Speakers Corner

Since 2007, ICT for Education has had a great variety of speakers at its conferences from all educational sectors within the UK. Our alumni of speakers are listed below. Thanks to all of them for their contributions to our conferences to date and hopefully in years to come.

If you would like to speak at an ICT for Education conference, please contact Sarah Underwood.

Laura O'hare

Texthelp

Further Education Manager

Laura is the Further Education Manager at Texthelp and passionately champions Texthelp’s student support tools, to help colleges deliver inclusion and accessibility to each and every student. Currently in her seventh year with the company, her role sees her working with colleges and events throughout the UK and Ireland to share the benefits of assistive technologies for student learning and teaching support. She supports colleges in onboarding Texthelp tools, such as Read&Write and EquatIO, to empower students within the areas of literacy, maths, continual assessment and formal exams, and help them to reach their full potential.

Matt Hogan

Alderley Edge School for Girls. / (ICT teacher)

Matt Hogan has been head of ICT and elearning co-ordinator in Cheshire schools for over 17 years, working across five very different schools. He leads training sessions for primary and secondary teachers throughout the UK and is a Pearson National Trainer. Matt is currently working in schools to identify the impact of elearning on students’ engagement and achievement, while also teaching ICT and Computing at Alderley Edge School for Girls. He is an Apple Teacher with Swift Playground recognition alongside being a Certified Microsoft Innovative Educator and is an Associate Member of the British Computing Society.

Miles Berry

Computing Education, University of Roehampton

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 headteacher. His research interests include the pedagogies of computer science education and informal learning. He is a former chair of Naace and continues to serve on its board of management. He is also a member of the management board of Computing At School (CAS) and the UK Forum for Computing Education. He is a fellow of the BCS, RSA and HEA.
Over the years, Miles 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 award winning Rising Stars Switched on Computing, Barefoot Computing, Code Club Pro's training materials and QuickStart Computing.

Patrick McGrath

Education technology specialist, Texthelp

Patrick is the resident EdTech champion at Texthelp. A passionate educator, Patrick is an accomplished international speaker focusing on engaging sessions on how technology can make a real and meaningful impact on teaching and learning for all. An Apple Education Mentor and Google Certified Educator, Patrick received the UK Digital Leader 100 award in 2016 and is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Ulster (School of Education). He’s worked with thousands of schools on areas such as literacy, inclusion, educational vision and planning, leadership, and change management.

Paul Ducklin

Paul Ducklin has been many things at Sophos: programmer, malware analyst, technical supporter, public speaker, security evangelist, and now proselytiser. (That's like an evangelist, but more so.)

These days, Paul spends most of his time writing for Sophos's award-winning community website, Naked Security, where he has built up a global reputation as the go-to guy for explaining even the most technical issues in plain language.

Peter Marshman

Peter is head of Computer Science and ICT at Leighton Park School

Peter is head of Computer Science and ICT at Leighton Park School and an Advanced Skills Teacher and DfE Master Teacher who was recently awarded the ICT Facility of the Year Award for 2018. He recently helped secure £100 million for Computing education in his role on the working group for the Royal Society ‘After the Reboot’ report. He is an advocate of Computer Science in schools and is an advisor for gender and diversity in STEM education, providing teacher training and developing creative Computing resources that focus on unplugged learning such as those promoted on the BBC Cracking the Code series and BBC’s Panorama ‘Could a robot do my job?’

Sarah Zaman

National Centre of Computing Education

Sarah Zaman is a primary school teacher of over 20 years who has always taken on the role of leading Computing /ICT in each of the schools she has taught in. She has recently joined the newly established team of CAS Community Outreach Managers, with which she is working hard to increase CAS activity in the North East. She also works for the newly launched National Centre of Computing Education promoting and providing guidance to teachers on the computing CPD courses available in the North East.

Simon Finch

Northern Grid / (eSafety Officer)

Presenter and guide on elearning, esafety, safeguarding, IPR and themes relating to technology and learning.
Over 20 years experience in leading workshops and training sessions for adults and young people in the UK and other countries.
Keynote, conference and exhibition speaker for Becta, Regional Broadband Consortia, universities, LSCBs, local authorities, schools and public services and charities.

2013 NAACE Impact Award winner for leadership 'for his commitment to ensuring a safe and supportive learning environment for the education sector.’

Simon Howe

Head of ICT at Ashton on Mersey school

Simon Howe is head of ICT at Ashton on Mersey school, where he leads and delivers the Computer science and ICT curriculum from Key Stage 3 to Key stage 5. In addition, Simon is a Google Qualified individual, Raspberry Pi educator, CAS master teacher and SLE, who prides himself on developing innovative ways to deliver the Computer Science curriculum across all key stages.

Prior to becoming a teacher, Simon was a backend web developer, focusing on database driven websites. Simon firmly believes the best way to educate pupils and build resilience is through real world experiences and physical computing to motivate and engage pupils in both the classroom and at home.

Simon Hunt

Tottington Primary School.

Simon recently shot to international stardom as the dance floss teacher, although he does teach from time to time! He is the current ‘Inspirational Teacher of the Year’ of Greater Manchester. Simon is a senior leader of education and Year 4 teacher at Tottington Primary School. He has also taught in Reception, Year 3 and 6 in his teaching career so far. Simon loves using technology and Skype and taking ‘risks’ in his classroom through a growth mindset approach to teaching and learning. He has also appeared on the BBC and ITV where he has discussed issues and his thoughts on educational issues.