2022 Judges

Pippa Adams

Computing Lead

Bio

After qualifying as a teacher, I worked in East London schools teaching across the foundation and primary age ranges. After ten years, and having gained experience as an ICT coordinator, I joined a London LEA service as ICT curriculum adviser. After a break to look after my children, I returned to working in schools as a class teacher and also as coach/mentor to newly qualified teachers. I am currently the computing lead in a London primary school.

Abena Akuffo-Kelly

Head of Computing & ICT, The Howard School

Bio

I have been a teacher of computer science and ICT for nearly 15 years and a head of computing for the past seven years. I have been involved with CAS since its inception and am a CAS Master teacher and a STEM ambassador. I also have CPD Quality Mark as an Associate Facilitator for the NCCE and as part of a government drive to increase the number of computer science specialists have engaged in teaching non-specialists computational thinking and pedagogy.

Carol Allen

Education Advisory Teacher

Bio

Carol Allen is an education advisor for ICT and Inclusion in particular supporting LGFL and providing strategic inclusion advice to Local Authorities. Carol was named as one of the top ten educators for 2018 in the field of educational technology for her inclusion work, see #EdTech2018.

She has taught since 1980 in both mainstream schools – primary and high, and schools for students with severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties. Recognising, as an English specialist, that communication lies at the heart of all effective teaching, the majority of her work has centred on creative and engaging use of technology to support communication in its widest sense.

Carol works in partnership with many companies in the educational technology field as she holds a strong belief in sharing and collaboration across all participants in order to maximise the potential opportunities for her students. In particular, she has designed products specifically for the Early Years market which are now in use in many schools world-wide – including 25 city tours of Australia.

Workshop/keynote presentations include FETC and ATIA Florida, Illinois District educators summer conference; Denmark , BETT, Birmingham, Manchester, Geneva, Cologne, London and most recently, a five city road trip round Australia.

Carol is list owner for sld-forum, an international mailing list for practitioners and educators interested in the effective teaching and learning for those with complex barriers to learning.

All work centres on easy to replicate practice which is fun, achievable and creates communication enhancement opportunities. Twin vices of caffeine and chocolate keep the energy sparky and the ideas flowing!

Jon Audain

Chair of TPEA, Technology, Pedagogy & Education Association (TPEA)

Bio

For the last 20 years Jon has worked in education as a primary teacher, Head of Year, Senior Teacher, Learning Platform/VLE Consultant and peripatetic music teacher in two different LEAs. In 2006, he was appointed as a county-based Advanced Skills Teacher (AST) specialising in Primary ICT within the third largest local authority in the UK. He has advised and worked with schools, teachers and companies as well as award-winning children’s author Judy Waite. Jon is the author and collaborator of over 20 books, chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles and papers, is an Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE) and a member of the Promethean Advisory Council/ActivAdvocate. He is the Chair of the Technology, Pedagogy & Education Association (TPEA), a national subject association for evidence-informed research and education technology as well as an executive board member for the Education Futures Collaboration (www.meshguides.org). He is a Founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching; a Fellow of the College of Teachers and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

Miles Berry

Principle Lecturer, University of Roehampton

Bio

Miles is principal lecturer in Computing Education at the University of Roehampton. Prior to joining Roehampton, he spent 18 years in four schools, much of the time as an ICT coordinator and most recently as a head teacher. His research interests include the pedagogies of computer science education and informal learning. He is a former chair of Naace. He is a member the management boards of Computing At School and the Computer Science Teachers’ Association, and is a member of the Raspberry Pi Foundation and the BCS Academy Board. He is a fellow of the BCS, RSA and HEA.

Over the years he has contributed to a number of computing related projects including: CAS’s computer science curriculum, the national curriculum computing programmes of study, the CAS / Naace guide to the computing curriculum for primary teachers, training of CAS Master Teachers, the BETT and ERA Award winning Rising Stars Switched on Computing, Barefoot Computing, Code Club Pro’s training materials, QuickStart Computing and resources for the BBC and Microsoft. Current projects include Hello World, a free magazine for computing teachers, and Project Quantum – a national item bank of computing questions.

