Mark has worked in education for most of his career, firstly as a History teacher in the UK and then teaching English around the world. He has been with the British Council for 25 years and has worked in Spain, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Romania, Portugal, Korea, Singapore and Argentina. He has held a number of roles including teacher trainer, Country Director, Global Head of Teaching and most recently Regional Director for the Americas. Mark is a life-long learner and has a degree in Politics and International Relations, a Post Graduate Certificate in Education, a Diploma in Teaching English as a Foreign Language, a Post Graduate Diploma in Management and an MA in Marketing. He is delighted to be back in Spain as Country Director having begun his British Council career teaching in Barcelona.

From June 2016: Tim has been Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy Madrid responsible for the overall management of the Embassy with particular focus on Political, Economic and Communications issues. As a member of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Tim has worked in a range of positions related to Europe and the European Union, including positions in Brussels at the European Commission and also the UK Permanent Representation office to the EU. From 2009 to 2012 Tim worked as Head of Policy for the Wales Office.

Senior Advisor at the Ministry for Education and Vocational Training in Spain (Underdirectorate of International Cooperation). She has held the role of Education Advisor at the Spanish Education Office in Australia from 2009 till 2014 developing several cooperation programs with local Departments of Education to extend the presence of Spanish language and culture. She has held the position as Education Advisor at the Ministry for Education on Latin American education affairs and relations with the European Union.

She has been the Head of the Unit for Teachers Mobility  from 2014 coordinating teacher mobility programmes such as Visiting teachers in the US, Canada, UK and China; Spanish Bilingual Programs in Eastern Europe, Russia and China, and training programs for teachers of Spanish as a Foreign Language  in cooperation with Spanish Universities and the Cervantes Institute.  She also collaborates with over 30 Departments of Education in the dissemination of the MEFP programs in international cooperation. She supervises the delivery of the Language assistant program receiving language Assistants in Spain from over 30 countries, and sending Spanish Language Assistants to 18 countries. Rosa is an English teacher who has taught English and Spanish at school and university levels (US, Wales and Spain).  On a parallel note, she has published academic articles in the field of applied linguistics and is the author of a series of textbooks for the teaching of English for Spanish speakers for Secondary Education.

Lucy Crehan is a qualified teacher, an education explorer, an author, and an international education consultant. She taught science and psychology at a secondary school in London before becoming interested in education research and policy, completing a Masters, and setting off on an educational exploration around the world’s top performing education systems. She helped out in schools and lived with teachers in Finland, Canada, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand and Shanghai, spending a month in each place.
Since returning from her trip she has published a trade book – Cleverlands – recounting her findings, written a specialist book on teacher career structures for IIEP UNESCO, advised the UK government as part of a working group on teacher workload, and spoken about her work at conferences in the UK, US, France and Sweden. She spent a year working as part of a team advising foreign governments on education reform at Education Development Trust, and now works as an independent consultant and author.

Christine Özden was appointed Chief Executive of Cambridge Assessment International Education in January 2019. Christine began her career in international education at Cambridge University Press, and has a wealth of senior leadership experience in the design, development and delivery of educational products and services, with a particular focus on publishing and assessment. In her most recent role before joining Cambridge International, she was responsible for launching upper secondary level qualifications in the Middle East and Asia.
Christine believes strongly in the need to support the growing number of families and communities that are interested in, and benefit from, international education. She is committed to the ongoing development of Cambridge programmes and services worldwide and continuing to improve our offer to schools, their educators, students and parents.
She has worked in different educational contexts in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, and has lived in Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and the UK.
Christine has an MA in Classical Arabic and Turkish from the University of Edinburgh and a Master’s in Business Administration from Warwick University.

Jason has over 20 years’ experience in international education working with governments and institutions across the world on national education reform and improvement programmes in the fields of technical and vocational education and teacher professional development. He has worked for a number of Awarding Bodies over the past 17 years supporting the delivery of academic and vocational qualifications through international schools, colleges and universities.  Jason is currently the Director of International for Pearson’s BTEC and Apprenticeship division and is responsible for the global delivery and growth of their vocational products and services in over 54 countries. Jason has a Masters in Development Education and Global Learning.

Helen is Executive Director at HM Education Consultancy Ltd and provides high quality training, coaching and consultancy support in a range of UK and international contexts. Her portfolio is underpinned by her experience as a teacher, school leader and national strategies consultant. Developing people is Helen’s strongest motivation and she is committed to investing in professional learning.
In her current role, Helen is a lead training consultant with Cambridge Assessment International Education and has worked with leaders and teachers across the world to develop their effectiveness. In addition, Helen works with other prestigious global organisations including ECIS (Educational Collaborative for International Schools) and High Performance Learning to transform schools and support improvement. She is an accredited practitioner coach with the European Coaching and Mentoring Council and works with school leaders and teachers, empowering them to lead change and secure impact.

