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Speakers

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Sir Martyn Oliver
Sir Martyn Oliver
His Majesty's Chief Inspector
Sir Martyn Oliver started as His Majesty’s Chief Inspector at the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills in January 2024. He has worked in education since 1995 starting as a teacher and joined Outward Grange Academies Trust (OGAT) in 2009 where he became Principal of Outwood Grange Academy and then a National Leader of Education (NLE). In 2016, Sir Martyn was appointed Chief Executive and Accounting Officer for OGAT, a role he held until he started as His Majesty’s Chief Inspector. Sir Martyn has also previously held Trustee positions for the Office for Students (OfS), Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), Confederation of Schools Trusts (CST) and for the David Ross Education Trust (DRET), was a board member of the Department for Education’s (DfE) Opportunity North East and has advised both the government and the DfE on a number of groups.
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Ginny Bootman
Ginny Bootman
SENDCo, Advocate and Author
Ginny is an educator with over 25 years in education as a classroom practitioner, SENDCO and Headteacher. She is passionate about the impact of relationships within education, particularly for those working with children with additional needs, and is determined to improve understanding of the pivotal role that these relationships play within the school environment. Ginny is the author of ' Independent Thinking on Being a SENDCO'.
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Mark Vickers
Mark Vickers
CEO, Olive Academies Trust and Chair of the MAT CEO National Network for AP and SEND
Mark’s work in education is rooted in his belief that schools have the potential to break historic cycles of social disadvantage and to prevent the marginalisation of vulnerable young people. Mark has been a headteacher of a secondary school, an Ofsted inspector, a school leadership consultant and was a founding trustee of the PSHE Association. He continues to support numerous mainstream schools, PRUs and alternative providers across the country, offering strategic advice to help them secure rapid and sustained improvement.

Mark is Chair of The National MAT CEO Network for Alternative Provision and SEND. He is also one of the founding members of the Suffolk CEO Network. Both these forums were established with Mark’s support to help the sharing of ideas, innovations and best practice. Mark’s determined approach to improving alternative provision for vulnerable young people in England is linked to this partnership work – successfully bringing together alternative provision with mainstream schools and engaging local authority, DfE and voluntary sector leaders to improve the life chances of some of the most vulnerable children in our country’s education system.

In 2021 Mark was awarded an MBE in The Queen’s New Year Honours List for his services to children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
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Cath Kitchen OBE
Cath Kitchen OBE
Chair of the National Association for Hospital Education
Cath is an experienced leader in AP for pupils with medical needs, working with the DfE. She Chairs the National Association for Hospital Education, provides school improvement advice and was a pathfinder for the Ethical Leadership Framework. Cath has co-authored booklets for schools, including one published by NASEN, and has her first book in production. She was awarded an OBE for services to children and young people.
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Shazad Ali
Shazad Ali
Lead for Alternative Provision, Co-op Academy Grange
Shazad Ali is a dedicated education professional with a proven track record in establishing and managing alternative provisions (AP) within schools. Over the past four years, he has successfully set up three internal APs across two schools, demonstrating his expertise in creating supportive environments tailored to students’ individual needs. Driven by a passion for empowering young people, Shazad focuses on helping students transition back into mainstream education. His innovative approaches and unwavering commitment to student development have made a lasting impact on the schools and communities he serves.
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Amy Walters
Amy Walters
Deputy Head, Ark Teacher Training
As Deputy Head of Ark Teacher Training, I work closely with primary and secondary schools and trusts outside the Ark network. My role is to support partner schools to implement a school-based initial teacher training programme and develop teachers for their specific context. ATT partnered with five special schools in 2022, and since then I have overseen the collaboration with in-school experts to develop a route into teaching anchored in special schools. I have been training teachers since 2013 and am passionate about teacher development at all stages. Before joining Ark Teacher Training in 202, I was an English teacher and senior leader at a secondary school with an emphasis on inclusion.
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Kate Longworth
Kate Longworth
CEO, Gaia Learning
Kate Longworth is the CEO and co-founder of Gaia Learning. She is a marketing entrepreneur across Education and Tech; having partnered with the NHS, local authorities and colleges to understand learner experiences in education. Kate’s daughter has Pathological Demand Avoidance.

