Gloucestershire Association of Primary Headteachers (GAPH) Annual 2018 Conference and Education Fair

A. Professor Neil Mercer

Professor Neil Mercer is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge, where he is also the Director of Oracy Cambridge: the Hughes Hall Centre for Effective Spoken Communication and a Life Fellow of the college Hughes Hall. He is a psychologist with particular interests in the development of children’s spoken language and reasoning abilities, and the role of teachers in that development. He has worked extensively and internationally with teachers, researchers and educational policy makers on improving communication and learning in the classroom. His books include Words and Minds: how we use language to think together, Exploring Talk in School, Dialogue and the Development of Children’s Thinking and Interthinking: putting talk to work.

B. Beccy Earnshaw

Beccy Earnshaw is the founding Director of Voice 21, a national educational charity dedicated to promoting the value of oracy in education. Voice 21 trains and supports teachers and school leaders to embed oracy in their classrooms and throughout their schools, enabling young people to learn effectively and develop the communication skills they need to thrive in school and beyond. Prior to joining Voice 21, Beccy was Director of Schools NorthEast (a network of 1200 schools in the North East) and led campaigns and communications at The Children's Commissioner for England and The Electoral Commission. She started her career captioning debates in the House of Commons for BBC Parliament – a great grounding for recognising good and bad oratory!

C. Mimi Hughes

Mimi is Co-Founder of The Oracy Hub, a Social Enterprise set up in 2017 to develop innovative resources to support the teaching of Speaking and Listening Skills in schools. Through The Oracy Hub, Mimi works with Primary School children, coaching in Poetry, Performance Reading and Confident Communication. Mimi also works with Worcester University teaching Presence and Communication Skills to final year Primary PGCE students and with Marlbrook TSA coaching teachers to teach Oracy Skills. As a Director of The Business Voice for over 20 years she has delivered dynamic and innovative coaching in verbal communication for senior executives in major international companies. Her clients include companies such as AstraZeneca, Du Pont Pharmaceuticals, Nuffield, Shell Petroleum, Goldman Sachs, Accenture, Rank Group and Fox Kids. Mimi holds degrees in Medical Sciences and Psychology from the University of Edinburgh and a Teaching Diploma in Public Speaking and Communication from the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

D. Phil Beadle

Phil Beadle is an award winning teacher, an award winning (former) broadcaster, an education consultant, teacher trainer, public speaker, author and a former broadsheet columnist. Phil has a long history of delivering transformational English results in schools in challenging circumstances. School and academies he has worked in have been the most improved school in the country (in the year when he worked there), had the highest CVA in London and been the most improved school/academy in their borough time and time again. As a consultant, he is expert in literacy and behaviour management, and is a vastly experienced teacher trainer, as well as being the education speaker that other speakers don’t bunk. He has written for every broadsheet newspaper in the UK (aside from the Independent), most memorably as an education columnist for the Guardian for ten years during which time he was nominated for a European Commission Award for the promotion of equality in journalism. He is the editor of the ‘How to Teach’ series and wrote the first book in the series, which was awarded 10/10 by the TES, along with ‘How to Teach Literacy’, ‘The Book of Plenary’, ‘Why are You Shouting at Us?: The Dos and Don’t of Behaviour Management’ (with John Murphy), ‘Bad Education’, ‘Dancing About Architecture, ‘Literacy Through Football Skills’, ‘Could do Better’ and ‘The Michael Gove Colouring-in Book’. His books have been translated into many different languages and he has worked in Australia (where he trained the New South Wales Police), Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. His programmes for Teachers’ TV are used in universities across the English speaking world and include three of the forty most popular programmes in the channel’s run. He has won two Royal Television Awards: the on-screen breakthrough award for ‘The Unteachables’ and the most educational impact in primetime schedule for ‘Can’t Read, Can’t Write’, and has appeared on Newsnight, the Today Programme, Woman’s Hour and Start the Week.

E. Simon Lancaster

Simon Lancaster runs Bespoke Speechwriting Services Ltd and has written speeches for the CEOs of some of the biggest companies in the world, including Unilever, Rio Tinto, Nestle, HSBC and Intercontinental Hotels Group. He is author of the definitive guide to speechwriting – ‘Speechwriting: The Expert Guide’, the award winning ‘Winning Minds: Secrets from the Language of Leadership’ and the forthcoming 'You Are Not Human: How Words Kill' (Biteback, 2018). He is an executive fellow of Henley Business School and lectures at both Cambridge and Oxford Universities. Simon regularly appears as a media pundit on oratory and his ‘Speak Like a Leader’ TEDx talk has been watched more than 2 million times on YouTube.

F. Tina Renshaw

Tina, CEO of English Speaking Board (International) Ltd, is originally from the North-west, joined ESB after working for 13 years in Australia, eight of which were at one of the largest vocational education and training providers in the southern hemisphere, TAFE NSW. Her roles at Sydney TAFE included Director of Human Resources and Chief Operating Officer, with responsibility for delivering business enabling services to 3500 staff and a student population of 40,000. Tina says: “It’s very common to hear people saying they ‘want to be heard’ and ‘have their say’. Although digital media now provides instant methods for communication, at ESB we are in a position to offer learners of all ages, whether native speakers or not, the speech and language skills to not only be heard and to have their say, but listen to others, elicit information, persuade and inform and be accredited for the skills they have developed and demonstrated.”