Adam O'Connor

Mr O'Connor gained his MSci in Environmental Geoscience at Royal Holloway before training to teach Geography at the Institute of Education. He began his career at St Marylebone Girls' School in 2005, rising from classroom teacher to Head of Humanities, before two years leading IB Diploma and IGCSE Geography at The Oporto British School in Portugal.

He returned to South London as Head of Geography at La Retraite, then joined Marylebone Boys' School as a founding Assistant Head, and served as Senior Deputy Head at St Anthony's Preparatory School. He spent five years as a school improvement consultant for the Harris Federation, working alongside dozens of academies and supporting eleven Ofsted inspections, before two years as Deputy Head (Academic) of an international school near Lisbon. He returned to Harris in 2026 as Senior Vice Principal at HAP.

Proudest moment in education: Building the Federation's primary to secondary transition strategy. Year 6 is where too many children lose momentum, and getting our primaries and secondaries to plan as one meant thousands of pupils walked into Year 7 already known, already expected to do well.

The thing I love about HAP: My grandfather ran a bottle washing business on Goldsmith Road, a ten minute walk from the school gate. I grew up in Croydon and got where I am because someone took a chance on a local boy. Our students deserve exactly that, and here they get it.