Our Team

Leadership Team

Gareth Conyard, Co-CEO

Between 2003-2022, Gareth worked at the Department for Education on a range of policies from early years to higher education.  Most recently, he led the development and delivery of the Early Career Framework and reformed National Professional Qualifications.  He also spent two years as an Education Adviser at the Department of International Development, focusing on girls’ education and multilateral investment.  Gareth is particularly interested in supporting effective leadership and promoting positive wellbeing, an interest he advances as a trustee of Education Support.

David Weston, Co-CEO

David is the founder and Chief Executive of the Teacher Development Trust. He is Chair of the Department for Education’s Teachers’ Professional Development Expert Group and, alongside Bridget Clay, wrote Unleashing Great Teaching: the secrets to the most effective teacher development. David taught maths and physics for ten years in two schools in London and the South East. He is a Founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching. David speaks and writes frequently for the education sector and national media and has had a number of radio and TV appearances on the subject of teaching, teacher development and LGBT issues.

Anne Cameron, Head of Marketing and Development

Anne has led on development, delivery and recruitment to professional development programmes for the last fifteen years, the last ten specifically focused on serving teachers and leaders in state schools across England and Wales. With experience across the commercial, charity and government sectors, her most recent senior role before joining TDT was with international education charity Education Development Trust where she led on developing their UK school partnerships strategy. Anne believes that people are the most important asset in any organisation and that children and young people are most likely to thrive in education when the wellbeing and self-efficacy of the professionals around them are valued and supported.

Michelle Barker, Head of Impact and Engagement

Michelle has over 9 years’ experience in supporting both UK and overseas education in state and independent schools through roles in EAL, SEND, and national curriculum tuition. Specialising in customer experience, she joined the team in 2019 eager to continue delivering on the needs of the TDT Network, now leading on the development and efficacy of this and expanding the reach of our charitable mission by connecting the people at its core. She has contributed to national programmes including the DfE-funded CPD Excellence Hubs and IoE Teachers’ Working Environments research, and led on our collaboration with the National Foundation for Education Research’s work into Teacher Autonomy. Alongside her work with TDT, she engages with the CollectivED Community, is a school governor, has published work in Tes, SecEd, and the Headteacher Update, and volunteers for a London based reading charity.

Damilola Dauda, Head of Operations

Damilola worked in schools all round the world. She has taught primary and secondary Mathematics in London, Ibadan (Nigeria) and Lima. She has a background in Engineering and recently completed a Master’s in Public Administration at New York University. Damilola believes in education as a human right and is interested in how education systems can empower both students and teachers to take an active role in their own growth and development. Alongside her role at TDT, Damilola teaches Mathematics and Economics and sits on the advisory board of Impact on Urban Health’s childhood obesity programme.

Andrea Bean, Head of Programmes

Before joining TDT as NPQ Facilitation Lead and later Head of Programmes (maternity cover), Andrea spent 16 years working in primary education – 12 of these were spent as a senior leader, including school principal. She has a solid understanding of educational leadership and combines this knowledge with up to date research to drive school improvement. At present she is completing her Masters in Educational Leadership. Over the course of her career, Andrea has led on a variety of areas including curriculum development, pupil premium, wellbeing and assessment. Having supported educators at all stages of their career, Andrea understands the importance of high-quality professional development and the integral part it plays in improving the education provision for all children.  Andrea is passionate about mental health and wellbeing, particularly for education staff and young people; she currently instructs First Aid for Mental Health for both adults and children.

 

Sally Law, Head of Finance and Governance

Sally started her career in private practice, qualifying as Chartered Certified Accountant in 1998.  This followed a move into Public Sector Finance, which included 8 years with Kent Police as Financial Controller. She has a wealth of charity finance experience, including 7 years as the Treasurer of the Kent Peoples Trust. Sally joins TDT from Kent Music, a music education charity, where she has worked for the last 11 years, most recently in the role of Chief Operating officer.  Sally has also held roles in Education, including Business Manager at St Simon Stock Secondary School and Director of Finance at the John Wallis Academy, along with being a School Governor at a local Secondary School.

 

 

 

 

Our Staff

Picture of Victoria Chiles, TDT's Customer Support Manager
Victoria Chiles, Operations Officer (Customer Support)

Before joining TDT, Victoria was a Curriculum Team Leader of Music for ten years working in three secondary schools in the southwest of England. She has now moved into the education charity sector, and has most recently been involved with providing administrative support to participants working in underserved communities. Victoria is passionate about supporting teachers with their professional development and providing an excellent level of support to all participants on TDT programmes. 

