Deputy Chief Executive, 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.
Head of Communications, CST
James is Head of Communications at the Confederation of School Trusts, helping promote understanding of school trusts and CST’s role in helping the education system in England to keep improving. He also leads our Communications Professional Community. James trained as journalist and has wide-ranging experience across print, digital, and broadcast. Previous roles include media and public relations, marketing, strategy, governance, and data in a range of sectors including education, health, local government, and the arts. This includes both in-house and freelance work for school trusts.
James is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
Exploring how - and how not - to think about your trust's brand and values with this series of sessions, unfolding throughout the day.
Head of Communications, CST
James is Head of Communications at the Confederation of School Trusts, helping promote understanding of school trusts and CST’s role in helping the education system in England to keep improving. He also leads our Communications Professional Community. James trained as journalist and has wide-ranging experience across print, digital, and broadcast. Previous roles include media and public relations, marketing, strategy, governance, and data in a range of sectors including education, health, local government, and the arts. This includes both in-house and freelance work for school trusts.
James is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
Schools will always need to make changes, and how you make them can make a big difference. Unity School Partnership Chief Executive Dr Tim Coulson explains why stakeholder consultation is at the heart of the trust's approach to change, and how the trust put theory into practice when changing term times across its schools - leading to increased attendance by staff and pupils.
Chief Executive, Unity Schools Partnership
Tim is Chief Executive of Unity Schools Partnership. He was previously a headteacher in London, national director of the national numeracy strategy, director of education for Essex County Council and a Regional Schools Commissioner.
Over the last year, more than 50,000 parents at schools across England have completed Edurio's parent feedback survey. In this session, we'll explore what their responses tell us about how we can improve communication with parents, and examples of the most highly-rated practice from trusts across the country.
Head of Insights, Edurio
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 10+ years of research experience, previously working in fields from technology, to food waste, to finance.
Executive Principal, Eko Trust
Tom is a highly experienced and successful school leader who has been headteacher and executive principal of a number of mainstream and special schools. This has included taking two schools to a rating of 'outstanding' under the Ofsted framework. Tom is also currently an Ofsted Inspector and a School Improvement Advisor for two schools in Kent. He has also previously contributed to the development of behavioural strategies in secondary schools at a national level.
Exploring how - and how not - to think about your trust's brand and values with this series of sessions, unfolding throughout the day.
Head of Communications, CST
James is Head of Communications at the Confederation of School Trusts, helping promote understanding of school trusts and CST’s role in helping the education system in England to keep improving. He also leads our Communications Professional Community. James trained as journalist and has wide-ranging experience across print, digital, and broadcast. Previous roles include media and public relations, marketing, strategy, governance, and data in a range of sectors including education, health, local government, and the arts. This includes both in-house and freelance work for school trusts.
James is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
Jennifer Childs from the Information Commissioner's Office will explain the legal landscape for school trusts using images of pupils, and give practical examples of how setting the right policies up front can make it easier to both promote schools and protect pupils.
Group Manager, Public Affairs Sectors, Information Commissioner's Office
Jenny leads the ICO’s engagement with the education sector. As the UK’s independent regulator of data protection and freedom of information law, the ICO safeguards and empowers people by upholding information rights and providing regulatory certainty to organisations. With over 15 years’ experience in ICO policy development and engagement, Jenny has led on many important areas of work including regulation of the press, criminal records and political campaigning. She now leads a specialist policy and engagement team responsible for education, health, and local government.
Staff intranets can be great tools to help keep colleagues up to date - but they can also become document graveyards, seldom used and hard to navigate. In this session Nico explains REAch2's approach to redefining their internal communications, using a mix of content strategy and technical nudges to keep staff across the trust's 62 primary academies engaged.
Digital Marketing Manager, REAch2 Academy Trust
Nico is responsible for REAch2's digital presence, including its website and SharePoint based intranet.
He originally joined the trust as an application support engineer before being seconded to REAch2's marketing team to build and develop the trust and school websites, providing support and training to schools, and using data intelligence to develop a better experience for stakeholders.
How do you position your organisation, both internally and externally, to communicate the positive impact of your trust's work? In this session we will look at effective communication strategies to position your trust and ensure your work inspires key stakeholders in school leadership and the wider community.
Head of Education, PLMR
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.
Exploring how - and how not - to think about your trust's brand and values with this series of sessions, unfolding throughout the day.
Head of Communications, CST
James is Head of Communications at the Confederation of School Trusts, helping promote understanding of school trusts and CST’s role in helping the education system in England to keep improving. He also leads our Communications Professional Community. James trained as journalist and has wide-ranging experience across print, digital, and broadcast. Previous roles include media and public relations, marketing, strategy, governance, and data in a range of sectors including education, health, local government, and the arts. This includes both in-house and freelance work for school trusts.
