Stephen Adcock

Regional Director of Secondary Academies

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Stephen Adcock

Steve taught History in three London academies, including two senior leadership roles. He has now been with United Learning for nearly 10 years, initially leading on curriculum and subject support and now as a Regional Director. Steve is also an Ofsted inspector. Steve has a Master’s in Education Management and has recently gained the National Professional Qualification for Executive Leadership.  Steve loves working for United Learning because it provides the chance to visit schools up and down the country and work towards ensuring that all pupils get a great deal when they step through our doors.

Ben Antell

Director of Secondary Academies

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Ben Antell

Ben Antell is the recently appointed Director of Secondary Academies in United Learning. Before taking up this role, Ben was a Regional Director in the trust and previous to that an Executive Principal with a responsibility for schools in Bournemouth and London. Ben is passionate about school improvement and the belief that education is the key to social mobility and future success. Ben also works as an Ofsted inspector in the south-west and counts himself fortunate enough to have worked with some of the leading educationalists in the country through both his Regional Director, Executive Principal and Ofsted roles.

Catherine Barker

Head of Music and Performing Arts

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Catherine Barker

Catherine joined United Learning in 2015, having led performing arts faculties in London schools. She began her career as the first Teacher First music teacher in 2004. Now working in the Partnership Team, alongside support and advisory to the teachers in the group she also leads groupwide performance events, such as 'MUSICFest', ‘Carmen’, ‘Green Love!’, 'Zimbe!' and ‘Wassail!’– recognised at the Music Teachers Awards as ‘Best Classical Music Education Initiative 2018’.

An experienced music educator, Catherine holds an MA in Music Education from the IoE. In the trust she leads groupwide curriculum development for music and subject provision for Music and Drama teachers as part of the group initial teacher training programme, United Teaching. 

Alongside her groupwide role she currently is the President of the Music Teachers’ Association and has been appointed to the monitoring board for the DfE's National Plan for Music Education, having been on the original panel for the NPME in 2022. She is also Chair of Paddington Academy local governing body, a secondary school that has recently been recognised as Outstanding by Ofsted. 

Prior to teaching, Catherine was a scholar at the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College, Cambridge, and has performed extensively including on Radio 3 and professional recordings as a cellist and singer. 

You can follow Catherine and the work in United Learning here: @United_Music1

Tom Bennett

Director/Founder of ResearchEd, DfE Behaviour Advisor, and author of Running the Room

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Tom Bennett

Tom Bennett was a teacher in the East End of London for thirteen years. Currently he is the Director and founder of researchED, a grass-roots, teacher-led project that aims to make teachers research-literate and pseudo-science proof.

Since 2013 researchED has grown from a tweet to an international conference movement that so far has spanned three continents and six countries. In 2009 he was made a Teacher Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University. From 2008-2016 he wrote a weekly column for the TES and TES online, and is the author of four books on teacher-training, behaviour management and educational research. In 2015 he was long listed for the GEMS Global Teacher Prize, and in that year was listed as one of the Huffington Post’s ‘Top Ten Global Educational Bloggers. In March 2017, Tom published an independent review of behaviour in schools.

He recently chaired the Behaviour Management Group for the DfE and is currently their Independent Behaviour Advisor. He coaches teachers and schools internationally in all aspects of behaviour management and research integration. He currently leads the Department for Education’s Behaviour Hubs project, a £10 million program designed to reboot behaviour skills in disadvantaged schools throughout the UK.

Fiona Boulton

Director of Independent Schools

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Fiona Boulton

Fiona became Director of Independent Schools in September 2022. She originally joined the organisation in 1995 when it was the Church Schools Company; it later became United Learning. She was Head of Guildford High School from 2002 – 2022. Guildford High became a Teaching School in 2013 and Fiona was appointed an NLE, leading the United Learning Teaching School Alliance from 2013 - 2020.

She has a variety of Governance roles; she is an Associate Director of Cumbria University (since 01.06.21), she is on the Governing body of Epsom College (since 01.11.09) and she is a member of the ‘Learning Partners Academy Trust’. Fiona is on the Advisory Board of the School Partnerships Alliance and she has helped to establish the West Surrey Partnership of all the state and independent schools in the Guildford area. She was Chair of HMC in 2019-2020, and on the Advisory Council of the Institute for Ethical AI in Education (IEAIED) (2018 – 2021). In 2023, Fiona was awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours list for services to education.

Ed Charlwood

Secondary Curriculum Lead - Design & Technology

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Ed Charlwood

Ed has nearly two decades of experience teaching and leading Design & Technology in both state and independent schools. He also co-founded Design Education CIC, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the next generation of designers and makers. He leads D&T teacher training for Teach First and the National Institute of Teaching.

