SNE Event

Sam Freedman

Senior Fellow, Institute for Government

Sam Freedman is a senior fellow at the Institute for Government and writes regularly on politics and policy for the Observer the FT and others. Sam’s substack newsletter ‘Comment is Freed’ is the most popular in the UK and has over 75,000 subscribers.

His first book “Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How to Fix It” was released in July, made the Sunday Times bestseller list and was named an Economist, FT and Daily Telegraph book of the year. Sam is also a senior adviser to the education charity Ark; Vice-Chair of Ambition Institute; and a trustee of the Holocaust Educational Trust.

Dr Vanessa Ogden CBE

Chief Executive Officer, Mulberry Schools Trust (MST)

Dr Vanessa Ogden is CEO of the Mulberry Schools Trust (MST), a family of 8 schools and a Teaching
School Hub in the East End of London. Vanessa is an NLE and has undertaken a range of successful
school turnaround work in urban and rural settings. She has built and opened three new schools,
including a University Technical College to champion technical learning.

Vanessa has a doctorate specialising in education policy and school improvement. She continues to
lead initiatives to address disadvantage. Vanessa is the Chair of the Fair Education Alliance and of the
Unicorn Theatre for children. She is on the panel for the National Curriculum and Assessment Review.

Vanessa featuresin the ‘Female Lead’. In 2015, she welcomed Michelle Obama to Mulberry School for
Girls and was invited to take students to the White House to visit the First Lady. Vanessa has
established a number of Mulberry Changemaker programmes, including Global Girl Leading, a global
platform for girls’ leadership and voice, and the Mulberry STEM Academy in partnership with
Mercedes Grand Prix. Vanessa was awarded a CBE in the King’s 2024 New Year Honours List.

Katherine Cowell

Regional Schools Director for the North East, Department for Education

Katherine Cowell started in her role as Regional Director for the North East in July 2022 as part of a change programme within the Department of Education to bring improvement and intervention in SEND and CSC together with the stewardship of the schools system.

Prior to this Katherine was Regional Schools Commissioner for North in May 2020, following an interim position since July 2019.

Katherine is an experienced civil servant with a broad range of experience including:

 an area director within the Cities and Local Growth Unit
 FE and skills policy
 an education advisor in the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit

Andy Jordan

Inspection & Accountability Specialist, ASCL

Andy Jordan worked in a secondary school as a deputy headteacher for over 15 years before joining the ASCL policy team as Inspection and Accountability Specialist. He originally trained as a history teacher before becoming Head of Post-16 in a large inner city 11-18 academy. He particularly loved teaching A level politics and intends to use this knowledge and experience to influence those in power to make education better for everyone involved. 

Andy held various responsibilities over the years including raising achievement, teaching and learning, monitoring and evaluation, literacy and data protection. Most recently he led on personal development and is passionate about giving children from all backgrounds a rich and varied educational experience. He also led on improving attendance and was the attendance champion for his school. Andy has been a governor in two different primary schools and was elected to be the North East representative on ASCL Council before joining the team in 2025.  

Ancha Stoodley

Poverty Proofing the School Day Team Manager, Children North East

Ancha Stoodley leads the nationally recognised Poverty Proofing® The School Day approach at Children North East, a pioneering initiative that has worked for over a decade to embed poverty-sensitive practices in educational settings across the UK. With over 25 years experience working in communities impacted by poverty and with a deep commitment to social justice, Ancha champions the importance of working at place within educational settingsto elevate the voices of children and families experiencing poverty and to co-create sustainable, stigma-free solutions.

Sean Harris FCCT

Director of PLACE, TVED

Sean is an internationally recognised education leader committed to tackling social disadvantage. With a background across the charity and public sectors, he focuses on reducing educational inequality, advancing teacher education, and embedding research in practice.
A doctoral researcher at Teesside University, Sean explores how co-production can inform place-based approaches in schools. He co-authored Tackling Poverty and Disadvantage in Schools and has conducted a systematic review of pupil premium policy. A regular contributor to SecEd, TES, and Headteacher Update, Sean is a published author, speaker, and Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching. He supports system leadership, partnership development, and talent mapping across multi-academy trusts.

In 2024, Sean was awarded the Fair Education Alliance and Bloomberg Innovation Award for his work with Tees Valley Education PLACE, driving collaborative, place-based change. He also received Let Teachers SHINE funding for poverty-informed curriculum design, with findings featured in national publications.