James is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
Lauren will share her journey transforming communications from a back-office function to a core driver of strategic decision-making. Lauren will provide key insights from her work with senior leadership teams, debunking myths around marketing communications roles and offering practical advice on embedding communications in strategic planning, and exploring how building trusted partnerships can help schools scale their outcomes.
Head of Brand Strategy and Partnerships, Thinking Schools Academy Trust
Lauren Wilson is the Head of Brand Strategy and Partnerships at Thinking Schools Academy Trust, playing a strategic role in shaping and delivering the trust's marketing and communications.
With a focus on internal communications and engagement as well as external collaborations, Lauren works with a diverse range of clients to deliver projects that align with the trust's mission and values.
Throughout her career, Lauren has led high-profile initiatives, including comprehensive rebranding campaigns, large-scale event management and developing a high performing team to achieve positive results. Lauren has also been instrumental in the delivery of crisis communications priorities, helping guide the trust and its academies through challenging situations with clear and impactful messaging.
Lauren's expertise in strategic communications, quick adaptability, and results-driven marketing has earned her a strong reputation as she continues to work alongside other marketing leaders to share best practice, improve processes, and grow effective teams centred on doing the right thing for our academies and trusts.
When Vision Academy Learning Trust and The 1590 Trust decided to merge, they knew they needed a new logo - but soon realised that was just the start. Spark Education Chief Executive Louise Spellman will talk through how the trust developed its new brand and values, how the project changed along the way, and how it has ultimately helped staff from both trusts develop a shared vision and come together as a single family of schools. This is a change from the previously advised session.
Chief Executive, Spark Education Trust
Louise is CEO of the newly formed Spark Education Trust, a merger of The 1590 Trust and Vision Academy Learning Trust.
Louise was CEO of The 1590 Trust from its formation in July 2018 and also Headteacher of Conyers School. A successful leader with 20 years senior leadership experience, Louise was awarded the Lord Glenamara Most Inspiring Headteacher Award for her work at Conyers School.
She believes that excellence is achieved through collaboration and partnership and as such has chaired the Stockton Secondary Heads Group, is a member of the Stockton Strategic Education Board, Redcar and Cleveland Education Board and the Campus Tees Schools Alliance Board. An English teacher by background, Louise knows that improving literacy and communication skills will significantly improve the lives of all children and young people.
Exploring how - and how not - to think about your trust's brand and values with this series of sessions, unfolding throughout the day.
Head of Communications, CST
James is Head of Communications at the Confederation of School Trusts, helping promote understanding of school trusts and CST’s role in helping the education system in England to keep improving. He also leads our Communications Professional Community. James trained as journalist and has wide-ranging experience across print, digital, and broadcast. Previous roles include media and public relations, marketing, strategy, governance, and data in a range of sectors including education, health, local government, and the arts. This includes both in-house and freelance work for school trusts.
James is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
Part therapy, part surgery, a chance for delegates to share their worst nightmares and get advice from our expert panel and fellow delegates.
Head of Education, PLMR
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.
Digital Marketing Manager, REAch2 Academy Trust
Nico is responsible for REAch2's digital presence, including its website and SharePoint based intranet.
He originally joined the trust as an application support engineer before being seconded to REAch2's marketing team to build and develop the trust and school websites, providing support and training to schools, and using data intelligence to develop a better experience for stakeholders.
Head of Brand Strategy and Partnerships, Thinking Schools Academy Trust
Lauren Wilson is the Head of Brand Strategy and Partnerships at Thinking Schools Academy Trust, playing a strategic role in shaping and delivering the trust's marketing and communications.
With a focus on internal communications and engagement as well as external collaborations, Lauren works with a diverse range of clients to deliver projects that align with the trust's mission and values.
Throughout her career, Lauren has led high-profile initiatives, including comprehensive rebranding campaigns, large-scale event management and developing a high performing team to achieve positive results. Lauren has also been instrumental in the delivery of crisis communications priorities, helping guide the trust and its academies through challenging situations with clear and impactful messaging.
Lauren's expertise in strategic communications, quick adaptability, and results-driven marketing has earned her a strong reputation as she continues to work alongside other marketing leaders to share best practice, improve processes, and grow effective teams centred on doing the right thing for our academies and trusts.
Head of Communications, CST
James is Head of Communications at the Confederation of School Trusts, helping promote understanding of school trusts and CST’s role in helping the education system in England to keep improving. He also leads our Communications Professional Community. James trained as journalist and has wide-ranging experience across print, digital, and broadcast. Previous roles include media and public relations, marketing, strategy, governance, and data in a range of sectors including education, health, local government, and the arts. This includes both in-house and freelance work for school trusts.
James is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