Ed joined United Learning in November 2023 as the Secondary Curriculum Lead for Design & Technology. He works extensively on developing forward-looking curricula underpinned by the judicious use of Design Thinking methodologies and modern technologies to support student decision-making.

Sir Jon Coles

Group Chief Executive

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Sir Jon Coles

Since January 2012, Jon Coles has been Group Chief Executive of United Learning.

Prior to this, he spent much of his career in the Department for Education, including four years on the Board as Director General for Schools and then Director General for Education Standards. Previously, as Director of 14-19 Reform, he led work to raise participation post-16 and attainment at 19 and reduce NEET numbers.

As Director of London Challenge, Jon was responsible for developing and implementing the strategy to improve secondary education in London, which also led to similar approaches in other parts of the country. In his career, Jon has been responsible for various Green and White Papers and for taking the 2002 Education Act through Parliament.

A qualified secondary teacher, his previous jobs included implementing the infant class size pledge and, on secondment to the Cabinet Office, developing a strategy for e-government.

Charlie Cutler

Director of Curriculum

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Charlie Cutler

Since leaving the classroom, Charlie has spent more than 6 years in curriculum policy and development. She worked in curriculum policy at the Department for Education, leading research projects and engaging with thought leaders in the field. Since joining United Learning in 2019, Charlie has led the development of the primary curriculum, ensuring that it is well sequenced, is built upon United Learning’s evidence-informed pedagogies, and meets our teachers’ needs. She also has oversight of the secondary curriculum, ensuring consistency and progression from EYFS to KS3 and beyond.

Adriano Di Salvo

Art Curriculum Adviser

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Adriano Di Salvo

Adriano has worked for United Learning for 11 years, during this time he has worked as Head of Art at Kettering Buccleuch Academy and as a SLE across the trust. Adrian’s SLE work has allowed him to visit a number of our schools across the country, giving support on KS3 curriculum and helping to improve outcomes at KS4 and KS5.

During the pandemic Adriano led a team of teachers to design a key stage 3 art curriculum, create and record lessons for Oak National Academy.

Adriano has recently written for the NSEAD on how the trust is using the ARAEA checklist to improve diversity and representation across the United Learning art curriculum.

Adriano now joins the subject adviser’s team alongside his work as a lead practitioner at Kettering Buccleuch Academy.

Dino Di Salvo

Regional Director of Secondary Academies

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Dino Di Salvo

Dino is Regional Director for the Yorkshire Cluster and Parkside Community College in Cambridge. He also holds the position of Principal at Kettering Buccleuch Academy, an all-through school which has improved rapidly under his leadership and has won a Pearson Silver Award this year for Secondary School Of The Year: Making A Difference. Alongside his other roles Dino has guided many of United Learning’s aspiring leaders through the completion of the group’s NPQH programme.

Shaun Dowling

Head of Sport

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Shaun Dowling

Shaun’s background includes spells as a head of PE; a Director of PE and Sport in a specialist Sports College; deputy head in two secondary schools; and in a national role as Head of Raising Achievement for the Youth Sport Trust. As such Shaun is well placed to support subject leaders across the group in both improving their PE and school sport provision and in using sport to drive school improvement.

Shaun has just led a working group of United Learning PE subject leaders to develop the second edition of the United Learning PE and Health Curriculum and Assessment Framework (PEHCAF), which underpins our work in the network. Other roles include being Chair of SLQ Sports Leaders, a member of the afPE Taskforce and the Ofsted PE Working Group.

Shaun wrote ‘Pivot, Flex, Adapt. Physical Education through the 2020 Pandemic’ and ‘The A-Z of School Improvement through PE and Sport’ back in 2014.

Brian Doyle

Director of English

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Brian Doyle

Brian has over 20 years of experience in secondary education and has worked with United Learning since 2007. Brian initially joined United Learning in 2007 as Head of English at (The Elms Academy (formerly known as Lambeth Academy), before becoming an Assistant Principal for Teaching and Learning. Under Brian’s leadership, The Elms Academy’s English department secured an ‘Outstanding’ judgement in an Ofsted subject inspection and were recipients of an SSAT award for ‘outstanding practice’. In 2014, Brian was appointed as United Learning’s English subject adviser for the South, before becoming National Director of English in 2017.

 

Darran Ellison-Lee

Director of Primary Education

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Darran Ellison-Lee

Darran has a wide range of achievements in Education, including leadership in both Primary and Secondary phases as well as in Special Education.

