SPEAKERS

Jimmy is a Further and Higher Education professional with 10 years’ experience in the sector. He has held various roles that have included managing cross-college personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education and enrichment programmes.

He has developed and led campaigns on campus to support students and has involved students in the creation. He is an advocate for students, ensuring he works closely with a range of organisations and professionals to ensure they have the tools and information they need to progress.

Jimmy joined The Young Gamers and Gamblers Education Trust (YGAM) in June 2021 as Education Manager for Yorkshire and the Humber on the Young People’s Gambling Harm Prevention Programme. Most recently, he joined the university student engagement team, helping to shape the content and delivery of the programme to support university staff and students’ knowledge and awareness of gaming and gambling related harm.

Amy is a qualified secondary teacher and has 7 years’ experience working with children and young people within inner city secondary schools. She also has experience in outreach projects, working in conjunction with Bradford Council, as well as organising and leading on continuous professional development programmes, developing content and resources for schools and youth organisations.

Aneta is a Senior Lecturer in Education at Keele University. Her research interests are in critical studies of internationalisation. She focuses on epistemic equality and teaching excellence.

Aneta recently curated a special issue for Teaching in Higher Education on complexities and complicities of decolonising higher education.

Helen’s career in educational development spans over two decades and has included leading roles in UK-wide learning and teaching enhancement projects and organisations, as an independent consultant collaborating with colleagues in the UK, USA and Australia, and institutional roles (currently, Deputy Director of Academic Practice at the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK).

She has broad interests across a range of learning, teaching and assessment themes with a passion for supporting colleagues’ professional development. Her current research is exploring the characteristics of expertise in higher education teachers.

She holds a Senior Fellowship of the Staff & Educational Development Association (SFSEDA), a National Teaching Fellowship (NTF), is a principal fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA), and Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Queensland.

Mark is the founder and director of L30 Relational Systems and has over 20 years’ experience of working with organisations large and small, both nationally and internationally. Mark has been involved in the national development of restorative practices since the late 1990s.

Mark is the author of Amazon's number 1 best-selling book – Independent Thinking on Restorative Practice.

Mark has delivered training, seminars, workshops and keynote speeches locally, nationally and internationally. He has advised on national policy and practice development since 2005 and was part of a small group which rewrote the national best practice guidance for restorative practitioners in 2012.

He currently works with many schools and organisations nationally, working across the system to improve outcomes and impact.

Mark is an associate for Research in Practice (RIP) and Independent Thinking Limited (ITL).

He is also trained as an FGC coordinator and is a licensed NLP Master Practitioner.

Jo is here to bring some much needed Empathy and positive energy into this world! She loves unleashing the potential in anyone and everyone that has the desire to become the best possible version of themselves. Jo enjoys Exec Coaching 121 and to work with teams that have a strong desire to work better together. She is a NLP practitioner and is training in Psychotherapy.

Helen is Director at HM Education Consultancy Ltd and Little Red Hen International Ltd and provides high quality training, coaching and consultancy support in a range of UK and international contexts. Her portfolio is underpinned by her experience as a teacher, school leader and national strategies consultant. Developing people is Helen’s strongest motivation and she is committed to investing in professional learning.

In her current role, Helen is a consultant with a range of schools and Multi Academy Trusts to support improvement. She is also a Lead Training Consultant with Cambridge Assessment International Education and has worked with leaders and teachers across the world to develop their effectiveness. In addition, Helen works with other global organisations including ECIS and High Performance Learning to transform schools and support improvement. She is also an accredited senior practitioner coach with the European Coaching and Mentoring Council and works with school leaders and teachers, empowering them to lead change and secure impact.

Jaz is highly recognised for the impact she’s had on the education and health sectors, galvanising and inspiring those around her. She has led national and international projects unlocking potential in leaders and teams and is now highly sought after by business leaders, corporations and governments wanting the same results.

As a speaker, Jaz has a disarming ability to captivate her audience and share her story with humour and humility and without anger or bitterness. She invites people into a more authentic narrative around choice and agency, leaving individuals and organisations reporting an increase in determination and productivity.