Sean contributes to research with Child of the North, the N8 Research Partnership, and the Centre for Young Lives, and was appointed to the Department for Education’s Edtech Evidence Board Advisory Group. He is also a member of the Schools North East steering group.
His Substack, followed by over 11,000 readers, explores child poverty, policy, and systemic reform to improve outcomes for low-income communities.

Jonny Uttley

CEO, The Education Alliance

Jonny Uttley is the CEO of The Education Alliance Multi-Academy Trust (TEAL). He has been in post since April 2018, having previously been Head Teacher at South Hunsley School. TEAL is a family of twelve schools, in East Yorkshire, Hull and York, serving over 7,000 students, and a SCITT which
trains around 100 new entrants to the profession each year. The trust is responsible for primary schools, secondary schools, alternative provision and will open a new 120 place Free School specialising in SEMH. Everyone at TEAL has a deep and long-standing committed to genuinely inclusive education which delivers the highest standards for all young people.

As a National Leader of Education, Jonny has worked with schools in many different contexts and is committed to a school improvement approach that puts real ethical leadership at the heart of our system. He is an elected member of the DfE Advisory Board for Yorkshire and the Humber, a member
of the DfE’s national MAT CEO Advisory Group and a trustee at SHINE, an educational charity committed to reducing disadvantage in northern schools.

Since 2024, he has been a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Young Lives and has served on the Institute for Public Policy Research’s Inclusion Taskforce. Jonny has written extensively in TES and Schools Week on a range of policy issues, including workforce, inclusion, accountability reform.
In 2020 Putting Staff First: A Blueprint for Revitalising Our Schools was published, co-authored by Jonny and John Tomsett.

Louise Spellman

CEO, Spark Education Trust

A successful leader with more than 20 years senior leadership experience, Louise was awarded the Lord Glenamara Most Inspiring Headteacher Award for her work at Conyers School. She believes that excellence is achieved through collaboration and partnership and as such has chaired the Stockton Secondary Heads Group, is a member of the Stockton Strategic Education Board, Redcar and Cleveland Education Board and the Campus Tees Schools Alliance Board. An English teacher
by background, Louise knows that improving literacy and communication skills will significantly improve the lives of all children and young people.

Katy Riley

CFOO, Spark Education Trust

Katy is a qualified Accountant with over 20 years’ experience in supporting public sector organisations with financial decision making and procurement. She oversees the finances of the Trust along with operational areas including, digital and IT, estates, governance and HR.

Chris Zarraga

Director, Schools North East

Chris is the Director of School North East.  He has been part of the Schools North East team since its operational inception in 2008 and in 2019 he was appointed Director.  Chris works with senior leaders across the North East and nationally in the education and charity sectors, to represent the voice of North East schools.  A central part of his work is to lobby politicians,  policy makers, and the media to put a strong ‘regional accent’ on the education debate, so that North East schools are not left behind when it comes to education policy.

Under Chris, Schools North East launched the ‘Manifesto for North East Education’.  The manifesto sets out the perennial challenges that impact educational opportunities in the North East and the principles needed to inform any educational policy wanting to address them.

Chris works with hundreds of schools across the North East and various organisations including Ofsted, the DfE, the North East’s universities, Local Authorities and various regional/ national businesses. Prior to joining Schools North East, he led a £1.4 million culture change project in education across the North East for the Treasury and DfE and was responsible for setting up a multi-million pound Enterprise Education Network. 

Chris sits on various advisory boards including the NHS Integrated Care Boards, various Combined Authority advisory boards, and was a member of the DfE’s Opportunity North East strategic board. He has also sat on various boards for North East Universities. As well as being a Director of two North East multi academy trusts, Chris has been Chair of a 3 school Trust, Vice Chair of a large maintained secondary school and Vice Chair of a primary foundation school. 

In a variety of roles from Regional Manager to Chief Executive to Board member, Chris has led large scale change management projects in education and has over 20 years’ experience of strategic management, consultancy, and client development experience at a ‘Big Four’ firm and various financial institutions.

Chris holds an MBA with distinction from Durham University Business School.

INVITED: Bridget Phillipson MP

Secretary of State for Education

Bridget is the Labour Member of Parliament for Houghton and Sunderland South; one of three constituencies in the City of Sunderland. She was first elected to the seat on 6 May 2010, and was most recently re-elected at the 2024 General Election. She is also the Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities.