Our Expert Panel
Here are some of our expert panellists, all highly experienced, specialising in different areas of education. Between them, they will respond to your professional questions on matters from any area: leadership, governance, teaching and learning, pastoral matters, safeguarding, early years, SEND. Answers will be published on the site (names/schools will not be included) for all subscribers to access.
 Ann Raymond
Ann is an independent children’s services consultant with particular expertise in child protection and safeguarding. Formerly the NSPCC Education Adviser for South West England and national lead Education Adviser for safeguarding disabled children, Ann has extensive experience in supporting children’s services to meet their child protection and safeguarding responsibilities through the provision of specialist consultancy and training. Ann has taught in several special and mainstream schools and was deputy principal in a 52-week residential school for children and young people with complex and challenging needs. Ann is the author of The Child Protection and Safeguarding Handbook for schools and Safeguarding Children and Young People with Disabilities and Special Educational Needs. Ann is director of The Child Protection and Safeguarding Consultancy, www.thecpsc.com Expertise: Safeguarding and child protection |
 Dai Durbridge
Dai is a Partner in the education team at Browne Jacobson Solicitors and specialises in safeguarding. Dai provides advice and training to teachers and other education professionals on relevant legal and practical issues, and devises and presents practical workshops and case studies. Dai has a particular focus on safeguarding issues, having written numerous articles on information sharing, handling allegations against staff, the new vetting and barring scheme and the recent Protection of Freedoms Bill. He is the joint editor and a regular contributor to Education Law Update e-bulletin. Dai has provided advice to schools and colleges on policy drafting, implementing procedures for the safeguarding of children and regarding admissions and exclusions. www.brownejacobson.com Expertise: Education law, safeguarding |
 Elizabeth Smith
Elizabeth Smith is the assistant manager of Hillingdon Behaviour Support Team providing training, advice and support to school based staff, and delivering individual and group interventions to children and young people aged 3 to 19. She has taught in mainstream and special education settings in and around London including a secondary pupil referral unit. Elizabeth is the author of many resources, including books that tackle issues such as self-harm and bullying and which provide training materials for staff development. She writes Social and Emotional Learning Update e-bulletin. Expertise: Behaviour, social and emotional learning |
 Gareth D Morewood
Gareth is director of curriculum support (SENCo) at a large secondary school in the north-west of England, awarded an ‘outstanding’ judgement by Ofsted in June 2011. He has worked voluntarily supporting parents and carers with SEN legislation and in preparing cases for SENDIST, and is a member of advisory groups for the DfE-hosted ‘senco-forum’ and nasen. Gareth is a passionate advocate of inclusive education, has written extensively and regularly speaks at national conferences, particularly on provision within mainstream settings for students with complex needs. Gareth’s ground-breaking eBook, The Role of the SENCo: an insider’s guide was published by Optimus in 2010, and he is now developing whole-school SEND materials as part of a DfE-funded project. Expertise: Special educational needs and disabilities |
 Jackie Beere OBE
Jackie spent three years as an Advanced Skills Teacher, leading and implementing innovative teaching and learning strategies nationwide before becoming a headteacher in 2003. She was awarded the OBE in November 2002 for services to education, having trained many teachers and school leaders in the latest theory and practice of learning to learn and emotional intelligence. She is now an author, trainer and school improvement partner delivering training all over the world. Jackie has written several books and articles, including Creating the Learning School with associates from the University of Leicester; The Learner’s Toolkit and The Competency Curriculum Toolkit. Her latest best-selling book The Perfect Ofsted Lesson was published in December 2010. www.jackiebeere.com Expertise: Teaching and learning, school improvement |
 James Brindley School
James Brindley School educates pupils who are unable to attend their local school due to a wide range of medical, educational and mental health needs. The school is rated by Ofsted as an outstandingly effective school. Approximately 5,000 pupils are taught each year at 14 sites across Birmingham. The length of stay varies from a few days to over a year. The staff cater for pupils from 4 to 19 years old and aim to provide a high quality education in a supportive and positive environment for children and young people with a variety of needs. The curriculum allows pupils a similar experience to their peers whilst being personalised to their individual needs; at Key Stage 4 students have access to at least five GCSE courses. Between them, the staff have extensive experience and expertise in supporting the education of students with a variety of needs. Expertise: Special educational needs and disabilities. |
