Speakers
Below is our list of confirmed Speakers for the conference, here you can find out who is speaking and a little bit more about them.
Ian Bauckham
ASCL Immediate Past President

Ian Bauckham has worked in education since graduating from Cambridge University in Modern Languages. He taught in comprehensive schools in Brighton and London, leading a Modern Languages department in Brent, and working as a head of sixth form. He has been head teacher of a large 11-18 Church of England comprehensive in Kent since 2004. The school was rated as outstanding in every category by Ofsted in 2012.
Ian has served on the council of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) since 2005, chairing successively the international committee and the professional committee. He has also been Kent branch secretary for ASCL, and was ASCL’s president 2013 to 2014. Ian is also member of the Head Teacher Board for South East and South London. Ian’s particular interests include the development of a school led and self-improving system, teaching character and values, the role of inspection, teacher professional development, international comparative education, and the role of faith and values in schools.
Sir Andrew Carter, OBE
Headteacher, South Farnham School
Andrew Carter is the Headteacher of South Farnham School. The school has achieved many awards and accolades and has been named as Sunday Times Primary School of the Year twice. It has achieved success in both the National Training and National Business Awards. South Farnham features in the DfE publication ‘Making Great Progress’ as one of the 20 highest achieving schools nationally. South Farnham was selected as one of the first Teaching Schools; it is also a National Support School, and he is a National Leader of Education.
He has contributed articles and features in educational journals, and his publication ‘Financial Management in Schools’ has been widely used by Headteachers and Governors to support them in school improvement. He sits on a range of national strategic policy groups including the Teaching Agency’s for ITT, NCETM for Mathematics and the Academies Group with the National College.
In 2003 he received the O.B.E., for services to education. Andrew recently led the Carter Review on Initial Teaching Training (ITT)
Jane Creasy
Conference Facilitator

Jane Creasy is an independent consultant with experience of educational leadership at school and national level.
Jane's work with a range of organisations focuses on design, development and facilitation of leadership programmes and conferences; on innovation and improvement strategies; and on leadership policy.
Jane is co-designer and facilitator for the National College Fellowship Programme for NLEs; a senior associate of the Innovation Unit; and formerly a headteacher and a director of the National College. She has been an independent adviser on Creativity to the DCSF (now DfE) and is co-developer of a number of projects on creativity and leadership.
She has facilitated a number of large-scale conferences here and abroad and has works with both European and United States school and education leaders on reform, innovation and leadership challenges.
She is on the Board of Centrepoint, the charity for homeless young people, a magistrate and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Leora Cruddas
Director of Policy - ASCL

An English teacher by training, Leora has recently been director of education in two London local authorities. More recently, she worked for Harrow Council, responsible for education services, strategic commissioning and quality assurance of the child’s journey through early intervention, child protection and care services.
Leora has worked in national policy roles with secondments to the (then) DCSF and CWDC. She also worked for the General Teaching Council for England as professional advisor to the chief executive.
She has written two books and published in many education journals. Her primary research interests relate to voice and engagement.
Robert Hill
Robert Hill has wide experience of public services and education policy and practice. His cv includes periods as a policy adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair and other Cabinet ministers, senior research manager for the Audit Commission, management consultant, social policy researcher and, more latterly, as an independent education consultant.
Robert now works as an independent education consultant supporting schools, government agencies and other educational organisations, helping them to think about, implement and assess school improvement and education policy. In 2008 the Association of School and College Leaders published his extensive and influential study on effective collaborative working between schools: Achieving more together: adding value through partnerships. Robert has co-authored two reviews for the National College of National Leaders of Education and National Support Schools.
Mike Sheridan
Senior HMI South East

Michael Sheridan has been an HMI since 2009, having initially been seconded to Ofsted as an Additional Inspector in 2007.
He is a qualified teacher and has held several leadership roles prior to being employed by Ofsted. Most recently he was the headteacher of a federation of schools.
Alongside headship, Michael has worked as a consultant and a trainer for heads and teachers. He has particular expertise in teaching and the impact leadership structures have on raising standards.
Charlie Taylor
Chief Executive, NCTL

Charlie Taylor is the Chief Executive of the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL), which is an executive agency of the Department for Education. The agency was created to enable and support the development of a self-improving, school-led system and came into being on 1 April 2013 following the merger of the National College for School Leadership and the Teaching Agency. Charlie was previously Chief Executive of the Teaching Agency.
Charlie started his professional life as a teacher, working in inner city primary and secondary schools in London. He developed a particular interest in behaviour and became headteacher of The Willows, a special school for children with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties in West London. In his time there, the school received two ‘outstanding’ Ofsted ratings.
During his teaching career, Charlie wrote several books on behaviour, before becoming the Government Expert Advisor on the subject.
As an Expert Advisor, Charlie conducted reviews into alternative provision and school attendance, and devised the ‘Checklist for Schools’, a useful tool to support teachers in improving behaviour by consistently getting the simple things right.
Pam Warhurst, CBE
Co-Founder of Incredible Edible

Former Chair of the Board of Forestry Commissioners. Pam lives in Todmorden West Yorkshire, and has previously served on the Board of Natural England, where she was the lead board member working on the
Countryside & Rights of Way Bill.
She is the Royal Society of Arts & Manufacturing regional chair and chairs Pennine Prospects, a regeneration company for the South Pennines, is co-founder of Incredible Edible Todmorden, a local food partnership, and is a director of Outta Place Ltd.
Pam Warhurst has also been Deputy Chair and Acting Chair of the Countryside Agency, leader of Calderdale Council, a board member of Yorkshire Forward, and chair of the National Countryside Access Forum and Calderdale NHS Trust.
Pam was awarded CBE in 2005 for services to the environment.
Lucy Heller
CEO of ARK

Lucy joined Ark in 2004 from TSL Education, a subsidiary of News International, where she was joint Managing Director.
Her previous roles include General Manager of The Observer and Executive Chairman at Verso, a trade and academic publisher.
She has worked for many years with a number of charitable and voluntary organisations including the Marshall Commission, Community Links and the Bush Theatre.
Dominic Herrington
Regional Schools Commissioner

Dominic Herrington started in his role on 1 July 2014.
Before his appointment Dominic was Director of the Academies Group at the Department for Education. Earlier in his career he has also:
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led a range of policies and programmes at the Department for Education including specialist schools, school improvement, 14 to 19 reform and education legislation
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been on secondment to a leading management consultancy
