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Jeremy Single is the Principal of Homewood School and Sixth Form Centre in Tenterden, Kent. Homewood is a larger than average secondary school with over 2000 students. He has been in post since September 2019, so managed six months of proper headship prior to COVID! Jeremy has teaching and leadership experience in both selective and non-selective schools, all from very different contexts. Jeremy started his career as an English teacher but has also taught Classics. He worked as an Ofsted inspector for several years and has also provided leadership support to schools in challenging circumstances. Jeremy believes that leaders should inspire and motivate by maintaining high expectations and through leading with a strong moral purpose.

Lucy Stephen has been teaching for 19 years with the last 10 of these as a SENCO and currently as Director of Learning Support at Homewood school. She has taught internationally including a sabbatical teaching in rural New Zealand. Lucy is a Specialist Leader of Education and a member of the Department of Education's SENCO Advisory Group. She is also actively involved with reviewing and developing SEND provision at a District and County level. Lucy is passionate about inclusive mainstream education along with the role of nurture has to play in successful school experiences.

Dr Jim Rogers is an education specialist and leads his own educational consultancy. Dr Rogers works regionally in the south west for the Teaching Schools Council and is currently leading on a number of initiatives supporting leadership development and school improvement across the region. Dr Rogers is an advocate of research and evidence-informed practice, inclusive practice and also of collaboration, to ensure long-term, sustainable professional and system development.  Dr Rogers is a Founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching, and a facilitator for Education Development Trust. Previous roles include Director of Professional Development for the White Horse Federation, Director of Plymouth Teaching School Alliance and Teaching and Educational Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, following a career teaching in secondary schools.

James Butterworth is a committed Head of School passionate about educating and supporting the life opportunities for students at St Ives School. Dedicated and motivated to encourage student and staff growth through carefully monitored academic progress with a drive on developing effective mindsets. Focussed on designing an effective school curriculum which inspires, challenges and motivates students to achieve their potential.

Every Child. Inspiring Learning. Every Day.

Marc is the adviser for improving outcomes for disadvantaged learners for the Unity Schools Partnership, a large cross-phase Multi Academy Trust based in the East of England.

Marc works with the Education Endowment Foundation’s national Research School Network on a range of programmes. He is also working on a range of long term programmes focussed on educational disadvantage nationally. 

Marc works with and advises the Department for Education on addressing educational disadvantage in schools. He has worked with over 600 individual schools to support them with their strategies to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. He has spoken to over 12,000 school leaders on addressing disadvantage at local, regional and national conferences.

His most recent book ‘Addressing Educational Disadvantage’ was published in February 2021.

In 2018, Zachary joined the University College London (UCL) Institute of Education (IOE) as an Associate Professor. At IOE, Zachary currently serves in the Department of Psychology and Human Development as Head of Department and the Programme Leader for Graduate Programs in Special Education and International Inclusive Leadership.

​Prior to joining IOE, Zachary was a a faculty member at the National Institute of Education in Singapore from 2013-2018. He was named a Think College Emerging Scholar (2012), a Millennium Milestone Maker by the World Academy for the Future of Women (2015), was awarded the John Cheung Social Media Award for Innovation in Teaching and Pedagogy (2015), and nominated for the Wharton School Reimagine Education Awards (2016).

​Zachary’s current work focuses on educational neuroscience, mobile technology, and leadership.

Julie is a qualified social worker who has worked to improve opportunities for disabled people for many years. She has worked in a number of local authorities, and started her career in social care working for the Inner London Education Authority as a "Residential Houseparent!"

Julie was on a secondment from Surrey County Council for 2 days a week to support the Preparing for Adulthood Team with its work, and successfully gained a full-time post with the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) as the Delivery Manager for the programme in April 2015.

Her particular passion is how we ensure disabled young people have the same opportunities as their non-disabled peers. She has worked in the field of "Transition" for around 20 years and worked on the National Transition Support Programme, and Aspirations for Life as a consultant with Paradigm.

Julie believes that person centred approaches provide the key to ensuring disabled young people and their families are central to any plans for their future, and that the best services are those that are designed by those who are going to use them.

Linda is a Senior Development Advisor with NDTi. Linda worked for the Valuing People Team from the beginning of 2002 until March 2011. She was the London regional adviser and the lead for transition. In 2008 Linda became the joint programme manager for Getting a Life while continuing to lead on transition for the Team.

Linda previously managed special educational needs’ services in the London Borough of Hackney and before that she was a teacher. From 1986 to 1994, Linda was an elected councillor in the London Borough of Newham where she led the policy of inclusive education.

She is the parent of a woman with a learning disability. Linda is now working with the National Development Team for Inclusion.

Chris Pollitt is one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors for schools and a Specialist Lead for Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities.

Chris Pollitt is a qualified teacher and has achieved a NPQH. Before working for Ofsted, Chris gained extensive senior management experience as a headteacher, deputy headteacher, assistant headteacher and middle leader in several mainstream and special schools. His responsibilities included school improvement, self-evaluation and working with individual departments to raise the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. Chris has also been a school governor in a number of schools and a partnerships consultant for a teaching school alliance.

Dr Nic Crossley is Director of Inclusion at Astrea Academy Trust. 

A research graduate from the University of Exeter, Nicola is Executive Director for Inclusion at Astrea. Her role involves working with schools to enhance the learning experience for all vulnerable learners; but particularly those who are disadvantaged and/or have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Her specialist interest areas are Autism and Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) and she is passionate about improving provision in these areas, in particular.

