Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is Professor of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, UK, and leader of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Group. Her group’s research focuses on the development of social cognition and decision making in the human adolescent brain, and adolescent mental health. You can read more about the group and their research here.

Former MP and Cabinet Minister. First Information Technology Minister introducing computers into schools. As Education Secretary he introduced the National Curriculum, testing, City Technology Colleges, grant-maintained schools, devolved budgets, and polytechnics established as independent bodies. Chairman of the Baker Dearing Educational Trust which promotes University Technical Colleges of which there are 48 open across England. UTCs deliver an innovative curriculum that combines technical, practical and academic learning. Born in 1934, Lord Baker is married with three children. He enjoys collecting political caricatures and writing – his latest book, On Assassinations, was published in 2020.

Geoff studied English and Linguistics at the University of Lancaster, then trained to teach at Leicester University. From 2002 to 2017 he was headteacher of King Edward VI School, Bury St Edmunds, a comprehensive school of 1650 students.

He is a Founding Fellow of the English Association and writes for a range of newspapers and journals. He has worked with various organisations, including the Department for Education, on leadership and literacy.

Geoff was a longstanding member of ASCL Council, former chair of its Pedagogy Committee, is Patron of the English and Media Centre, and a ‘Leading Thinker’ for the National Education Trust. He became General Secretary of ASCL in April 2017.

Rachel Macfarlane is the Director of Education Services at Herts for Learning. She was Headteacher of three contrasting schools over a sixteen year period, mostly recently an all-through academy for 4-18 year olds in East London. From 2009-2018 Rachel was Project Director of The London Leadership Strategy’s Going For Great (G4G) programme, which involved working with leaders of outstanding schools to share good practice and produce case studies for dissemination to London schools.

Meeta Vouk, PhD is a business woman who has built and led various businesses within established global organizations. In particular she has directed research labs to productize deep technology. Meeta is currently a Product Officer at IBM managing several businesses and an adjunct professor at North Carolina State University where she teaches advanced graduate courses.

Alistair is Director of Learning and Innovation at Bedales School, where he has overseen the development of the diversely assessed ‘Bedales Assessed Courses’ which take the place of many GCSEs. He’s also co-author of ‘Learning How to Learn’, an inspector, and a TES features writer.

Peter is the co-director of Big Education a Multi Academy trust and social enterprise that is trying to forge a more expansive education based around the education of the whole child – head, heart and hand. He is co-founder and the first headteacher of School 21, a pioneering 4 to 18 school that opened in Stratford, East London in 2012. The school has a growing reputation for developing oracy (speaking) skills having set up Voice 21, a charity working with hundreds of schools across the country. It has also developed sophisticated programmes for real world learning and wellbeing.

For nine years to 2003, Peter worked as a strategist and speechwriter to the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. He left to become a teaching assistant in a challenging Islington school, before training as a history teacher and working his way up to become a headteacher. He is author of 1 out of 10, from Downing Street Vision to Classroom Reality.

Bill Lucas is Director of the Centre for Real-World Learning and Professor of Learning at the University of Winchester. Bill, an ex school leader and CEO of two national educational charities, is a researcher, writer and educational thought-leader. His model of creativity is now in use in more than 20 countries across the world demonstrating that creative thinking can be developed and assessed in students. Bill is co-chair of the new PISA 2021 Test of Creative Thinking and co-author of the recent Durham Commission Report on Creativity and Education. A prolific author, Bill’s latest book is Zest for Learning: Developing curious learners who relish real-world challenges.

Tamsin Ford is a Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. Her research academic work focuses on the effectiveness of interventions and the efficiency of services in relation to the mental health of children and young people, with a particular focus on the interface between education and health systems. She completed her PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London and she set up the Child Mental Health Research Group at Exeter Medical School in 2007. She moved to Cambridge in October 2019 where is also an honorary consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist at Cambridge and Peterborough Foundation Trust. She is part of the Research Advisory Group of Place2Be and a board member of the Association of Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Following a career in Prison Education resulting in a Headship at a Young Offenders Institute in West London, Leanne has worked with children with complex needs for 17 years. A career supported by studies in Special and Inclusive Education and Attachment and Trauma-Informed Practice has led to her working with partner schools and agencies to champion this approach to working with young people. An advocate for collaboration and equity in educational experiences for children, Leanne moved from prison Education to take a Headship at a Pupil Referral Unit to try and prevent children from being adversely affected by their exclusions from mainstream schools.

Currently High Mistress of St Paul’s Girls’ School and previously Head at Kingston Grammar School and City of London School.

I have had the privilege to teach in a number of schools at home and abroad, boarding, day, single-sex, co-educational, state and independent. I was involved from the outset in the development of the Extended Project Qualification and the Cambridge Pre-U, sitting on the Pre-U Steering Committee from inception to launch. I am also fortunate enough to be a school governor at West London Free School as well as a board member of The School and Family Works, a brilliant social enterprise company which supports families in resolving deep seated familial and behavioural issues.

I have a strong interest in curriculum reform and in encouraging creativity in teaching & learning. For me, education ought to be about welcoming and cultivating the natural interests of all young people. It should be about inspiring in them a deep, life-long curiosity that enables them to engage actively, responsibly, and critically in the world.

