Nick Burnett
Asia Pacific Director
Nick Burnett has an extensive background in education having worked for over 15 years in the special education field within the UK, in a range of residential and day provision for pupils aged 2 – 19. Since 2004, he has built a reputation as a well-respected trainer, presenter and author within the Asia-Pacific region.
Whilst Nick was a Special School Principal in the UK, OfSTED identified him as ‘an excellent leader’. Nick also undertook a Research Associateship with the National College for School Leadership in England, and as a follow up to this work, he authored a book on Leadership and Special Educational Needs, which gained a ‘Highly Commended’ award by NASEN/TES.
Nick is now based to the north of Brisbane and for the last 5 years he has spent his time supporting staff to better support students with a range of challenging behaviours. Additionally, he has worked with a range of environments and agencies to develop more effective leadership of education settings across the Asia-Pacific region. He has trained over 2000 people in the last 5 years with ratings of over 90% of excellent or very good in all key areas.
FENG Yan (Mary)
FENG Yan (Mary) is an associate professor of Shaoxing University, Zhejiang, China, where she started working since 1986. Her early pre- and in-service teacher education and training includes a BA degree in English Language from Zhejiang Normal University (1986); a Post-Graduate certificate in Applied Linguistics and English Language Teaching from East-China Normal University (1991), and a Post-Graduate Diploma in English Language Teaching from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (1999).
Since 2001, FENG Yan has been serving Shaoxing University as the Deputy Director of the International Office. From 2005-2010, she studied and worked in the University of Northampton, UK where she got her MA (2006) and Ph.D (2009) in Education. She worked in the University as a post-graduate teaching and research assistant (2006-2009); post-doctoral research assistant (2009-2010), and hourly paid lecturer (2007-2010). She has presented papers at international conferences and published a book, book chapters and journal articles on teacher education for inclusion. Her doctoral thesis is on teacher career motivation and professional development in special and inclusive education in China. The Ph.D study was supervised by Professors Richard Rose and Philip Garner from the Centre for Special Needs Education and Research (CeSNER) of the University of Northampton.
FENG Yan is now directing an International comparative study on the status quo and coping strategies of teacher educators at tertiary level for inclusive teacher education. It is a research project funded by the Ministry of Education of China (2011-2014; Reference No.: 11YJA880022). She has just finished a three months’ visiting scholarship in the School of Education of the University of Maryland, the USA (June to August 2012).
Barbara Wynn
Barbara’s work in education extends over 38 years: from social priority schools in Inner London to The Willink School in West Berkshire, where she was headteacher for 14 years. As a student she was a member of the National Executive of the National Union of Students, which involved negotiation with Government officials about various educational issues and she has maintained a particular interest in education within its broader context. In senior management she worked a variety of secondary schools culminating in headship, where her leadership was highly praised by Ofsted.
Since her retirement in 2007 she has been involved in a wide range of consultancy work, with a particular focus on student behaviour, restorative approaches and school leadership. This work has included writing materials for ITT students on behaviour management (now published on the Behaviour 4 Learning web-site) and taking part in a Council of Europe project in Romania on school leadership. Barbara has also recently qualified as a personal performance coach with the Coaching Academy.
Julie Casey
Julie Casey is the Senior Director of The SEAL Consultancy. Before working as a specialist educational psychologist in the areas of Behaviour and Emotional Literacy, Julie spent sixteen years as a teacher, achieving the award of ‘Britain’s Best Teacher’ in 1995.
Since 2003 Julie has played a major role in the development and co-ordination of the English Primary National Strategy Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) materials as a consultant and writer, as well as leading the development of the Primary National Strategy National Behaviour and Attendance Audit for KS1 and KS2, and contributing to a range of training materials for the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) including the Primary Strategy and the National Programme of School Leadership – Behaviour and Attendance.
For the past few years she has been a key member of the Government’s practitioner body which supports and advises the government on issues related to emotional literacy and social, emotional and behavioural skills in schools and also on the government’s Secondary SEAL advisory group. Julie works as a consultant to clients such as the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), local education authorities and a range of educational organisations. The SEAL Consultancy has developed (with Northampton University) the first accredited ‘Post-Graduate SEAL Certificate’ (worth 60 credits at Masters Level).
She is a published author in the field and has written for the Council of Europe on reducing violence in schools and for Lucky Duck and Sage Publications, as well as producing a range of classroom resources (including many which support the development of SEAL). Her most recent publication for Sage is co-authored with Dr. Elizabeth Morris and is entitled ‘Developing Emotionally Literate Staff – A Practical Handbook’.
Lynne Cook
Lynne is currently a senior lecturer in special educational needs and inclusion at Oxford Brookes University. She is programme leader for post-graduate courses in the areas of special educational needs/inclusion, social emotional and behavioural difficulties and early professional development. She also teaches across the Institute on the BA Primary Teacher Education and secondary PGCE courses and supervises MA dissertations.
Lynne is an experienced teacher of young people with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. Previously she has worked as a teacher and Special Educational Needs Coordinator in mainstream secondary schools and pupil referral units and as an advisory teacher for the Oxfordshire Behaviour Support Service. She specialises in working with young people deemed ‘hard to teach’ and developed a unique provision in Birmingham to reconnect disconnected learners with education. She is a freelance trainer and consultant and before joining Oxford Brookes University she was developing the extended schools strategy for Birmingham within the framework of Every Child Matters.
Recently Lynne has worked with an international team of trainers delivering a national cascade training programme for the Georgian Ministry of Education and Science and UNICEF to help implement integrated whole school approaches to reduce bullying and violence in schools.