Past Event

Gillian Keegan MP

Secretary of State for Education

Gillian Keegan was appointed Secretary of State for Education on 25 October 2022.

She was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Africa) at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office from 7 September 2022 to 25 October 2022.

Prior to this Gillian served as:

• Minister of State (Minister for Care and Mental Health) at the Department of Health and Social Care - September 2021 to September 2022
• Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills) at the Department for Education - February 2020 to September 2021

Gillian was elected as Conservative MP for Chichester on 8 June 2017.

Dame Rachel de Souza

The Children's Commissioner for England

Dame Rachel is a nationally recognised educator and advocate for improving the life chances of disadvantaged children. Before her appointment as Children’s Commissioner, she led two schools from failing to outstanding, before founding and

leading the Inspiration Trust, a family of fourteen schools in East Anglia. The Trust was twice ranked as the nation’s top group of comprehensive schools based on pupil progress at GCSE. She was made a Dame in 2014 for services to education.

Dame Rachel was appointed Children’s Commissioner in 2021. In this role she has unique legislative powers, is an advocate for children across the country, and represents children’s needs across Government. In role, Dame Rachel has completed the largest-ever survey of children ‘The Big Ask’ with over half-a-million responses. This work led to a commission from Government to look at representing children’s voice in the Online Safety Bill, an ongoing piece of work into driving up Attendance in schools, and was asked to complete the Family Review by Government.

Steve Peters, BA, PGCE, MBBS, MEd, MRCPsych, PhD, DSc, Dip Sports Med

Consultant Psychiatrist, Bestselling Author & CEO Chimp Management Ltd

Professor Steve Peters is a medical doctor; he specialises in mental health and the functioning of the human mind. He has dedicated his working life to help people get the best out of themselves and to be in a good place.

Steve's work past and present in the field of psychiatry and education includes Clinical Director of Mental Health Services within the NHS at a district hospital, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist at Rampton, Senior Clinical Lecturer of Medicine and Undergraduate Dean at Sheffield University, and visiting Professor at Derby University. He has spent 20 years as an examination panel member at the Royal College of Psychiatry and has been an expert advisor to the World Anti-doping Agency.
He has been a consultant to over 20 Olympic and national sporting teams including Liverpool FC, British Cycling, GB Taekwondo, England Rugby, and England Football. Outside of elite sport, Prof Peters works with CEOs, senior executives, teachers, students, hospital staff and patients. Steven Gerrard, Sir Chris Hoy, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Victoria Pendleton, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Lee Westwood, Jonathan Trott and Raheem Sterling are people that have all spoken publicly about how Prof Peters' has helped them during their career.

Professor Peters is also a best-selling author, and his latest book ‘A Path through the Jungle’ was published in 2021. Steve has also authored 3 other books including the bestselling self-help book of all time in the UK, The Chimp Paradox, which has sold over a million copies - as per Nielsen TCM Chart 2020. Other achievements include attending Downing Street for winning the senate award twice for his excellence in teaching.

For fun, Steve competes in track and field athletics and has held multiple World Masters Champion titles and world records over the 100, 200 and 400 metres.

Sam Strickland

Principal/CEO The Duston School/The Duston Educational Trust, BA (Hons), MA, PGCE, NPQH

Sam Strickland is the author of Education Exposed, Education Exposed 2, and The Behaviour Manual, as well as the organiser of ResearchED Northampton. A leading voice in the current conversation in education, he has published educational resources and research, regularly delivers courses and keynotes nationally, and has served as a lead facilitator for a variety of NPQs.

Sam began his career as a history teacher in Bedfordshire, where he became a head of history and classics. He has subsequently been a lead professional, worked for a SCITT consortium, been an assistant head teacher with responsibility for the sixth form (and led a post 16 consortium arrangement), a vice principal, the safeguarding lead for an entire trust, and an associate principal. Sam is now the principal of a large all-through school and has helped to guide its results from the bottom 20% nationally to the top 20% at GCSE level, and into the top 5% for A Levels.

Stephen Gorard

Education & Public Policy and Director of the Evidence Centre for Education, Durham University

Stephen Gorard is Professor of Education and Public Policy, and Director of the Evidence Centre for Education, at Durham University (https://www.dur.ac.uk/). He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, external assessor for the Universities of Hong Kong and Barcelona, a member of the Cabinet Office Trials Advice Panel as part of the Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit, and Lead Editor for BERA’s Review of Education. His work concerns the robust evaluation of education as a lifelong process, focused on issues of equity and improvement, especially. He is author of around 30 books and over 1,000 other publications – making him the most published/cited UK education author in the Web of Science over the past 50 years.