John-Paul started his career in education in the early noughties, switching from various roles in the wholesale wine trade to train as a primary school teacher. Having honed his pedagogical skills teaching literacy and numeracy to ten and eleven year olds, he was offered the opportunity to work for the Prince's Trust, supporting young people in broader personal development and supporting maths and English. From there he was responsible for the operational management of several projects in North and West Yorkshire continuing to develop literacy, numeracy and employability skills in young people who were not in education, employment or training (NEET) and/or with learning difficulties. In 2014, he moved into Further Education in learning support manager role at Askham Bryan College and joined the Luminate Group at Harrogate College in 2020 from a similar role at Wakefield College.

While all aspects of Special Education Needs are of interest to him, dyslexia and ADHD are a particular focus, having, as they do, a personal family resonance.

Rob is a writer, and you can tell because of all the things he does to avoid writing. He teaches video game design, plays guitar and performs poetry - anything but actually sit down and get on with puting words on the page. He does write a couple of blogs, which I suppose is writing, but it’s mostly just rants about arguments he lost years ago, or things he thinks about Doctor Who, so that probably doesn’t count.

Rob has been working with Leeds City College, or one of its ancestors, for nearly 20 years and in that time has taught Media, Film Studies and Computer Games Design. Recently he moved into management and found he quite enjoyed that, especially the bit where everyone else went to do the hard work and he got to think about education.

Phil is a computer games development teacher who has worked in the sector since 2007. He is also the director of Sleepy Brain Studios Ltd. a company that makes games.

He has recently played a key role in a number of projects for larger games, working with iHobo as a game designer and level designer. Philip has an undergraduate degree in Theology and Philosophy, as well as a master’s in Game Audio.

Fran has worked as a teacher for Leeds City College for eight years and has a wealth of experience teaching young people and adults within the health and social care department.

She is part of the LGBTQ community and is passionate about LGBTQ rights and creating safe spaces for people to be themselves without fear.

Cindy is an Assessor at Leeds City College, delivering apprenticeship standards for the Level 3 Teaching Assistant Apprenticeship and Level 3 Early Years Educator. To date, all the apprentices that she has guided through the Teaching Assistant Apprenticeship have gained distinctions.

Cindy hopes to give guidance on how to best make the use of teaching assistants at Leeds City College and how they can get involved in the planning, delivery and assessment for learning, using innovative ways to motivate and encourage students.

Clayton is a PE Teacher. After university he began working in secondary schools, and has had a number of roles, including teaching assistant, isolation manager and head of year.

He enjoyed classroom teaching rather than the practical element of PE Teaching and also did some Maths teaching as part of his training. He decided teaching Maths would work for him and haven't looked back. Clayton has been teaching maths since starting at Leeds City Academy, winning an award at the annual event before moving to LCC as a CL and then progressing to PM. He enjoys developing his practice and staying up to date with education research through podcasts and has also recently been accepted to become a professional development lead for LCC through the Centre for Excellence in Maths.

Tamas is an HE Engineering programme manager at University Centre Leeds.

He earned a PhD in Physical Chemistry in 2007 and worked on several research projects at the Eotvos Lorand University (Budapest), the Swinburne University of Technology (Melbourne, Australia) and at the University of Leeds.

He has 26 publications in refereed international scientific journals and also two published books entitled "Modelling of thermal plasma processes: From the Titan's atmosphere to the industry" and "Science Star: The joyful spring-child”

He has also developed the engineering curriculum within the HE STEM department.

Kaye is the Deputy Head of Teaching Learning and Assessment across Luminate’s FE colleges.

She has over 15 years’ experience teaching in FE on a wide variety of childcare and education based curriculums, from Entry level to Level 4.

Over the last five years, Kaye has attained her QTS / ATS and CTeach status alongside a CMI Level 7 qualification in leadership and management.

Within her current role, Kaye leads a team of specialist advanced practitioners, supporting the improvement of TLA across the organisation.

