Speakers

Beck Crowhurst is the Director of Education at the Centre for the Children's Workforce - a new national initiative dedicated to building the workforce children deserves. She oversees the curriculum sitting behind a new foundation degree targeted at the hidden children's workforce, and works to build programmes that connects different sectors to learn and collaborate.

Prior to working with CCW, she was part of the founding team at Reach Academy Feltham in 2012, and was co-headteacher for seven years from 2018 - 2025.

Branwen Jeffreys is the Education Editor for BBC News - reporting for national news on every aspect of learning from early years to young adults. Her brief ranges from the policy and politics of education to the lived experience of children and young people including mental wellbeing and the transition to work. She has made documentaries for Radio 4 and Panorama. As a journalist and broadcaster she has taken a particular interest over three decades in how policy translates into delivery and user experience in public services.

Branwen is also an executive coach within the BBC as part of a network working with leaders to support resilience in a high stress industry. She in the lengthy training to become a transactional analyst in the organizational field as another framework to bring systemic thinking to working with leaders.

Danielle Lewis-Egonu is the CEO of Cygnus Academies Trust. She has worked in school improvement and leadership development for over 20 years, supporting schools, leaders and local authorities. She is a published author writing about education and leadership and has recently co-authored a chapter in Outstanding School Leadership published by Bloomsbury Education. The book highlights the positive impact of leaders across the UK and globally.

Ed is the Managing Director of the Reach Foundation. He was the Founding Headteacher of Reach Academy Feltham and developed a Cradle to Career model around the school in Feltham. Now, the Reach Foundation supports more than 70 clusters of schools around the country to take a Cradle to Career approach.

The Reach Foundation developed a model of support in the first 1,001 days and were commissioned by Hounslow Borough to deliver the Start for Life offer for the Family Hub service and have also developed a Foundation Degree in Early Years to support the local workforce.

Emily Verow is CEO of Three Spires Trust. Emily is a creative, well-qualified and experienced educationalist. Emily graduated with a first class honours degree, before completing a Masters degree in Educational Leadership. Emily was a teacher for all her professional life prior to joining the trust in 2021; her six years as an Executive Head leading both primary and secondary schools served as the perfect preparation for her present role as trust CEO. Emily is passionate about high quality educational experiences for young people and an active contributor to proposals to completely re-imagine the educational provision for the students of today and tomorrow.

Freddie Whittaker is the editor of national education newspaper Schools Week.

He was previously its deputy and political editor, covering politics and policy issues for the newspaper as well as a number of other areas including industrial relations, school funding and children's rights.

Freddie trained as a journalist on the Gloucester Citizen where he spent four years writing about local government, environment and education issues. He then served as the Oxford Mail's political reporter before joining FE Week in 2014.

Following Schools Week's launch later that year, Freddie began writing for both publications. He moved to the Schools Week team full time in August 2015, and became the paper’s political reporter in January 2016, its chief reporter in 2017 and its deputy editor in 2022.

Helen is a chartered architect, fellow of RIBA, and Director of Practice for Scott Brownrigg, an international design practice specialising in architecture, masterplanning, urbanism and interior design. She is responsible for knowledge management across the practice. Helen’s commitment to sustainability, diversity and inclusive design, supports the implementation of new initiatives to assist the practice in achieving its quality management, sustainability and corporate social and environmental responsibility objectives. Specialising in education design for many years, including the nature-based Island School in Cyprus, shortlisted in World Architecture Festival (WAF) awards, she has authored books for RIBA on Urban Schools: Designing for High Density, awarded the AJ100 Collaboration of the Year award and Community Schools: Designing for Sustainability, Wellbeing and Inclusion. Helen is passionate about cross industry collaboration, engagement and research. She played a significant role in the establishment of Modern Apprenticeships in Architecture and is an external examiner and lecturer.

