Leanna Barratt & Steve Cottrell
Karen Gracie-Langrick
Rachel Hadley-Leonard
Yasmina Koné
Catrina Lowri
Lee McHugh
Brendan Pavey
Claire Robinson
William Wadsworth
Dr Kathy Weston
Leanna founded the first full-time outdoor nursery in the UK 8 years ago. Little Forest Folk eventually expanded to 7 full-time forest nurseries offering education for 2-5 year olds.
In 2019 Leanna founded Liberty Woodland School, a progressive primary school with a mission to develop those children most likely to succeed in the 21st century through a unique outdoor environment. In 2022 Leanna expanded Liberty Woodland School to extend to secondary school pupils. Leanna remains Head of School for Liberty Woodland School primary and secondary.
Steve has worked and led in schools in the UK, Malaysia and China. With various roles leading curriculum redesign and a core belief in the power of real-life, authentic learning, joining Leanna at Liberty Woodland School, as Deputy Head, was the perfect fit when he returned back to work in the UK.
Together Leanna and Steve lead Liberty Woodland School, now in its fifth year. Having just started our second year with a Secondary phase, we continue to drive to develop a school that will lead its students to be truly prepared for the unknown futures ahead of them.
Karen is an experienced educator having served nearly 30 years within the teaching profession. As Headteacher of Colchester Prep & High School, an all through school (for children aged 2-16), she passionately believes that a good quality education has the power to change the lives of all individuals. Karen enjoys enabling pupils to aspire high to reach their full potential and to become confident, active and conscious citizens of tomorrow’s world.
Under Karen's leadership and guidance, the school achieved a double excellent in its previous ISI Inspection; maintained its status as a leader in Ed Tech and Innovation as a Microsoft Showcase School (for 4 consecutive years); attained the prestigious Eco Schools Green Flag Award with Distinction (2023-2025); and most recently gained the ISA Award for Excellence and Innovation in Mental Health and Wellbeing.
Karen is also an enthusiastic historian, with a Master's Degree in Heritage Management (BA in Archaeology and Classics), an ISI Team Inspector, and is co-Director of Design Nature CIC, a social enterprise company that specialises in Sustainability Education. Karen has also recently been appointed by the ISA to represent them on the ISC Sustainability Committee.
Rachel Hadley-Leonard brings over thirty years’ experience in marketing, admissions and development within the independent education sector, complemented by roles in charitable and commercial organisations.
She has held Board Director and Chair positions, teaches on the AMCIS Diploma course, and delivers training in marketing and development for leading professional bodies including HMC, ISBA, AGBIS, AMCIS, IAPS, ISA and IDPE. Rachel is also a consultant for IAPS.
Through her consultancy, Rachel supports schools in driving financial growth and strengthening stakeholder engagement. While she has particular expertise in the Prep sector, her work spans Senior, all-through and International schools. Her core strengths lie in strategic planning, stakeholder research, audits, and the launch of development and fundraising initiatives.
Her company, RHL Consulting, also offers MAD Recruitment – a bespoke service helping schools appoint senior professionals in Marketing, Admissions and Development.
Widely regarded as one of the sector’s most respected voices, trainers and consultants, Rachel is a seasoned mentor, a former judge for the TES Independent School Awards, and currently judges the InspirED Marketing & Fundraising Awards and the AMCIS Impact Awards. She has served as an independent school Governor, contributes regularly to educational publications, and is a sought-after speaker at conferences.
Yasmina is Deputy Lead of Hemisphere Education, an innovative brain-training platform disrupting bias and improving racial literacy in schools. She’s driving the adoption of Hemisphere across the UK, building partnerships with leading schools, education partnerships and MATs to change outcomes for diverse pupils. Prior to Hemisphere, Yasmina led multi-award-winning teams at market-leading companies including one of London’s top 10 start-ups, Beam, and Magic Circle law firm Clifford Chance. Her work to open access to opportunity and create meaningful social impact has seen her feature in the BBC, The Lawyer, and Black Tech Fest. She combines strategic acumen with a commitment to social justice and is passionate about the role that the education sector plays in creating a more inclusive society.
Catrina founded Neuroteachers to help educational settings work with their autistic and neurodivergent learners to find simple solutions for neuro-inclusive practice.