Laura is a music teacher, writer, researcher and advanced practitioner (TLA) with a keen interest in the role of education in social justice. Laura completed her Masters in Education at the University of Sheffield, researching the potential effects of poverty on learning and possible intervention strategies to support the academic development of low socio-economic learners.

Laura is currently working towards her doctorate in education with support from the Association of College's Research Further initiative, where she continues to research teaching and learning strategies to address and alleviate the attainment gap in post-compulsory education. Laura's primary research interests lie in critical pedagogy and cognitive justice.

Dawn is an advanced practitioner working for the Luminate Education Group within the further education provision. She has over 20 years of English teaching experience in FE ranging from GCSE to HE and has specialised in working with reluctant learners at all levels. Studying for a PhD, Dawn is committed to action research and working collaboratively with colleagues across the FE sector in order to share good practice and support teachers in delivering high quality learning experiences to all students. She is resident AP for Keighley and Harrogate colleges and currently teaches GCSE English Language.

Mitch is the Head of Engineering at Printworks. Mitch has been supporting in developing the Luminate Group STEM Strategy and all the focus groups that feed from that. She is passionate about supporting and providing a strong, realistic pathway for all our learners. She believes that we all need to work together to raise the aspirations of the community and put as many options in place as possible to support social mobility.

Mitch has worked for the college for 21 years across various departments and campuses, and values the position we have as a community college.

Katherine has worked in education for 18 years. Prior to this she was a youth worker. She started out in education as a Health & Social Care teacher before re-training as a SENCO. When she started at LCC in 2017 she moved into a pastoral role in the school of engineering.

Katherine ispassionate about pastoral care and improving the mental well-being of students. Working in the engin eering department has led her to take a great interest in male mental health and the promotion of healthy masculinity. In her spare time she play the drums, collect cacti and listen to vinyl records with her cats.

Katie is an Advanced Practitioner in the central TLA team at Leeds City College, working with the Adult and Community, ESOL, Foundation Studies and Supported Engagement areas. She has worked at Leeds City College for 4 years, following time spent teaching in secondary schools in the UK and Spain. Her main subject is GCSE maths, but has taught in a variety of areas including languages and food. She studied Food and Nutrition at Newcastle University and followed with a PGCE at Durham University a few years later. She is now studying towards a Masters Degree in Education, also at Durham University.

Her current areas of interest include coaching, student engagement and training for Early Career Teachers.

With a background in digital agencies and e-commerce platforms, Amy has worked with a huge range of tech-forward companies, each with a unique business approach. Amy has qualifications in Education & Training, Counselling, a degree in Film Making and a Level 2 in Google for Education, and is now working towards her Google Trainer status. She has spoken at a number of events including Jisc Connect More and the Google Reference College event, Digital Innovation: Transforming Education. She was interviewed in Tes about the independent learning summer camp ‘SkillsFest’ she co-created and was featured on the Tes FE podcast. Amy now works as an ilearn Lead at Park Lane to build independent learners across all of LCC’s FE colleges.

Originally from Birmingham, Matt came to study for my Computing degree in Yorkshire and has stayed ever since. Whilst in his placement year, he really enjoyed IT training and from there did his PGCE and in 2002 began teaching IT in FE. After an amazing year teaching English in Japan, Matt joined the college and over 16 years later is still a part of the college. Matt moved into teaching English & maths and was made a CL and then a Programme Manager at Printworks in 2016. For the last 3 years, he has been an active part of the Centre for Excellence in Maths project and was accepted as an Action Research lead this past academic year. The CfEM project role has also enabled him to participate in collaborating with a range of interesting and innovative colleges and organisations.

Bodhini is the ilearn Lead for Quarry Hill and The Annexe. Her focus is exploring innovative ways of delivering independent skills to students.

Championing Digital skills and hoping to become an innovator to help learning and teaching to be fluid and fun task. Enthusiastic about stretching and challenging for her team and students to ensure that the learning is for everyone and continuous!

Experienced Coach with a demonstrated history of working in the Apprenticeship accounting industry. Skilled in delivering apprenticeship with a high success rate, presenting and delivering skills and behaviours, client management, training students and teachers in Digital Skills, Team Management, and Customer Service.