Rachel Dunsby, HR and Office Manager

Before joining TDT, Rachel supported Watford Grammar School for Boys as their Exams and Admissions Officer, liaising with the local authority, exam boards, teachers, and parents, and coordinating cross-phase and mid-year admissions. She sat on the Education and Health & Safety Committees as staff governor during this time. Alongside her work with TDT, Rachel is Company Secretary for a local gardening company and has 7 years’ previous conference organisation experience within the leisure and events industry. Joining the team in 2019, Rachel is motivated by TDT’s mission of supporting and empowering robust professional development school-wide.

Sharon Ealing, Professional Learning Lead

Before joining TDT as an Expert Advisor, Sharon was Lead Practitioner at Coleshill Heath Primary school in Solihull where she led Professional learning, Development and Research. Sharon also lead the school’s work in mentoring beginning teachers and Early Career Teachers. Sharon, has held a number of positions within Senior leadership, including Deputy Head. She has taught in both mainstream and specialist settings as well as teaching in North Carolina.

Katie Hart, Learning Professional Lead
Katie Hart, Learning Professional Lead

Katie has worked in education for over 20 years and is an experienced executive leader in both education and learning and development.  Working in the UK and International education systems, Katie has designed and delivered professional development experiences for Ministry’s, School Partnerships, Multi Academy Trusts, Universities and Training Providers.  She has thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to mentor and coach others on their journey into teaching, leadership and towards achieving qualifications such as the NPQ’s.

Janice Holloway, Business Support Administrator

Prior to joining TDT, Janice spent 10 years as Senior Administrator, and subsequently, Office Manager in a large secondary school in Newcastle upon Tyne.  She has more recently spent 4 years working as Senior Administrator for local charity, Children North East, predominantly supporting the delivery of their Poverty Proofing© work within schools across the country.  Within these roles Janice has gained extensive knowledge of implementing systems and processes within the education and charitable sectors. She is passionate about supporting children and young people to reach their full potential.

Concettina Johnson, Professional Learning Lead

Concettina has been a qualified teacher for over 10 years with leadership experience in both the primary and secondary environment. Even though her background is in Business and Economics management, the majority of her experience is firmly rooted in the leadership of learning and CPD. Concettina was also part of delivering the Excellence Hub Programme for the TDT and managed the South Central region to support both primary and secondary schools with CPD planning and evaluation.

Joanne Jukes, Professional Learning Lead

Prior to joining TDT Jo spent over 20 years teaching Business, Economics, and IT in a variety of state schools in the Yorkshire region including inner city, coastal and rural. These roles include academic and pastoral leadership positions at middle, whole-school and trust wide level. She has served on a school governing body as a staff governor and is a Specialist Leader in education. With a passion for improving educational outcomes for pupils by raising the quality of teachers’ professional development, Jo has led professional development in both schools and as part of a school improvement team across a Multi Academy Trust. She has also developed, led and facilitated evidence-informed professional development programmes locally and nationally in her role as a Research Lead and through the RSN network. Jo previously worked as an expert advisor for TDT, writing content for the new NPQs.

Faye Lawlor, Education Programme Manager

Before joining TDT, Faye worked at Arts Council England as an Investment Partner designing and facilitating investment programmes, co-funded by the Department for Education, which focused on the engagement of children and young people in arts and culture. She is motivated by supporting the professional development of teachers and schools, to improve the learning experience of children and young people.

 

Priya Manota, Operations Officer (Customer Support)

Priya has an academic background in the early years and education sector and has worked in both private and state early years and education settings with children from the ages of 0-7 years.  She has spent the last 12 years, in a support role, working frontline for a charity supporting victims of domestic abuse. She also contributed to developing and delivering sessions for children of secondary school age to raise awareness of honour based abuse and forced marriages. Priya has been a part of membership organisations in her previous role and recognises the value in connecting and networking with people in the same sector, as well as the importance of qualifications and training to develop best practice. She is committed to ensuring all members and participants at TDT are offered a high quality level of support, access to relevant resources and can be ensured of a friendly, professional and supportive space when they need this.

Annie Marks, Online Systems and Facilitation Administrator

Annie joined TDT in January 2022, to help support the delivery of high-quality learning materials via TDT’s online systems. She has spent the last fifteen years at Watford Grammar School for Boys, enjoying the role of finance officer for the private income fund. She managed the various online systems in place for lettings, school trips and ParentPay. She supported students in receipt of Pupil Premium funding and 16-19 bursary, to ensure everyone had the same access to education whatever their background. 

