Speaker Biographies Keynote Speaker Chris Tweedale Chris was
Speaker Biographies Keynote Speaker: Chris Tweedale Chris was appointed as Aldridge Education’s first CEO and took up the role in October 2016. He has held positions as Chief Executive of Cf. BT and UK Director of Cf. BT; Schools' Director in the Welsh Government; and as a Deputy Director at the Department for Children, Schools and Families (now the Df. E). Before joining the senior civil service he worked as the senior policy adviser at the Df. E working on all aspects of school improvement policy. Chris led the Department's work on School Improvement Partners and the first short Ofsted inspections and introduction of the SEF as the basis of the school inspection system. Chris also advised the Department on school workforce issues and was an Associate member of the Education Team in The Prime Minister's Delivery Unit. A serving teacher for 28 years, he was Headteacher at John Masefield High School, Ledbury, for eight years and, prior to that, Deputy Principal at Okehampton Community College, Devon. Before that he taught in schools in Surrey, Hertfordshire and London Borough of Ealing. Conference Speakers Colin Raraty has been the Headteacher at Rodings Primary School, near Dunmow for the past three years, previously teaching at various schools across Essex. Rodings Primary is a part of DEEP, the Dunmow Excellence in Education Partnership and Colin is the current and inaugural Chair of the group. The main focus has been to deliver a more strategic approach to cluster working, the introduction of peer review and to develop middle leader accountability. DEEP are currently part of a pilot scheme, creating an evaluation tool that can be used by School-led improvement partnerships across Essex. Helen Dudley-Smith Helen has a significant track record of moving schools forward wherever she has been. Her many strengths include an ability to develop teachers, having a clear leadership strategy and establishing a vision for inclusion ensuring all pupils receive a top quality education. Helen is currently the Headteacher at Friars Grove Primary School (having led the infant and junior schools through to amalgamation in 2010). In recent times Helen has had an active role in her capacity as an Advisory Headteacher and within several highly valued school partnerships. She has been a proactive member of the EPHA Executive who recognises that the strong distributed leadership of her school and successful retention of a continuingly developing staff team, has enabled her to enjoy and maximise the potential of her partnership work in many ways such as recruiting high quality trainee teachers within her TSA and the successful launch of Peer Reviews in her cluster.
Speaker Biographies Conference Speakers (cont. ) Gillian Cawley Between 2010 and 2013, as Assistant Director of Standards and School Effectiveness, Gillian Cawley led the transformation of Hertfordshire County Council’s School Improvement service into “Herts for Learning”, a schools’ company, jointly owned by the local authority and schools. During a period of radical economic and educational change, the journey to co-create this innovative and ground breaking model was driven by a clear shared moral purpose, an understanding of the needs of all stakeholders, and a commercial awareness that underpinned a financially viable and still thriving organisation. Following the launch of Herts for Learning in 2013, Gillian became Assistant Director for Education Services leading best value commissioning arrangements for the council – cited as best practice in Ofsted’s HMCI annual report 2014. She also devised, in consultation, with schools a new school improvement strategy to address the achievement gap for vulnerable learners. Until December 2016, Gillian was Director of Education, Quality and Standards for Kent County Council with a remit including Early Years and Childcare, School Improvement, Skills and Employability, Safeguarding in Education and Adult Education. In this role, she led continued improvement in quality and standards (from 79% to 90% good and outstanding schools in 2016) and supported schools in the development of a leadership strategy (Kent Leaders in Leadership) to drive dynamic system leadership across the county. She also helped shape a future potential education services company for the local authority. Gillian moved into advisory work in Hertfordshire in 1998 from a successful background in teaching and senior leadership in schools. She has held a wide range of strategic local authority roles including, Principal Adviser for Teaching and Learning, Head of Learning, Training and Research, and has led on the National Strategies and ICT Strategy. Gillian has led regional local authority peer reviews in Cambridgeshire, Essex and Bedford. She has also worked nationally with ISOS, the National Educational Network and National Foundation for Educational Research on the development of school led system leadership and the role of the local authority. Drawing on her knowledge and experience in the development of local school-led systems, Gillian is now working as an independent consultant with local authorities and groups of schools to devise place - based education solutions for the future.
Speaker Biographies Conference Speakers (cont. ) Joseph Figg Joseph is currently the CEO of The Eveleigh LINK Academy Trust and is also the Executive Headteacher of Purleigh Primary and Meadgate Primary School. He has been teaching for sixteen years and has been a Headteacher for eight years. The trust was created in 2013 and Joseph was one of the founding Members and Trustees. The trust now comprises of five schools within the Chelmsford and Maldon area and believes strongly in school-to-school support with teachers teaching teachers. Graham Lancaster Having been Headteacher of three primary schools in Barnet and Hertfordshire Graham joined Essex as the senior adviser for primary schools in Mid Essex in 2008. Initially he led a team of advisers and school improvement partners working across a diverse range of schools. Since then he has worked in schools across the county, mostly recently focussing on the North East quadrant. Graham has undertaken a wide range of additional responsibilities on behalf of the Local Authority. These include primary leadership development, teacher recruitment and retention, LA representative on the Diocesan Board of Education and on SACRE. Currently he is leading the redesign of the Standards and Excellence team and seeking to set up a Local Authority initiated Multi Academy Trust.
- Slides: 3