Andrew Wright
Chair

Andrew is the Head Teacher of Dudley Virtual School for Children In Care supporting over 600 young people in their educational settings.

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. 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 the 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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Clare Barden
Trustee

Clare originally trained as a secondary Design and Technology teacher and worked in mainstream for 10 years. She has been a Senior Leader for Alternative Provision in Devon and Cornwall for 14 years, and fully embraces a Trauma and Attachment Aware approach in her role.

Clare currently works as Executive Principal for Wave Trust Alternative Provision in Devon, overseeing three Wave AP Academies across the County. She is also Principal of Stansfield Academy in Exeter which offers 70 places to primary and secondary pupils who are permanently excluded, at risk of permanent exclusion or require education as a result of ‘exceptional circumstances’.

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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 Stoke Virtual School supporting educational and other settings to meet the needs of children and young people in care. This involves dealing with complex case work carried out within a multi-agency context; leading the delivery of attachment aware training for all schools and settings in the authority and beyond; supporting settings to conduct action research to develop cutting edge practice both in the authority and nationally and making sure schools and settings can confidently and effectively support the children and young people in care to achieve their potential.

Anne-Marie is also a trained counsellor and works with both adult and child clients.

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Emily Bott
Trustee

Emily originally trained as a secondary maths teacher in mainstream 11-18 schools. She undertook further training to gain a Masters degree in Professional studies in Education. She has worked in a diverse range of schools in a number of roles including inner city 11-18 mainstream schools and specialist schools.

Emily currently works as Assistant Principal at Discovery Academy in Nuneaton which is a specialist school for children and young people aged 9-19 with Autism or SEMH needs.

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Kate Brooks
Trustee

Kate is an Associate Lecturer in Education History and a Doctoral researcher at Bath Spa University, researching late nineteenth century education in a Victorian orphanage (where her great grandfather was ‘orphan no. 458’). She lectures on education history, and works with NAVSH, on the Bath Spa Postgraduate course for carers and professionals working with care experienced children.

In addition to her PhD research, Kate has also written articles on aspects of the student experience, including carrying out a city-wide project on secondary school students’ attitudes to attendance, which informed Bristol City Council’s Attendance and Inclusion strategies. She has also published on students’ experiences of teaching and learning in Higher Education, on the Prevent Duty programme, and on widening participation in Higher Education.

Kate has also worked as a SEN teaching assistant, and as a foster carer with Bristol City Council, fostering young asylum seekers. She now fosters with Compass, as well as volunteering with Reconstruct, as a mentor for care-experienced young people. In 2019, she collaborated with Bristol City Council on an arts project engaging young people in care with the history of ‘looked after children’, which resulted in an exhibition at City Hall.

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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. Since retiring from teaching at Bath Spa he has concentrated on his research into the effectiveness of attachment aware school approaches, and on supporting ARC. He was a founder trustee of the charity, and coordinates the ARC HE and ITE network.

Richard is also working with NAVSH in delivering 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.

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Tony Clifford
Trustee

Tony has 38 years of experience of working with young people in education, including as Virtual Head teacher for Children in Care in Stoke-on-Trent and as a head and senior leader in secondary mainstream and special schools. He is a former Ofsted Inspector.

Tony has contributed to the development of policy and practice for children in care, care leavers and mental health at a national level, as vice chair of NAVSH and through expert advice to DfE, NICE and SCIE.

He is a trustee of the Attachment Research Community – www.the-arc.org.uk – set up to support all schools and settings to be attachment aware and trauma informed in their
practice.

He is a founder of ‘The House Project’ funded by the DfE to develop a better pathway to independence and housing for Care Leavers www.thehouseproject.org

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Peter Cox
Head of Governance

Peter has 40 years experience as a financial director and consultant in the private, charity and not for profit sectors.

He also has experience as a non executive director in the NHS and private sector and 20 years service as a primary and secondary school governor.

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