Speakers

Cat Rushton serves as the Director of the Institute at Academy Transformation Trust, leading the professional development offer for a broad and diverse network of academies. In her role, Cat plays a pivotal part in driving school improvement by leading large-scale professional development initiatives. Under her leadership, the Institute extends its impact beyond the trust, forming key strategic partnerships, delivering accredited programs, and working on innovative projects that support ongoing progress in professional development across the sector. Previously, Cat worked as a science teacher and advanced through various leadership roles, where she led curriculum and pedagogy at department, whole school, and trust levels.

Dom Davis is Professional Development Lead for The Black Pear Trust - a Worcestershire based trust with seven primary schools and a secondary school. He has experience of leadership in a range of settings, especially those with high levels of disadvantage. As an evidence lead in education, he has a particular interest in developing and implementing evidence-based strategies and using these to inform professional development. He is a school improvement advisor for schools across the West Midlands. 

Emma Pritchard was appointed as CEO of The Black Pear Trust in 2021; a successful executive leader who has worked in a diverse range of educational establishments and is deeply committed to education and the entire Trust community.

Emma has a proven track record of driving effective and rapid school improvement within and outside of The Black Pear Trust. The Black Pear Trust originally grew through the sponsorship of schools; by implementing robust school improvement strategies, creating and developing capacity, fostering a culture of high expectations and a shared commitment to positive change Emma has been able to ensure schools achieve rapid and sustained progress. This approach coupled with a commitment to collaboration across the trust has enabled schools to share best practice, access effective support and deliver significant improvement in teaching and learning for the benefit of children and young people.

Working alongside local authorities Emma has built effective strategic networks to enable trust growth and to support other schools to drive improved education. Through creating capacity to deliver school-to-school support Emma has ensured the trust is able to support and develop other local schools in challenging circumstances – always with a view to developing a quality education offer that supports all learners.

Emma has built strong relationships with local authority partners, further and higher education providers, the DFE, community organisations such as housing trusts and other key organisations with knowledge of local area to best support the children and families within the trust, but also to positively influence education and the communities the trust serves.

Harry spent nine years teaching, then got increasingly interested in how teachers could get better at what they do. That question drove seven years of research and training, and three books. More broadly, he’s fascinated by how we can make things better, and the social, psychological and structural changes this requires.

Lauren Meadows works as a Curriculum Lead for Unity Schools Partnership, serving over 40 schools in the East of England and several hundred schools as part of their international curriculum partnership. Lauren has worked with a wide range of national organisations, advising on curriculum and assessment design and strategic school improvement, including partnering with Alex Bedford to co-author Curriculum with Unity Schools Partnership (CUSP). She has dedicated her life to improving educational outcomes for children across the sector. Driven by her servitude to children and the belief that it is possible for every child to receive an excellent education, she has worked with primary, secondary, special and alternative provision settings across the country. She also works with the Research Schools Network, delivers NPQs and is currently studying assessment design at Cambridge University.

Nicole McCartney has been working with academies since 2007 in both small, local trusts and large, national multi-academy trusts. She was designated a National Leader of Education in 2014 and has a wealth of school improvement experience, gained through academy leadership, executive principalships and executive roles within school trusts.

Nimish Lad is Head of Curriculum Development for a Creative Education Trust, working on developing teachers' understanding of curriculum, assessment and pedagogy. Having previously been a vice principal for curriculum and assessment in a large secondary school, Nimish has a history of helping teachers better understand why they are teaching, what they are teaching, and how they can ensure that knowledge has been learned. Nimish is the author of Shimamura’s MARGE model of Learning In Action (2021) and can be found on X @nlad84.

Olivia Page is Director of Professional Growth at Orion Education, a multi academy trust of four primary schools and four secondary schools based in London and the Southeast. Orion implemented instructional coaching at scale across its eight schools three years ago and has been a Steplab hub since September 2024. Olivia has over 20 years of experience as a teacher, middle and senior leader in London secondary schools and is driven by enabling social mobility through securing high achievement in its broadest sense for the pupils. Olivia is passionate about teacher and leader development, unlocking potential and developing a research-informed approach to professional growth. Olivia has current experience as an Ofsted inspector and holds an MA in school development.

Stuart is Director of Education at Evidence Based Education, and one of the team behind the great teaching toolkit - the personalised professional growth platform to help teachers flourish. He is a qualified teacher himself, who has worked in both middle and senior leadership roles in schools. Currently, Stuart serves on the advisory boards of lernen: digital (a German teacher development project) and Impact. He is a co-author of the EEF's Implementation Guide, as well as the EEF's DIY evaluation guide, and EBE's 'great teaching toolkit: evidence review'. He is fascinated by finding sustainable ways to help teachers flourish and belong in their professional lives.

Rachel is Steplab's Director of Implementation, supporting Steplab's community of schools with the design and delivery of impactful professional development and instructional coaching programmes. Rachel is a former English teacher, vice principal, and has led professional development across a large multi academy trust.

Sara is a dynamic leader responsible for spearheading school improvement and quality assurance strategies across the trust. She plays a pivotal role, both strategically and operationally, providing support, advice, and guidance to ensure the success of each school and the consistent delivery of the BPT curriculum and values.

With over a decade of senior leadership experience, Sara has previously served as a headteacher within the trust and held various leadership roles in multiple schools. Her extensive experience includes leading school-to-school support using a range of coaching and mentoring strategies, significantly impacting education across Worcestershire.

Siobhan grew up in Plymouth where from an early age she experienced the profound positive impact teachers could have on young people’s lives. She began her career as a SENDCo and senior leader in primary schools across Cornwall and Plymouth, before becoming headteacher of Marine Academy Primary School at the age of just 27, leading the school to a double "Outstanding” judgement by Ofsted, most recently in 2022. Under her leadership, the school was the first free school to receive an outstanding judgement in the whole of the south west region.

With experience in every leadership level and having been an integral part of the success the Ted Wragg Trust has achieved to date, Siobhan continues to strive for excellence across the trust's schools as Executive Director of Education. Through her leadership, Siobhan embodies the trust's strategic anchors of having the highest standards, being relentlessly positive in her collaboration and growing great people. Siobhan also supports schools outside the trust as a National Leader of Education, Pupil Premium Reviewer and lead for the trust's Steplab Coaching Hub and DfE Behaviour Hub at Marine Academy Primary.

Tom Campbell is Chief Executive at E-ACT, a large national multi-academy trust. Tom brings extensive experience of 24 years in education, teaching and leading in schools serving some of the most disadvantaged young people in the country. Tom is also a non-executive director of Olex.AI, an edtech company bringing innovation and creativity to teaching and learning. A psychology and computing graduate, Tom also holds a Cambridge MBA and is an alumni of the Oxford High Performance programme. Tom is also a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and of the RSA.