Hilary is the CEO of Ambition Institute, and has previously held senior roles in education policy, professional development, and equalities. As a charity, Ambition Institute’s focus is on tackling educational inequality. Since March 2019, Ambition has worked with over 100,000 teachers, and with more than half of all schools in the country. The organisation supports teachers and leaders across their careers with high quality, evidence-based professional development, from initial teacher training to trust leadership. As well as a wide range of professional development programmes, Ambition delivers innovative pilot initiatives, a portfolio of robust research, and wider sector engagement to support equality. SEND and inclusion are long-standing priorities for Ambition, and the team is pleased to have worked with CST on publications like Five principles for inclusion, and convening the Inclusion in Practice hub.

James Townsend is an Executive Director at the Reach Foundation, where he leads the Cradle to Career Partnership and Reach's leadership programmes for aspiring head teachers and and trust CEOs. James has previously held leadership roles at Teach First and STiR Education, where he helped found and grow the organisation to reach over 200,000 teachers globally. He started his career as a history teacher in east London.

Jamie’s key focus is acting for schools and academies in the North and is based in our Leeds Office. Jamie has vast experience acting for providers across the education sector, and is recognised as a Rising Star in the Legal 500.

Jamie advises schools, academies, nurseries, further education and sixth form colleges and local authorities on sophisticated corporate governance issues, including the establishment of trading companies, collaborative groupings and federations on collaboration agreements. He has also managed over 800 conversions projects and his experience includes providing cutting edge strategic advice to a number of high profile school trusts on academy to academy transfers.

Jamie is a trustee of a secondary school and also sits on the audit committee of a large, high profile school trust.

Jo previously worked for Rochdale Borough Council for 17 years where she undertook a variety of roles and responsibilities, including raising of the participation age agenda and careers education, information, advice & guidance. Jo then became the Inclusion Lead Officer within school improvement, responsible for several teams, working with primary and secondary heads on a myriad of inclusion projects. She also led the work to develop Alternative Provision across the Borough. Now with Altus Education Partnership as their Partnership Development Manager, Jo leads and manages Children’s University, REACH (Rochdale Enrichment Activity Hub) platform and Altus Community Food Hub. Jo is proactive and attends a number of Boroughwide networks and forums, working with a wide range of partners. Jo is a Trustee at Rochdale AFC Community Trust, Dale Futures and Rochdale Training. She also loves the theatre and is part of an amateur dramatics society.

Joe Bradley is Head of Enrichment at Ormiston Academies Trust where he leads the trust's ambition to guarantee every pupil access to 80 hours of enrichment every year. As a 2015 Teach First Ambassador, he began his career as a secondary maths teacher in East London and has since developed extensive experience designing inclusive programmes for school trusts that support pupil engagement, aspiration, and achievement.

Jon Severs has been editor of Tes magazine since 2021 and has been a journalist at Tes magazine since 2012. He previously wrote for national newspapers and magazines.

Mark McCourt became CEO of Academy Transformation Trust (ATT) in April 2025. A nationally renowned educationalist and business leader, Mark has dedicated his career to raising standards across all phases of education. With a background in mathematics education, curriculum design, and system leadership, Mark brings a wealth of experience from working with schools, trusts, governments, and international organisations. He is passionate about ensuring every child – regardless of background – has access to a first-class education and is committed to supporting ATT’s 22 academies and their communities to thrive.

Matthew Purves took up his post as National Director of the Ofsted Academy on 2 September 2024. Previously he was Regional Director, South East from January 2022. Matthew was Director for Education Services at a large national school trust in 2020 and 2021, where his responsibilities included curriculum, safeguarding, wellbeing and teacher and leader development throughout the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier in his career, Matthew was Deputy Director for Schools at Ofsted. He has also worked at the Home Office and the Department for Education.

