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ICT Register Showcase - Achieving Learning Potential
Tuesday 16 March 2010, Holywell Park, Loughborough

Speaker Biographies

Dan Sutch - Futurelab

Dan's main research interests are in mobile learning; the role of the teacher in technology-rich learning environments; non-formal/personal and social education; values-driven assessment, and processes of educational change and transformation. He is currently leading 'Public and Stakeholder Engagement' within the Beyond Current Horizons programme that aims to engage with leading stakeholders (Government agencies and departments, industry etc) as well educational communities and the wider public in thinking about the future to inform strategy and action. He has expertise in authoring and running innovations workshops that bring together stakeholders from various backgrounds to investigate future learning possibilities. Prior to joining Futurelab, Dan was a primary school teacher and he is currently studying part-time for a PhD looking at the role of digital technologies in supporting positive social behaviours.

Philippa Lee - Education Integration Manager, RM

Philippa Lee works in RM's BSF team as Education Integration Manager. This role focuses on ensuring education and learning are central to all strands of new build programmes. Philippa has an expertise in ensuring new school designs are transformational and integrate new pedagogies, space, design, innovative ICT and furniture. She is an educationalist supporting CABE in their building review process.

Her role at RM follows 5 years at Becta as Head of School Improvement, which focused on strategic leadership of ICT. This was particularly in relation to school self evaluation and review. While at Becta Philippa also led on the Primary Capital Programme and worked closely with the DCSF developing the ICT strand of the programme. Philippa has 10 years experience as a headteacher, her second headship was to open and establish a 600 pupil school in West Sussex.

Tony Parkin - Head of ICT Development, SSAT

Tony Parkin, Head of ICT Development, joined the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust in July 1998, having worked in education for almost all of his career, as a teacher, an educational technologist and latterly as an information technologist.

He leads an ICT Development team for the Trust and its network of affiliated schools, providing advice and professional development on the strategic leadership and pedagogical development of ICT in education. The ICT Development team delivers a number of projects under its iCPD umbrella, including the ICT Register, a 700+ network of schools and centres, Teachnet UK, a classroom CPD programme with over 300 resources online , and partnership with Intel on the Advanced Online and Collaborative CPD initiative linked with many other countries. He is also involved in many of the Trust's wider range of ICT-related activities.

Originally a secondary school teacher of Biology and Head of Learning Resources, Tony joined the Inner London Education Authority in 1978 as an Educational Technologist, and worked in several secondary schools and FE colleges. He moved to ILECC - the Inner London Educational Computing Centre - in 1985 and had become Head of Curriculum Support by 1994 when the centre closed. Tony then became a founder member of the IT Learning Exchange in Autumn 1994, based at the (then) University of North London. A two-year period appointment as IT Training Manager at the House of Commons Library, starting in July 1995, was followed by an ongoing consultancy in IT Development at the Library, before joining the Trust in July 1998.

Bill How - SSAT

Bill How has worked in the Education sector for over 23 years (following an initial career in Engineering), primarily in the 14-19 and FE sectors in Teaching and Leadership roles and is currently ICT Development Coordinator and Project Director (Intel Teach Advanced Online), working within the Leadership and Innovation directorate at the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust.

A keen advocate for the potential of ICT as a learning tool, Bill became involved in shared practice on a wider scale in 2001 as a Becta ILT Champion and soon followed secondments with the LSDA as an e-Learning Coordinator and NILTA as its National Manager for the regions.

In 2004 Bill joined Northamptonshire LA's innovation unit, the Learning Discovery Centre where he led a variety of New Technology related projects with the counties schools (with a particular emphasis around innovative curriculum development, e-learning technologies and also mobile learning) and could often be found travelling between schools and colleges carrying bags full of mobile goodies to deliver ICT-Lite sessions to teachers and senior leaders (micro ICT lessons using only pocket devices). Bill co-authored Creative ICT in the Classroom: Using New Tools for Learning.

These days, Bill leads the Intel Teach Advanced Online CPD project (working with teachers from France, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Jordan, Israel, Spain, Slovakia, Poland, Macedonia and Portugal), project manages online CPD tools for a number of projects (including the SSAT Abu Dhabi project), leads the SSAT's Personalising Learning Using New Technologies think tank series and also facilitates on the NCSL BSF Leadership programme.