Vina Sharma, Delivery Partner Engagement Lead

Vina is an experienced Secondary English teacher, qualifying from the University of Oxford in 2003. She spent her formative years teaching in two contrasting schools, both situated in areas of high deprivation. Since then she has been a specialist peripatetic teacher of English and Literacy in a wide range of inner-city secondary schools and has also supported Widening Participation in English at both Further Education and Higher Education level. She has significant experience in Primary school governance, has acted as a regular Thought Partner for Birmingham Women’s Hospital and has taken part in rigorous PLACE inspections for The Children’s Hospital, Birmingham.

Ruby Simmons, Operations Officer (Assessment and Data)

Ruby has a dual honours degree in educational studies and psychology from Keele University. Before joining TDT she worked as a programme administrator for post-graduate clinical psychology programmes for the University of Exeter. She is looking forward to supporting the assessment processes for TDT.

Tabeetha Sun, Digital Systems Manager

Part of the education charity sector since 2017, Tabeetha has worked in programme management to support the delivery of high quality professional development to teachers in the UK. She is motivated by the impact CPD can have on teachers’ and students’ lives, and how systems can support and improve the delivery of it. Tabeetha joined TDT in 2021 as Digital Systems Manager.

Image of Kathleen Temple
Kathleen Temple, Participant Experience Manager (Maternity Cover)

Before joining TDT, Kathleen spent many years working in the charity sector as a project manager in the United States. She has extensive experience supporting parents, teachers and schools with early literacy, special education, and disability accommodations.  Kathleen has a passion for ensuring equal access to education for people with disabilities and special health care needs. She also has a keen interest in how adaptive technology can support teachers and students in the classroom. 

Hannah Thomson, Curriculum Associate

Hannah has been teaching secondary science in schools for over 11 years, having been both a Senior Leader and Director of Science in a Multi-Academy Trust. Hannah is fervent about the power that Professional learning can do for both teacher and student outcomes and in her role as Assistant Headteacher, has been responsible for delivering Professional Learning on a whole school scale. Hannah is passionate about being part of an education system that promotes equality for all, no matter the background and is excited about how an amalgamation of cognitive science, educational research and pedagogy can be a lever for change, both for student outcomes and for the professionalism of teachers. Most recently, Hannah has worked as a visiting fellow for Ambition institute where she is lead facilitator for the NPQLTD (Leading Teacher Development) having herself completed the NPQSL. Hannah has also worked with the Chartered College of Teachers as a C-Teach mentor and assessor, as well as leading Subject Specific Network meetings across the local authority.  Hannah has a Master’s in Education and is a Specialist Leader of Education.

Emily Thomson, Customer Engagement Manager

Prior to joining TDT, Emily has worked in both educational settings and charitable organisations. Emily is an experienced primary school teacher, working mainly within the EYFS and KS1. Whilst teaching, Emily supported an Early Reading research project and continues to have a keen interest in academic research. Outside of teaching, Emily has worked as a project delivery manager with two different charitable organisations. Emily is passionate about building strong and professional networks that can support, guide and inform future working practices. In her role with TDT, Emily is keen to support school leaders in their teaching and learning development and is excited to welcome new members into the TDT network!

Hannah Tyreman, Curriculum Designer

Hannah was previously Head of Learning Design at the Chartered College of Teaching, where her work focused on maximising the potential of online learning to support teachers’ professional development. She designed courses and content on a range of subjects including education technologies, engaging with and in research, a pilot programme for the Early Career Framework and a series of courses supporting teachers in decolonising and diversifying the curriculum. Hannah was previously an English teacher and Learning & Development Manager in Further Education settings in England. Hannah is an advisory board member for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Teacher Development Fund. She also supports the website for the BAMEed Network, a grassroots organisation aimed at ensuring our diverse communities are represented as a substantive part of the workforce of teachers and leaders in education. Hannah’s writing has been published in TES, Schools Week, the Education and Training Foundation’s inTuition, Teachers Matter Magazine, The Early Career Framework: Origins, Outcomes and opportunities book and Teacher CPD: International Trends, opportunities and challenges book.

Suzie Watters, Participant Experience Manager (on Maternity Leave)

Suzie has worked with several charities and educational bodies as a professional services
and operations officer. Most recently, she worked for Edinburgh Napier University as a school operations officer, supporting the Business School, where she led the Business and Leadership Team. Before this she worked for the Royal College of Radiologists supporting members to complete their CPD and coordinating participation in advisory appointment committees. Suzie is passionate about providing an excellent customer experience every time, and about proactively ensuring ways of working are as efficient and effective as they can be. She is motivated by the effect that the work of TDT can ultimately have on the experiences of both students and teachers.