I believe that we now need the courage to revaluate the way we assess achievement so that we can realise these aims and recognise the full potential of everyone.

Julian Drinkall is Chief Executive of Academies Enterprise Trust. He brings over a decade of experience in education: as CEO of Alpha Plus Group, President and CEO of Cengage Learning, EMEA and India, as well as three years as CEO of Macmillan Education.

Educated at Eton and Oxford where he graduated in PPE, he also has an MBA from Harvard and a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard’s JFK School of Government, where he holds a Littauer Fellowship.

Robert Lobatto is Head of The King Alfred School in London. Founded in 1898, it has a strong tradition of creativity, independence and education of the whole child. Previously, Robert was Head of a large award-winning Secondary school in West London, and Executive head of a large primary school. He helped to found one of the first parent-led schools in 2010, and sits on the board of a MAT in South-west London.

Dame Alison Peacock is Chief Executive of the Chartered College of Teaching.  Her research and commitment to ‘Learning without Limits’ has taken place over many years.  Working with colleagues from the University of Cambridge she has participated as an insider-researcher studying the impact of removing national curriculum levels  within primary school settings. Alison is pleased to join Rethinking Assessment in a personal capacity.

Director of Teaching and Learning at Eton and the Director of The Tony Little Centre for Innovation and Research in Learning, a centre for pedagogical excellence, evidence-informed practice and research into teaching, learning and leadership in education. An expert in character education, with two decades of experience in teaching emotional intelligence and a deep knowledge of boarding education.

Neil is CEO of the Bohunt Education Trust. Under his leadership Bohunt School was named secondary and overall School of the Year by the TES. As a National Leader of Education and Chair of the TESLA Teaching School Alliance, Neil has worked on a multitude of school improvement projects, mainly supporting schools in challenging circumstances and in areas of deprivation. Neil is passionate about the quality of educational experience and opportunity within the state sector. He believes that an impoverished start in life is no excuse for an impoverished future. Shortlisted for Headteacher of the Year, Neil is a former member of the National Steering Group for Languages and is a practising Ofsted Inspector.

Since stepping down as CEO of UCAS in 2017 I have developed a portfolio of non-exec roles in higher and secondary education, in student communications/marketing and in edtech. I chair the Dyson Institute and the Access Project and my board roles include the Open University, the Student Loans Co, the London Interdisciplinary School and United Learning.

Gwyn ap Harri is the CEO and co-founder of XP School Trust in Doncaster, UK. XP delivers a three dimensional curriculum focused on academic performance, beautiful work and character growth.

Olly spent 12 years in the Department for Education working on policies including 14-19 diplomas, raising the participation age and finally as Head of Apprenticeship Strategy. Olly is now Executive Director of the Edge Foundation, where he oversees a programme of primary research, is lead author on all of the charity’s policy reports and runs the Edge Future Learning delivery programme for schools and colleges.

Magnus went to the King’s School, Canterbury followed by Edinburgh University, where he read English Literature. After working briefly in newspapers (the Observer and The London Evening Standard) he completed a PGCE in English and Drama at King’s College, London, and then started his teaching career at Sherborne School in 1992. He’s taught also at Eton, Sydney Grammar School, and Stowe, where he was Deputy Head. He went to Milton Abbey School as Head in January 2014, and then took up the position of Head of Bedales in September 2018.

Sally Dicketts, CBE, has held senior posts in both secondary schools and further education. She is Chief Executive of Activate Learning, which brings together seven FE Colleges, 4 UTC’s, two 11-18 secondary schools, a studio school, a training provider delivering apprenticeships and an engineering training provider.

Sally has chaired the Women’s leadership network and is a member of the Oxfordshire Management Club, All Souls Group and the National Education Trust, and was appointed President of the Association of Colleges in August 2020.

Will Goldsmith is Director of Teaching & Learning at Latymer, having been a Head of English at the school before that. He has an MA in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh and is currently working on another MA, this time in Education at the University of Bath. With a background in teaching at both state and independent schools, Will is currently working on proposal for an alternative model of curriculum and assessment for 11-16 year olds. He hopes that, together with colleagues from a range of schools and other organisations, real change can be achieved.

Phil, who joined Bohunt Education Trust in 2010, is responsible for major learning & teaching projects, the BET curriculum, cross-Trust assessments and new-build school projects. He has a commitment to the pursuit of excellence in learning & teaching and a passion for building an education system that values not only the knowledge of the child, but their passions, character and ambition; that hints at not only what they know, but who they are.

Phil’s holistic, systems perspective on education means he is as likely to be found up mountains with students as he is in classrooms; he has led numerous, ambitious student expeditions to Greenland researching the impact of the outdoors on young people in conjunction with the University of Lancaster. Phil is a Winston Churchill Fellow, a Trustee of the Royal Geographical Society, a previous STEM Leader of the Year, a Sinnott Fellow and actively engaged in several significant research projects including the largest UK study of the impact of lockdown on students’ wellbeing and learning (in conjunction with ImpactEd).