Darran was a National Leader of Education, leading one of the first national teaching schools and a federation of primary schools in the North of England. The teaching school under his leadership provided a wide range of school improvement work and was one of the first schools providing training for Schools Direct.

Darran has overseen growth of our primary schools, which now includes over 35 schools. Darran’s leadership of improvement work has secured enhanced quality of teaching, resulting in schools moving from Special Measures to Good, at times requiring him to step in as Exec Head or acting Principal to support. In addition,

Darran is Director with responsibility for the Trust’s support, challenge and accountability on Safeguarding, ensuring that United Learning meets Statutory requirements and that Safeguarding processes across the Group are robust and effective.

Caroline Goss

MFL Subject Adviser

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Caroline Goss

Caroline has been a teacher of French and Spanish for over ten years, teaching from KS2 to KS4 in both state and independent sectors. Caroline spent most of her career working in an outstanding central London academy, starting out as an MFL teacher but along the way holding the positions of KS3 coordinator and Head of MFL before joining the academic Senior Leadership Team. In 2021, Caroline joined United Learning as an MFL Curriculum Writer before becoming a Subject Adviser later that year.

Sarah Horn

Secondary Inclusion Adviser

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Sarah Horn

Sarah has over 12 years of experience working in secondary education in the South of the country. After starting as a geography teacher in 2010, she moved into middle leadership through a Head of Geography and then a Head of Humanities role.  In 2015, Sarah moved into the sphere of special education needs and was a SENDCo for over 8 years and has recently held an Assistant Principal position. Sarah currently works as the Secondary Inclusion Adviser for United Learning, which she initially began in 2021. She is passionate about providing strategic guidance and support to schools nationally on effective SEND provision, to reduce the attainment gap and ensure students with SEND thrive.

Suzanne Howard

Director of Professional Development

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Suzanne Howard

Suzanne joined United Learning in 2012, having previously worked at the Department for Education. She is passionate about creating development opportunities for all staff in schools, and nurturing an inclusive environment, where diverse teams can flourish.  

Victoria Kidds

Head of School, Langford Primary

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Victoria Kidds

Victoria joined Langford Primary School in 2015 and is currently the Head of School. As well as leading Langford, Victoria runs the ECT programme for the Central London Teaching School Hub, facilitating the Early Career Framework for over 400 ECTs in last three years. 

Victoria has 20 years of experience in Primary Schools, including five years teaching internationally in Vietnam, but is particularly passionate about providing high quality education to disadvantaged communities in London.

Doug Lemov

Managing Director at Uncommon Schools and Author of 'Teach Like a Champion'

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Doug Lemov

Doug Lemov is an American educator and the author of the international bestseller Teach Like a Champion which provides educators with a set of techniques, a shared vocabulary, and a framework for practice that equip teachers to achieve dramatic results with their students.

He is currently Managing Director of TLAC Uncommon Schools and the coauthor with TLAC team colleagues of Practice PerfectReading Reconsidered: A Practical Guide to Rigorous Literacy Instruction, and Teach Like a Champion Field Guide 2.0.

Ben Littlewood

Director of Science

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Ben Littlewood

Ben has worked in education for over 20 years, as a secondary school science teacher, Advanced Skills Teacher, senior leader and advisor. He joined United Learning as the Science Advisor in January 2016, before becoming Senior Science Advisor in 2018.

Ben has worked in several schools on developing science teaching, both as an AST and as a local authority advisor, as well as leading on teaching and learning across a whole school. Ben also has a MA in Education, with a focus in the impact of feedback on students learning.

Ian Miller

RE Subject Adviser

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Ian Miller

Ian used to be head of the highly successful RE department at Paddington Academy and has recently moved to Accrington Academy. He works for United Learning one day a week, currently developing the KS3 curriculum for the trust.

Ben Newborn

Geography Subject Adviser

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Ben Newborn

Ben has 14 years of experience in secondary education and has been a Geography subject adviser working in United Learning for 3 years. Prior to joining United Learning, he has taught and led Geography departments in schools across South Wales, Somerset, Berkshire, and Oxfordshire and was appointed a Geography SLE in 2016. In 2020 Ben led the team of who designed and resourced over 350 KS3 and KS4 Geography lessons for Oak National Academy and he is a regular consultant for different exam boards, most recently facilitating the Virtual Communities programme for AQA GCSE Geography.

Jed Queally

School Business Manager at Northampton Academy

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Jed Queally

Jed joined United Learning in September 2013, recently completing his 10th year and still enjoying the role as School Business Manager at Northampton Academy.  Prior to that he was a Bank Manager for HSBC Bank for 31 years.