He gives regular keynotes and CPD workshops on computing and education technology in the UK and abroad and has worked on a number of international consultancy projects involving curriculum development and CPD.

Cara Bleiman

Primary Mandarin Project Consultant, Swire Chinese Language Centre London, Harris Federation

Bio

Cara Bleiman has worked in inner-city London Primary schools for the past nine years as a class teacher, English subject leader and MFL co-ordinator. She now works as a Primary Mandarin project consultant where she supports the teaching and learning across 11 Primary schools. Cara has a background in music, anthropology, and an interest in Chinese language and culture. She graduated from Oxford University with a BA in music in 2009 and completed an MSc in Social and Cultural anthropology the following year. Before training as a Primary school teacher, she studied for the ‘Certificate in Modern Chinese’ at SOAS and then spent a further year learning Mandarin in Taiwan.

Gill Budgell

Director, Consultant Publisher, Frattempo Ltd.

Bio

Gill is the director of Frattempo Ltd which is a consultancy business specialising in educational and publishing services within the industry. She has over 30 years’ experience of industry research, content creation and curation and delivering training both in the UK and internationally. Before establishing Frattempo, Gill was an in-house educational publisher for 14 years, and before that, an early years and primary teacher/adviser, specialising in English language development. She has developed, written and published many outstanding and award-winning print and digital resources with industry partners. She is a primary school governor and a trustee. Gill contributes a unique blend of classroom practicality, an understanding of school leadership issues, commercial reality and business acumen to the judging team.

Beverly Clarke

National Community Manager, The Chartered Institute of IT

Bio

Beverly Clarke works for BCS – The Chartered Institute for IT, as the National Community Manager responsible for the management and delivery of the Computing at Schools (CAS) community of practice programme which is a part of the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE) programme. The NCCE supports teachers in England with resources, training and guidance to teach computing with confidence. Beverly is also an author, education consultant, CAS Board member and a member of the BETT Advisory Group. She was formerly a teacher and Director of Computing at a secondary school, and has also managed the CAS South West region, delivering CPD and supporting teachers across the South West region.

Some of her recent achievements have been giving evidence to the House of Lords – All Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence and being the BCS nominee for the Women in Engineering Society – Karen Burt Award (2018). She has also been the subject matter expert for a series of BBC Bitesize videos on Computational Thinking and has written for publications such as Hello World Magazine and TES.

With a keen interest in education and being a self-starter she set up the Artificial Intelligence in Schools programme aimed at providing free teaching resources on AI for key stage 3 teachers. Additionally, she is the author of the American Exploring Computer Science (ECS) – Artificial Intelligence Alternate Unit (2019)

Her book “Computer Science Teacher” – Insight Into The Computing Classroom is aimed at trainee teachers of Computing, attracting new entrants into the field of teaching computing and is also useful for anyone who wishes to know what it is like to teach Computing in a secondary school environment.

Beverly also regularly speaks at conferences promoting Computing education.

Sharon Cufflin

Education Consultant, Entrust Education Technologies

Bio

I celebrate my 20th year in education this year and currently I work as an e learning adviser for Link2ICT, in partnership with Birmingham Authority. I am passionate about the use of technology to enhance learning. I qualified as a primary school teacher and spent 14 years teaching in a large inner city primary school in Birmingham. The school became very successful at using technology to support learning and I had the opportunity to become involved in many projects both nationally and internationally.

I also taught the PGCE ICT programme at Birmingham City University from 2005-2010. I support schools across the West Midlands to encourage them to use technology helping them make best use of technology in school.

Rachel Evans

Director of Digital Learning & Innovation, Wimbledon High School

Bio

I lead on digital technology for teaching and learning at Wimbledon High School, a Microsoft Showcase School. I am particularly interested in working with teachers to evaluate the use of technology for teaching and learning, implementing evidence-based practices. We are developing a culture of innovation and I work closely with STEAM colleagues, in particular on the design of our forthcoming new building, the STEAM Tower. I collaborate on digital strategy with my peers across the Girls’ Day School Trust, most recently contributing to the Futurelearn MOOC, Digital Skills for Teachers. I am also a member of the ISC Digital Strategy Group.

