Andrew Wright
Chair

Andrew has over 40 years of teaching experience, including over 10 years as Head Teacher/Principal, in a range of secondary school across the West Midlands and has served as Virtual School Head Teacher in two local authorities.

 A clear strategic thinker, Andrew has an expertise in school improvement within challenging settings, transforming the ethos of schools, the behaviour, attendance and attainment of young people. He has been recognised by Ofsted as a leader who sets ‘a clear direction and vision focusing on raising aspirations and achievements’.

Andrew has a keen understanding of developing an inclusive curriculum both within and across schools. He has influenced innovation in curriculum design through a range of strategic roles including chair of a collaborative network of schools, regional and national strategy groups and has directly integrated partners from the world of work into the learning experiences.

As the Head Teacher of a Virtual School, Andrew is committed to developing a sustainable system of support to enable all children to develop into independent and successful adults. He recognises the importance of strong partnerships across services, businesses and agencies and has developed a menu of support and opportunities in a ‘Learning Tool Kit’ for children in care.

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Dr Anne-Marie McBlain
Trustee

Anne-Marie originally trained and worked in the field of the Biological Sciences before re-training and working as a science teacher in a mainstream 11-18 secondary school. She then undertook further training to gain a Masters degree in psychology and worked in a diverse range of environments including: special education, mental health and the Prison Service before completing her professional training as an Educational Psychologist. Anne-Marie currently works as a Specialist Senior Educational Psychologist for Derbyshire Virtual School supporting educational and other settings to meet the needs of children and young people in care. Anne-Marie is also a trained psychotherapist working with adults.

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Kate Brooks
Trustee

Dr Kate Brooks is a senior lecturer in the School of Education, Bath Spa University, with over 30 years' experience in HE. A Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, she has published research on a range of topics from student culture to a critical analysis of the Government's Prevent Duty programme.  Current research has explored the ways in which the care system and developments in mainstream education have historically intersected, using the archives of a nineteenth century orphanage (which her great grandfather attended) as a case study. Kate is currently writing a textbook with Routledge on the entwined histories of care and education, due for publication in September 2024. Kate is lead tutor for the NAVSH postgraduate course on attachment and trauma aware theory and practice in schools (National Association for Virtual School Heads). An experienced  foster carer herself, Kate has worked with a number of local schools on student attendance projects, and enjoys making connections across the south-west as ARC's regional lead.

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Nick Mort
Trustee

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Dr Richard Parker
Trustee

Richard Parker has been a youth worker, a researcher, and a secondary school teacher in Inner London. He worked for many years in local government within education and children’s services, in a number of different authorities.

In 2010 he joined Bath Spa University as Director of the Centre for Education Policy in Practice (EPIP), which aimed use the research strengths of the university to promote improvement in education support for vulnerable groups. Richard has a particular interest in the education of children in care and has been involved in a range of activities to promote emotion coaching and attachment awareness in schools and initial teacher education, at both local and national level. He also worked with NAVSH to develop a new Postgraduate Certificate for carers and professionals working with care experienced children, as part of the Bath Spa University MA Programme in Professional Practice.

Richard was a founder trustee of ARC, and coordinates the HE/Research network. Since retiring from teaching at Bath Spa he has concentrated on his research into the effectiveness of attachment aware school approaches, on the ARC Call to Action and on supporting trainee and early career teachers.

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Michelle Salter
Trustee

Michelle started her career initially as a Mental Health Nurse and shortly became a Nurse Manager in a variety of settings including secure hospitals, assessment and treatment units.  

She then retrained as a Primary School Teacher.  Michelle has held a variety of leadership roles in primary schools in deprived areas of the East Midlands before becoming Head of Primary at a new independent SEMH school.  She was also a Specialist Leader in Education with a Teaching school providing school to school support, which in turn led to Michelle becoming a consultant in School Improvement. Since then, Michelle has held regional and national roles with a large national Multi Academy Trust.  Her role encompassed school improvement, safeguarding and Inclusion, which included working closely with Ofsted and the DFE.

Michelle loves learning and recently achieved the level 7 Post-Graduate Diploma in the Education of Care-experienced Children with NAVSH / Bath Spa University, under the guidance of Richard Parker, Michael Gorman, Kate Brooks and other experts in their fields.  She is a passionate believer in the benefits of the Attachment Research Community and securing positive outcomes for all young people.  A clear strategic thinker, Michelle is a strong advocate for vulnerable children through a holistic child centred team approach and transforming the ethos of schools and improving attainment through research-based practice.    Telford & Wrekin Virtual School Team actively supports educational settings to embed trauma informed and attachment aware cultures, supporting ARC memberships and the journey to embed relational practice,  Michelle  plays an active role in developing strategic practices further.