Mark Maybury - Senior Educational Consultant, RM.

Mark joined RM in April 2008 as a Senior Educational Consultant following a teaching career that spanned 30 years in the secondary sector. Prior to joining RM, Mark was Assistant Headteacher at Park Hall School in Solihull where he was involved in the process that saw the school completely rebuilt as part of the BSF programme. Mark is now working as an educationalist within RM's BSF team. He has also been involved in the consultancy and training aspect of Staffordshire‟s Learning Platform project.

Dominic Tester - Assistant Headteacher, Costello Technology College.

Dominic Tester has been teaching for the past 15 years and is the Assistant Headteacher at Costello Technology College where he has been in post for the past 4 years. He started his teaching career as a geography teacher but his passion for, and life long interest in technology and the impact it has on student learning and society soon led to him to ICT. His roles at the college include Director of Specialism in addition to being responsible for leading the development of the college's ICT Strategy. Previously Dominic has been a LA leading teacher of ICT and ICT Subject Leader. A self professed 'Digerati' and an advocate of using technology to support in developing teachers and sharing good practice, Dominic can be followed on twitter - @dtester

Amanda Gledhill - Teaching and Learning Responsibility, The Federation of Abbey Schools.

Amanda Gledhill is a TLR at the Federation of Abbey Schools. She has been involved in the development of the Learning Platform at the Federation over the past 4 years. Her class won a Collaboration through Technology Award in June 2008. Amanda has recently been invited to speak at a number of conferences for BECTA and NGfL.

Elaine McCue - Head Teacher, The Federation of Abbey Schools.

Elaine McCue is the other headteacher at the Federation of Abbey Schools in Darlington. Elaine has been a headteacher for 12 years, particularly involved with Early Years and KS1 education. She is a verifier for both the Teacher Learning Academy and the Leading Aspect Award.

George Ford - Head Teacher, The Federation of Abbey Schools.

George Ford is one of the headteachers at the Federation of Abbey Schools in Darlington. This is his third headship. The Federation is part of the SCITT consortium and is an NPQH Development School. George is the regional consultant for the Teacher Learning Academy; the Federation is a TLA centre. He has a wide experience of primary education and has been an adviser for primary science. He and the Federation's co-headteacher recently completed a research project on the impact Federations have on staff development. George is a National College consultant specifically involved in primary initiatives and facilitates a range of college programmes. He is currently

working on the national co-construct pilot for Executive Heads. His recent visits to China have set up global exchange programmes for pupils and staff. George has a range of interests and is a Master Practitioner in Neuro- Linguistic Programming.

Evelyn Baxter - AST for ICT, Rawmarsh Ashwood Primary School.

Evelyn Baxter has been a Primary teacher for 21 years and taught in Rotherham Authority for approximately 15 years. In 2007 she became an AST for ICT and in 2008 the LA extended her role. She now teaches in her own school for two days each week and provides support across the Authority for the other 3 days. Evelyn's role now includes supporting other schools to develop their curriculum, delivering CPD, developing hery own projects and introducing new initiatives and innovations across the LA. As a result of this her school was selected to be a Champion School for ICT for Rotherham Authority in 2009, when they were also shortlisted for the ICT Excellence Award. At Evelyn's school they specialise in delivering a creative curriculum and integrating ICT so that it is a tool for the children to express themselves, using it naturally across the whole curriculum.

Paul Haigh - Notre Dame High School, Sheffield

Paul Haigh is Senior Assistant Headteacher at Notre Dame High School, Sheffield. Notre Dame is a High Performing Specialist School rated outstanding by Ofsted, Yorkshire & Humberside ICT register Focus School, holder of the ICT Mark, a Becta SRF consultant School and host of the Hallam City Learning Centre. Notre Dame won the Becta Excellence Award 'Best Whole School' (Yorkshire & Humberside) in 2009.

Paul's portfolio at Notre Dame includes the strategic leadership of ICT. He is passionate about creative innovation and in particular how new technology can revolutionise education. Paul is a speaker and consultant in demand having been invited to speak at BETT and Westminster recently. He presents with enthusiasm, humour and a direct honesty you'd expect from a Yorkshire man. Paul's new book Social Network Websites; the benefits and risks to schools is available now as an e-book from www.optimus-education.com.

Matt Guest - ICT Teacher, Shireland CLC.