Ariana Wells, Curriculum Designer

Before joining TDT, Ariana worked on SLT as a Lead Practitioner of Teaching and Learning at St. Anne’s Catholic High School for Girls. Roles included the designing of INSET days, CPD programmes and the design and editing of the Teaching and Learning Magazine. With 15 years experience as an English teacher, Ariana has also worked in many positions across school including: Head of English, whole-school Literacy Co-ordinator and Blended Learning Leader. Alongside her teaching role, she worked as an NPQ Assessor for the reformed NPQML/SL courses. Ariana continues to advise St. Anne’s as a Teaching and Learning Consultant.

Louise Worgan, Curriculum Associate

Louise is a passionate education professional with 17 years of experience in pastoral and curriculum leadership roles at middle and senior leadership level. Louise’s background in psychology has driven her teaching practice in both pedagogy and leadership. As a Teaching and Learning Specialist (TLS), she has championed whole-school pedagogical initiatives and led research-based Collaborative Action Research projects (CARs). Her passion for developing others includes developing teachers as part of the ECT and PGCE programmes, leading CPD across the school and at a tri-borough level. Louise’s professional mission is to support the development of educators to improve their own practice and the learning experiences and outcomes of young people.

Our Associates

Kat Howard, Expert Advisor

After an extended period in Senior Leadership within the financial sector, followed by a role working for one of the UK’s largest public unions, Kat is a Senior Leader for an all-through school in Northamptonshire, alongside her role at TDT. In addition, she is Founder for Litdrive, a charity that supports English teachers with resource hosting, a peer coaching programme and subject knowledge regional events in a bid to reduce workload and keep fantastic teachers from leaving the profession. She is also East Midlands Representative for MTPTProject, a charity that supports parent teachers with ongoing CPD.

Kat is author of Stop Talking About Wellbeing and co-author of Symbiosis: the curriculum & the classroom

Dr Sam Sims, Research Advisor

Sam is a quantitative education researcher, interested in teachers and education policy. Alongside his work with TDT, Sam is a Lecturer in the Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities (CEPEO) at UCL Institute of Education. He is also a Research Associate at FFT Education Datalab. Along with Rebecca Allen, Sam is the co-author of The Teacher Gap – a book about the teaching profession in England.

 

 

 

 

Our Trustees

Dame Sue John
Chair: Dame Sue John

Executive Director, Challenge Partners; Chair, Brilliant Club; former headteacher of Lampton School, former secondary director of London Leadership Strategy; former director of the Department for Education, Future Leaders and Teaching Leaders.

Vice Chair: Anna Pedroza

Director of Pedroza Communications, a communications agency that specialises in the education sector. Former Director of Marketing at Teachers TV. Co-founder of CommsED, Accredited Member of the CIPR and RSA fellow.

Andrea Carr

Chair, Sumdog; Vice-chair, Langley Park Learning Trust; Founder, Rising Stars Education.

Arvi Luoma

Founder & CEO of Blackbrook Capital. Formerly, Head of European Investments at W. P. Carey, a public US REIT.

Kiran Gill
Kiran Gill

Chief Executive and Founder of The Difference charity, formerly an English teacher and department leader, Policy Advisor at Teach First and Save the Children UK, Head of Policy at the Social Mobility Commission and Associate Fellow at IPPR.

Martin Post

Regional Schools Commissioner for South-Central England and North-West London. Formerly Headmaster of Watford Grammar School for Boys and National Leader of Education.

Image of Michael Shaw, TDT trustee
Michael Shaw

Education technologist and head of product at the European schools publishing group Infinitas Learning. Formerly a journalist with roles including deputy editor of The Times Educational Supplement. Was also programme director and co-founder of the teacher training provider TES Institute.

Image of Mathilda Pynegar, TDT trustee
Mathilda Pynegar

Marketing and communications lead for Children and Young People and Music Education, Arts Council England.

Image of Harjit Athwal, TDT trustee
Harjit Athwal

Deputy Director in Early Years at the Department for Education, focussing on Early Years quality, professional development and welfare. Formerly Deputy Director at the Department for Education leading schools strategy and stakeholder relations.

 

 

 

Former Trustees

  • Mark McCourt (former Chair)
  • Sir John Holman (former Chair)
  • Dame Alison Peacock
  • Russell Hobby
  • Charlotte Leslie MP
  • Emma Hardy MP
  • Rt Hon David Laws
  • Robin Schlinkert
  • John Bangs
  • Veena Naidoo
  • Sam Friedman
  • Will Smith