Alternative Provision Inspections Digital Conference

Julian has more than 25 years’ experience of working in special education. He is currently the CEO of Esteem Multi-Academy Trust, which is based in the East Midlands and consists mainly of special and alternative provision schools. He is also a member of the Advisory Board to the regional directors of the DfE in the East Midlands as well as being a trustee of Oasis Community Learning.

Previously, Julian was a headteacher of two special schools in Derbyshire and worked as a school Improvement advisor.

Adrian Gray studied history at Cambridge and spent over twenty years in schools before joining Ofsted as an HMI. His roles there developed to include the management of school inspection guidance, evaluation of inspection work and system research, whilst he also became an executive committee member of the European body that shares expertise between more than thirty inspectorates. He now works as a consultant with River Education Services and as an active historian; he has published around thirty books, including a history of European school inspection, and he works on historical issues with historians both sides of the Atlantic.

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. Steinhaus has now lived in England for 22 years. and, in April 2018 he opened Solihull Academy (an Alternative Provision Free School for students in danger of Permanent Exclusion). The Academy will be converting to a Multi-Academy trust in September. In his spare time, he is a 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 and musical topics.

My name is Shona Phimister and I have been working in Alternative Provision for over 15 years. I have had many roles including learning mentor, coordinator, teacher, Curriculum Manager and now Assistant head for inclusion. I passed my National Qualification of Headship in January 2022 and I started my own community Interest Company which specialises in working with young people that don’t fit the mainstream education model and could benefit from a holistic setting built around a creative curriculum that builds confidence while delivering academic success.

I myself am dyslexic and have attention deficit disorder which means the traditional classroom setting was difficult for my own learning and I fully understand the needs of the young people. This lead me down a vocational pathway which I believe was instrumental to my success as a senior leader.

I aim to one day run my own Forest school AP.

Pete is the Headteacher of Perryfields  Primary PRU in Worcester which provides behaviour support to the 113 primary, first and middle schools in South Worcestershire. Perryfields has been judged to be outstanding by ofsted  on 4 consecutive occasions and was one of the initial 22 national  lead schools on the DfE Behaviour Hubs programme.

This requires Pete to support and train schools across the country in developing a positive behaviour culture.

Pete is a strong advocate for Quality First Teaching and the importance of building strong and nurturing relationships with all pupils. He has been at Perryfields since 2005.  He was awarded an OBE for services to education in the King’s 2023 New Years Honours list.

Sarah is the Assistant Headteacher of Perryfields and leads on the Behaviour Hubs programme.

Sarah had extensive experience of working in mainstream education before joining the Perryfields team in 2018. Sarah is passionate about improving the life chances of vulnerable and disadvantaged pupils and cascades her knowledge through training schools both in Worcestershire and further afield.

Eva Butterworth is the Alternative Provision and SEND Programme Manager at Spark! charity, a charity working across West London to work collaboratively with schools and employers to support young people to make effective transitions into employment. Eva works across mainstream, special and AP settings to provide students with employability support and opportunities.

Eva qualified as a mathematics teacher through the TeachFirst charity training route, and has worked in both primary and secondary schools across the South West of England and London, recently working as Lead Teacher for SEND in a large West London secondary school. Eva has a Masters in Educational Leadership, completing research in ‘Teacher preparedness and confidence in supporting SEND students’, and has completed the National Award for Special Educational Needs Coordination (NASENCo). 

Eva believes passionately in providing strong outcomes for vulnerable learners through accessible and inclusive opportunities.

Tim Wakefield has recently joined the Amethyst Academies Trust in Wolverhampton as the Inclusion & Safeguarding Manager. He works across their schools to develop the positive use of alternative provision for learners, which includes supporting internal systems, as well as advising on the use of external provisions, and working towards launching the Trust’s own provision setting in the next academic year.

He is also the proud Founder & Trustee of Switch Midlands CIC, a range of inclusion support services for pupils, their families, and schools, specifically offering personal development, wellbeing and mental health interventions for pupils at risk of school exclusion. These services include an outreach into primary and secondary schools, and Switched-On Schools CPD and coaching for those that work in education.

Lisa Ingleby is Lead for Inclusive Provision & Pastoral Support as part of the Education Durham Team within Children and Young People’s Services at Durham County Council. Lisa’s role includes overseeing the use of alternative provision by schools across County Durham including the development and implementation of a quality assurance framework to monitor curriculum provision delivered through alternative provision. Lisa has extensive experience of leading pastoral provision within schools at a senior level and developing practices within alternative provision across other local authorities.

I have worked in education for over 15 years and have built a wealth of experience working with disengaged young people. I have managed two alternative provisions in past roles and have worked in the pastoral setting for 12 years in secondary schools. We have developed the ARC and the pathways that sit under the ARC to support students to be successful and enable them to integrate back into school with the relevant support.

Andy Wakefield has been working as Assistant Director of Education for Youth Engagement Schools Trust since January 2024. He has over 20 years of experience in education having started his career as a French teacher in 2002. He went on to work as a senior leader in three mainstream secondary schools across Nottinghamshire, Worcestershire and Sandwell, primarily leading on Quality of Education in all of these roles.

Andy has worked in Alternative Provision since 2017 when he joined The Edge Academy in Birmingham, initially as Vice Principal and becoming Principal in 2018. The Edge is the current holder of the PRUsAP “National Alternative Provision Team of the Year” and won the Midlands Education Awards “Outstanding Support for Students” Award in 2022. More recently, the school was named as the first Alternative Provision school in the country to be awarded “When the Adults Change” Partner School status. This recognises a culture built at the school founded on relational practice, emotional connections and trauma-informed approaches to positive behaviour management. 

Julian has more than 25 years’ experience of working in special education. He is currently the CEO of Esteem Multi-Academy Trust, which is based in the East Midlands and consists mainly of special and alternative provision schools. He is also a member of the Advisory Board to the regional directors of the DfE in the East Midlands as well as being a trustee of Oasis Community Learning.

Previously, Julian was a headteacher of two special schools in Derbyshire and worked as a school Improvement advisor.