With an illustrious career in education, an evident passion for the power of learning and a special place in her heart for creating communities that truly care, Westonbirt School's new head, Dina Porovic, sits down with SoGlos to tell us how her first few weeks in the job have been – and share her exciting plans for the school's future.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your experience in education.
I've loved my journey through school and at university and I feel very fortunate to have had a wonderful time being educated.
I was educated in the state sector and was very lucky that the teachers saw something in me and provided me with opportunities that were unique. I learned Latin and ancient Greek before and after school, because a teacher really wanted to offer it; I went on academic trips for subjects I wasn't studying because I was interested in them; my head teacher handed me Sophie's World to read when I was in Year 8 because she thought that I would really enjoy it. The faith that teachers placed in me has absolutely defined me as a person in terms of the confidence I have in myself; and the faith I have in the power of education to empower people to do good in the world.
I went into teaching through Teach First and from the moment I stepped into the classroom, I absolutely loved it. I loved being a part of something where there was a sense of hope and purpose and you were making a positive difference to people's lives.
Somebody once said to me that education is an industry of hope – I loved that phrase and the idea that your whole job is about investing in the next generation, hopefully doing something wonderful for the world, really resonates with me.
It is a privilege and a huge responsibility.
What attracted you to Westonbirt School?
I applied some time ago for a headship at a day school. I got quite far through the process but realised that wasn't quite right for me, because I wanted to be part of a community in a place that had boarding, where there was a sense that the school existed beyond the hours of 8.30am and 4pm.
I met Natasha Dangerfield, the previous head at Westonbirt, at a recruitment fair in Kazakhstan, of all places. I thought she was the most wonderful, warm person I'd ever met in that context.
I loved getting to know her and we agreed that we'd keep in touch, so when the job at Westonbirt came up, given how wonderful a person she was, I suspected that the kind of school she ran must be a really special place as well.
When I came for interviews, that proved to be true. The warmth of the community here, everything that it's doing for its children already, the variety of clubs and activities, the way that sport is really inclusive and yet ambitious at the same time, all spoke to me and my vision for what a well-rounded education should be.
There's a brilliant new deputy head academic here, who is focusing on how we get the most out of our children, making sure they achieve the very best of what they're capable of by the time they do their exams.
Working with Wishford as well, having that kind of support to be innovative makes me excited about everything that we could do with this amazing site and the educational experience for the children that we can provide.
What makes the community at Westonbirt School so special?
The staff, the children, the parents, even the local village, there are so many people who believe in what's here, who are invested in it thriving, who want the very best for the children and who value the magical place this is.
To be in a school which was designed by Robert Holford, a man of ambition and vision, with an outdoor space that resonated with his desire to create something beautiful and unique; the exacting nature of it all immediately sets an ambition for the place that carries his legacy.
That legacy is so important to the school and the way that the space is looked after means that the people who come here and invest in it know its value and also want to look after it. That then feeds through to everything else.
For the boarders and staff that live here, this is their home, so there's another layer of absolute love for this place.
Following an age where lots of beautiful old buildings were demolished to make way for something believed to be more functional or blocks of flats, the fact that Westonbirt has survived and thrived is a beautiful testament to ambition and the desire to create and preserve something beautiful for others.
When parents come and visit, it's one of the first things that strikes them, as a place where children can grow up in safety, surrounded by a sense of beauty and an aspiration for excellence, which really means a lot to them.
With nearby Rendcomb College having announced its closure at the end of the academic year, how has this affected Westonbirt School?
Whenever a school closes, it's devastating for the entire family – and in this particular case, they're a really tight-knit and very lovely community.
We asked ourselves what we could do to look after them as well as we possibly can, so we've been really focused on opening our doors to families to come and have the opportunity to find out who we are, without any obligation.
The level of interest we've had has been quite unbelievable. What people have been grateful for and what I'm really proud of, on behalf of the school, is that we have tried to look after them, in whatever decision they make about the future of their children's education.
We've tried to communicate as clearly as we can to ensure that if this is the place that they want to come, they have as much information as quickly as possible – and we've been fortunate that a dedicated team of people here have been working hard on that.
It's been an unconventional first few weeks in the job, then!
Yes! But I feel very lucky. I've seen people at their very best, very early on in my time here.
Because we didn't anticipate that this would happen, we've had to respond in a unique way to the situation. Seeing the way that people have stepped up to go well above and beyond, to see how quickly people galvanized and how community orientated they are – and how that's prevalent across the kids and the staff – is for me, a fantastic endorsement of where I've come to be head.
What are you most excited about for the future at Westonbirt?
There's a strategic development plan which we're working on – and I think it's really important that plan involves the children.
By the time children leave the school, we want to have empowered them to become the very best version of who they could be. That's underpinned by the ideals of them having fantastic levels of self-esteem, confidence and a sense of worth in who they are as people and the good that they can do in the world.
We want them to have experienced success whilst they've been at the school, so they've left with the best possible results they could.
Everybody can strive for excellence no matter their starting point – and my job, along with the staff in the school, is to help children to feel that sense of success and to understand what the journey involves.
Involving pupils in that journey is really important to me. We're going to be launching a number of pupil-led co-curricular activities so that children have ownership of things like the clubs they want to run, facilitated and supported by staff, but ultimately led by the children, so they're creating the school that they want to be at.
The more investment children have in the school and the more of themselves that they leave behind, the greater the sense of self-esteem and belonging, which I'm a really big believer in. Pupil voice is critical and I want that to be the cornerstone of how we design our curriculum.
I'm also a very big believer in ensuring that the knowledge that children possess, they absolutely own, because in order to make good decisions as they grow up, they need to know things authentically, rather than just picking things up through social media or AI.
From that perspective, we have an amazing library here and I've got some ideas of what I'd like to do with that. We have a fantastic opportunity to create a learning environment that's both deep and rich, but also dynamic. I'm really excited about where this can go.
You've got an open event coming up in March – what can families expect from that?
We have an open morning on Saturday 7 March 2026.
For me, these events are about how it feels when families are here, not just what it looks like or what we say.
What I want families to walk away with, having visited Westonbirt, is a sense of excitement for their children, the opportunities that they will have and the sense of belonging that we want them to feel – and that is truly inspiring.
To book a place at one of Westonbirt School's upcoming open days, visit westonbirt.org/open-days-visits.
