Author List

Peter Nelmes has worked with children with challenging lives and challenging behaviour since 1990. As part of his endeavours to make sense of his professional world, he gained a doctorate in education ' the subject of which was the role of the emotions in teaching and learning. He has taught and researched in a variety of settings, and has also been an associate lecturer for the Open University.

Alan Newland spent forty years as a teacher, lecturer, head teacher and advisor at the Department for Education and the General Teaching Council for England. He now writes and speaks on ethics and professional values in teaching, and presents lectures to thousands of students each year at universities and school-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) providers across the country. Alan also runs the award-winning social media network newteacherstalk.com.

Click here to read Alan Newland’s blog.

Libby Nicholas is Chief Executive of the Reach4 Academy Trust. She was previously Regional Director ' South and West for the Academies Enterprise Trust. She has wide experience of headship and senior leadership in the independent and maintained sectors and across the full age range of schools.

Steve Oakes has over 20 years' of experience as a teacher and leader, and has been a Head of Sixth Form at two successful schools in the UK and the UAE. As a current Head of Sixth Form, he works closely with students to maximise levels of engagement and commitment, designing high-impact interventions and practical tools for improving academic performance.

Jarlath O'Brien has been a teacher for nearly two decades, working in comprehensive, independent, selective and special education – including in schools for children with social, emotional and behavioural issues and severe and profound and multiple learning difficulties. For the last eight years Jarlath has been a head teacher and executive head teacher.

Jarlath is also a behaviour columnist for TES, has written for The Guardian and for several other education publications and trains teachers on behaviour, school leadership and special educational needs.

Click here to listen in on Jarlath's podcast with Pivotal Education - How to be a great leader in a special school'.

Click here to read Jarlath's article in the Guardian in which he discusses how children with special needs are grossly over-represented in exclusion figures.

Click here to listen to Jarlath on Surrey Hills Community Radio's The SEND Show'.

What are we called to do in our lives and how can we discover and express our personal and professional genius and purpose? Not easy questions but Nick has been struggling with and exploring them for himself and with others through his writing, editing, and storytelling, as well as in workshops, seminars and coaching sessions with individuals, educational institutions, professional bodies, organisations, and the arts for the last several decades. These days his primary professional passions catalyse around two areas. Firstly, the development of shared narratives that explore how schools, NGOs, and large organisations would do well to be more fully human, more self-organising and self-managing and less stuck in the old paradigms of autocracy, hierarchy, ego, power and control. Secondly, how can people entering the Third Act of their lives see their future less as a surrender into retirement and more as an opportunity to transition into a generative and creative period of contribution and personal exploration of their life's true purpose? In a whole variety of exciting ways, these two areas are both evolutionary and deeply interconnected.

Natalie Packer is an education consultant specialising in SEND and school improvement. Having previously worked for the National Strategies SEN team and as a local authority adviser, Natalie has a significant amount of experience within this area of the education sector. She runs a range of professional development courses, carries out SEND reviews and supports a range of multi-academy trusts across the country with their strategic development of SEND provision.

As Executive Director at Restorative Thinking, Lesley Parkinson supports a restorative education for all (including pupils, children, parents and carers, workforce professionals, young and adult offenders), promoting key life skills in restorative practice via training programmes and consultation.