Matt Guest is an ICT Teacher at Shireland City Learning Centre in Sandwell, with an Honours degree in Computer Science. He is responsible for planning and delivering student programmes across the curriculum, using the latest technologies. He is passionate about exploring the educational value of new innovations and trialling them in teaching and learning, as well as the development of web technology and more recently iPhone/iPod Touch applications. Key interests include music, sport and laughing at John Henley's bad jokes.

John Henley - Programme Manager at Shireland CLC.

John Henley is an Assistant Headteacher responsible for the Specialist Schools Projects and more recently BSF Delivery, at Bristnall Hall Technology College in Sandwell. His current role includes being Programme Manager at Shireland City Learning Centre, where he is revelling in the ability to investigate the 21st Century learning environment for the 21st Century learner. Key interests include music and (bad) humour.

Andrew Davies - Headteacher, Clunbury C of E Primary School.

Andrew Davies has been in education for the past 17 years. For the past 6 years he has been the Headteacher of Clunbury CE Primary School in Shropshire. His school was the first in his county to be awarded the ICT Mark. The school then went on to win the very prestigious ICT in Excellence Award for the "Best Whole School". Andrew's achievements in ICT have been filmed by the BBC, Teachers TV and also by Microsoft ... His innovative and visionary thinking has made Clunbury nationally recognised for its use of ICT in enhancing learning and teaching. The school has been featured in many publications by the TES, Futurelab and Becta.

Michael Keenan - ICT Coordinator, St Austin's Catholic Primary School.

Michael Keenan is an ICT Advanced Skills Teacher at St. Austin's Catholic Primary School in Liverpool where the use of ICT has been rated outstanding by Ofsted during the last two inspections. His particular interests are in creativity using Digital Media - they have won various BECTA and European awards over the years by taking an innovative approach to teaching the curriculum to our children. Currently, he is helping to develop their Learning Platform using blogs and other web 2.0 technologies in school. His day to day working practice involves letting children access as much of this technology as they can and watching what they do with it. In terms of CPD, nothing comes close!

Craig Hudson - ICT, MLE & New Technologies Co-ordinator Avenue School.

Craig Hudson is currently in his fourth year of teaching at Avenue Primary School, Sutton, South-East London. After strong involvement in many exciting and innovative technological advances across the school, he was appointed MLE & New Technologies Co-ordinator in September 2009 and has recently been asked to take over the running of ICT across the school. Avenue Primary School has been recognised locally, nationally and internationally as a school that has had significant successes in ICT, particularly with regard to their Learning Platform, the London MLE. In 2008 they were awarded the inaugural London MLE Award in recognition of their successful use of Learning Platforms to transform every aspect of school life. Resulting from this, Craig has hosted educators from across Europe, and is now tasked with discovering New Technologies and using them innovatively across the school, in order to further raise standards in teaching and learning.

Stuart Bailey - Headteacher, Parkside PRU.

Stuart Bailey has been Headteacher of Parkside Pupil Referral Unit in Ipswich since Easter 2001. Prior to this he was Head of Inclusion at a 13-18 mixed rural comprehensive school in Suffolk. Since he has been at Parkside Ofsted has recognised the work they are doing as Outstanding on two occasions. They have been an Artsmark Gold school for five years, and they have also, recently, been presented with the Enterprise in Education Award. They achieved the Becta ICT Mark and in 2007 were Runners Up in the Becta Excellence Awards under the category of Inclusion. In 2008 they won the "Best Whole School" in the Eastern Region category. Stuart is a "Leading Leader" for Becta and Parkside is committed to supporting the drive for Home Access and Parental Engagement through "Online Reporting".

Gill Hollamby - Hamstreet Primary School, Kent

Gill Hollamby is a primary school teacher at Hamstreet Primary School in Kent. She is the ICT co-ordinator and has been responsible for taking Hamstreet from the pre-computer age into the 21st Century, achieving the ICT mark for the 2nd time in 2009. She is passionate about the ability of ICT to engage and enthuse children of all ages and abilities. She is a Leading ICT teacher and works both within her own school and with other schools as Hands on Support provider for the partnership to develop ICT as a powerful Learning and Teaching tool and has shared her experiences both here and abroad.

