Speakers

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.