SNE Event

Gary Aubin

SEND Consultant & Director of SEND, Whole Education

Gary Aubin is the author of The Lone SENDCO, a handbook of 300 questions and answers for busy SENDCOs, and The Parent’s Guide to SEND. He is the Director of SEND Programmes and Networks for Whole Education and served on the Labour Government’s Curriculum and Assessment Review panel.

Gary is also the Education Endowment Foundation’s SEND Associate. In this role, he has worked extensively on sharing the evidence base behind high-quality teaching for SEND, as well as advised on the development of the SENCO NPQ.

As a Consultant, Gary has spoken internationally, advised the BBC, written content for the National Institute of Teaching and given talks to hundreds of Trust, Local Authority and school audiences. 

Gary led on SEND provision for a Multi Academy Trust of 10 primary and secondary schools for several years. He is a secondary teacher, former primary and secondary SENDCO and former secondary Head of Year. Gary also authors the SENDMattersUK blog.

Jonathan Ferstenberg

School Improvement Partner, Trainer & Leadership Coach, Bespoke School & Leadership Development

Jonathan has over twenty-five years of highly successful school improvement experience, including as a MAT Director of School Improvement, Head Teacher, Academic Deputy Head, Head of Sixth Form, Head of Personal Development Studies and Head of RE. He has delivered a wide range of well-received CPD and spoken at conferences both locally and nationally. He now runs Bespoke School and Leadership Development, which helps leaders to develop great schools through collaborative reviews, training and coaching. 

Stuart Mayle

Head Teacher, Brambles Primary Academy

Stuart is a school leader who has been a leader of teaching and learning for many years, from English Lead to Assistant Head Teacher and a Deputy Head Teacher responsible for Teaching, Learning and Assessment. He was Acting Head Teacher from October 2023 and was appointed to the substantive role of Head Teacher in January 2025. He has a passion for Teacher Education, Leadership Development and Character Education. Specifically, how Character can be used to enhance the curriculum offer, the life experiences of children particularly in areas of high disadvantage and foster a sense of belonging within the school and wider community.

Paul Wright

Lead Practitioner (Computer Science), Ponteland High School

Teacher, author ('100 Ideas for Stretch & Challenge, Teach, Reflect and Doodle' - Bloomsbury Publishing) and Educator for nearly 20 years in Northumberland, Bedfordshire and Oxfordshire.

Currently teaching at Ponteland High School and delivering staff and ITT CPD.

Helen McStravick

DfE Media & Financial Literacy Policy Lead

Helen McStravick is an experienced education leader passionate about helping young people develop the skills they need to thrive. She currently leads work on media and financial literacy, and is working on developing these skills throughout the National Curriculum with an emphasis on critical thinking and practical life skills. Previously, Helen headed policy on equality and political impartiality at the Department for Education, guiding schools through complex and sensitive issues. Alongside her professional role, she serves as Chair of Trustees for a community education charity and Vice Chair of Governors in a disadvantaged area of Newcastle, bringing a strong commitment to equity and opportunity. Helen combines strategic expertise with a deep belief in empowering learners to make informed choices in an ever-changing world.

Danny Kilkenny

Deputy Head Teacher & SENCO, Kepier

Danny started teaching in 1999 at Kepier as an NQT in the History Department. He then moved on to be Assistant Head Teacher in charge of Teaching and Learning, and then Deputy Head Teacher. HE completed his SENCO qualification in 2021.

Since the qualification, Danny has supported colleagues from Sunderland University writing chapters in books around SEN provision and has worked on SEN projects for National Teaching and Learning providers such as Pixl.

This last academic year Danny has worked on secondment with Sunderland Local Authority to support the development of SEN provision across the city.

Alex Fairlamb

Trust Teaching & Learning Coach, and Educational Consultant

Alex Fairlamb is a Trust Teaching and Learning Coach and an Education Consultant, a former Senior Leader of T&L, PD and Literacy and Oracy and a former Trust T&L Network Lead. Alex is an Honorary Fellow of the Historical Association, a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and a member of the Festival of Education Advisory Panel.  Alex co-wrote 'The Scaffolding Effect' and co-edited 'What is History Teaching, Now?' with Rachel Ball.

Pip Sanderson

Head of Centre for Digital Information Literacy in Schools & Director of Teacher Development, National Institute of Teaching

Pip oversees the design of initial teacher training, ECTP, NPQs and School Trust CEO programmes at the National Institute of Teaching. She also heads up the newly formed Centre for Digital Information Literacy in Schools, which exists to build teacher and leader confidence in tackling the problems of online conspiracy theories, misinformation and disinformation in schools. Pip is an experienced English and media teacher, with over 10 years of experience as a senior leader and school improvement lead, as well as running a SCITT and undertaking a wide range of research projects. She has spent the past 2 and a half years deeply immersed in the world of generative AI. She sits on the DfE's advisory board for the Safe and Effective Use of AI in Education Training and Guidance Materials and she is also an invited member of the UK government's newly formed Sovereign AI Education Benchmark Taskforce.

Michael Kane

Policy Manager & Education Practice, Public First

Michael Kane is a Policy Manager in Public First’s Education Practice. At Public First, he works directly on the Commission for Countering Online Conspiracies in Schools and works across policy, advocacy, research and communications to support the project. Before joining Public First, Michael worked in policy and advocacy for a school attendance charity and worked for a political monitoring company, working with clients from across the education and skills sector. He holds a first-class honours degree in Politics from Newcastle University and a distinction in Political and Legal Theory MA from the University of Warwick.

Peter King

Trustee, Schools North East

Pete has been a North East Head Teacher for twenty years. He has also served as NAHT branch secretary, chair and vice of the local school forum and a school improvement partner.

Pete is a strong advocate for Schools North East and values the collaborative work done between the charity and the schools in the region. He brings his knowledge and experience to the role of trustee after sitting on the advisory board for a number of years.

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.