 John Viner
John served for 28 years as a primary headteacher (he was appointed young!) and has led five schools including a successful training school and a large coastal school in challenging circumstances. He has inspected for Ofsted for well over a decade and carries out denominational inspections for the Church of England. John is now a full-time writer, teacher trainer and consultant, providing bespoke services from early years to post-16. He writes Primary Headship e-bulletin and his book, Leading a Faith School was published by Optimus in 2009. Blog: http://educationmonkey.blogspot.com; Twitter: @adept_education; Website: www.adepteducationassociates.com Expertise: Leadership, inspection |
 Josephine Smith
Josephine Smith is currently sole Vice Principal of a Leicestershire 11–16 Comprehensive school and formerly a Head of English and Director of Key Stage 4 in Rutland. Josephine holds NPQH, is a Research Associate for the National College and has presented at several national conferences on partnership working, promoting parental engagement and cost effective CPD. As well as being the author of the School Recruitment Handbook for Optimus, she writes for several educational journals including The TES and Optimus newsletters: Secondary Headship, G&T Update, CPD Update. Josephine writes a monthly e-bulletin on secondary leadership and is a member of the editorial advisory panel for Sec Ed. Expertise: Leadership, partnerships, working with parents |
 Linda Thornton
Linda has over 40 years' experience in education as a teacher, headteacher, adviser and lead officer for early years for a local authority. She is passionate about developing children’s thinking and learning, valuing creative learning environments and encouraging educators to think about the ‘why’ as well as the ‘how’ in their approach to teaching. Linda provides consultancy and training for early years and multi-agency professionals in local authorities across the UK. Together with Pat Brunton, Linda edits Early Years Update newsletter and e-bulletin and has co-authored many books on early years learning and development. Expertise: Early years management and practice |
 Lindsey Lester
Lindsey is a strategic business manager and senior leader at St Martin's Catholic High School in Stoke Golding, Leicestershire. Lindsey holds the CSBM, DSBM and BA (Hons) in School Business Management. She has considerable experience in primary, middle and high schools, including managing a sixth form centre, co-owned by a maintained high school and a Voluntary Aided Catholic school. Lindsey writes Optimus Education's School Financial Management e-bulletin and regularly leads workshops at national conferences. Expertise: School business management |
 Pat Brunton
Pat’s background as a research scientist has led to her interest in the idea of babies and young children as researchers, and to recognising the value of involving families in their children’s learning. She has extensive experience of the early years field and provides training for a wide variety of audiences including teachers, early years and childcare practitioners, early years professionals and multiagency children’s centre staff teams. Together with Linda Thornton, Pat edits Early Years Update newsletter and e-bulletin, and has co-authored many books on early years learning and development. Expertise: Early years management and practice. |
 Paul Ainsworth
Paul is currently acting principal of an 11–16 comprehensive school which has recently undergone a transformation from being a 10–14 high school. Prior to this he was the director of studies of a 3–18 Independent School and the senior teacher in an 11–16 comprehensive school. Paul has been awarded the NPQH and is a Master of Education (Leadership and Management). Paul has written many articles for the education press and has authored several books, including The School Partnership Handbook (2010, Optimus Education) and Developing a Self-evaluating School: A practical guide (2010, Continuum). Follow Paul on Twitter @pkainsworth Expertise: Recruitment, leadership, self-evaluation |
 Paul Haigh
Paul Haigh is Director of the Hallam Teaching School Alliance at Notre Dame High School, Sheffield. Notre Dame is an outstanding Catholic comprehensive school. Paul is a secondary teacher of 16 years' experience, he has also led his school to award-winning national reputation for its use of new technology. He is a regular conference speaker and author of two books on new technology in schools and many articles. He currently works closely with the National College, TDA, Schools Network and several professional organisations, subject organisations and universities. Follow Paul on twitter @paulhaigh Expertise: Teaching and learning, innovation, networking |
 Sean Whetstone
Sean is a parent governor and chair of governors of a Surrey primary school judged to be ‘outstanding’ in 2010. He is also an advanced skills governor, parent governor representative on Surrey’s Education Select Committee, chairman of ‘out of area’ governor appeal panels, and a member of the National Governors’ Association. Passionate about education and a believer in life-long learning, Sean has a strong interest in school governance research projects and embraces social networking in his professional role. He blogs daily on school governor issues and is a frequent user of twitter @SchoolGoverning Expertise: School governance |