Allana Gay

Headteacher/Cofounder, Vita et Pax Preparatory School / BAMEed

Bio

Allana is Headteacher at Vita et Pax Preparatory School and co-founder of #BAMEed a network for issues regarding the recruitment, retention & progress of BAME educators.

Bob Harrison

Chair of Governors, Northern College

Bio

He has had extensive experience in schools and colleges as a teacher,lecturer senior manager, Principal and Governor. He has worked with Head teachers and senior leaders in developing leadership skills for the National College of Teaching and Leadership and advised DfES on the FE Principals Qualification.

Bob is also Chair of Governors at Northern College and Vice Chair of Governors a Trafford school.

He has been Toshiba’s Education Adviser for 16 years and is a writer, presenter and researcher on mobile learning, digital technologies and next generation learning.

Bob regularly visits the Palo Alto campus of Stanford University to research current developments and is a participant in the “education’s digital future” project and is a judge at the Stanford Graduate School of Education Learning Design with Technology Masters programme.. Bob is also a judge for the BIS/Innovate UK Learning Technology-Design for Impact fund,

He is a Board member of the UfI Trust, YMCA Training and Awards and is a Judge for the BETT Awards and TES FE Awards.

Bob has recently been invited to join the BIS FE and Skills Area based review advisory group trying to reshape the FE landscape towards a more digital future.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Ysanne Heald

Director, Teem Education

Bio

Ysanne works with schools, academies, local authorities and education suppliers helping to shape how technology can make a positive difference in the quality of children’s learning and the professionalism of teachers. Recent work has included evaluating new technologies and apps, teacher training, delivering professional development and creating peer-peer online collaboration opportunities using IT.

Ysanne is an experienced judge of EdTech awards including recent WorldDidac Awards and previously Becta and Bafta Education TV Awards. She often speaks at education conferences sharing experiences from classroom research and observation. She is a Director of Teem Education where she set up TEEM software evaluation service and is now a consultant delivering a range of EdTech projects in early years and beyond. She is a qualified maths teacher, governor of two schools and a Fellow of the RSA.

Lesley Holl

Academy Governor, Farnham Heath End School

Bio

I have been involved in education for over 30 years. I started in the education section of the Architects Department of the Greater London Council before becoming a Special Needs Assistant at a secondary school while raising my family.

Further roles included community and family learning, International School Links, Education Business Partnership steering group membership and a founding member of our local confederation of schools. I helped set up and manage the school’s Maths and Computing Specialist School programme. I am currently Learning Resource Centre Manager and Careers Coordinator. I am also a school Governor and Academy Director.

Nicholas Joseph

Lecturer, University of Derby

Bio

Nick Joseph is a qualified secondary teacher, with a PhD in medieval European history. Before moving into secondary education, he taught in the HE and FE sectors, and mentored disadvantaged learners across the age range from eleven to post-retirement. He has also worked in an IT company specialising in software for schools.

Ian Koxvold

Head of Education Strategy, PwC

Bio

Ian Koxvold leads the PwC Education Strategy team, who focus on commercial challenges for educational institutions and for those that sell them goods and services. He has been a strategy consultant for about 20 years and has been focussed on the education space since 2008 – and has delivered about 175 projects in the sector since then; typically relating to growth strategy, entering new markets, coping with extreme change, or mergers & acquisitions.

Natalie Nezhati

Director, Edtech Mark

Bio

Natalie connects the ‘ed’ and the ‘tech’ to drive growth for start-up and scale-up businesses in the edtech space. Profiled as a ‘Top 100 Influencer’ in the State of Edtech report, her ideas about learning technologies have appeared in the Guardian, Education Technology Magazine, Tes and Huff Post. Her past roles include Head of Marketing for a high growth SaaS organisation and she holds a post-graduate qualification in education. Natalie is a business mentor for the UCL Educate startup programme, and member of 2019 judging panels for the Bett Awards and long-time champion of edtech. She once won a trophy for ‘Most Innovative Technology Project’ for designing and implementing a popular BYOD learning programme.

