Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools Conference

Adam is a Learning and Development Specialist at Minds Ahead and he also works as an Assistant Principal: Personal Development at a large (1,800 students) secondary in Barnsley. As part of his role, Adam is the mental health and charity lead and a teacher of history to GCSE and politics at A level.

Adam has a first-class honours degree in History and Politics from Newcastle University where he won the William Laurence Burn Award for outstanding achievement. He was also awarded a fully funded Masters in history from the Arts and Humanities Research Council which he completed with distinction. After completing his teaching qualification, he worked his way up to Assistant Principal and has worked in Barnsley for 11 years.

Adam recently completed the MA in School Leadership in Mental Health and Wellbeing, which he says is one of his proudest achievements. He was asked to be part of an Expert Research Group for the Department for Education, one of only three school leaders to be asked to do so. He was also incredibly proud of his school being awarded the Gold Award for Mental Health from Leeds Beckett.

Adam works with the Local Authority where he helped to introduce the Early Intervention Panel, which he chairs, which meets monthly and is represented by all secondary school, CAMHS, social care, educational psychology, education welfare and a range of other support services. This panel looks at supporting young people and ensure they have the best early intervention possible.

Adam is a proud supporter of Sheffield Children’s Hospital, having raised over £50,000 for them in the past four years and leading on the school being awarded the Educational Establishment Award. 

Andrew Cowley is a speaker and writer on wellbeing for staff and children in addition to being a coach for the Senior Designated Mental Health Leaders course and the School Mental Health Award with Leeds Beckett University. As a former Deputy Headteacher with nearly thirty years in primary classrooms, Andrew’s writing is informed through his experience as a school leader and classroom teacher. Andrew is the author of ‘The Wellbeing Toolkit’ and ‘The Wellbeing Curriculum’ both published by Bloomsbury Education

Anne is a consultant, associate supervisor and facilitator of supervision workshops for Leeds Beckett University. Anne has extensive experience of working as a therapist and supervisor in a variety of educational settings, such as Primary and Secondary Schools, Alternative Provision, Special Schools and 6th Form Colleges. She is therefore particularly adept at designing and delivering supervision services that focus on the different contexts and needs of each individual educational setting. Anne has delivered supervision services in a group and individual context to Headteachers, Deputy Head Teachers, Pastoral Leads and Safeguarding Leads. Anne facilitates monthly group peer supervision sessions for headteachers of special schools. Anne was the director of her own school counselling service for 10 years and this experience allowed her to build long standing relationships with senior education leaders who embedded counselling and supervision services in their schools. Anne also works in private practice and has particular interests in working with neurodiverse children and adults and also in working with trauma.

Claire is the Programme Lead and one of our tutors for The School Mental Health Specialist programme drawing on her expertise and experience from working in the education sector.

Claire has extensive educational experience in both mainstream primary schools and specialist provision gained over the last 23 years. She has been a senior leader in both the EYFS and Primary teaching phases and has always maintained her classroom practice, supporting the children to be the best they can be.

Her passion for young people’s wellbeing led her to her second MA – the MA in School Leadership of Mental Health and Wellbeing through Minds Ahead and Leeds Beckett University – which she has recently completed.

Outside of work, Claire engages in regular yoga and mindfulness sessions which really help her to maintain a balanced sense of wellbeing and is a trained mindfulness teacher.

Clare is a Learning and Development Specialist at Minds Ahead focusing on the DfE-approved programmes for Senior Leads of Mental health. Clare also teaches on the Masters in School Leadership of Mental Health and the new School Mental Health Specialist PGDip.

Clare gained a B.Sc.(Hons) in Psychology and then trained and worked as a primary school teacher in mainstream and specialist settings across London, developing a specialism for working with children with a range of complex additional educational needs. She then worked for eleven years with Hertfordshire County Council, first as an Advisory Teacher for Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs providing advice and training to schools to develop their inclusive practice. As an Early Years SEND Manager of a multidisciplinary team Clare worked with over 100 settings across the county ensuring that staff, children and families were supported to achieve their best outcomes.

In 2015 Clare emigrated to New Zealand and worked for the Ministry of Education as a Special Education Advisor, with a focus on mental health and wellbeing. As a Learning Support Leader for a large primary school in Ōtautahi (Christchurch) Clare gained an understanding of the impact that natural disasters, such as earthquakes can have on emotional health and wellbeing. Another relocation brought Clare back to the UK, where for the last two years Clare worked with Education Psychology Service in Northern Ireland to enhance their model of service delivery.

Clare completed an MSc. in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology and works as a Coaching Psychologist providing psychologically informed coaching to individuals, groups and teams. Clare also works with organisations to design and deliver training programmes focusing on wellbeing and positive mental health.

Outside of work Clare can be found taking long leisurely walks along her local beach with family and friends or reading. She’s also always on the lookout for a decent cup of coffee, any recommendations are gratefully received!

Dean Johnstone is Minds Ahead's CEO and Founder. He launched his own social enterprise to address mental health from a school perspective and draws on the relationships with senior colleagues in the education and mental health sectors which support his work.

The first in his extended family to attend university, Dean was granted a Wilkinson Scholarship to support his studies. Dean successfully completed a BA Management at Nottingham University. Whilst there Dean, was elected to lead the local AIESEC branch, a youth global leadership programme.