He is currently funded by the British Academy to look at the impact of schooling in India and Pakistan, by EEF to evaluate the impact of self-affirmation, by ESRC to compare teacher supply across the world, and to investigate the impact of the ethnic diversity of the teaching workforce, and by the DfE to evaluate the impact of Glasses in Classes in Opportunity Areas.

Greta Defeyter

BSc (Hons) CPsychol FRSA FHEA FBPsS PhD, Director of the Healthy Living Lab, Northumbria University

Greta is the Director of the Healthy Living Lab at Northumbria University. Her current research interests are food insecurity, social and educational injustice and holiday hunger. She has received funding from multiple sources and has published over 100 papers on school breakfast clubs, food insecurity, and holiday activities and food. She is now a recognised expert in this area and in 2015, she was made a Fellow of the British Psychological Society in recognition of her research with ‘hard to reach’ populations. 

More recently, she joined a prestigious line up of award winners by winning a Food Heroes Award from Sustain for her research and evaluations on school breakfast clubs and holiday hunger. In 2017, the Healthy Living Lab won the British Psychology Public Engagement Award (North East) for their translational research on feeding disadvantaged children. In 2020 she was recognised, by the Big Issue, as one of the top 100 changemakers for her research and policy impact on food poverty. 

She has also conducted research on children’s engagement in physical activity (in and out of school), and recently she has led the co-design of the HAF programme; followed by a youth led co-design project that engaged young people in co-designing a specific HAF programme to meet the evolving needs of young people. Greta is currently working with the School Meals Coalition and the World Food Programme. A sample of her publications and films showing her work of engaging young people in co-design can be found at: https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/takeontomorrow/it-is-time/holiday-activity-and-food-programmes

Arlene Holmes-Henderson

MBE, Durham University

Arlene is a specialist in Classics education and public policy. Her research explores the learning and teaching of Latin, Greek, Classical Civilisation and Ancient History in primary and secondary schools, and she is particularly interested in the impact of these subjects on students who experience disadvantage. She runs a project with colleagues in English, Psychology and Education titled ‘Shy bairns get nowt’ to help young people in the NE find and use their voices. A current British Academy Innovation Fellow, she is collaborating with the Oracy APPG and national charity Voice 21 to investigate the impact of oracy education on social mobility and employability.

Debi Bailey

CEO, NEAT

Debi's role as NEAT CEO is to be accountable to the trust's Board of Directors for all aspects of our school's performance and the trust's financial position. She believes passionately that a good education is the key to unlocking potential and is at the heart of the trust drive to provide a world class education to all young people.

Debi has over 25 years’ experience of working in education in a range of different roles including Head Teacher of a very large primary school of 700 pupils, Local Authority Literacy Consultant and Additional Inspector for Ofsted. The vast majority of Debi's career has been spent in schools in areas of high deprivation. Currently, alongside her role as CEO, Debi supports individual school leaders and trusts with aspects of school improvement in her role as National Leader of Education (NLE). This is a really exciting role as it enables Debi to not only support other schools and ultimately young people, but also learn from other schools and identify best practice, which she is able to share within her trust.

Debi provides strategic leadership to the research school (Newcastle Research School) which is based within the trust. The Research school is currently working intensively with several local authorities but has national reach.

Debi believes in growing potential from within and as a trained professional coach, she uses quality conversations as a way of developing and growing leaders. Debi regularly supports schools to improve outcomes for children and young people. She chairs a number of committees including the School Effectiveness Committee for Newcastle City Council and is a trustee of Right to Succeed, a charity that champions a place-based approach to bring the community together to transform outcomes for children based on the belief that every child deserves the right to succeed, no matter where they live. Having been born in an area of socio-economic disadvantage herself, Debi believes passionately that education opens doors and provides opportunities for progressive change.

In her spare time, Debi can be found cheering on her grown up sons who both play football and looking after the family dog, Ned, who is a regular visitor to our schools.

Graeme Duncan

CEO, Right to Succeed

Graeme Duncan is CEO of Right to Succeed, a charity that works collectively to strengthen communities and systems that enable children and young people to succeed. Graeme set up the charity in 2015 after 12 years working in education, fundraising and policy. In 2003, Graeme was the first graduate hired by Teach First and taught for two years in a secondary school serving a highly disadvantaged community. He is passionate about building support for collective working, and establishing a place-based change approach to create strong communities where every child is supported to succeed.

