2020 Judges

Gary has been working in education in the UK and abroad for 18 years.  He is currently a Deputy Head teacher at a large, successful Primary school in East Sussex, where he leads on teaching, learning, curriculum and assessment.  He is interested in all things educational, but has a particular interest in making use of technology to reduce teacher workload and allow them to spend more time thinking about and improving their practice.   He tweets at @MrLearnwell.  

Carol Allen is an education advisor for ICT and Inclusion in particular supporting LGFL and Hartlepool LA.  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.

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!

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.

Justine believes in education and grappling with big ideas – and practised what she preaches by completing a degree in Classical Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London, as a mature student. She loves good food and hates food snobbery, and learned to cook at WestminsterCollege. Her greatest media claim to fame was being on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour on the issue of ‘frugal food’, which made her Mum extremely proud.

Bronze remained with Espresso after its acquisition by Discovery Education, becoming Vice President for Content.

Espresso won its first BETT Award in 2000, and eleven BETT awards in total.  Bronze has been awarded both the ERA Outstanding Achievement Award and the BETT Lifetime Achievement Award.  He was awarded the MBE for services to Education in 2013.

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.

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.

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Michael has been working in education for over 11 years, from managing the IT systems at his Dad’s secondary school to entertaining clusters of headteachers through his innovation speed dating events programme. Michael’s unique position gives him unprecedented access to the latest tools and trends emerging from the sector, and how they can positively impact teaching and learning in schools.

He has spoken about his work at conferences across the UK and internationally, and is widely published as a writer, including several books, most recently co-authoring ‘Learning with Mobile and Handheld Technologies’ – winner of Best Book in the 2015 Technology and Innovation Awards.

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.

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.

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.

Sal is editor of the ATEC newsletter, a specialist publication about assistive technology in colleges and universities, and visits outstanding special schools on behalf of The Good Schools Guide.

From KS1 to higher ed, Natalie gets excited about bringing the best in education technologies to the end users: students and staff. QTS and QTLS qualified, her career started at the German Ministry of Education and includes a subject leader position at an east London college. More recently, Natalie was awarded the 2017 Learning Partnership Award for ‘Most Successful Technology Project’. This involved the development of an ambitious BYOD project within a department with limited computer access.

With a long-time interest in education technology, Natalie is a keen contributor to Education Technology Magazine, University Business Magazine, Huffington Post and TES.  She has worked with educational companies of all sizes across all sectors, including NetSupport School, Kortext, Unio By Harness, Turnitin, RefME (now Cite This For Me), YourTutor and Firefly Learning.

Josh O’Neill is the Editor of Education Investor Global, a business-to-business trade magazine and online newswire geared at professionals operating, advising and investing in education markets across the world. As an experienced business and financial journalist with an acute sectoral focus, Josh tracks and analyses market-moving dynamics such a regulation and policy change, cross-jurisdictional investment trends, and mergers and acquisitions. He also regularly profiles nascent education companies, market incumbents and everything in between, gaining – and subsequently dispersing to his readership – in-depth insights into their business models, strategies and offerings.

Katy specialises in Online Safety  and sits on the LGFL Safeguarding and Editorial Board, has been an ICT Mark assessor and facilitated the NCSL Strategic Leadership ICT courses. Katy sits on the UK Safer Internet Centre Advisory Board.

As part of the Bett Awards she has spearheaded the introduction of the “Kids Judge Bett” event. She has supported educational projects in Romania, Nigeria, China, Portugal and Japan and every year acts as a guide for the Educational World Forum. Katy also helps run the TeachMeet event at the SEN (Special Educational Needs) TES show each year at Islington Design Centre #tmsen16 #tesSENshow

Members’ research into the impact of technology and learning and run action research CPD programmes developing communities of practice.

MirandaNet practice based research has been funded by the European Union, charities, government agencies and associate companies who are keen to working in partnership with practitioners.

David has always believed computational thinking and programming are vital as they allow students to develop problem-solving skills and an ability to express solutions clearly and creatively – similar to writing a story, a poem or composing music.

David is a keen allotmenteer and Middlesbrough supporter.

Alex has been truly impressed by the great practice and products out there, but Government should now be playing a greater role alongside the sector in supporting realisation of the opportunities for technology more widely.

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.