Sonja Uhlmann is working for the British Council Spain as Child Protection Manager. Sonja’s main responsibility is to put in place corporate requirements in order to prevent and reduce the risk for children to suffer from any type of abuse including bullying. She has also to ensure compliance with Spanish and British Law concerning Child Protection and has to train the team about how to deal with an incident if it finally takes place. Finally, she is the point of contact in Spain with the Global Child Protection Team of the British Council and has to ensure that policies and procedures are implemented.

Psychologist, Master in Speech Therapy and Early Intervention she has worked for over 18 years with parents, teachers and children at the Down Syndrome Foundation in Madrid. Simultaneously she has been involved in several projects, research and training delivery related to Children’s Rights both nationally and internationally. She has also developed materials to promote children’s rights at schools and has extensive experience in delivering child protection trainings.

As Principal of The Teaching Assistant College, Eva has led a team of trainers, tutors and consultants delivering in schools and early years settings in over 50 countries. She has worked closely with the awarding body CACHE (Council for Awards in Care, Health and Education) to write and consult on qualifications and has great pleasure in being able to share a programme specifically designed for Early Years practitioners in NABSS schools at the conference.

Alan Jervis is one of Dragonfly’s senior trainers and has delivered over 1,600 courses to more than 11,000 teachers. With over 30 years of teaching experience – including seven as an assistant Headteacher responsible for teaching, learning and assessment – Alan has extensive experience of employing new teaching and learning strategies. During his time as Assistant Head, Alan was also tasked with targeting student under-achievement which he did so successfully that this resulted in an impressive 36% upturn in GCSE and A level exam results.   Since then, Alan has become not only an expert teacher trainer, but also a qualified NLP consultant and author. Alan’s publications include co-writing the critically-acclaimed ‘Improving Classroom Performance: Spoon Feed No More’ among others. With this incredibly vast experience and expertise, it is no surprise Alan’s Dragonfly courses receive our top 97% 5-star feedback from all past delegates. Alan has delivered courses for Dragonfly Training in the UK, Europe and Asia and is a regular CPD workshop provider at Dragonfly’s Independent School and Subject Leader conferences, ISHRAQ conferences, The GESS Show, COBIS conferences and the BSME conference in the Middle East.

Steve Garnett has been a teacher for 24 years. He has delivered INSETs to over 7,000 teachers over the past 10 years in the UK, Ireland and across Europe, the Middle East and the Far East. Teachers who have attended Steve’s courses have regularly described them as ‘inspirational’. Steve is an award-nominated author whose book ‘The Subject Leader’ was shortlisted for Best Secondary Resource in the prestigious BESA awards. He has also written ‘Using Brain Power in the Classroom’ which a TES Review described as ‘strong in its resume of the latest research into what constitutes effective learning’. Steve is also co-author of ‘Spoon Feed No More – Improving Classroom Performance’ – which is a definitive guide to the philosophy and practice of Dragonfly Training.

Dave Taylor is one of the most experienced and gifted trainer and school leaders in his field. Throughout his years in school leadership, Dave has remained focused on the magic of the classroom and is often cited as an inspiration to his students and his colleagues alike.

As Head of English, Dave transformed an underperforming team into one which produced the best GCSE results of all similar schools in the country. As Assistant Headteacher, Deputy Headteacher and, most recently, Vice Principal of a Multi-Academy Trust, Dave has transformed the teaching in a number of schools, delivered training to thousands of teachers and mentored a generation of new teachers.

Dave has organised and presented teach meets, conferences and multi-platform festivals. He has presented at the SSAT Achievement Show and sat on the steering group on ‘World Class School Status’ in the SSAT’s Leading Edge group of academies.

Julie is an incredibly enthusiastic and inspirational trainer, having gathered a wide range of experiences teaching and training over the past 18 years.
In addition to Advanced Skills Teacher status, Julie has worked as a local authority School Improvement Consultant, Graduate Teacher Programme trainer, Primary Languages Consultant and was a certified trainer for CiLT (The National Centre for Languages). She currently trains nationally and internationally on some of the most up-to-date concepts relating to research and its impact on learning.

As a former SEND Co. and Inclusion Manager, working with children within the care system has inspired in her a very practical approach to the very challenging topics of inclusion, safeguarding and dealing with all levels of behaviour. Undertaking her MA qualification in this field has led to an interest in current approaches to mastery, variation, and feedback.

