, Rosa, was working until three years ago – a feat which Anna hopes to repeat.
She admits that she decided on a career in teaching to escape from the prospect of ‘an Italian arranged marriage’ and came to London to train in the 1960s. It was here that she met her engineer husband, Nevzat ‘Ali’ Hassan, now 63, a Turkish-Cypriot Muslim.
After the birth of their son, Dogan, in 1972, they moved to Northern Ireland before returning to London seven years later. Anna started working as a teacher again and in 1983 became deputy head and later head at Grasmere Primary, N16, before being invited to become head at Millfields in 1993. When she took charge non-attendance was at 50 per cent – and that was just the teachers.
But by the time she left this year, it had been praised and visited by Prince Charles and former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Anna had been made Dame Commander of the British Empire for services to education.
What is the secret of her success? She explains:
“Honesty, hard work, clarity, having the courage to employ people that I could see had potential and encouraging them to achieve that potential.”
She has seen some staff progress from being ‘dinner ladies’, to classroom assistants to teachers themselves, and more than 40 people she has worked with have become head teachers.
But the core of her success is her undeniable love and respect for children. She says:
“Children fascinate me. If things are right for children then everything else falls into place. It’s about putting children first. Not mollycoddling – sometimes they need tough love and being firm with them.
“I’ve never met a parent who doesn’t want the best for their children.
“I’ve fought for the children of Hackney because I feel they deserve all the advantages of children anywhere else.”
She adds: “All I’ve done is my best. I’m sure I’ve made plenty of mistakes. I’m sure a lot of people think I’m mad, but what I’ve done is fought for the children.”
Curriculum Vitae
- 1946 Born Anna Fusco in County Down, Northern Ireland
- 1955 Starts school in Frosinone, in central Italy, which she attends for 18 months before returning to Northern Ireland
- 1963 Starts at Coloma College, West Wickham, Kent (a Catholic teacher training school)
- 1967 Starts teaching at St Joseph’s Primary School, in Southwark
- 1972 Son Dogan born. Returns to Northern Ireland
- 1979 Moves back to London and works in various schools in Hackney
- 1983 Appointed deputy head at Grasmere School, in Hackney. Later becomes headteacher
- 1993 Invited to take charge of Millfields
- 2009 Retires from Millfields and takes up consultancy
Page updated: 15 Jun 2010
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