Jeffrey Boakye
Ollie Tunmer
Penny Rabiger
Rachel Hadley-Leonard
Paul Warwick
Russell Speirs
Dr Kathy Weston
Ollie Lane
Simon Darby
Dan Taylor
Jeffrey Boakye is an ex-teacher turned writer, speaker, broadcaster and educator, with a particular interest in issues surrounding race, masculinity, education and popular culture. Jeffrey was an English teacher for 15 years and now provides training for schools, universities and businesses on race, identity, masculinity and education. He is also Senior Teaching Fellow at the University of Manchester’s Institute for Education. Jeffrey’s published books are: Hold Tight: Black Masculinity, Millennials and the Meaning of Grime, Black Listed: Black British Culture Explored, What is Masculinity? Why Does it Matter? And Other Big Questions (co-authored), Musical Truth: A Musical Journey through Modern Black Britain (winner of the Quiz Writers’ Choice Secondary Non–Fiction Award and Winner of UKLA Information Books 3- 14+), I Heard What You Said, Kofi and the Rap Battle Summer and Musical World: Modern World History as You’ve Never Heard it Before. Jeffrey publishes a very popular Substack newsletter - Are You Sitting Comfortably? Jeffrey co-hosts BBC Radio 4’s double award winning Add to Playlist. He received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of Leicester in January 2023.
Jeffreyboakye.com
Twitter: @jeffreykboakye
Instagram: @jeffreykboakye
Ollie is the director of ‘Beat Goes On’, a percussion workshop company specialising in STOMP-style Body Percussion and Afro-Brazilian Percussion. They deliver workshops and CPD sessions throughout the UK and internationally. This has included keynote presentations at the Latin American Heads Conference in São Paulo, BSME (British Schools in the Middle East)’s inaugural Music & Drama Conference in Dubai, Musical Futures Australia's 'Big Gig' in Melbourne, a residency at North London Collegiate School Jeju in South Korea, Little Kids Rock's 'Modern Band Summit' in Colorado, USA and numerous events throughout Europe.
Ollie is a former cast member of the hit show STOMP and author of Amazon best-selling body percussion tutorial ‘Body Beats'
For all workshop and CPD enquiries please visit www.beatgoeson.co.uk and follow @BeatGoesOnUK
Penny Rabiger was a teacher for 10 years and since 2007 has been working with education charities and social enterprises on their start-up to grown-up journeys. Roles include Director of Business Development at The Key for School Leaders, Head of Membership at Challenge Partners and Director of Engagement at Lyfta. Penny is a Phd student at the Leeds Beckett University Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality, and lead coach on the Anti-Racist School Award. She is a school governor, serves on the Haringey Education Partnership Race Equity Steering Group and is a Bett Advisory Board member. Penny provides freelance consultancy for schools, MATs and education organisations working towards more equitable practice for staff, students and the communities they serve.
Rachel has over thirty years’ experience in independent schools’ marketing, admissions and development, gained in the education sector, and also within charities and commercial organisations.
Rachel offers a wealth of qualified marketing and development expertise gained through a variety of roles within the sector, field specific study, and experience at Board Director level, the latter with AMCIS for six years, two of which as Co-Chair. Rachel is an IAPS consultant. She teaches on the AMCIS Diploma course, and runs training in Marketing and Development for professional membership bodies including AMCIS, ISBA, IAPS, ISA, AGBIS and IDPE.
Rachel works with schools to ensure financial growth, improved stakeholder relations and increased pupil numbers. She has particular experience in the Prep School sector, but also works with Senior, all-through and International schools. Her strengths lie in the areas of strategy, audits, research, and development start-ups.
MAD Recruitment is a further service offered by RHLConsulting, supporting schools with the recruitment of senior level Marketing, Admissions and Development professions.
Rachel is an experienced mentor working with ‘new to career’ and ‘new to role’ colleagues, helping them to achieve their own professional goals. Rachel was for many years a judge for the TES Independent School Awards as Marketing lead judge, and is currently a global InspirED marketing and fundraising awards judge. She has been an independent school Governor, writes for educational media, and is a regular conference speaker.
Paul Warwick is a theatre director and producer with over 10 years professional experience including many projects for schools and young people. He trained at The Workshop Theatre, University of Leeds and is an alumnus of The Royal National Theatre Young Directors Scheme.
