Tricia Okoruwa obituary

Tricia Okoruwa, former Head of Hackney Learning Trust

Tricia Okoruwa, who has died aged 50 following a long battle with cancer, was one of the borough’s most prominent educators and head of Hackney Learning Trust.

Born in Fife in Scotland to a working-class family, Ms Okoruwa was the youngest of four children. Her early years were difficult after her mother died when she was just 4 years old.

Ms Okoruwa went to school at Dumfermline High School, then Edinburgh University where she graduated with honours. She qualified as a teacher at Moray House.

Apart from three years spent teaching in an international school in Paris, Tricia spent her entire career in the schools of London’s East End.

When she arrived at De Beauvoir Primary in 1992, Hackney’s schools were struggling, consistently coming in at the bottom of national league tables.

The ten years that followed saw a radical overhaul of the borough’s standards. The improvements were so marked that the former education secretary Baroness Estelle Morris, called the transformation a “revolution in a decade”.

Ms Okoruwa became Headteacher at De Beauvoir Primary in 1999 and then at Kingsmead Primary, until she joined the newly formed Hackney Learning Trust in 2004.

Sir Mike Tomlinson CBE, current Chief Adviser of London Challenge – the government’s campaign to raise standards in schools – worked with Ms Okoruwa at Hackney Learning Trust.

Mr Tomlinson said that Ms Okoruwa played a “major role” in the improvement of local schools and in pushing up standards.

In ten short years, Tricia progressed from leading the primary strategy to become Director of Education when schools were returned to Hackney Council at the end of The Learning Trust’s contract.

Of all the projects Ms Okoruwa led, colleagues say her proudest achievement was the ‘Get Hackney Reading’ campaign which aimed to get every child in Hackney reading by the age of seven.

Tricia Okoruwa died September 27 from cancer, continuing to lead Hackney Learning Trust through a gruelling course of chemotherapy. She is survived by her husband and three children.

Paying tribute to his former colleague, Sir Tomlinson said: “The current performance of schools in Hackney, notably the primary schools, owes much to her vision and determination.

“Hackney owes a great debt of gratitude to a tremendous person who was dedicated to education and to the children of Hackney. I mourn the passing of a wonderful, talented and dedicated lady.”