Jed's school role includes looking after the support structure including Finance, Estates, IT, Operations, H&S, GDPR and Office Admin functions.  During his 10 years, he's tendered for many contracts including cleaning, photocopiers, telephony, minibuses, numerous furniture purchases and a golf zone.

Jed has also secured external funding to support internal refurbishment as the school PAN increased and has enjoyed the journey as Northampton Academy moved from good to outstanding at their last Ofsted inspection.  Jed is passionate about improving the environment, so it is a great place for staff to work and for our students to be proud of.

Jed has also supported other United Learning schools, both Primary and Secondary, to help them settle into or assist with major changes. He also mentors new Business Managers within the Group.

Christine Raeside

Regional Director of Secondary Academies

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Christine Raeside

Chris Raeside is a secondary Regional Director for academies in the south. She joined United Learning in September 2017 following 7 years working for Ofsted as one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors. For her last three years with Ofsted, Chris was a senior HMI, working in the South West, overseeing and quality-assuring inspection throughout the region. She is an experienced secondary senior leader, working in schools and local authorities in two London authorities and, since 2005, in Hampshire, where she lives.

Jennifer Reynolds

Primary English Subject Adviser

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Jennifer Reynolds

Jen joined United Learning in 2018 and has worked in Primary Education for over 30 years, much of the time combining teaching with other roles. Jen is a former English Advisor for the CAM Academy Trust and facilitated writing moderation with large clusters of schools throughout Cambridgeshire sharing her work at Beyond Levels conferences. She is also a former English Adviser for Cambridgeshire and tutor on the PGCE and GTP at the Faculty of Education, Cambridge University. Jen has researched several areas of children's literacy, including gender differences in responding to texts and has written guest blogs for The Chartered College and No More Marking on the use of Comparative Judgement to assess writing. She was a researcher on the Cambridge University government funded project, ‘Raising Boys’ Achievement’, specifically researching the role of drama and talk to develop writing.

Alicia Shanks

History Subject Adviser

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Alicia Shanks

Alicia joined United Learning as a History Adviser in 2021, offering direct support to schools in the North of England. She has a keen interest in the education sector which resulted in her completing her BA Hons degree in History and Education Studies and led to her developing this further by completing an MA in Education. Alicia has worked in several roles throughout her career so far including Head of History, Head of Humanities and Lead Practitioner with whole school teaching and learning responsibilities. During the pandemic she also supported remote learning for all pupils nationally by creating and filming lessons for Oak Academy.

Sam Shaw

Assistant Principal & Group Strategic Lead for Sixth Form

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Sam Shaw

Sam has been teaching Business Studies for 15 years and was previously Head of KS4 at the Elizabeth Woodville School in Northamptonshire before joining United Learning as an Assistant Principal in 2016.

Sam’s role as a senior leader at KBA was initially as Head of House/Strategic Lead for Key Stage 4, before moving to Head of Sixth Form. Sam has led sessions at UL Sixth Form conferences on topics such as Sixth Form Improvement Strategies, Recruitment, Student Tracking and Analysis and Keeping In Touch with Leavers.

Mark Stephenson

Maths Subject Adviser (South/Midlands)

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Mark Stephenson

Mark joined the Primary team at United Learning in September 2019 as Maths Advisor supporting schools mainly in the South and the Midlands. Prior to joining the Primary team, Mark was a primary school teacher and maths subject lead for over 10 years in schools in Westminster and Hammersmith & Fulham, one of which was Langford Primary School, which is also part of the group. Mark has completed the NPQSL and is accredited as both an NCETM Professional Development Lead, and School Development Lead.

Jill Todd

Maths Subject Adviser (North/Midlands)

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Jill Todd

Jill joined United Learning as Primary Maths Adviser in September 2018.

Prior to joining United Learning, she was the Primary Maths Lead for Bradford College ITT for 5 years and the Teaching for Mastery Lead for West Yorkshire Maths Hub (previously known as White Rose Maths Hub) for 2 years. 

Jill has 26 years’ experience in teaching mathematics in a wide range of schools.  She has a Master’s in Education and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Amanda Whitehead

Director of Maths

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Amanda Whitehead

Amanda has worked in education for over ten years. After receiving a first-class honour in Mathematics, she joined the Teach First programme. She became a lead practitioner in 2012 and an SLE for United Learning Trust. As Head of Maths Amanda led a large team and then became an Assistant Principal in charge of STEM, line managing Maths, Science and Computing. Amanda is now the Director of Maths for United Learning. Amanda also has a Masters in Education and completed the NPQSL focusing on the development of middle leaders in schools.