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Janice Cahill OBE
Trustee

Janice has over 40 years experience in education as a teacher and leader, specifically within SEMH and has been the Executive head over a range of other schools and AP’s. Currently working as an independent consultant across the North West.

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Gareth Brenton
Trustee

Gareth is currently employed as Acting Headteacher for Greenfields School in Newport South Wales. Greenfields is a school for predominantly looked after children, many of which have additional learning needs. Gareth has worked as a teacher for just over 20 years and has been involved with ARC since 2021. Gareth comes from a Theatre and Drama teaching and performing background and has worked with, and supported, a range of adults and children with challenging trauma and/or additional needs. Gareth is keen to raise the profile of ARC within the South Wales area and encourages local authority and school representatives to become members of ARC and gain the invaluable support and guidance needed to be able to work with some of the most vulnerable young people in our society.

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Jackie Brooks
Trustee

Jackie is a director of a multi academy trust in the midlands and has been teaching for over 35 years.
She has particularly enjoyed the last 25 years working in special schools and is currently teaching English in a specialist school for young people with SEMH and autism, where she is also the Designated Teacher for Looked After and Previously looked After Children.
Jackie’s interest in attachment began when she attended ARC’s inaugural conference and it soon became a passion. She was honoured to have the opportunity to take part as a member of the panel at the 2020 ARC conference.

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Dr Adele Thacker
Trustee

Specialist Senior Educational Psychologist for Shropshire Educational Psychology Service

Adele currently works as a Specialist Senior Educational Psychologist in Shropshire. A portion of her time is spent supporting the Stepping Stones project as part of a therapeutic team which aims to provide individualised, intensive, trauma informed support to children and parents known to social care. Through her work Adele utilises creative and collaborative processes to support those around vulnerable young people to understand presenting needs and to effectively provide the support required. Adele also supports educational settings to embed trauma informed and attachment aware cultures and plays a role in developing strategic practices to further support and promote this ‘way of being’. To further support colleagues across the Midlands, Adele also facilitates the Midlands Emotion Coaching Interest group as a Lead Practitioner for Emotion Coaching UK as well as being a long standing member of the ARC EP advisory group

Prior to her Doctorate training in Educational Psychology, Adele developed and managed a provision for primary aged children at risk of exclusion based upon nurturing principles.

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Amy Howe
Trustee

Amy is the Virtual School Assistant Head for North Yorkshire.  She is also a Family Seeing Coach for NY Children’s Social Work practitioners.

Following four years of working in the commercial and the health sectors, Amy trained as a Primary School Teacher.  Having had experience teaching classes from Reception to year 6, in various schools Amy joined the Virtual School to work directly with Care-experienced children between the ages of 4 and 16 to identifying and supporting their social, emotional and academic needs and recommending, to teaching colleagues, the most appropriate, holistic approaches to use to meet these young people’s needs.

As part of her Charity work, Amy has worked with a charity local to her, supporting children and young adults between the ages of three and 21 years old with complex disabilities and additional needs on a 1:1, 2:1 and group basis.  

Amy is a Specialist Teacher in identifying and teaching children with Specific Learning Differences, including Dyslexia, with a focus on care-experienced children.  She has also recently achieved a Distinction in the level 7 Post-Graduate Diploma in the Education of Care-experienced Children with NAVSH / Bath Spa University, under the guidance of Richard Parker, Michael Gorman, Kate Brooks and other experts in their fields.  

Within her current role, Amy leads the project for all Children with a Social Worker, delivering training, advice and support to colleagues in schools and children’s social care across North Yorkshire, to promote understanding and awareness of the role that Attachment plays in education including the use of Trauma Responsive practice to improve socio-emotional wellbeing, engagement, attendance and attainment.  This work is linked to her role as a Senior leader within Children’s Social Care and as a Family Seeing coach where she works closely with the model authors to promoting Family Reunification – helping children to remain with their birth families. See Family Seeing

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Jon Hickman
Trustee

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Dee Dee Roberts
Trustee

Dee Dee completed the prestigious Teach First programme in Feltham and taught at Reach Academy Feltham both as a primary leader, A-level music teacher, Mental Health lead and Designated Teacher.  Her dedication to education expanded beyond the classroom as she also served as a school governor at another local Feltham school.

Alongside teaching, she completed a Masters with the Institute of Education (IoE) in Educational Leadership, and later a further module with Bath Spa University on the Education of Children in Care.  Currently, she is completing the final stages of an NPQH with the Best Practice Network.

Most recently, Dee Dee joined the brilliant Lewisham Virtual School team as an Assistant Headteacher. In this role, she leads the implementation of new duties for Children With a Social Worker, demonstrating her ability to drive positive change in the educational system. Her influence extends nationally as she collaborated with the Department for Education to develop these new duties.  ARC has become part of the blueprint of support we offer as a Virtual School, and as such we are championing all our Lewisham schools to become Relationally Safe via the ARC pathway. 

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