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19 April 2026

Author: Jessica Hill

The rebel CEO with a community cause

Wayne Norrie is a MAT chief determined to always put children’s needs first, even if that means clashing with others … Wayne Norrie says he’s not accountable to the Department for Education or Ofsted. The chief executive of Greenwood Academies Trust (GAT) says he’s only accountable to the parents and children of his 37 schools, […]

Looking to the Future after online harassment

Lawrence Foley went from school refuser to doctor in modernist literature – but his career almost came to a crashing halt after a vicious online campaign Foley was sitting in a park with his wife Sonia when his phone rang. It was the Metropolitan Police. A social media campaign, accusing Foley of being a racist […]

Dan Thomas, chief executive, TLP

Dan Thomas, now chief executive of The Learning Partnership trust, was once prompted by a fortune cookie to ‘take the opportunity when it comes’. He has, and provided opportunities to thousands of youngsters ever since. When Dan Thomas, chief executive of the newly formed The Learning Partnership (TLP) trust, suggested posing for our photoshoot next […]

A journey from California’s Death Row to school governance

From California’s Death Row to school governance, the Confederation of School Trusts’ Samira Sadeghi explains how the roles are more linked than you might think. When Samira Sadeghi is delivering training to support sector leaders getting governance right, she explains how insights gleaned about human fallibility from her time working as a lawyer on death […]

AI cheating: just how much is going on in schools?

An explosion in AI ‘study aids’ has armed pupils with the means to cheat their way through assignments. But how much is this happening in schools, and what’s being done to stop it? Alex Kirkbride, the principal of Honiton College, in Devon, recalls a recent conversation with a year 7 pupil who had answered open-ended […]

Always talking up maths, in a country that talks it down

David Thomas was one of the youngest heads in the country. He’s set up a national online academy and led on government schools policy. Now he’s on a mission to restore the reputation of maths. Despite having already led a school, helped set up the country’s first national online academy during Covid, and led the […]

Teacher training guru Lynne McKenna, University of Sunderland

Lynne McKenna, Dean of Education and Society at the University of Sunderland, has a formidable work ethic. She “easily” puts in 70 hours a week (she’s been up for four hours already by the time I’ve crawled out of bed for our breakfast meeting). It shows, too. She’s been instrumental in helping to steer government […]

Hospital schools: on the mental health crisis frontline

Taxis pull up throughout the day outside the brightly painted Magpie Centre to drop off its growing cohort of school refusers. The former youth club, which became Leicester’s fourth hospital school site 18 months ago, is designed to look as welcoming as possible to entice anxious youngsters back into classrooms. The average school refuser has […]