Chris Gittins
Company Co-Director
Chris is the Co-Director of the Northampton Centre for Learning Behaviour (NCfLB) at The University of Northampton. Until recently he was the UK government’s lead adviser for behaviour and attendance in schools, developing national policies, strategies and programmes to support schools in all aspects of learning behaviour and attendance improvement including anti-bullying and violence reduction.
In addition to extensive consultation work in the UK in the field of teacher training in learning behaviour improvement, through the NCfLB he now works with an international team of trainers for UNICEF and the Council of Europe developing national cascade training programmes to help countries implement different aspects of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Chris has recently taken a particular interest in tackling the rising issue of violence towards children in schools. He is the author of the Council of Europe’s Training Pack on Violence Reduction in Schools and has commissioned the e-ViRIS school self review. These materials combine in training programmes for senior staff in schools across the world to help them implement integrated whole school approaches that have proved successful in reducing bullying and violence.
Chris has experience in education leadership including 18 years as the principal of Theale Green Community School, a large co-educational 11-18 school where he developed a reputation for educational initiative. He has an abiding interest in working with young people whose behaviour is challenging.