Gaia Learning provides online learning & support for learners with ADHD and Autism. Gaia Learning partners with schools, families and local authorities across the UK and around the world. “The students love it and they have other kids looking over their shoulder, more want to join Gaia classes, it's fantastic"
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Danny Ross
Danny Ross
School Improvement Officer, Ethos Academy Trust
Bio to follow
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Frances Akinde
Frances Akinde
SENCO, Former Headteacher, Local Authority SEND Inspector and Author
Frances Akinde, a qualified SENCO and former headteacher of a Secondary Special School for learners with Autism, has over 20 years’ experience across primary, secondary, special/alternative provision, and local authority roles. She now works part-time as a SEND inspector and advisor while managing her consultancy service. After discovering her neurodivergence and hearing impairment in 2022, Frances left headship to focus on promoting inclusion through training and support. In 2023, she co-launched the BAMEed SEND Hub to address racial inequities in education and serves as an Anti-Racist Schools coach with Leeds Beckett University. Drawing on her professional expertise and lived experiences, Frances speaks and writes about intersectionality, Race, and SEND. She also mentors educators and supports workplaces as an Assistive Technology Trainer. Her book, Be An Ally, Not a Bystander, was released in October 2024, with her second book, Intersectionality, Race & SEND: Conversations for Advocacy and Change, due in late 2025.
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Nathan Burns
Nathan Burns
Teacher Educator, known for his expertise as Mr Metacognition
Nathan Burns is a renowned teacher educator, working with schools, education organisations and educators across the world to develop high-quality teaching practice. Working in a number of UK based schools, Nathan worked as a pastoral leader, More Able coordinator, metacognition lead, and lately, as a Head of Maths. During his time in the classroom, Nathan wrote two well received books on metacognition - Inspiring Deep Learning and Teaching Hacks - exploring how the theory can be effectively applied in the classroom. Since leaving the classroom, Nathan now leads high-quality professional development. He works with schools across the UK to deliver training on metacognition, alongside efforts with Teach First and Ambition Institute to train up the next generation of teachers. Nathan also leads Maths specific training for organisations including the Maths Hub. You will often find Nathan presenting research at the latest teaching conference, as well as online, posting on socials as Mr Metacognition.

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Heba Al-Jayoosi
Heba Al-Jayoosi
Assistant Head and Deputy Regional Lead
nasen Whole School SEND
Heba Al-Jayoosi is the Assistant Headteacher and Inclusion Leader at Mayflower Primary School in East London, and has been seconded as a deputy regional lead at Whole School SEND, a consortium hosted by the National Association for Special Educational Needs. She is a Churchill fellow and a recipient of several grants for projects that are aimed to foster the meaningful inclusion of pupils with special educational needs in schools. Heba is undertaking her PhD at the UCL Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), and is exploring ways in which to improve home school collaboration for caregivers of autistic pupils from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
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Stephen Steinhaus
Stephen Steinhaus
CEO, Solihull Alternative Provision Multi-Academy Trust
After completing his degree in The Teaching of English and career as an American Football player at The University of Illinois (USA), Stephen Steinhaus turned down a professional wrestling contract to move as a Fulbright Scholar to the United Kingdom to study for an MPhil in Shakespeare Studies and English Literature at the University of Birmingham and The Shakespeare Institute. Steinhaus has now lived in England for 25 years, and, in April 2018 he opened Solihull Academy (an Alternative Provision Free School for students in danger of Permanent Exclusion). The Academy converted to a Multi-Academy Trust in September 2022 and is continuing to expand across the West Midlands, with sites now in Solihull, Coventry and Warwickshire.

Additionally, Stephen sits on the Secondary Council for NAHT and is co-Regional Lead for The West Midlands for PRUsAP. Steinhaus speaks at a growing number of conferences about, among other things, Alternative Provision, Inclusion, Attendance, SEND and Commissioning. In his spare time, he is singer and songwriter, music director and presenter of a number of festivals, a founding trustee/director of The Institute for Recovery from Childhood Trauma, and a published poet. He has blogged on a variety of educational, fitness and musical topics.
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Ryan Kendall
Ryan Kendall
Primary Curriculum Lead & Tutor, Ark Teacher Training
I am the Primary Curriculum Lead and Tutor at Ark Teacher Training responsible for the design and facilitation of the curriculum and assessment for our trainee teachers. Before joining Ark in January 2018, I was the principal of a primary academy in north-east Essex, where I had previously been the Lead Practitioner for Teaching and Learning. I have also worked in an international school for three years and prior to that, I was an Advanced Skills Teacher in Essex. Since ATT has partnered with a network that includes special schools, I have tutored three trainee teachers working in one of the provisions where pupils have profound and multiple learning difficulties.
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Sophie Moss
Sophie Moss
Headteacher, River Tees Primary Academy
I am currently the Head Teacher of River Tees Primary Academy which is an alternate provision school in Middlesbrough. We support students who have been excluded, at risk of exclusion or students with a varying level of SEND needs to access education. We support students from Year 3 - 6 and are a short term provision in most cases. Our students have a range of SEND needs and a high majority have EHCP's or are on the pathway. We aim to transition students back into their mainstream provision or suitable specialist provision. Before this role I worked in other alternate provisions and pupil referral centres as I have a passion for SEND and SEMH.
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Ann-Marie Oliver
Ann-Marie Oliver
Director of Education, Ethos Academy Trust
Bio to follow
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Aimee Bedford
Aimee Bedford
Behaviour and SEMH Trust Lead, Ethos Academy Trust
Bio to follow
The Conference

In Partnership

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