He was the founding artistic director of award-winning Unlimited Theatre, for whom he directed 8 new touring shows including STATIC, for which the company won a coveted Edinburgh Fringe First Award.
In 2002 he set up The John Osborne Arvon Centre in Shropshire, a residential retreat for writers, which he ran until 2006. Prior to that worked briefly in film and television on The Brian Conley Show, Robot Wars and Shakur Kapur 2001 remake of The Four Feathers.
He has been involved in various theatre development programmes in Eritrea since the country’s independence in 1993.
Paul is also Co-Director of China Plate Ltd, an agency offering 360º support for the development, production and promotion of independent theatre companies and their work.
He has designed, facilitated and coached on programmes offering Arts-based skills training to a variety of organisations ranging from the NHS Executive to Danone. Topics have included creativity in leadership, personal impact and relationship-building.
Paul started his Mythodrama training in 2007 and now works regularly for us as a presenter at Contender Charlie – bringing the Leadership Lessons from Shakespeare to life in the education field.
Russell Speirs is Founder and Chairman of RSAcademics and has personally worked with hundreds of schools providing strategic consultancy and advice to boards, heads and senior leaders. After graduating with first class honours in Modern Languages from the University of Oxford, he undertook a post-graduate course at The European School of Management in Paris and Berlin before he began his marketing career at Unilever. Russell joined Uppingham School as the school’s first Marketing Director in 1997. It was during this time at Uppingham that he fell in love with the world of schools.
Russell founded RSAcademics in 2002 and now leads a team of more than 80 world-class specialists and administrative colleagues to support the development of schools in the UK and across the globe. In the past two years the company has worked with over 300 different schools on projects encompassing the appointment of Heads, Chairs of Governors and other senior staff, the appraisal and support of Heads and Bursars, market research, student recruitment, strategy consultancy and fundraising.
Dr Kathy holds a LL.B., Masters and Doctorate in Social Science (Criminology) from the University of Cambridge and worked for many years as a policy researcher and research fellow in education. She is the co-author of two books for school staff on “Engaging Parents” (Bloomsbury, 2018;2020) and a sought-after keynote speaker. In 2018, she founded Tooled Up Education: a digital library of evidence-based resources for parents and teachers, on all aspects of parenting, education and family life.
Dr Weston works with a team of researchers who collaborate with some of the world’s most eminent researchers. By having access to the most up-to-date research findings, Tooled Up is able to bridge the world of research with real-life by curating and developing usable tips, activities and advice that can empower parents or those who work with children. This unique, digital library grows in response to requests from schools and parents, making it a powerful hub of most relevant content in the educational space today.
Go to www.tooledupeducation.com to read more about her work.
Ollie Lane is Managing Director of PLMR, which provides high-quality public affairs, PR, digital services and crisis communications to clients across sectors, notably education, and which was voted the best communications agency in EMEA at the industry’s global awards in 2022. Ollie joined PLMR from the UK Government, where he worked at 10 Downing Street and the Department for Education as chief press officer to two Prime Ministers (David Cameron and Liz Truss) and three Secretaries of State (Ed Balls, Michael Gove and Nicky Morgan). Ollie started his career as a journalist, working on several national and regional newspapers, and has an extensive contacts book built up across three decades working in the media, the Civil Service and politics. He was named UK Consultant of the Year by the PRCA in 2020.
Simon Darby – Head of Public Affairs
Simon is a vastly experienced consultant, having worked in public affairs and communications for fifteen years.
Simon leads PLMR’s public affairs practice, advising clients on how to navigate the policy, political and regulatory environment impacting their business and helping them engage with policymakers and wider stakeholders. Simon has an extensive track record of delivering successful public affairs and PR programmes for clients to help them achieve their objectives.
He is responsible for setting the strategic direction of our work for clients and leading account teams to ensure the delivery of high-quality campaigns. During his career, Simon has worked with clients across a range of sectors. Notably, this has included organisations within the education, skills, health, housing and professional services sectors as well as across wider public service markets.
Simon works with organisations seeking to engage at a national (Westminster), devolved, regional and local government level. He has led numerous award-winning campaigns and was recognised as the PRCA’s 2022 Public Affairs Consultant of the Year.