Melanie has been the Chief Executive Officer of the National Institute of Teaching since its foundation in 2022. She has spent more than 25 years working in education, most recently as Executive Director of Star Institute, the learning and development centre for Star Academies. Prior to joining Star, she helped establish the national network of teaching school hubs, was CEO at Ambition Institute and Education Director at Business in the Community. Whilst at the government’s Teacher Training Agency she oversaw the introduction of the first SCITTs and established the agency’s teacher research function. She has been a primary school governor, a multi academy trust trustee, a trustee of Teach First and is currently a member of a school trust in Cheshire.

Mike Pettifer has been the CEO of Woodard Academies Trust, for four years. Woodard Academies Trust is school trust with six academies across the country covering early years, primary, secondary and post 16. Prior to this, Mike spent 12 years working in the Department for Education serving as Director of the Covid Response Unit and previously the Director of Academies and Maintained Schools. He was responsible for academy funding, financial health, and governance with a budget of around £45 billion. He started as an English teacher in a further education college and became more involved in strategy, planning and funding whilst working for the Learning & Skills Council on all types of post 16 provision.

Ned Younger is the Managing Director of the Centre for the Children's Workforce, a national initiative dedicated to building more connected and coherent approaches to working with babies, children, and young people in England.

His background is in workforce development and social innovation. He has built programmes and partnerships across social impact sectors in the UK and internationally over the last decade, and was previously Managing Director at Koreo, a leading learning consultancy and incubator.

He is a trustee of the Virgin Money Foundation, and a founding Director of the campaigning charity Inside Track.

Rebecca Boomer Clark is the Chief Executive Officer of Academies Enterprise Trust. An experienced school leader, she was Director of Secondary at Ark Schools from 2017 to 2021. Prior to that, she worked for the DfE as Regional Schools Commissioner for South-West England. Rebecca also worked at Oasis Community Learning for eight years in a variety of roles, initially as a vice principal and principal in Bristol, before becoming a Regional Director and then National Education Director at the school trust. Rebecca is also a Trustee at Ambition Institute and Jamie's Farm.

Richard is the CEO of Altus Education Partnership and former Principal of Rochdale Sixth Form College, a beacon of excellent practice in education. As an Ofsted outstanding provider, the college has been ranked as one of the most consistent colleges in terms of A level progress in the country, has an excellent track record for supporting disadvantaged pupils and has been instrumental in improving the life chances of young people in the borough.
As CEO he has a high profile in the local community and works closely with a wide variety of stakeholders to deliver on the trust's commitment to support all children in an Altus academy to lead happy and fulfilling lives, and make a positive difference to their communities and society.

Sam Crome is a school leader, currently a Headteacher and Director of Education for Xavier Catholic Education Trust in Surrey. He has lead in primary and secondary schools, across a range of roles in middle and senior leadership. For the last few years, Sam has studied high-performing teams, trying to better understand how teams can become more than the sum of their parts. He regularly blogs, speaks, and works with schools regarding their teams, helping educators to maximise their effectiveness, and is author of The Power of Teams: How to create and lead thriving school teams. He remains convinced that this is an area that needs more attention and exploration.

Samira Sadeghi is Director of Trust Governance for CST. Prior to that, she was Head of Governance and Company Secretary at Academies Enterprise Trust, a multi-academy trust with 57 schools, and served as Regional Governance Officer at Ark Schools for four years. Before moving to the UK with her family in 2010, she was a criminal defence attorney and spent 12 years representing clients on California's death row in their post-conviction proceedings.

Sarah Lay has worked in governance roles for more than 15 years, holding professional positions in educational institutions and independent professional bodies. She is the Head of Governance and Company Secretary at the Co-op Academies Trust, a large multi academy trust in the North of England, where she leads a team of governance professionals facilitating effective decision making and stakeholder engagement across 38 diverse communities.

Sarah is passionate about promoting the profile of academy governance professionals across the wider sector, and in identifying opportunities for cross-sector learning, development and collaboration. She is a trustee of a charity in central Manchester, and the winner of the National Governance Association's Outstanding Lead Governance Professional Award 2025.