Steff O’Keeffe

Interim Programme Director, Right to Succeed

Previously Communities and Services Programme Manager at Right to Succeed, Steff has 9 years experience working in Local Authorities across a variety of areas including Children’s Social Care and Public Health, and more recently as a doctoral researcher looking at child poverty across the Liverpool City Region at the University of Liverpool. She is passionate about community-led development and has volunteered for a number of charities and organisations in her own community, working to remove barriers to opportunities and improve outcomes for children and young people.

Felicity Salisbury

Deputy Headteacher, Our Lady & St Edwards Catholic Primary

Fliss Salisbury is the Deputy Headteacher at Our Lady and St Edward’s Catholic Primary School in Wirral. She took up the post in January 2018 just after the school received teaching school status. During this time, she worked with the Headteacher to design a programme of training for newly qualified teachers which continued until 2021. Fliss is responsible for Initial Teacher Training at the school and is the Alliance Lead for Birkenhead North School Direct. She works closely with Liverpool Hope University.

Fliss was previously the Assistant Headteacher at Sacred Heart Primary School where she held the position of SENCO and Designated Safeguarding Lead for a number of years. This ignited a passion for inclusion and family support which is something she continues to promote and develop through curriculum and pastoral work.

Nick Blackburn MBE FRSA

CEO, Lingfield Education Trust

Prior to his move into school leadership positions in London, Nick was a Local Authority Lead Teacher for Numeracy, Literacy & Inclusion and provided exemplar/modelling of best practice for the National Strategies.  He also sat on the DfE National Strategies Steering Group as a teacher representative.

Following two deputy headships, one in Kings Cross, London, then in Darlington, he became a substantive Headteacher in 2007. In 2012 he became Executive Headteacher of two primary schools and subsequently led on the formation of Lingfield Education Trust.

He has successfully coached and developed leaders at all levels in schools and has a strength and a great track record in supporting leadership in schools that are in challenging circumstances.

He brings a very strong set of personal values coupled with very strong sector experience. Nick is very outward facing in leadership and has undertaken a wide range of roles across the sector from Peer Support to Quality Assurance of National Leadership Programmes and NPQEL Programme Delivery & Development. He has led & facilitated a number of TSIO projects in the sector set and has undertaken a wide range of mentoring activities for new CEOs and school leaders.

Nick is Founding Trustee of North East Wellbeing, a charity dedicated to building emotionally healthy school communities thorough high quality services. He is also a member of HMP Independent Monitoring Board and volunteers as an advocate for local refugee families.

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).

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.

Nick Hurn OBE

CEO, Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education Trust

Nick was appointed as Head Teacher at Cardinal Hume Catholic School in Gateshead in 2005 and became CEO of The Trinity Catholic MAT in 2017 which was reformed into the Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education Trust in 2019.  BWCET currently has 47 schools in its Trust but is planned to expand to 48 members this year. Nick not only understands the challenges and pressures that today’s school leadership teams face, he is also committed to helping them overcome them.

Nick believes in unlocking the potential of every individual and every school he is involved with, improving standards, and creating opportunities. He is an entrepreneur and innovator. He is a founder member and Chairman of Education Mutual, (a staff absence cover service), School’s Mutual Services (a recruitment and staff supply service) and Education Commercial Services (a school procurement service).

Nick helped form these companies in an effort to provide a better service for schools in these areas and to try and keep public funds in the education system. Nick was also an elected member of the Head Teacher Advisory Board for the RSC of the North between 2014 and 2021. He was appointed by Rt Hon Damian Hinds to the Opportunities North East Strategic Board in December 2018 and was also asked to serve on the Opportunity North East sub-board by Lord Agnew in January 2019. Since 2015 he has worked closely with the DfE and Teacher Regulation Agency as part of the selection team responsible for the appointment of TRA panel members and advising TRA with regards to recruitment and processes.

Nick was also appointed as a Premier League Education Adviser in 2017 charged with inspecting and monitoring Category 1 Football Academies focussing on their education provision. He was awarded an OBE in 2015 for services to education.

Christina Jones

CEO, River Tees Multi-Academy Trust

River Tees Multi-Academy Trust’s  team work with learners who struggle to attend school,  to engage appropriately while there, have additional needs or who have been permanently excluded. As CEO of an Alternative Provision and Special School Multi-Academy Trust based in the North East of England Christina sees the impact challenging behaviour, special educational needs and mental health have on educational opportunities. Christina has a background in school improvement, focussing on disadvantaged and vulnerable learners. A qualified SENCO, specialist teacher and SEND Reviewer, she is Chair of Schools North East’s SEND and AP group.

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.

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.