Dr. Neelam Parmar

Director of Educational Technology/Educational Technologist, Ashford School/United Learning

Bio

Dr. Neelam Parmar currently works as Director of Educational Technology, Digital Learning and Innovation at Ashford School and as Educational Technologist at United Learning. She also works as Educational Technologist for the United Learning Group of Schools. Neelam draws on her research and practical experiences of working with technology and regularly presents around the UK and internationally on the role of EdTech in education, providing strategy, roadmaps and CPD programmes for blended and online learning approaches. She is the author of the ‘Digital Literacy in the Primary’ series and ‘Digital Parenting’ book. Neelam is an award-winning professional, international researcher, author, thought leader and speaker on effective technology, pedagogy and curriculum integration within education and is currently engaged with the Department of Education (DfE) EdTech Leadership Group, #EdTechImpact workshops and @WomenEdTech movement.

I am also an educational technologist at United Learning

Kathleen Potts

Manager Computing and Online Safety, Islington Council

Bio

Katy has expertise in parental engagement and supporting home learning, inc effective use of digital and online tools.

Harmeet Sahota

Senior Assistant Headteacher, Google Certified Trainer, Google Certified Innovator, International Speaker and Digital Consultant

Bio

With over 10 years leadership experience, Harmeet is a part-time Senior Assistant Headteacher, Google Certified Trainer, Google Certified Innovator, International Speaker and Digital Consultant. Harmeet specialises in tech innovation and streamlining processes, working with schools in the UK and across the globe. Harmeet understands the challenges of digital transformation in schools and has spoken at numerous events in Europe and the Middle East about positive change management and how to demonstrate immediate impact through the use of EdTech. Harmeet is the founder of www.curriculumwide.co.uk a system that provides schools with the information they need to create the ideal curriculum for their learners, supporting the reduction of exclusions and NEETS.

Cat Scutt

Director of Education & Research, Chartered College of Teaching

Bio

A former English teacher, Cat’s roles have since focused on supporting teacher development both online and through face-to-face activities, with a particular focus on development through collaboration and through engagement with research and evidence. She has worked as a teacher and advisor in the state and independent sector, as well as in corporate learning and development. Cat leads on the Chartered College Of Teaching’s work around teacher CPD, including the Chartered Teacher programme, and their research activities and publications, including their termly peer reviewed journal, Impact. In addition, Cat is a studying for her doctorate at the UCL Institute of Education.

Dave Smith

Senior Inspector, Havering Education Services

Bio

Dave is a local authority senior inspector, providing school improvement support for schools in London and beyond, as well as leading on Traded Services for the Havering Education Services School Improvement team. He has spent 20+ years specialising in computing, education technology and online safety support for schools and is a CEOP Online Safety Ambassador. Dave has worked with Rising Stars on the development of the Bett Award winning Switched on Computing, Switched on Online Safety and other titles. He worked with the Department for Education to support the creation of the education technology content of the Teacher Workload Reduction Toolkit. He is the former Chair of the Board of Management of Naace, a judge for the Education Resources Awards and a member of the Bett Advisory Board. He was previously a teacher/senior leader in 3 schools, plus a university principal lecturer. Beyond work he has been a governor of 4 primary/secondary schools, and is currently a governor/member of two secondary MATs.

Bukky Yusuf

Senior Leaders, Edith Kay School

Bio

Bukky Yusuf is a Secondary Science teacher, Science senior leader and consultant. She has spent over a decade in London schools, teaching Science, A level Chemistry and Level 3 BTEC. In her previous school leadership role, she led whole school Ed Tech programme to enhance teaching & learning.

As part of her commitment to increase diverse leadership within education, Bukky uses social media to participate with a number of initiatives including WomenEd and BAMEed. She is a London Regional Leader for WomenEd and is registered as a leadership coach in programme run by the Department for Education.

She presents at regional and national conferences to support the development of educators at all levels. She also champions grass root projects that help colleagues maintain their well-being. Bukky is a prolific member of the Twitter community (@rondelle10_b) and regularly blogs.