Donna Rogers - Kent LEA

Donna Rogers has a strong ICT change and project management background; her area of expertise is in managing changes to working practices and people skills within education.

As Kent LEA e-Learning Officer for 3 years. She managed the development of the Learning Platform strategy for both primary and secondary education. Advising schools developing their strategic vision for online personalised learning, incorporating the Self-Review Framework, to achieve their vision.

Donna is now 'Digital Learning Facilitator' specialist for Ashford Rural, a cluster of primary schools, supporting leadership in the development of 21st Century technologies and building confident digital learners of all ages for the enjoyment of creative ICT.

John Sweet - Sir Bernard Lovell School, Bristol.

John Sweet is Assistant Headteacher and Director of E-Learning at the Sir Bernard Lovell School in Oldland Common, Bristol. An ex Head of Mathematics with responsibility for staff E-Learning CPL (Continuous Professional Learning).

Darren Towers - Media Advanced Skills Teacher, Stoke Damerel Community College.

Darren Towers has been teaching Media Studies and Film Studies for the past seventeen years. He has in previous posts been a Head of Curriculum, developed and led business and education projects for the Arts Council's Creative Partnership's Programme and is currently a Media Advanced Skills Teacher for Plymouth Services for Children and Young People and Stoke Damerel Community College, Plymouth.

While in his current post Darren has introduced a young people's film competition and festival to engage students in using digital media (www.youngmotionplymouth.com) as well as creating the highly successful and innovative Drake's Island project.

Mike Herrity - Assistant Headteacher for Data, Twynham School.

Mike Herrity is an Assistant Headteacher at Twynham School in Christchurch Dorset. He is responsible for the development of the Twynham School Learning Gateway and has developed a highly effective Online Reporting to Parents system. Mike's other key role in school is the effective use of data to bring about improvement. Changes in target setting approaches over the last three years have seen a dramatic improvement in 5A*-C results from 61% in 2006 to 76% in 2009. At the same time the 5A*-C inc English and Maths figure has risen nearly 20%. Mike is also the author of the blog SharePoint in Education

Students from Sandwell

Students from 'Holly Lodge High School, College of Science' and 'St Michaels CE High School, A Business and Enterprise College' in Sandwell are thrilled to be presenting at the ICT Register Showcase. Both schools are in wave 3 of the BSF programme. Student voice is central to the transformation of education in Sandwell.

Zoe Ballard, Corey Briffa, Karl Lewis, Nicole Devlin, Damon Culbert - Lodge Park Technology College, Corby

Zoe Ballard is the teacher representative at the KS4 student council meetings and supports the students in successfully running their student council.

Corey Briffa is a year 10 student with specific responsibility for the KS4 council's communications on Moodle. He is also responsible for fielding students concerns and ideas which are sent to him via the designated email address and text number.

Karl Lewis is also a year 10 student who joined the council to ensure student views are counted. Karl is the council's general secretary and is responsible for organising meetings and keeping a record of all minutes.

Nicole Devlin is a year 11 student who is responsible for the regular student blogs.

Damon Culbert is a year 11 student who is an active member of the student council

Kate Broadribb - Wildern School

Katie Broadribb is passionate about the use of future technologies to enhance teaching and learning. Katie is currently an Advanced Skills Teacher at Wildern School and has led a series of new technology projects including developing the schools own bespoke educational "EduTube" and handheld technology research projects.

Lee Glynn - Deputy Headteacher, Hawes Side Primary School

Lee Glynn - Acting Deputy Headteacher at Hawes Side Primary School. Lee joined the school as Assistant Headteacher in 2007, he provides a strategic lead on ICT together with the ICT Leadership Team in school. Lee introduced visualisers to the school and works closely with staff to ensure they are used to their full potential. He leads on the Life Channel and ensures this is used to present the children's digital work in addition to sharing films and photo stories of events in and out of school. Lee also works with children on podcasting and with a group of children podcasts the weekly newsletter to parents via the website.

James Maloney - ICT Leader, Hawes Side Primary School

James Maloney - One of our ICT Leaders in school James joined the staff of Hawes Side as an NQT in 2005. He has developed the school blog and works closely with the children to give them as much control over this as possible. James recently set up a second school blog which provides a campus approach enabling classes and pupil groups to run their own blogs through a central page. He has developed the use of web 2.0 in school and works with children to trial new applications and tools to support learning.