Shane Ierston was a successful academy principal for nine years before taking up his post as CEO at the Great Schools Trust. In 2012, he became the founding Principal of King’s Leadership Academy Warrington, which was later judged outstanding under his leadership. King’s Warrington was the first academy in the trust and performs in the top four percent of state schools nationally for progress. Shane’s career spans 26 years across a range of settings, his portfolio includes school transformation and cross trust improvement work for the DfE. Shane is a fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and served as an Inspector at Ofsted for six years.

Stuart is an experienced school principal who has led a range of schools to very strong improvements and very high standards. As chief executive since 2017, he leads the strategy and direction of the trust.

His wide understanding of the role of school trusts enables him to shape the trust's work to deliver the vision of exceptional education and pupil outcomes.

Stuart is also one of the DFE’s national behaviour advisors.

Stuart has been on working and advisory groups with the department of education on recruitment and retention, workload, the early career framework, national professional qualifications, the role of national leaders of education, and the national headteacher standards. He was also on the group that developed and wrote the MAT CEO development programme. Stuart is the editor of the researchEd Guide to Leadership.

Sufian Sadiq is the Director of Talent and Teaching School at Chiltern Learning Trust, with responsibility for overseeing two regional hub areas in the south east of England and four regional SCITT provisions. Chiltern Teaching School are one of the largest providers of CPD to the sector nationally. He is a passionate activist within the educational landscape around race, equity and inclusion. He is a Fellow and Board Member of the Chartered College of Teaching and now the President-Elect, as well as a Fellow for the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors. He plays an active role in numerous charitable organisations as a Trustee and also holds key governance roles within educational organisations. He is a serving Ofsted inspector and richly contributes to the education landscape.

Tom is chief executive of Ormiston Academies Trust, one of England’s most established school trusts which serves over 35,000 children in 45 schools across the country, including special, alternative provision, primary and secondary. He has 30 years of experience working in education as a teacher, headteacher and in executive roles, previously at Ambition Institute where he was responsible for the delivery of professional development to over 50,000 teachers and school leaders.

Tom has worked in different advisory roles to government, including as chair of the Expert Advisory Group for Inclusion. He is current co-chair of DfE’s Expert Panel for National Inclusion Standards and Specialist Provision Packages.

In 2006, Tom was the founding chair of Ups ‘n’ Downs – a charity supporting families affected by Down’s syndrome.

Warren Carratt was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Nexus Multi-Academy Trust in April 2016 and was brought in to establish the trust and develop its strategy and operating model. Since its founding in June 2016, the trust has grown under Warren’s leadership as a civic structure across South Yorkshire and the East midlands, and reached the finals of the National Governance Association Outstanding Governance Awards twice, winning the "outstanding vision and strategy” category in 2017.

Warren gained his chartered accountancy qualification whilst working at a primary multi academy trust with over 20 schools, before moving on to become CFO at a special/AP trust in Derbyshire.

In his role at IMP, he analyses sector developments and trends, and works closely with customers to ensures that IMP’s financial management tools continually evolve to support smarter trust finance.

Wasim is a member of the executive leadership team at Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT), a family of 45 schools across England. As National Director, he oversees a cluster of special and alternative provision academies and leads OAT’s national strategy for inclusion. Wasim’s career spans mainstream, special, and alternative settings, including serving as a headteacher and executive headteacher in inner London before joining OAT in 2021. His work focuses on supporting schools to build inclusive cultures through strong leadership, high-quality teaching and effective support for pupils with additional needs. He was also a member of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) Inclusion Taskforce, contributing practitioner insight to the national report Breaking the Cycle: A Blueprint for SEND Reform (2025).

Will Jordan FCCA has worked with academies and multi academy trusts since the first ‘phase two’ academies opened in September 2010. As a qualified accountant and financial technology specialist, Will now works with established multi academy trusts to strengthen their financial planning and reporting processes by replacing legacy software with multi academy trust-specific, agile tools.