Peter is co-founder and the first headteacher of School 21, a 4 to 18 school in Stratford, East London with a strong reputation for innovation and developing an education of ‘head, heart and hand’. He is the co-founder of Voice 21, a successful and growing charity, developing oracy (speaking skills) in young people. He is also the co-founder of Big Education, a multi academy trust that runs schools and develops programmes and tools to support a more expansive education.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Amelia is a social scientist with a background in policy and consulting. Amelia studies education reforms and their relationship to social, geographic and labour market inequalities.

Prior to her work with LIS, Amelia was an LSE Fellow in Social Policy. She has also taught and supervised students at the University of Bristol and at Harvard, where she received her PhD.

Amelia has studied a wide range of issues related to the adaptation of education systems to emerging and future conditions. Her dissertation traced contemporary changes in upper secondary education, including the “hybridisation” of academic and vocational education. Her work has been published in both academic and practitioner books and journals and recognised by an award from the American Political Science Association. She is the co-author of Thrive: The Purpose of Schools in a Changing World.

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.

Tom founded the Skills Builder Partnership in 2009, whilst a secondary school teacher in Hackney. The Skills Builder Partnership brings together a global group of more than 800 partners around a common language and approach to building essential skills like teamwork, communication, and self-management. The Partnership, which includes educators, employers and impact organisations, delivered 1.46 million opportunities to build those skills in 2020-21.

The approach that Tom pioneered has now been widely adopted in the UK, and is being replicated in seven further countries – Czechia, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Egypt, Pakistan, and India. The Partnership won the UK Social Enterprise Award for Impact in 2017 and is a WISE Award Finalist for 2022.

Tom was the 2009 UK Entrepreneurship Teacher of the Year. He has served as a non-executive director of Teach First and has also been recognised as one of the UK’s leading social entrepreneurs by being elected an Ashoka Fellow in 2017. He holds a BA in Economics & Management from the University of Oxford. His first book, The Missing Piece: the Essential Skills that Education Forgot was published by John Catt Publishing in October 2017.

www.skillsbuilder.org

Vini Lander is Professor of Race and Education and Director of the Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality in the Carnegie School of Education.

Vini’s research focuses on race, ethnicity and education. She uses critical race theory as a theoretical framework to examine ‘race’ inequalities in education, specifically in teacher education. The persistence of educational inequality from early years to higher education has spurred Vini to educate teachers to think beyond the status quo, which may perpetuate these inequalities. Teachers make a valuable contribution and deserve better preparation to teach in a diverse society. This has led to her inspirational teaching. Vini challenges students to think differently, supporting them to find ways to act to make a difference.

Priya Lakhani OBE is the Founder CEO of CENTURY Tech, the award-winning artificial intelligence education technology company. CENTURY is the global leader in AI-powered learning tools for schools and families, working in dozens of countries across the world. 

Priya was awarded Business Entrepreneur of the Year by the Chancellor in 2009 and Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2014. She was a business advisor to the UK’s coalition government, was appointed to the UK government’s AI Council in 2019 and is a regular commentator on global news for the BBC.  

In 2018, Priya co-founded the Institute for Ethical AI in Education. In 2020, Priya was awarded an honorary doctorate by Coventry University’s engineering faculty and appointed Honorary Vice President of the Council of British International Schools.

Vijita Patel is the Principal of Swiss Cottage School, Development and Research Centre, a special school for 260 pupils in London.  Vijita is passionate about the role of education in developing an equal society, and its fundamental purpose in reducing the marginalisation of pupils with additional needs.

Vijita is an advocate of empowering educators as leaders of learning design, and the role of technology for inclusion and reflective enquiry. She works with school leaders, governors, and Local Authorities as a National Leader of Education. She equally enjoys training early career teachers on the neuroscience of learning.

Swiss Cottage School, DRC was designated as an Apple Distinguished School in September 2021 and has six consecutive Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ Inspection outcomes.

Vijita is also a Trustee for Special Olympics Great Britain, Challenge Partners, and the Artists in Residence Charity.