Most recently as a School Improvement Partner Julie has worked with senior leadership teams across the country from schools in Ofsted categories to independent and free schools. Julie’s experience enables her to lead venue based training, consultancy and INSET for schools on a regular basis. She herself teachers regularly, as a means of ensuring her knowledge and practice are both recent and relevant.
Julie’s training style shares elements of theory and oceans of practical activities to get teachers moving, talking and most importantly thinking creatively! She believes strongly in the motto ‘learning is memorable when it is fun’ and adopts this strategy for adults as well as children.

A renowned Mental Health and Wellbeing Specialist, Leadership Coach and Inspirational Speaker, Matt is the obvious choice for schools wishing to:

• Maintain or improve their inspection rating
• Enhance staff effectiveness and morale
• Provide Mental Health First Aid training and advice for staff and students
• Increase students’ confidence in their unique abilities and talents.

During his years as Founding Principal of Atrium Studio School in Devon (when Ofsted praised him as “inspirational”), Matt incorporated a range of skills he developed as a former FIFA/FA Premier League referee. Students and staff flourished under his clear, focused and engaging leadership. Many lives – both young and not-so-young – were turned around; some even transformed.

Matt is one of those rare, highly qualified, professionals who leads by example. Integrity, compassion and a genuine desire to make a difference are the foundations of his work, underpinned by extensive experience and a solid track record of successful outcomes. Matt is very much in demand as a keynote speaker, workshop leader and in-school trainer, both internationally and in the UK. Most recently he delivered a keynote for COBIS in London on ‘A Whole School Approach to Mental Health and Wellbeing’ and will be speaking at the ECIS’ Leadership Conference in Lisbon in April.

Melody is passionate about nurturing a lifelong love of learning in both children and adults, developing leadership potential and creating an educational climate that offers opportunities to improve outcomes for all. She believes that education is the key to unlocking potential and addressing inequality.
Her training is fun, engaging, practical and stimulating, encouraging a growth mindset. She is a qualified teacher, senior leader, head teacher and improvement advisor who has worked both in the independent and state sectors with extensive experience of EYFS, KS1, KS2 and KS3. This experience enables Melody to work with a diverse range of settings on improving the quality of teaching, unlocking the potential of your school and developing the capacity from within. Her post graduate studies ensure that Melody’s training is backed by strong research skills which then translate into practical talk-led collaborative activities that lead to transformational change.
She currently travels extensively both in the UK and internationally supporting schools to develop innovation, both in leadership and curriculum, and evolve into a flagship 21st century school. Melody can also deliver Safeguarding training up to Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) Level 3.

Rick Sellers is a Loughborough graduate who taught in Independent schools for 39 years, including 30 years at Bristol Grammar School. A former Director of Sport, his final role was Assistant Head in Charge of Co-Curricular provision and Parental Engagement. He has always been a passionate advocate of the educational value of co-curricular activities ad was one of the UK’s earliest holders of this role.

As Principal of The Teaching Assistant College, Eva has led a team of trainers, tutors and consultants delivering in schools and early years settings in over 50 countries. She has worked closely with the awarding body CACHE (Council for Awards in Care, Health and Education) to write and consult on qualifications and has great pleasure in being able to share a programme specifically designed for Early Years practitioners in NABSS schools at the conference.

In his role as a senior leader of an outstanding inner city primary school, James Clements helped develop effective reading provision and was consulted on the new National Curriculum for primary schools. James Clements was also a local authority Lead Teacher, leading training, and supporting teaching and learning across numerous schools.
James is now an English adviser, supporting schools and local authorities to develop the teaching of reading, writing and drama. He is the creative director of Shakespeare and More, a not-for-profit organisation that promotes effective English teaching. He is also the author of the Building an Outstanding Reading School Pathway, one of a number of Pathways at the heart of Oxford Owl, which provide a unique new four-step approach to effective school improvement.
An outspoken advocate of reading for pleasure, James has also authored the Building an Outstanding Reading School Report, which lays out six clear strategies for making reading for pleasure work in schools.

Mark Wilson has worked in the field of education in Spain for over 30 years. He specialises in assessment and vocational training, working closely now with schools and colleges across Spain as well as Portugal and France, in order to help them diversify their curricula and introduce or extend skills-based models of teaching and assessing. Mark holds an MA in Language Testing and Development from Lancaster University.

Former teacher and education consultant, Katie Harrison founded Picture News in 2016. A way of providing a current and thought-provoking resources Picture News uses engaging images and ‘big questions’ to challenge and inspire children using a different news focus every week.