Education Insights is nearly here and we're delighted to share some of our expert speakers ahead of time.
Discover our speakers, their insights and how to get in touch with them below.
Tom Reynolds
About Tom:
As a post-degree-diagnosed dyslexic, Tom Reynolds is a passionate advocate for equitable and inclusive education. With over 20 years’ experience teaching, leading and advising in state secondary schools, Tom has consistently championed the use of innovative approaches to address systemic disparities. His expertise lies in identifying barriers to educational opportunity and in exploring practical, technology-driven solutions to create a more level playing field for learners. A former five-times ‘Head of English’, Tom is the Founder of EdenFiftyOne - an award-winning edtech platform that promotes 51 universal literacy skills – and in 2023, Tom was shortlisted as the ‘Great British Entrepreneur of The Year’. Tom is the Education Advisor to the world’s first United Nations Regional Office, in Liverpool, and a guest lecturer for English teacher training at Liverpool John Moores University [LJMU].
His Insight:
The current education system is failing SEND and disadvantaged learners. It's time for technology to give all young people a chance to thrive, regardless of their background or needs.
LinkedIn:
Reach out to Tom on LinkedIn here.
Jeanne Fairbrother
About Jeanne:
Jeanne Fairbrother is a Chartered member of IOSH and an experienced health and safety (HS) practitioner. She has nineteen years of experience in the education sector and was a Lead Officer for schools at Wirral Council for 10 years.
Jeanne has a proven track record of delivering advice, guidance, and excellent customer service to education settings. She is also an experienced and accredited IOSH trainer.
She is the customer-focused Director of SafeSchool, a health and safety consultancy that specifically services schools. SafeSchool provides services to schools across Wirral, Liverpool, Cheshire East & West, Manchester, and Halton.
Her Insight:
A brief introduction to Martyn’s Law and how schools should/need to prepare in the next 18 months to ensure they are compliant, to ensure the safety of their staff, students, visitors.
Her LinkedIn:
Reach out to Jeanne on LinkedIn here.
Elly Jackson
About Elly:
Elly is the Project Coordinator for Liverpool City Council’s Intern to Work Programme, a programme that supports young adults with additional needs or disabilities. The main aim of our programme is to support individuals to gain practical experience and build skills to move into sustainable, paid employment. With a background as a qualified primary school teacher and SEND Job Coach, she is passionate about creating inclusive opportunities that support young adults to transition into meaningful employment.
Her Insight:
Empowering young adults with SEND to reach their full potential and helping employers benefit from the diverse strengths they bring to the workplace.
LinkedIn:
Reach out to Elly on LinkedIn here.
Tony Bradley
About Tony:
Tony Bradley (Revd Dr, SFHEA), is Director of the SEARCH (Sustainable Economy Action Research Centre at Hope) research centre at Liverpool Hope University, and Senior Lecturer in Business Sustainability. He is a former environmental scientist and has a long-standing interest in the role of environmental action groups in promoting community resilience and social cohesion, especially in times of crisis. He is currently part of a Europe-wide Horizon project developing research on 'empowering young people to enhance mental health', in which he is leading on the field of 'eco-anxiety to eco-action'. He is the author/editor of 11 books and many research articles. He lives in the Lake District with his wife, and close to two daughters, their families, and four dogs.
His Insight:
Research evidence indicates that 'eco-anxiety' is experienced by 50% of young people across Europe. It is one of the most significant sources of mental health issues amongst Gen Z cohorts. Engagement in 'eco-activism' can be a main way of ameliorating these issues, and empowering young people to envision a positive future for themselves, their communities, and the planet.
LinkedIn:
Reach out to Tony on LinkedIn here.
Natalie Hicks
About Natalie:
Natalie Hicks is an Occupational Therapist, and until recently she has been leading on the Level 3 Community Health and Wellbeing Apprenticeship at Training 2000. Natalie has three autistic children, and is experienced with the mental health of young people.
Her Insights:
How can you improve the Mental Health and Wellbeing of your students? Techniques you can implement and recommend.
LinkedIn:
Reach out to Natalie on LinkedIn here.