Her previous experience is varied having worked across Primary, Secondary, Mainstream and Specialist provision. She has worked as a Consultant Principal to two Special schools and as a School Inspector and has also written and led leadership development training for middle and senior leaders in Primary, Secondary and Special Education in England, Wales and Jersey. Her areas of professional expertise include: school improvement through action planning and impact analysis, evaluating the effectiveness of targeted interventions, and leadership development through coaching and mentoring.

With a Masters in Educational Leadership and Management, a Masters in Practice-Based Educational Research and a Doctorate in Education, Nicola has supported schools to develop their own research-based practice. Her research interests include: the impact of government reform on conceptualisations of professionalism through the lens of critical discourse analysis and factors which contribute to academic underachievement in children of compulsory school age in England.

Nicola is co-author of [Inclusion: A Principled Guide for School Leaders] and is an Honorary Teaching Fellow at the University of Warwick

A qualified Social Worker and organisational therapist, Dave has worked in residential child care since the early 1990s. He became head of Mulberry Bush training in 2006, leading them to three National Training Awards, in 2007, 2012 and 2021.

He was integral in developing the, award winning,  ‘Foundation Degree in Therapeutic Work with Children and Young People’, with the University of the West of England, for which he is programme leader. He has also acted as a Specialist Leader in Education (SLE).

He has developed a range of training programmes that he has delivered across the UK and Europe and currently developing a supervision in schools programme, a topic he has written and presented on many times. His PhD studies, though IoE/UCL, used a case study approach to follow the lives and stories of four children and their families through the children's placements at the Mulberry Bush School.

Andrea Richards is an independent speech and language therapist whose specialism is working with mainstream primary schools, bridging the gap between education and health.

She prioritises recommendations from high profile reviews, such as the Bercow Report and ICAN’s ‘Speaking up for the Covid Generation’, in which early identification of need, early intervention, and joint working between services are highlighted as essential.

Andrea is the author of The Chatterbugs Manual – a 12 week programme designed to develop the foundation communication skills in children in the Early Years’ Foundation Stage (Nursery and Reception).  The targeted skills are attention and listening, turn-taking, and building vocabulary and sentence structure, thereby developing children’s readiness for learning in school.

Andrea has extensive clinical experience working with a wide range of clients, from pre-schoolers to young adults. Having also worked as a Teaching Fellow at University College London, contributing to the undergraduate and postgraduate Speech Therapy courses, her clinical practice is informed by sound evidence-based approaches.

Her website can be found at www.chatschool.org

Shaaron is a Paediatric Occupational Therapist with extensive clinical experience working with children and young people with a range of difficulties and disabilities. Her experience includes both medical and community settings; mainstream schools, resource bases and pupil referral units. She has a broad scope of additional training including sensory integration, Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance, Sequential Oral Sensory feeding, and Coaching to name a few.

Rachel Cosgrove studied Zoology before training to teach and has over 25 years of experience across primary, special and secondary schools. As a highly effective secondary SENCo and Assistant Head Teacher, she created innovative provision for vulnerable groups including a successful foundation science pathway.  

Rachel is a trained and experienced SEND reviewer and is a nasen associate.  As an education consultant she works with primary and secondary schools to develop inclusive practise. Rachel works with Oxfordshire Virtual School for Children We Care For and champions attachment and trauma informed practice. As a well-respected conference speaker and workshop facilitator, she enjoys sharing her enthusiasm and knowledge with teachers, student teachers and support staff.  

Rachel is author of the book ‘Inclusive Teaching in a Nutshell’, which was published in July 2021 and is a jam-packed guide to all things inclusive for mainstream teachers in any setting.

David has worked as an Educational Psychologist in several northeastern authorities over the last 15 years.  He initially worked as a secondary maths teacher before retraining in counselling (working in schools and mental health settings) and then psychology.  David has been involved with the Association of Educational Psychologists for over 10 years; 2 years ago he was elected President; this is a voluntary role, David continues to work full time as an EP in the north east.  Outside of work David likes to run in the North Yorkshire Moors and the Lake District and also seems to spend lots of time helping his son with A level maths. 

Tania Tirraoro is the founder and co-director of the influential, award-winning SEND website, Special Needs Jungle. Tania is the parent of two adult autistic children and was diagnosed as autistic herself as an adult. She is a member of the Whole School SEND Impact Steering Group as well as several other national SEND and medical advisory groups. Tania is also an Ehlers Danlos syndrome/chronic pain advocate, an author, and a former television journalist, as well as a recent grandmother!

Rebecca Tranter is the Lead for the Specialist Autism Support Service at Fosse Way School, where she leads a service to support autistic children and young people to reach their potential and thrive within their educational placements, alongside developing Autism-awareness and understanding within the wider community. Becca is an experienced lead trainer for the Autism Education Trust and Strategic Partner for the South West Schools Programme, alongside an experienced SEN Teacher, Specialist Leader of Education and member of many local advisory and strategic groups. Becca shares the vision of an autism-friendly and understanding world where diversity is celebrated and differences accepted.  

Stephen Parsons has worked as a Speech and Language Therapist for over 30 years, including over 20 years in Hackney and the City of London where he was Speech and Language Therapy Service Manager. He originally trained in Australia.  He has a long term interest in vocabulary and has published research in the area. He is Chair of NAPLIC, the UK organisation for professionals working with developmental language disorder, and UK representative of RADLD, the international campaign to raise awareness of developmental language disorder.