Past Event

Catherine McKinnell MP

Minister for School Standards

Catherine has been the Member of Parliament for the Newcastle North constituency since 2010. She currently serves as the Minister for School Standards in the Department for Education, having been appointed by Sir Keir Starmer in July 2024. 

Born in Denton, the third of eight children, Catherine’s roots in Newcastle are deep. She went to school in the West End of the city, attending Sacred Heart Comprehensive School in Fenham. 

Ziauddin Yousafzai

Education Activist & Co Founder, Malala Fund

Ziauddin Yousafzai is an educator, human rights campaigner and social activist. He hails from Pakistan's Swat Valley where, at great personal risk among grave political violence, he peacefully resisted the Taliban's efforts to shut down schools and kept his own school open. He also inspired his daughter, Malala Yousafzai, to raise her voice to promote the rights of children to an education. Ziauddin is the co-founder and serves as the Chairman of the Board for the Malala Fund.
He also serves as the United Nations Special Advisor on Global Education and also the educational attaché to the Pakistani Consulate in Birmingham, UK.

The 'real' David Cameron

Presenter, Trainer, Consultant in Education & Children's Services

David is a presenter/speaker, trainer, mentor, coach and adviser. He has delivered at conferences at home and abroad, including TEDx Buenos Aires, Northern Rocks and in schools throughout the UK and internationally, alongside some of the most influential people and the best practitioners in the world of education and training.

David wants to make a difference and believes that he can!

The difference that he wants to make is ensuring that all young people have an education that brings richness to their lives. He wants them to be able to think for themselves and to be committed to building a better world than the one that they are inheriting. David thinks that he can do this by helping those working with them to recognise their strengths and to find the energy to build on them.

He wants to offer support, perspective, analysis, approaches and tools so that aspirations become ambitions and ambitions become realities, all to the beat of some banging tunes, heartrending videos and a lot of laughter!

Margaret Mulholland

SEND and Inclusion Specialist

Margaret Mulholland is the SEND & Inclusion Policy Specialist for the Association of School and College Leaders. She has extensive experience as a teacher and leader across mainstream and special and is a leading advocate for the role schools play in improving understanding of inclusive leadership and teaching.

She recently completed a two year national research project for the EEF as Project Director for Whole School SEND. Margaret is also an Honorary Norham Fellow at Oxford University and non-executive Director at the Centre for Education and Youth (CfEY). She writes a monthly column for TES.

Dr Dan Jackson

Author & Director of Policy and Stakeholder Affairs for NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board

Dan is the author of The Northumbrians: North East England and its People, A New History, which was a Sunday Times 'Book of the Year' in 2019. 

He was educated at Astley High School in Seaton Delaval and holds a PhD in history from Northumbria University. He has written for the New Statesman, History Today and Unherd, and has appeared as an expert guest on the BBC’s ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’, Radio 4’s ‘Start the Week’ and 'The Rest is History' podcast. 

After an 18-year career in local public services he is now a director in the North East regional NHS and was recently appointed as a trustee and vice-chair of Beamish Museum. He tweets as @northumbriana and is currently writing a social history of Newcastle United FC for Little, Brown. 

Chi Sum TSE

Specialist in Education Policy Evaluation, PISA Team, OECD

Chi Sum is a member of the PISA team at the OECD in Paris. PISA is a world-class metric that measures the performance and efficiency of education systems. He provides education policymakers and school leaders with evidence-based recommendations to improve performance at both school and national levels. Chi Sum also contributes to the development of PISA instruments, leveraging his background in international assessment methodology and data science. He is currently researching the use of AI in international large-scale assessments, focusing on coding open-ended questions and providing detailed feedback for student improvement.

Before working in the field of education, Chi Sum has worked in the development field. During his time in Latin America, he collaborated with NGOs in Peru and Un Techo Para Mi País in Argentina, one of the largest civil society organizations in social development in the region. He also participated in a large-scale project with UNICEF Argentina, producing a publication on the lives of young people in informal settlements in Buenos Aires. In France, Chi Sum was elected to the trustee board of CCFD - Terre Solidaire, one of the largest development NGOs in France. He advised the NGO on strategies related to food security, international partnerships, and citizen empowerment in Latin America.

Chi Sum read an MSc in Educational Assessment from the University of Oxford. He previously received the French Government's Alexandre Yersin scholarship to study at Sciences Po Paris (Institut d'études politiques de Paris), where he earned an MA in International Development. Additionally, he has taken master-level courses on Mercosur at the University of Buenos Aires and graduated with a BA in English Studies from the City University of Hong Kong.

Chi Sum is a self-taught polyglot, with Cantonese as his mother tongue. He speaks English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Mandarin, and Brazilian Portuguese, and he has taken Arabic classes. He also spent six months living in Berlin.

Steve Rollett

Deputy Chief Executive, Confederation of School Trusts (CST)

Steve Rollett is Deputy Chief Executive of the Confederation of School Trusts (CST), the national organisation and sector body for school trusts in England. Before joining CST, he was Curriculum and Inspection Specialist for the Association of School and College Leaders. Steve has sat on a range of advisory bodies, including Ofsted’s curriculum advisory group. Most recently he has supported Oak National Academy and the Department for Education’s remote learning advisory group. Originally trained as a history teacher, Steve was a Vice Principal of one of England’s most improved secondary schools before moving into a career in education policy.