Bhumika Palni
About Bhumika:
In her role, Bhumi supports young people aged 16–24 to develop their employability skills and gain paid employment. Over the past year, she has supported 16 young people to gain 19 paid jobs offers.
Her passion stems from both professional and personal experience — she holds a Master’s degree in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from the University of Edinburgh, where her dissertation focused on the barriers and enablers to disability inclusion in organisations and how organisations can become inclusive of people with disabilities in their recruitment, integration and retention processes.
On a personal note, her younger brother, Saransh, was born with Down’s Syndrome, he inspires her to help create a world where everyone has the right environment and an opportunity to excel and prosper.
Her Insight:
Employment for all - Ensuring all young adults can work regardless of their needs. Offering the right support and advocating for an inclusive society.
LinkedIn:
Reach out to Bumika on LinkedIn here.
Michelle Blake
About Michelle:
Michelle is a SEND professional with experience as a teacher in both primary and secondary education, as well as experience as a university lecturer specialising in inclusion. She is also a parent of children with SEND. With a background in psychology, Michelle’s professional interests are based around psychological wellbeing and neurodiversity. At present, Michelle is the director of a Community Interest Company, Wonder Neurodiversity, which provides training, coaching and development for neurodivergent people, families, schools, community groups, and employers.
Her Insight:
Harnessing and enhancing neurodivergent pupils’ motivation for learning, enabling them to achieve: How are neuro-affirming practices, self-concept and wellbeing tied together with engagement?
LinkedIn:
Reach out to Michelle on LinkedIn here.
Sam Flynn
About Sam:
Sam Flynn is a digital wellbeing and digital culture trainer and speaker. With a background in Organisational Psychology, Sam has been running a social media training business for the last 15 years. After noticing her own smartphone use increase dramatically during the pandemic, and the impact this had on her own wellbeing and mental health, Sam researched the impact that the digital world is having on our wellbeing. She has combined her psychology and digital backgrounds to provide digital wellbeing session in businesses, to parents and in schools. Sam delivers sessions on reducing smartphone use, managing our children’s smartphone use and digital culture within organisations. The digital world is not going away, so Sam helps people embrace it in a positive way!
Her Insight:
Our children are being raised in a digital world so it’s essential we ensure there is no negative impact on their wellbeing. In this session, you’ll discover the negative impact the digital world can have on children and steps we can take to protect their wellbeing
LinkedIn:
Reach out to Sam on LinkedIn here.
Paul Henderson-Griffiths:
About Paul:
Paul is proud to lead our Service Delivery team here at Open Awards, comprising our Customer Service and Administration functions. His team are the first point of contact for our customers and provide training and support to our providers. Paul's team also ensure all registrations and certifications are correct.
Paul began his career at Open Awards in 2019 firstly managing the EQA contract for end-point assessment of apprenticeships, before moving into the Operations Manager role, Head of Service Delivery and since June 2023 joining the Senior Management Team as Director for the Service Delivery function.
Prior to working for Open Awards, Paul spent 9 years working in Social Care, firstly managing programmes for young people with SEND to access public transport and latterly managing a support service for adults with varying support needs to engage in meaningful activities and employment.
Outside of his role at Open Awards Paul is proud to be a School Governor of two Primary Schools in Salford.
His Insight:
Paul's role as a Chair of Governors has given him an insight into the OFSTED inspection process under the "old" and revised framework. Preparation for OFSTED is key as is a understanding of how inspections will focus on Governance.
LinkedIn:
Reach out to Paul on LinkedIn here.
Gavin Sherrat:
About Gavin:
Gavin Sherratt is the founder of GoodShip*, a purpose-driven digital and innovation agency. With over two decades in digital, he helps organisations harness creativity, technology, and AI to create meaningful and transformative solutions for them and the communities they serve.
His work includes strategic consultancy, developing digital platforms, and the AI Activator programme, which helps organisations responsibly adopt generative AI. Gavin is passionate about collaboration, innovation, and using technology to drive positive change.
