Workshops

James has worked in estates and facilities management for over 20 years in the education and commercial sector. Originally from an health and safety background, James also has a strong background in assets and facilities management.

James currently manages multiple sites within Tove Learning Trust, as well as running a support service for academy schools, EDU FM, offering support in estates, health and safety and compliance. He is passionate about sustainability, asset management, health and safety and CAFM systems, with the focus on delivering excellent service of facilities management within the education environment and professionalising the industry standard in the sector.

Robert is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and a Partner at Barker heading up their education sector. He works with academies, trusts and colleges to deliver capital projects and surveying services including condition surveying and estate planning. He also assists education clients in applying for capital funding and advises on energy efficiency strategies.

Matt Isherwood is an Associate Partner at Barker following 14 years at Brooke Weston Trust as Director of Estates. He has been a long-standing and strong advocate for best practice on good estates management, energy, sustainability, and use of data-driven decision making. Matt has enormous knowledge and experience of estates management from the client side and is now working with Barker to promote this knowledge to the wider education sector.

Catherine is Community Chair for CST's Finance professional community and is excited to help trust colleagues benefit from the collaboration and support provided by the community. 
 
Catherine is passionate about providing an excellent education for children and developing strong teams to deliver a high-quality financial service for schools. An experienced chartered accountant and member of the executive team, Catherine is Chief Financial Officer for Creative Education Trust. 

Les has over 19 years' experience working with educators, technologists and academics to produce market leading learning solutions. His roles have taken him from discussing fossils with school groups on the Jurassic Coast to developing new digital technologies that help deliver learning and assessment to schools across the world. He is passionate about the power of education to change lives, and the potential that technology offers to support a high-quality education. Les currently works as Product Director for Pearson Schools UK, leading product strategy, research, development, and management for digital, qualifications, and publishing.

Lauren is the Chief Transformation Officer at United Learning, the largest trust in England. She leads the trust’s work on digital strategy, data and insights, curriculum and assessment, as well as the programme of transformation projects across the organisation. Prior to this, Lauren was the Director of Standards & Performance and Director of Strategy at Ark Schools. Earlier in her career Lauren led a secondary free school to its first good from Ofsted as principal, has taught computer science and IT in a range of schools, and was a research director for a thinktank in Westminster. Lauren holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science, a master’s degree in ICT in Education, she has sat on the DfE Ed Tech Advisory Board and Workload Review Panel, and is a serving Ofsted inspector. Lauren is Chair of the CST Data and digital transformation professional community.

Lucy Chowns drives innovation as the head of a product team for Pearson’s UK Schools, specialising in maths qualifications and resources. With nearly 20 years of experience, she is at the forefront of digital learning and assessment, passionately leading Pearson’s research on how digital tools and technology can revolutionise teaching, learning and assessment. Her mission is to harness the transformative power of technology to enhance educational outcomes.

Harry Paget-Wall Collins is the Deputy CEO of The Gallery Trust, a multi academy trust specialising in SEND across Oxfordshire. Harry began her career in mainstream education, holding senior leadership roles including headteacher and executive principal in both primary and secondary settings. Her commitment to providing high-quality education for society’s most vulnerable learners led her to transition into the specialist sector, where she served as director of education and strategy. In her current role, Harry leads the trust’s people strategy, with a focus on developing strong leadership and teaching to drive school improvement and deliver excellence across the organisation.

Penny Swain has over 30 years' experience in the education sector, previously working as a teacher and now as a multi academy trust trustee and in the private sector. At Supporting Education Group, Penny offers practical strategies to address workforce and staffing challenges facing schools today. She draws on insights from both education and other sectors to provide innovative solutions, helping senior leaders navigate modern workforce realities and improve operational efficiency.

Graham is the founding director of Humanutopia, and has over 30 years’ experience of working with over 500,000 young people and 50,000 teachers across the world. Graham was a hugely successful teacher for 13 years in a tough Merseyside school. He has a deep and empathic understanding of teaching, education, schools and young people.

He has an inspirational story and continues to work with and empower even the hardest to reach. He is a highly regarded speaker and authority on improving wellbeing for students and staff. He has successfully delivered hundreds of teacher events from keynotes and twilights to full day inset training days.

Rachael Fidler is a School and College Trust Leader at Dixons Academies Trust. She has worked as a principal in a successful turnaround school, a vice principal leading on outcomes and an specialist leader in education improving regional and national standards in modern foreign languages. She has spoken on national platforms on attendance and delivered CPD on crafting culture and raising standards in secondary schools and implemented a trust wide programme to embed indoor rowing in partnership with British Rowing at Dixons which is in line with her motivation to challenge educational and social disadvantage in the north in all aspects.

Antony Gallagher is Assistant Principal for Behaviour and Culture at Dixons Fazakerley Academy. He has over 18 years of teaching experience, moving through roles as head of subject and head of faculty before spending the past decade in pastoral leadership, including positions as head of year and head of key stage. He was recently appointed to his current role, leading on behaviour and culture at Dixons Fazakerley Academy.

