Programme highlights

Leora Cruddas is the founding Chief Executive of the Confederation of School Trusts – the national organisation and sector body for school trusts in England. She has advised successive governments and sits on several Department for Education advisory bodies. She was recently the vice chair of the Head Teacher Standards Review Group, a member of the external advisory group for the Schools White Paper, SEND National Implementation Board and the Regulatory and Commissioning Review.

Prior to founding CST, she was Director of Policy and Public Relations for the Association of School and College Leaders. Leora has six years of experience as a director of education in two London local authorities. She is a visiting professor at UCL Institute of Education. Leora was made a CBE in the 2022 New Year’s Honours.

Katherine Walsh is the Director of Inclusion for River Learning Trust. She is an experienced teacher and school leader and has led SEND provision in primary and secondary schools in England and America. Over the past ten years, Katherine has developed particular expertise in working with leadership teams to develop school-wide systems, establishing shared and inclusive visions for the education of children and young people with SEND. Katherine was a lead author on the Department for Education commissioned Whole School SEND Teacher Handbook: SEND.

Katherine is the Chair of the SEND and Inclusions Professional Community.

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.

George joined Unity Schools Partnership in 2013 as the first headteacher of Churchill Special school successfully opening it and leading it through two outstanding Ofsted inspections. Prior to this, she has been headteacher at a mainstream primary school which hosted a specialist dyslexia unit. In her role, George supports SEND across specialist SEND units, special schools and mainstream provision.

Jon Yates is the founding CEO of the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF). The YEF is a £200 million endowment focused on reducing violence. In this role Jon advises government, schools, colleges, police forces, youth charities and the youth justice system on what works to keep young people safe.

Jon has worked across the youth, education and community cohesion sectors. He is an experienced founder and leader including of the UK’s National Citizen Service, which became the fastest growing youth movement since the Scouts. He is the author of ‘Fractured: How we live together’ and previously served in government as the lead adviser to the UK’s Education Secretary on technical education, schools, nurseries, colleges and university policy. Jon sits on the boards of Ofsted, the Children’s Commissioner and UK Youth.

Mark’s work in education is rooted in his belief that schools and other settings have the potential to break historic cycles of social disadvantage and to prevent the marginalisation of vulnerable young people. Mark has been a headteacher of a secondary school, an Ofsted inspector and a founding trustee of the PSHE Association before he established Olive Academies Trust in 2015.

Through the work of Olive Academies, Mark has been invited to join a small number of external advisory boards and forums, where insight, innovation, and best practices are shared to help form a collective voice that will impact more children and young people nationally. Mark is Chair of The National MAT CEO Network for Alternative Provision and SEND, a member of the DfE’s SEND and AP Improvement Board, Co-chair of Ofsted’s Inclusion Reference Group and Independent Chair of Norfolk County Council’s Executive Board. An advocate for partnership working, Mark regards collaboration as an effective and necessary route to improving the life chances of more of the most vulnerable children in the country.

In 2021 Mark was awarded an MBE in The Queen’s New Year Honours List for his services to children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

Leora Cruddas is the founding Chief Executive of the Confederation of School Trusts – the national organisation and sector body for school trusts in England. She has advised successive governments and sits on several Department for Education advisory bodies. She was recently the vice chair of the Head Teacher Standards Review Group, a member of the external advisory group for the Schools White Paper, SEND National Implementation Board and the Regulatory and Commissioning Review.

Prior to founding CST, she was Director of Policy and Public Relations for the Association of School and College Leaders. Leora has six years of experience as a director of education in two London local authorities. She is a visiting professor at UCL Institute of Education. Leora was made a CBE in the 2022 New Year’s Honours.

Katherine Walsh is the Director of Inclusion for River Learning Trust. She is an experienced teacher and school leader and has led SEND provision in primary and secondary schools in England and America. Over the past ten years, Katherine has developed particular expertise in working with leadership teams to develop school-wide systems, establishing shared and inclusive visions for the education of children and young people with SEND. Katherine was a lead author on the Department for Education commissioned Whole School SEND Teacher Handbook: SEND.

Katherine is the Chair of the SEND and Inclusions Professional Community.