Kimberley Smith - Ryton Park Primary School, Worksop

Kimberley started her teaching career at Ryton Park Primary School, Worksop having graduated from Sheffield Hallam University. She is now venturing into her second year at the school, teaching in KS1. Kimberley was asked to join Brian Huxley and the RPTV team at the end of her NQT year, immediately jumping at the chance to combine being creative, working with children from KS2 and to further develop her ability in ICT. Brian was the founder of RPTV in 2007 and has now developed it into a larger and more adventurous project working alongside Worksop Fire Station and local schools. As a new member of staff to the team Kimberley is excited to start her own projects. She has been asked to develop a school Eco team in the school, which she can combine with their regular RPTV News show to bring news on their successes and fund raising initiatives.

Darren Collings - Director of Performing Arts Specialism, Blackfriars School

Darren Collins is the newly appointed Director of Performing Arts Specialism and teacher of performing arts and music at one of the UK's leading special schools. Teaching across the ages from 2 -21. Key stage 1,2 & 3 and post 16 further education. The Performing Arts Department continues to produce large fund raising events with two major musical productions each year and proven success with ex students embarking on professional careers in film and television. Darren has set up many external links with professional bodies and outside organisations recording key stage one audio books for students who have English as a second language. Currently, Darren is creating a television studio specializing in green screen technology and radio station (podcasting). The performing arts department has recently purchased Behringer podcasting kits to enable their three partner schools to actively take part.

Chris Spender - Network manager, Blackfriars School

Chris Spender has worked at Blackfriars for nearly 10 years and is responsible for the management and implementation of new and existing technology within the school. Working closely with staff across 4 sites he develops strategies to help embed ICT into the curriculum to create exciting and engaging ICT. Chris is currently working with the Performing Arts Department in areas such as animation, green screen, video and audio editing.

Elaine Brent - Heath Primary School, Chesterfield

Elaine Brent is a primary teacher at Heath Primary School, in North East Derbyshire, where she is also lead teacher for ICT. The school believes in the ability for ICT to engage, enthuse and empower pupils of all ages and abilities. It was one of the first schools in the county to gain the NAACEmark and, subsequently, the ICT Mark. It is a Becta ICT Mark consultant school and an Advocate school for online reporting to parents. Elaine also works with a variety of companies, evaluating products and software always exploring how these can support teaching and improve learning for pupils in the school.

Dr Christopher Reynolds OBE - Saint Benedict Catholic School and Performing Arts College,

Christopher Reynolds is Head Teacher at St Benedict Catholic School and Performing Arts College and has been a Secondary School Head Teacher since 1984. Dr Reynolds is a Senior examiner for OCR and is Fellow of Chartered Institute of Assessors. He was appointed OBE in 2003 for his services to Education and the Arts.

Sean O'Sullivan - Sean O'Sullivan, Headteacher, Frank Wise School

Sean O'Sullivan is a big soul music fan, an optimistic surfer, but more significantly for this presentation he is the headteacher of Frank Wise School in Banbury. Frank Wise School was awarded "outstanding" in every category and sub-category (except attendance which was graded as "good") in a recent Ofsted inspection.

John Riches - Frank Wise School

John Riches teaches at Frank Wise. He focuses innovative use of ICT to develop skills across the curriculum. John introduced Nintendo Wii and DS consoles to the school and shared the potential for such resources to enable focussed learning across the curriculum.

John teaches in iWise enabling his Year 11 class to learn transferable software skills.

Simon Thompson - Assistant Headteacher, Monkseaton High School

Simon Thompson is an Assistant Headteacher at Monkseaton High School; he is the strategic leader of ICT and leads on parental engagement. Monkseaton is the first trust school in England, The Innovation Trust. Simon works with partners Professor David Reynolds, Microsoft, Tribal and North Tyneside Council in researching the science behind learning and to create, test and share new learning solutions based on the findings.

Simon is a Becta ICT Mark advocate and in 2008 he ensured the school gained the Becta whole school ICT Excellence Award for the North East and in 2009 won the National Education Business Award for ICT Innovation. The school is an Advocate School for Online Reporting to improve parental engagement. Simon is currently seconded with Becta's Parental Engagement Team as the secondary consultant to help ensure that all secondary schools will provide parents with secure online access to meaningful information by September 2010.