Steve Orton is a qualified chartered accountant and currently serves as Chief Finance and Operations Officer for Discovery Trust, a position he has held since September 2023. He has worked within multi-academy trusts for over 10 years and brings more than 20 years of post-qualification experience in the education and charities sector, with a strong focus on financial leadership and operational excellence.

In addition to his executive role, Steve is Chair of the Risk and Audit Committee at Learn Academies Trust and serves as a governor at Bingham Primary School. He is a passionate advocate for the transformative power of education and is deeply committed to values that promote equity, opportunity, and excellence.

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.

Simon is responsible for driving forward IRIS’ evolution, leading the education offering and focusing on meeting the needs of senior leadership teams in multi-academy trusts.

Prior to IRIS, Simon began his career as an engineer, quickly taking on strategic roles across BT, moving around its leadership programme. He later moved to services specialist Serco where he was COO of the Ministry of Defence’s Business Services division. Most recently he was the MD of Capita’s local government business, where his role was to enable local government clients to deliver effectively for the many hundreds of thousands of residents they served.

Jim started his teaching career in Stockport in a primary school in 1991 and he quickly established a position as a subject leader for a variety of subjects, and head of pastoral care in the early 1990s. During his early teaching career, he worked regularly with the local authority on the development of curriculum planning, assessment, providing professional development for teachers and support for SEND pupils and those who are in danger of falling behind. Jim worked with Edexcel on the advisory group for maths SATs; the NFER for Science tests at KS2 and the national numeracy strategy in its construction stage.

Jim was appointed as headteacher at Mellor in 2007. He was instrumental in establishing the first primary academy in Stockport in 2011. Jim worked with governors developing a case for change and engaging the local community, demonstrating the benefits of establishing Mellor academy. After working as a Director of School at Mellor for almost 15 years, Jim was appointed CEO of Honeycomb Education Trust in February 2025. The Honeycomb Education Trust was officially launched as a school trust with two primary schools (Mellor Primary and Bolshaw Primary) after a period of working together in successful partnership.

I joined the Trust in January 2018 and am proud of the way we have developed with a focus on delivering an inclusive education to all no matter what background or ability. We are dedicated to all within our trust from the students we serve to the staff working with us to ensure we all can be the best that we can be and have a commitment to lifelong learning.
I have developed my knowledge over a 45-year period and have a successful track record of business transformation in the private sector, higher education and central government. I have worked in the academy sector for the last 10 years using my knowledge and experience to support our #EMATter community. I provide advice and support to the wider sector through being a school resource management adviser on behalf of the DfE, I chair the local Schools Forum and am a member of the LGPS pensions committee.

As PLMR’s Head of Education, Tiffany provides expert strategic advice and support in reputation management and crisis communications, PR and media relations, public affairs and wider communications disciplines to school trusts and maintained schools; early years, further and higher education institutions; charities; sector bodies; edtech companies and organisations across the education sphere. She is also Chair of Trustees at Maritime Academy Trust, where she has obtained in-depth understanding of issues and challenges facing schools and trusts around the country. She was made an OBE for services to education in the King’s New Year Honours List 2024.

Nick Osborne is the Chief Executive Officer of Maritime Academy Trust, a multi academy trust focused on giving every child an excellent start in life. With over 25 years in education leadership, Nick founded Maritime in 2016 and has helped grow it into a values-led trust known for its creativity, collaboration and commitment to inclusion.

He also serves as Chair of Trustees at Woodland Academy Trust and is a founding trustee of Maritime’s children’s charity, reflecting his deep commitment to improving life chances for young people beyond the classroom.

Nick is a passionate advocate for equity in education and is never shy of asking the awkward-but-important questions. Known for his approachable leadership style and dry sense of humour, he somehow balances strategic vision with the day-to-day demands of being a parent to three teenagers, which means he’s no stranger to negotiations, eye-rolls or mysteriously empty fridges.

As well as being CEO of Compass Eko Trust, Rebekah provides high quality school improvement work to a range of schools and trusts.

Previously, Rebekah has been a headteacher, co-headteacher, deputy headteacher, and an advisor for science, early years and English as an additional language in two local authorities before becoming a senior advisor for continuing professional development (CPD). This role included specific responsibility for developing leadership capacity across primary, secondary and special schools. She has also taught in schools in Britain and Namibia.

Iona runs the insights team at Edurio, responsible for the creation of new surveys and analysis of the national datasets on staff, pupil and parent experience. Since joining Edurio in 2021, Iona has worked on national reports focused on topics such as equality, diversity and inclusion and staff retention. Iona brings over 10 years of research experience, previously working in fields from technology, to food waste, to finance.

Nicola worked at Surrey Square Primary School, part of the Big Education Trust, from 2006 until July 2025. At Surrey Square, a different vision for education came to life through their ‘more than a school’ approach—working from the core (with a focus on wellbeing, relationships, skills and values) to help the community thrive and build a better world. Now Deputy CEO of Big Education Trust, Nicola continues to shape and lead work across the organisation. Passionate about wellbeing, shaped by her own life experiences, she leads initiatives that support staff, pupils, families, and the wider community, including as part of the team that founded the Old Kent Road Family Zone. She believes in developing capacity and has coached and trained extensively in leadership. Nicola balances her work with life as a mum to three amazing children.