Jo Heaton OBE

OBE, CEO, Northern Lights Learning Trust

Jo is CEO of Northern Lights Multi Academy Trust, a primary and secondary Trust of over 4000 pupils across Wearside and Teesside. Northern Lights is also a Dfe Teaching School Hub and Dfe Early Years Hub for the North East. She has been a member of various DfE advisory groups, including the Expert Advisory Group for Recruitment & Retention and the Headteacher Reference Group. She has a history of supporting schools with school improvement support both as a Headteacher and a National Leader of Education.

Jo is passionate about education and the North East and is proud of our region, the impact and influence we can have when we work collaboratively together and receiving an OBE in 2020 for Services to Education in the North East.  Jo is a Trustee for Schools North East, Ambition Institute and a range of organisations in the system.  She is committed to collaborative working to tackle issues and strengthen education and truly believes we are stronger together.

Gayle Munro

Centre for Children and Families, National Centre for Social Research (NatCen)

Gayle has more than 20 years’ experience of social research within children and families, drug and alcohol services, and special educational needs and disabilities. She was previously Head of Research and Evidence for the National Children’s Bureau and led the research team at The Salvation Army.

At NatCen, Gayle is evaluation director for the national evaluation of A Better Start, the ten-year (2015-2025), £215 million programme set-up by The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.

Samantha Spencer

Longitudinal Surveys, National Centre for Social Research (NatCen)

Samantha is the Senior Researcher for SEND Futures at NatCen. This is a two-wave survey of young people in Year 8 and Year 9 in England with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their parents and carers. The findings from this feasibility study will support best practice for the Department for Education to establish a longitudinal study of SEND learners.

Samantha also manages the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) at NatCen for the Centre for Longitudinal Studies which is a longitudinal study following the lives of babies born one week in April 1970 to the present day.

Colin Lofthouse

CEO, SMART Multi Academy Trust

Following a career in archaeology after graduating from Sheffield University Colin trained as a primary teacher in 1997 at Newcastle University.

He began teaching at Chopwell Primary School, Gateshead before moving to be DHT and then AHT of Prudhoe West First School in Northumberland.

In 2008 he became headteacher at Throckley Primary School, Newcastle and led the school from special measures to outstanding status. After 6 years as Headteacher at Rickleton Primary School in Sunderland he is now the Chief Executive Officer for the Smart Multi Academy Trust, a group of 11 primary schools in the North West of Newcastle.

He has special interest in leadership support, looked after children and has been a SIP for many years. His research areas are coaching, lesson study and curriculum design on which he has co-authored books, papers and presented at conferences.

In his spare time he rock climbs, plays the piano and rides bikes (both with and without engines).

John Roberts

Deputy News Editor, Tes

John Roberts is an experienced education journalist having covered the sector for nearly 20 years.
He has been the deputy news editor at Tes since 2021 and before this was the website and magazine’s North of England reporter. During his time at Tes he has also been responsible for its coverage of education policy, Ofsted, academies and SEND.
Before working at Tes he was the education correspondent for the Yorkshire Post and before this covered education for the Telegraph & Argus in Bradford. He has also worked in a communications role in local government.
He has lived and worked in West Yorkshire for the past 20 years but grew up in the North East in Darlington. He is a father of two and a SEND parent.

Sarah Monk

Chief Strategy Officer, The Edwin Group

Sarah has over 30 years’ experience in the education sector. Her roles have included Head of Education Finance in a Local Authority, Vice Principal across a group of schools (primary, secondary and SEND) and National School Business Management Advocate for the National College of School Leadership.

Throughout her career, Sarah has advised hundreds of school and MAT CEOs, Head Teachers and senior leaders on a range of issues including MAT growth, and complex strategic leadership issues, including finance, HR and governance. As well as her role as Chief Strategy Officer at The Edwin Group, Sarah is Chair of Finance for a 35-school MAT, and a member at an all-through MAT both based in the north east.  Sarah’s areas of special interest include addressing the challenges of recruitment and retention and new ideas for tackling the crisis in SEND.

Chris Zarraga

Director, Schools North East

Chris has been part of the Schools North East team since its inception in 2007 and in 2019 he was appointed Director.

Chris works with other leaders across the North East, the education sector and charity sector to represent the voice of North East schools, and lobby policy makers to ensure that the North East is not left behind when it comes to education policy. Chris has overseen the launch of the Ednorth evidence-based excellence programme, as well as the partnership with SHINE bringing over £500,000 worth of funding to North East schools.

Under Chris, Schools North East has moved to a greater focus on lobbying around education policy, with the launch of the Manifesto for North East Education in December 2019. As well as being a trustee of a local MAT, Chris sits on various boards including the board for Opportunity North East. Prior to joining Schools North East, Chris worked with over 165 schools in the North East and various education organisations including local authorities, Excellence Partnerships, 14-19 Groups, the Specialist Schools & Academies Trust, and School Improvement Officers. He led a large scale culture change project in education across the North East and was the development consultant for the LEGI funded Wansbeck Enterprise Education Network.