Professor Anne Bamford OBE is Strategic Director of the Education and Skills for the City of London. Anne has been recognized internationally for her research in creativity, lifelong learning and technology. She instigated the term, ‘fusion skills’ to describe the competencies needed for flourishing now and into the future. Through her research, she has pursued issues of innovation, social impact and equality and diversity. A world scholar for UNESCOs, Anne has conducted major national impact and evaluation studies for the governments of Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, Iceland, Hong Kong, Ireland and Norway. Amongst her numerous articles and book chapters, Anne is author of the “Wow Factor: Global research compendium on the impact of the arts in education” which has been published in five languages and distributed in more than 40 countries.

Kerry-Jane is the Executive Director of Programmes, Membership and Charitable Services. She has 20 years’ experience of working within the charity section in roles at Maggie’s, Macmillan, Cancer Research UK and British Heart Foundation, driving successful funding operations, generating income from multiple sources, building and leading teams, business development and marketing.

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.

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.

Louise Hayward is Professor of Educational Assessment and Innovation at the University of Glasgow. She was a member of the internationally renowned Assessment Reform Group and is currently a member of the Curriculum, Assessment and Pedagogy Educational Reform Group and the International Symposium on Formative Assessment.  Louise has a particular interest in assessment and social justice. She is committed to the centrality of researchers, policy makers and practitioners working together to ensure both high quality policy and policy enactment that remains consistent with policy aspirations. Louise has worked extensively with policy and practice communities in the UK, currently in particular in Scotland and Wales.  Beyond the UK, Louise has worked with a number of governments.  For example, recently she has worked closely with the Government and Educational Directorate in Norway advising on assessment practices and on change processes for their new curriculum; in Portugal she was part of the evaluation team for the review of Education in Higher Education; and she has been involved in reviewing plans for the curriculum and assessment strategy in Malta.

Currently, Louise leads the major CAMAU project (funded by Welsh Government and the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David). This project, working with both policy makers and practitioners, seeks to provide an empirical base for progression in the new Welsh Curriculum.  Her recent projects include, Assessment at Transitions (Scottish Government), Numeracy in the Early Years (East Lothian Council), Evaluating Action Research in Primary Schools (Education Scotland/Robert Owen Centre), Building Sustainable Models of Engineering Education in primary and secondary schools (EPSRC and Education Scotland) and Assessment is for Learning. (Scottish Government.)  Louise was part of the Nuffield funded research project to evaluate the quality of Assessment for Learning in the four countries of the UK.

Louise is one of four executive editors of the Curriculum Journal, a journal of the British Educational Research Association) and co-edited the Special Edition on Assessment for Learning.  She has served on a wide range of National Organisations, eg, Education Scotland (the national inspection and curriculum development body), Scottish Qualifications Authority, (the national examinations agency) and the Scottish Funding Council. She has also served on a number of Ministerial Committees, eg, Assessment, Behaviour, Literacy, Support for Learning and chaired Scotland’s Advisory Council (the group giving independent advice on education to Scottish Ministers). Currently, she serves on the Education Cabinet Secretary’s advisory group established to review assessment and examinations in Scotland and is a member of the government’s National Improvement Framework committee. She is also an Advisor to the Scottish Government’s “learning Journey’ project.  Louise is an international expert to the Norwegian Research Council project on Responsive Teaching and Student Learning in Mathematics.  She works as an advisor with NCCA in Ireland, the national curriculum and assessment body.  Recently, Louise has worked with teachers and headteachers from a range of countries, including Scotland, Wales, Ireland , Norway and Iceland.

This year will see the launch of IEAN, the international consortium of policy makers and researchers from small nations and states interested in learning together to address major international challenges in Educational Assessment.

Louise has written extensively on assessment and learning and on national change processes. Most recently she has edited an international two volume SAGE Handbook on Curriculum, Assessment and Pedagogy with Professor Dominic Wyse (UCL, UK) and Professor Jessica Pandya (CSU, USA).  She has given numerous keynote addresses nationally and internationally, eg, in Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland, in Norway, Portugal, Germany, Austria and Australia.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

Mike is responsible for undergraduate admissions across the University.  He supports the delivery of the university’s “Access and Participation Plan” and has a particular focus on widening access.

Mike previously serves as Director of Undergraduate Admissions and Outreach at the University of Bath.

Charlie has leadership and management experience in independent secondary education, with a close focus on operations management, curriculum reform and design.

He is a co-founder of the West London Free School and also close involvement with the Rethinking Assessment movement.