His Insight:
AI is now a key tool for life and business. The key with any tool is how we use it and how we explore the options and possibilities new technologies bring to us in life, education, and the future of work.
LinkedIn:
Reach out to Gavin on LinkedIn here.
Nick Hurst:
About Nick:
After leaving university in 2005 and qualifying as a secondary History teacher, Nick began working for a year in a school for those with severe and complex needs. This drew him to working with individuals on the fringes of the education system. Since then, he has spent time in a number of teaching roles all with individuals and settings that had high support needs.
Since taking over as Head and, subsequently, Director of Education at Running Deer in Devon, he has had the chance to shape strategy. He's very passionate about the teachers' role in creating learning opportunities and mapping them back to assessment criteria rather than looking at assessment criteria, curating learning opportunities, and trying to engage students. During this time, he has achieved a master’s degree in Advanced Child Protection, NASENCo status, trauma-informed schools practitioner status and become an intermediate Team Teach instructor.
His Insight:
Mapping learning experiences from the point of engagement to a teacher's need to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, rather than a curriculum led delivery model.
LinkedIn:
Reach out to Nick on LinkedIn here.
Mark Ralph:
About Mark:
Mark has spent his entire career in IT and technology services, starting from the early days of personal computing, the rise of Windows, and the dawn of the internet.
His journey began as a field service engineer working on IBM mainframes. In 1989, he founded his own field service business, which he successfully ran for 25 years, navigating and adapting to the rapid changes in the tech landscape before eventually selling the company.
Following that, he worked as an IT consultant and director for several organisations, including the Diocese of Salford and Johnsons Moving Services. His focus was on IT security, infrastructure, and helping businesses use technology more efficiently.
In 2019, he co-founded MRD Technologies with a couple of trusted colleagues. MRD specialises in delivering IT and technology services to SMEs, helping them stay secure, connected, and competitive in an ever-evolving digital world.
His Insight:
The motivation and reasons for cyber-attacks and the fact that cyber security is dependent upon users and individuals rather than hardware.
LinkedIn:
Reach out to Mark on LinkedIn here.
Donna Sergeant:
About Donna:
Donna Sergeant leads Education42, one of the services delivered by 42nd Street, a Manchester-based mental health charity. Education42 offers a portfolio of support tailored to education settings from Year 7 upwards, with a mission to strengthen students’ mental health and wellbeing as a foundation for learning. With roots in working alongside vulnerable young people and care leavers, and a deep commitment to equity, Donna brings insight from schools, services and systems leadership to reimagine how support is designed and delivered.
Her Insight:
Too often, children in distress are labelled as disruptive, difficult or ‘naughty’ when what they actually need is support, not sanction. By reframing behaviour through a mental health and identity-informed lens, we can shift systems from judgement to justice.
LinkedIn:
Reach out to Donna on LinkedIn here.
Annette Edmondson:
About Annette:
Annette is a Business Development Officer here at Open Awards and has many years’ experience of parenting neurodivergent children. This led her to volunteer as a founder member and then co-chair of a Parent Carer Forum Steering Group, working on co-production and engagement with the Local Authority, Health and Social Care Services to drive improvements in services for SEN children and young people in the area by ensuring the parent voice was heard.
Her Insight:
Accepting parents’ voices as integral in collaborative support for young people with SEND - and the benefits and growth of alternative provision.
LinkedIn:
Reach out to Annette on LinkedIn here.
Damien Maguire:
About Damien:
Associate Dean of External Engagement Faculty of Education and Social Sciences, Liverpool Hope University.
Damien Maguire is a strategic leader in university-industry collaboration, an experienced educator with a strong track record of helping organisations from across sectors access academic expertise and innovation.
As Associate Dean of External Engagement, he has led numerous projects that apply AI and digital technologies.
A trained primary school teacher with 10 years classroom and leadership experience, Damien lectures on Computing in Education and has recently completed a MA in Education Leadership and Management: AI in Education
His Insight:
How schools have successfully integrated Al into their operations and the support available to help educators and schools on their AI journey.
LinkedIn:
Reach out to Damien on LinkedIn here.