Catrina is neurodivergent herself, having the dual diagnosis of dyslexia and bipolar disorder and has traits of ADHD, dyspraxia and Auditory Processing Disorder. She is a qualified special needs teacher and an experienced SENCO/ ALNCO and advisory teacher. She uses her unique status as an expert by lived experience and a teacher with 23 year of pupil facing experience to help schools improve behaviour, attendance, and attainment amongst pupils of all neurotypes. The Neuroteachers team do this through training, mentoring, coaching and culture change in nurseries, schools, colleges and businesses. She has worked closely with many parent carer organisations throughout her careers and believe passionately in working in co production with families and educational settings
Brendan has worked in education for over 28 years, in various pastoral and academic roles, and over the last 12 years as a school leader. His most recent position was as Executive Headteacher of North Bridge House Schools and as a member of the Cognita Schools European Leadership Team. During his tenure as a school leader Brendan helped his schools to thrive, both in terms of their school roles and educational outcomes. His leadership was calm and considered and he aimed to create schools that placed support above pressure, with a culture that led to happy places of learning in which pupils of all abilities could find their own path to success. At the same time Brendan was a parent to four teenage children, and somewhat unsurprisingly this brought its own challenges on the home front. Mental health challenges have never had a bigger impact on school communities than they do today and Brendan will share his own family's very personal story to help highlight the impact that this can have on families, staff and children in our schools. His aim, by sharing this story, is to help schools to navigate these challenges through a deeper understanding of the impacts in can have, and the support they can offer their communities.
Claire was appointed Headteacher of Holme Grange in 2009 and took early retirement in July 2025 to focus on Educational Coaching and Consultancy.
She started teaching in 2001 following a successful career in Financial Services. Prior to joining Holme Grange, Claire was Headteacher of St Thomas Moore RC Primary School, Kidlington which she guided from a ‘failing school’ to being placed 15th Best Primary School in the UK by the Financial Times. During her time at St Thomas Moore, her contribution to education was recognised with the award of Headteacher of The Year in the South East at the National Teaching Awards.
Claire graduated with a BA in Science and Education from the Open University and completed her PGCE at Oxford Brookes. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Teaching and also a Fellow of the RSA (Royal Society of Arts). Claire is also an Associate Challenge Award Assessor and Trainer for NACE (National Association for Able Children in Education) as well as an ISI Inspector. She is also a coach and a Resilient Leaders Elements (RLE) Accredited Consultant, working with individuals and organisations to develop resilient leadership skills using the RLE model, which focuses on understanding "Who I am" and "What I do" as a leader, to facilitate growth and positive transformation.
During her tenure as Head at Holme Grange, Claire led the expansion of the School (from 210 pupils to 750+), extending the age range from 3-13 to 0-16, taking pupils up to GCSE level. During this time, the buildings and facilities grew to include a state of the art Theatre and cutting edge classrooms and study spaces. Under her leadership, the School has been recognised by the ISA with awards including the Early Years Award for Innovation in Provision, Excellence in Sustainability and Senior School Award for Excellent and Innovation.
Holme Grange was first awarded a NACE Challenge Award in 2013, which was reviewed and re-accredited again in 2017, 2021 and 2023. Holme Grange is one of only 4 schools in the country to be awarded the NACE Ambassador School status in recognition of sustained quality and standards of Teaching and Learning in the school. Recently Claire led the school in the Global School Alliance and the school has now entered a Sister School Partnership with a school in Japan. She has also engaged in charity work and built a partnership with a school in the Mukuru Slums in Kenya.
Claire is a trustee of Neuroscience for Education, Chaired the ISTIP Panel for several years and served as a school governor in both state and independent sectors.
William Wadsworth is a memory psychologist (Cambridge University, First Class) who empowers students to learn smarter – not necessarily harder! – using the science of effective learning. His obsession with academic success began early (10 A*s at GCSE and 6 As at A level), and has since led him to become a respected independent researcher (Revision Census 2020 / 2022), speaker and study skills trainer for leading schools across the UK, and even technology pioneer, as the brains behind the game-changing memory consolidation app Memlock. William also hosts the award-nominated Exam Study Expert podcast and blog (https://examstudyexpert.com), which are trusted by over a million readers and listeners worldwide every year.
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.