Supporting Staff Wellbeing - Speakers

Thérèse Hoyle (Chair), Head Facilitator of Thérèse Hoyle Consultancies

Thérèse Hoyle is an educational consultant and executive coach with over 20 years’ experience. She advises schools and teachers on aspects of behaviour management, anti-bullying, social, emotional and mental health needs of children and teens, staff wellbeing, organisational development, coaching and leadership. Thérèse has worked with teams all over the world, so far reaching over 495 schools and 15,400 individuals. Her books include 101 Playground Games and 101 Wet Playtime Games and Activities. She is also an adviser for the Wellbeing Award for Schools.

Kimberley Evans, Consultant, Nourish the Workplace

Kimberley gives schools the tools to identify how to improve the wellbeing of their staff.  Having worked in education for over 20 years as a teacher and TA, Kimberley set up Nourish the Workplace two years ago to make a positive difference to the profession that she loves.

Kelly Hannaghan, Wellbeing Leader at Lessness Heath Primary School

Kelly is the Wellbeing Leader at Lessness Heath Primary School and has spent her professional career passionately focusing on enhancing the opportunities and life chances of pupils, staff and families in education. Through the power of her mental health training and therapeutic relationship skills, she has successfully led on the Wellbeing Award for Schools process, resulting in the school being the first nationally to achieve this. Kelly is a regular blogger and active writing of wellbeing in education and is passionate about creating the conditions under which teachers and pupils flourish.

Belinda Heaven, Alpha Wellbeing Associates Ltd

Belinda is a qualified nurse and teacher. She has extensive experience in developing and delivering training internationally. As lead consultant for emotional wellbeing she acquired extensive knowledge and works independently. Belinda is a national trainer for Mental Health First Aid England and has had two books published.

Laura Knight, Director of Digital Learning, Berkhamsted School

Laura Knight is Director of Digital Learning at Berkhamsted School, where she leads on staff training on online safeguarding and educational technology in the curriculum. She works on bridging the gaps between educators, parents and students on issues around digital wellbeing, privacy, decision-making and risk-taking.

Mal Krishnasamy, MalCPD Education Consultancy & Coaching

Mal is a former senior leader of ten years in a variety of London schools leading teaching & learning & CPD. As a consultant, she provides 1-1 coaching, ILM endorsed coaching skills training and leadership development courses. She also supports whole school improvement through introducing and embedding a coaching culture to organisations.

Kate O’Connor, Head Teacher at Lessness Heath Primary School

Kate has taught and led schools in challenging circumstances throughout her career spanning a twenty-year period. She has led her current school out of special measures with a key focus on the value of relationship school cultures that look after and protect the wellbeing of the whole school community. Kate believes passionately in growing schools that are characterised by cultures of trust, agency collaboration and happiness.

Charmaine Roche, Company Director, Lifeflowbalance

Charmaine Roche is an experienced Executive Coach and Education Consultant. She began working independently after 29 years as a teacher and senior leader in secondary education. She now owns her own company, LifeFlowBalance Coaching and Consulting Ltd. She describes herself as a systemic transformational coach who combines positive psychology, systems theory, and compassion based coaching methodology in her work with individuals, teams and organisations helping them implement change and to flourish.

Ben White, Research Lead for Ashford Teaching Alliance, member of the DfE Teacher Workload Advisory Group

Ben White is a psychology teacher and research lead for ATA. He was a member of the DfE’s advisory group on workload and data use which published in November 2018. Ben has led a range of research projects and syntheses for schools and education charities. Most recently this has included a research project exploring the relationship between teacher well-being and specific aspects of their workload and a summary of psychological research relating to behaviour change. He is a member of CEBE (Coalition for Evidence Based Education) with whom he is exploring evidence use in school leadership training.

Ernest Jenavs, Founder and CEO, Edurio 

Ernest is a founder and CEO of Edurio, England's leading stakeholder feedback platform for schools and Multi Academy Trusts. Edurio works with over 1000 schools in the UK and internationally, supporting school leaders in school improvement planning, staff wellbeing and compliance. Edurio has published England's largest independent study on staff retention in schools. Ernest regularly participates in domestic and international policy working groups and forums, shaping policy on evidence-driven school improvement and stakeholder engagement. 

Tom Rogers, History Teacher, Experienced Head of Department and former Senior Leader

Tom Rogers is an experienced teacher and middle leader, having worked at schools in the UK for 9 years and internationally for 4 as a history teacher, head of history and latterly assistant headteacher. Tom’s passion is in making schools better places for teachers to work in. This passion has inspired him to write more than 100 blogs for the TES and share with the profession through his own twitter account (@rogershistory). Tom has also produced videos for his youtube channel, has his own podcast, and more than 20,000 students use his online courses. In 2015, Tom set up the teachmeet network “Teachmeet Icons” which now hosts free annual events for teachers across the UK.

Hannah Wilson, Head of Secondary Teacher Training, University of Buckingham

Hannah is a senior lecturer and PGCE tutor at the University of Buckingham, delivering core lectures and seminars to both primary and secondary trainee teachers. Previously working as a teacher for 17 years, Hannah taught English, Media Studies and Drama to Years 7 to 13 and has been Head of both a start-up secondary and primary school. Co-founder of #WomenEd, Hannah is passionate about diversity and equality as well as mental health and wellbeing. She is a specialist in values-based education and ethical leadership and is a Fellow and Council Member of Chartered College. 

Andrew Cowley, Deputy Headteacher, Orchard Primary School

Andrew is an advocate for principled staff wellbeing who has taken his practical experience of leading wellbeing into blogging, as 'Healthy Toolkit' and more recently into print as the author of 'The Wellbeing Toolkit' published by Bloomsbury Education. He believes that wellbeing can only thrive in a positive culture and that it is the role of school leaders to build and protect that culture and to develop positive relationships in the workplace.