Marcia Gunson 

Acting Assistant Principal

Marcia left sixth form and went straight into employment, working with unemployed adults delivering employability skills training. Following this, she started volunteering in a youth centre where she developed her passion for working with disadvantaged, young people. She then went onto study a Youth and Community degree in Bradford. Marcia spent nearly a decade as a youth and community worker where she undertook a variety of roles.  

These included leading alternative education programmes within Bradford schools, international youth projects that saw her spending time in a wide range of places including schools in Cuba and working for the youth justice board with the top 50 at risk offenders in Bradford with the aim to engage them back into education. She also led a successful youth and community centre in inner city Bradford.  

During this time, her love for education grew. She saw many students that had been failed by the education system and endeavoured to encourage and support them as they made their steps back into education. This decision led her into mainstream education so she studied the maths enhancement course leading onto a secondary maths PGCE. She joined the White Rose Academy Trust in 2013 as a maths teacher at Leeds West Academy where she led the Year 7 numeracy intervention program.  

In 2015 Marcia joined the team at Leeds City Academy as Head of Maths. During her first year as Head of Maths the GCSE maths pass rates doubled. In December 2017, Marcia was awarded Outstanding Leader of the Year for Leeds City Academy.  In September 2018 Marcia was appointed as Director of Maths at Leeds City Academy as well as leading the CPD for English across the WRAT. 

Marcia joined the Senior Leadership team in 2019 as Assistant Principal, then as Vice Principal for Student Culture in February 2022, to her current role since September 2023.