Havering Virtual Festival of Education 2021

2. Lee Parkinson

Mr P has been a classroom teacher for over 14 years and still works part-time in school. He is also now an ADE and works internationally with schools looking to embed technology to transform learning. He puts pedagogy at the heart of everything he does and is on a mission to get more schools working ‘smarter, not harder.’

Clive Leach M.Org.Coaching

Clive works extensively within the education, public and business sectors as an executive, leadership and career coach. He also designs and facilitates highly rated workshop programs in Australia, Asia, Europe, Middle East, the US and the UK focusing on well-being, resilience, mental toughness and coaching skills within organisations. A former head of youth and community education services in the UK, Clive has a teaching qualification from the University of London Institute of Education and is a graduate of the Master of Organisational Coaching Program at the University of Sydney Coaching Psychology Unit and is lead author on the chapter entitled ‘The Integration of Coaching & Positive Psychology in Education’ in Coaching in Professional Contexts (Sage, 2016) and has a chapter on ‘Coaching for PERMA’ in Positive Psychology Coaching (Routledge, 2018). His latest chapter on ‘Approaches to Positive Education’ will appear in the Palgrave Handbook of Positive Education in 2020. Clive is a visiting lecturer teaching on the world’s first MSc Applied Positive Psychology & Coaching Psychology (MAPPCP) at the University of East London. He is also an External Examiner on the Post Graduate Certificate in Positive Psychology Coaching at the University of Worcester.

Dr Carrie Grant (HC)

Carrie is a BAFTA award-winning broadcaster, vocal coach and advocate. Her TV and music career has spanned over 35 years. She was awarded a MOBO award in ’98 and a BASCA in 2008 for her lifetime services to the music industry. She has been awarded two honorary doctorates (University of Bedfordshire 2018, Middlesex University 2020). She has both the biggest selling vocal coaching book and online course in the world. She is currently a reporter for BBC‘s The One Show and co-hosts Radio London’s Saturday Breakfast Show alongside her husband, David Grant MBE. Carrie is President of the Unite Union for Community Practitioners and Health Visitors (CPHVA) as well as being the Patient Lead for the College of Medicine and an Ambassador for Crohn’s & Colitis UK, The National Autistic Society and The Diana Award. She is Mum to four children, three are birth children/one was adopted and all have special needs. Carrie is a keen campaigner and contributes to many forms of media on the subject of Health and Education.

Eddie ‘the Eagle’ Edwards

Born in Cheltenham, England, Michael Edwards, better known as Eddie ‘the Eagle’ Edwards, was the first competitor to represent the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team in Olympic Ski jumping. In 2016, he was portrayed by Taron Egerton in the biographical film Eddie the Eagle, starring Hugh Jackman, which was a box office hit. Eddie subsequently released a book called ‘On the piste’ and much later a song called “Fly Eddie Fly” that reached the Top 50 in the UK. Eddie has appeared in the ITV celebrity diving programme ‘Splash’, where he did a synchro dive with Tom Daley. Due to his experience on the slopes, he has also appeared on the Channel 4 show ‘The Jump’, which focuses on 12 celebrities taking on challenging and dangerous winter sports; he uses his experience to coach the celebrities on their ski jumps and commentates on their performances. In the words of the president of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics: “some competitors have won gold, some have broken records and one has even flown like an eagle”.

Ges Smith

Ges Smith is a Headteacher in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. He has just completed nearly three years in an Executive Headteacher role leading another borough secondary school. He has worked in and led inner city schools since he qualified as a Drama teacher from the Institute of Education in the early 1980s. His career path has encompassed working in mainstream comprehensive schools, an EBD special school and also as a SENCO in a mainstream secondary school. He was part of the original leadership team that set up the Jo Richardson Community School in 2002. The school’s commitment to true inclusion underpins its work and it has received local and national recognition for the pioneering work it has done in regard to inclusion, SEN and addressing issues around serious knife crime and youth violence. Following a series of Good and Outstanding OFSTED inspections, in October 2018, the school won the Pearson Teaching Award for School of the Year – Making a Difference. Ges has contributed to a range of conferences and training sessions both inside and outside his home borough. He has coached and mentored a range of staff across a number of schools and in February 2018 he took over the Executive Headship of Dagenham Park Church of England School following the departure of the then Headteacher. Over the past two years Ges has worked with his LA and a range of external providers to develop a successful range of strategies to support some of the most vulnerable young people in his schools’ communities. At the heart of this work is a commitment to partnership, appropriate training and parental engagement. This work is ongoing but has already resulted in a radical overhaul of how his schools and other borough schools approach and manage the increasing challenges that serious youth violence presents them with.

Jim Knight – The Rt Hon Lord Knight of Weymouth

Jim Knight works in education, medtech and as a legislator. He is the Chief Education and External Officer at TES Global Ltd, the news, training, jobs and resource sharing service for teachers. His responsibilities include Tes Resources and Communications and Public Affairs. He previously founded Tes Institute in 2014 which is now the fifth largest qualifier of teachers in England. Jim is a founder of XRapid, an innovative business using artificial intelligence to power the diagnosis of malaria and asbestos fibres using iPhones. As a UK government minister his portfolios included rural affairs, schools, digital and employment. He was a member of Gordon Brown’s Cabinet 2009-2010, before joining the Lords after the 2010 General Election. He is also a visiting Professor at the Knowledge Lab of the UCL Institute of Education and Chair of Whole Education.

Lisa Damour PhD

Lisa writes the monthly Adolescence column for the New York Times, serves as a regular contributor to CBS News, maintains a private psychotherapy practice, consults and speaks internationally, is a Senior Advisor to the Schubert Center for Child Studies at Case Western Reserve University, and serves as the Executive Director of Laurel School’s Center for Research on Girls. Dr. Damour has written numerous academic papers, chapters, and books related to education and child development. She is also the author of the New York Timesbest selling books Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood and Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls. Dr. Damour graduated with honors from Yale University and worked for the Yale Child Study Center before earning her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Michigan. She has been a fellow at Yale’s Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy and the University of Michigan’s Power Foundation. She and her husband are the proud parents of two daughters.

Tom Bennett

Tom Bennett is the founder of researchED, a grass-roots organisation that raises research literacy in education. Since 2013 researchED has visited three continents and six countries, attracting thousands of followers. In 2015 he became the UK government’s school ‘Behaviour Czar’, advising on behaviour policy. He has written four books about teacher training, and in 2015 he was long listed as one of the world’s top teachers in the GEMS Global Teacher Prize. In the same year he made the Huffington Post’s ‘Top Ten Global Bloggers’ list. His online resources have been viewed over 1,200,000 times. He currently lives in London where he keeps bees and solves crimes that Scotland yard can’t crack. Twitter: @tombennett71 Blog: http://behaviourguru.blogspot.co.uk

Tom Sherrington

teacherhead.com blogger and author of The Learning Rainforest, Rosenshine’s Principles in Action and (with Oliver Caviglioli) Teaching WalkThrus.