This week’s movers and shakers include a “keen Germanophile”, a former teacher navigating a mid-life crisis and one of the UK’s only serving professors working as a trust leader.
This column is our fortnightly guide to who is moving where in the schools community.
We are keen to hear about appointments at a senior level. Please send submissions for this section to news@schoolsweek.co.uk with ‘Movers and shakers’ in the subject line.
Haili Hughes
Director of professional development, All Saints MAT
Start date: June
Current job: Director of education, IRIS Connect
Interesting fact: Haili will combine her new role with a professorship at Academica University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam – which she believes makes her one of the only serving professors and trust leaders in the UK.
Jane Nolan
Chief executive, Thrive Co-operative Learning Trust
Start date: September
Current job: Interim CEO, Horizons Academy Trust
Interesting fact: Jane trekked for six days through the Himalayas to reach her first teaching post in a remote village on the Nepalese-Tibetan border.
Myles McGinley
Managing director for UK Education, Cambridge University Press & Assessment which includes the OCR exam board
Start date: September
Current job: Responsible officer and regulation director, OCR
Interesting fact: Myles is a keen Germanophile, after living and teaching in Berlin as a new graduate.
Andrew Jordon
Deputy chief executive, Northern Education Trust
Start date: April
Former job: Senior executive principal, NET
Interesting fact: Andrew is a keen musician and plays the piano and the flute.
Joe Hallgarten
Inaugural director of the Goldsmiths Foundation
Start date: April
Former job: Working on education projects in Ghana and Sierra Leone
Interesting fact: Joe is fending off a mid-life crisis with Zumba and dance fitness.
DfE regions group leader John Edwards to be council CEO
John Edwards, the head of the Department for Education regions group, is stepping down to become the chief executive of Rotherham council.
He has been director general of the DfE group, which oversees the academies system and other education policy areas in England, since its creation in June 2022.
The group replaced the old regional schools commissioners structure, with Edwards’s role replacing that of the national schools commissioner.
Edwards announced on Wednesday he will become chief executive of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council at the end of June, “subject to council agreement”.
“It has been an honour to work in the Department for Education and particularly in regions group since we formed in 2022, and I’m proud of the work we have delivered with you to help give children and young people opportunities to grow and learn.”
Edwards, a former regional schools commissioner and interim chief of the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), is one of five director generals at the DfE, making him one of the highest-ranking civil servants in the department.
The regional directors broker and re-broker schools between trusts and intervene when settings fail.
More recently, the regions group is home to the government’s new specialist RISE (Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence) teams, launched in February to broker support for struggling schools.
The teams have been heavily criticised by school leaders.
The regions group also took on oversight of school finance when the ESFA closed this year.
Edwards began his career as a maths teacher and a senior leader in secondary schools, before moving into local government as director of education and skills at Manchester City Council.
Susan Acland-Hood, the permanent secretary for the DfE, said Edwards “has had a profound impact on our work improving the lives of young people across the country”.
“We thank John for his wisdom and leadership and wish him well in his future endeavours.”
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