SNE Event

James Duncan

Assistant Regional Director, Ofsted

James Duncan is an Assistant Regional Director at Ofsted, working across the North West and North East, Yorkshire and Humber delivery unit. He has specific responsibility for the delivery of Ofsted’s school inspections, whilst line managing a number of Senior HMI and HMI. James is a qualified teacher with extensive experience of inspecting maintained schools and academies, including primary schools, secondary schools, special schools, pupil referral units and independent schools. James also inspects initial teaching training providers and local authorities. James has post-graduate degrees in Education Studies and also in Informatics.

Ben Hardy

Policy Manager, Schools North East

Ben returned to Schools North East in January 2026 as Policy Manager, leading on the organisation’s strategic policy and public affairs agenda. His work provides alignment between policy, research, stakeholder engagement, and member insight; ensuring the voice of North East schools is heard to influence decision-makers at the highest levels. 

Ben brings a wealth of cross-sector experience to the role. He re-joins Schools North East following five years at the Department for Education, where he primarily led on stakeholder engagement working closely with the sector to ensure that strategy was developed with schools, trusts, and local authorities. He also served as Policy and Strategy Lead for the ‘Maximising Value for Pupils’ programme, which was launched to tackle systemic challenges at a national level. 

Between 2019 and 2021, Ben was Relationship Manager at Schools North East, where he developed strong relationships with a wide range of stakeholders  across the region, including CEOs, CFOs, Head Teachers, School Business Professionals, local authorities, and other charitable organisations. Prior to this, Ben spent five years at The Key, supporting school and trust leaders nationwide. A committed advocate for the sector, Ben has been involved in school governance for over a decade and is currently Chair of Governors at a primary school in Newcastle.

Tom Middlehurst

ASCL Deputy Director of Policy

Tom has regular meetings with the curriculum and accountability teams at the Department for Education, and with Ofqual, the exam boards, and Ofsted. He regularly provides bespoke training on curriculum design and policy updates for schools, colleges, trusts and headteacher associations. He has written two books on curriculum policy: On Curriculum and Deep Experience for Social Justice.

Tom was previously the Curriculum, Assessment and Inspection Specialist at ASCL, is an experienced governor and trustee, and sits on various advisory boards. He initially trained as an English teacher and his interests include literature, travel, food and drink and the BBC's TheArchers.               

Terence Conway

Headteacher, Norham High School

Terence became the Head Teacher at Norham High School in 2019, following a period of decline in the school which resulted in it being placed in Special Measures by Ofsted, and it was also one of the lowest performing schools nationally with regard to KS4 outcomes. Terence has led the school through numerous challenges including financial, behavioural and pedagogical barriers which had held the school back for a number of years. The school is now full and oversubscribed, and is securing results that place it 12th in the region, from its starting point in 2019 of 138th. Prior to leading Norham High School, Terence worked at a number of large secondary schools across the region as a leader of science, an Assistant Head Teacher, and also a Deputy Head Teacher.

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.