Dean worked at the Carnegie Leaders in Learning Partnership where he supported their school leadership programmes. He also completed a Master’s in Management with Distinction. Dean worked at Teach First as Associate Director and at Place2Be where he led the business relationships and operations of the mental health training programmes. He also completed a counselling skills programme.

Dean is currently leading the UK’s first Master’s in School Leadership of Mental Health and have worked with schools to develop the School Mental Health Specialist PGDip or MA programme. Dean regularly speaks at conferences, workshops and consultation events.

In his spare time, Dean is the Chair of Governors at a Primary school and is a Nightstop host, accommodating homeless young people at his home.

With a background in teaching and pastoral experience, George gained a passion for supporting mental health across a wide variety of educational systems. George is an accredited therapeutic counsellor with a specialism in Eating Disorders as well as being a Mental Health & Suicide First Aid Instructor and a Safeguarding Instructor. Through Mind Your Health Ltd George works with schools, both nationally and internationally to develop their knowledge and understanding of mental health and safeguarding. His wealth of knowledge and ability to engage his audience has enabled students, teachers and other staff to gain real-world value from his sessions. From January 2023, George will provide a specific set of workshops for schools and colleges focused on Eating Disorders and the support that schools and colleges can give young people going through one of them.

Jo is the Programme Lead for the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools and one of the tutors on the School Mental Health Specialist programme.

Jo is a qualified Secondary teacher. She started her career as a teacher before joining Teach First where she played a number of key roles during the period of rapid growth for the teacher training and leadership development charity. Jo was Regional Director for the North West and later West Midlands at Teach First, overseeing the programme in these parts of England.

Jo took a career break to help her young boys settle into a new family life. Since 2018, Jo has been Lead Teacher for Alternative Provision in Surrey County Council, where she has fiercely advocated for, and ensured good quality education for, some of the county’s most vulnerable children and young people.

John is a Senior Consultant in the School of Education and is a designer and writer of the leadership CPD short courses, also facilitating delivery of them.  Having previously been the programme manager for the suite of leadership qualifications licensed by the DfE including NPQEL, NPQH, NPQSL and NPQML, he is passionate about leadership development and training. He understands just how important outstanding leadership is, and the incredible positive impacts that it can have on schools, departments, staff and students. He is also interested in quality assurance and leads the DfE’s deep dive process into Senior Mental Health Lead (SMHL) training provision, as well as scoring and moderating applications to be on the SMHL training provider network. He is also involved in strategic partnership work with local schools for two-way development and is always open to new opportunities that may arise.

John has over 19 years’ experience in education and began his teaching career in a large sixth form college, leaving after 14 years, 12 of which were as a Head of Department.  During this time, he implemented curriculum changes and developments tailored to meet students’ needs, allowing his department to remain an Ofsted grade 1 department.  Most recently, he was a Head of Department in a private all-girls’ school where he implemented developmental changes aiding in his department become the highest performing in the school.  He is also a current serving Lead Examiner and Lead Assessment writer for AQA, a which also sees him help to develop new specifications, train new examiners and write training for teachers.

Kate is a Learning and Development Specialist Coach at Minds Ahead, focussing on supporting the DfE funded SMHL programmes, providing coaching supervision for the School Mental Health Specialist programme and supporting the masterclass provision to the wider education community.

Having worked in high schools and sixth form colleges as a teacher and leader for nearly 20 years, Kate brings experience and understanding of the challenges facing schools and their stakeholders in relation to mental health and wellbeing before, during and post pandemic.

Kate completed a Graduate Diploma in Psychology and become a qualified Personal Performance Coach with a special interest in Positive Psychology and supporting anxiety through coaching. Kate also owns her own coaching business supporting hard working professionals to create more balanced, mentally healthy lives.

Dr Lou Mycroft is a writer, thinker and facilitator who works nomadically on culture and systems change programmes. She is co-founder of the changemaker community FE Constellations and of JoyFE, a rhizomatic movement of educators who intentionally practice joy.

Lou has been a Thinking Environment practitioner for nearly 30 years, bringing its simple discipline to meetings, events and other gatherings where ‘freedom needs boundaries’. She is co-founder with Bryony Croft of the social enterprise Thinking Cultures, which leverages the Thinking Environment for culture and systems change.

A former headteacher of an accredited Values-based school, Sue believes in first and foremost creating a culture whereby all stakeholders feel healthy, happy and able to function at their best; as a school leader, Sue demonstrated that this is possible.

A focus on a values-centric environment, mental health and emotional wellbeing is a key aspect of Sue’s identity as an educator, leader, trainer and coach.

Valerie Hannon is a global thought leader, inspiring systems to re-think what ‘success’ will mean in the C 21st, and the implications for education. The co-founder of both Innovation Unit and of the Global Education Leaders Partnership, Valerie is a radical voice for change, whilst grounded in a deep understanding of how education systems currently work.

After a distinguished career within education, Valerie now works independently to support change programs across the world. She has advised governments and worked with systems and schools on every continent, working with some of the most challenged as well as the leaders in education innovation.

Valerie advised the OECD on its Education 2030 project. She is a regular keynote speaker and facilitator at international conferences and workshops, drawing upon her substantial research and publications. Her best-selling book THRIVE has been highly influential.

Valerie was the Australian Learning Lecturer for 2020 on the subject of The Future School. The resulting book FutureSchool is published by Routledge.  In 2021 she received the Edufuturists’ award for Outstanding Achievement in Education.