BSA/TIOB – Annual Boarding Conference
28 January 2025 @ 09:00 - 29 January 2025 @ 17:00
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- Date: January 28-29, 2025
- Time: 09:00 – 17:00
- Audience: All those involved in Boarding
- Cost: BSA/TIOB members: £595, BSA Affiliate members: £895, Non-members: £1190
- Venue: Crowne Plaza, Nottingham
- Accommodation: Discounted rooms available via Roomex
We’re looking forward to welcoming you to our Annual Boarding Conference on January 28-29, 2025.
Chaired by Will Goldsmith, Headmaster, Packwood Haugh School, the theme is ‘Boarding perspectives: Learning within, Leading beyond’.
Come together with colleagues to consider the latest trends, challenges and opportunities in boarding. Sessions will range from compliance to health, from pro-active inclusion to boarding on a budget, and from life skills to strategy.
The conference also includes the BSA/TIOB Annual Conference Dinner, which will take place on January 29, 2025.
Delegates can book overnight accommodation using the online booking platform, Roomex. Click here to login and secure your room using your school email address.
Conference Chair:
Will Goldsmith, Conference Chair 2025 and Head, Packwood Haugh School
William Goldsmith has a career spanning almost twenty years in boarding education and leadership. He is currently Head of Packwood Haugh School. William is passionate about a skills and mindset-based learning philosophy and has a background in emotional wellbeing and mental health. He is a founding fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and Royal Society of the Arts.
Speakers:
Candice Brathwaite, writer and TV personality
Candice is a critically acclaimed writer and TV personality with over half a million devotees on social media. Successful in non-fiction and fiction spaces, her first book I am not your Baby Mother, examining the inequalities of Black motherhood, was a Sunday Times Bestseller. Her hit podcast Closet Confessions has amassed millions of downloads and tours nationally. Candice is Contributing Editor to Grazia and regularly appears on national radio and television news channels where she is a straight-talking and courageous voice on achieving your goals, fashion, family and the Black British experience.
Mark Buckler, Deputy Head (Pastoral), St Andrew’s School, Turi
Mark has served at St Andrew’s School, Turi in Kenya for the past seven years alongside his family. Previously, he held leadership roles at Kingham Hill School in Oxfordshire, including Head of Conduct and Head of Art. Mark recently earned distinction for his master’s dissertation, which focused on the pressing issue of bullying perpetration in an East African school context. His research continues to inform his work, equipping both the school and the wider community with strategies to foster a positive, proactive approach to addressing bullying and promoting healthy relationships among young people and adults.
Ben Collingwood, Partner, Moore Barlow
Ben specialises in advising independent schools and other charities on wide ranging areas of education law, with particular focus on reputation issues, pastoral, safeguarding, historic abuse allegations, SEN, exclusions, parent/pupil complaints, data protection, parent contracts, admissions and staff matters of all types.
He has written and spoken widely on issues facing the independent schools sector, providing comment in The Times, The Guardian, The Lawyer and Law Society’s Gazette and at the national conferences and training programmes for the various associations that support independent schools including BSA, ISBA, HMC, IAPS and AGBIS.
He lives with his wife and three children in West Sussex. He has been a devoted surfer since his childhood and he loves to spend as much of his free time as possible in the sea and walking their pointers with his family.
Jamie Daniels, Director, PRS Training
Jamie has been interested in and teaching self-defence and martial arts for thirty years, culminating in learning and instructing Krav Maga. In that time he has seen again and again how it’s not martial arts people need, rather it is some simple physical techniques and a healthy dose of understanding as to what constitutes a dangerous situation, how to spot one developing, and what to do about it. As well as a history in the security industry, Jamie has been working in the education sector for over 15 years. This has also helped Jamie understand the pressures and demands that young people face today.
Wendy Griffiths, Chair, Independent Schools Examinations Board
Wendy has been Chair of the Board of the Independent Schools Examinations Board (ISEB) since February 2022. Before this she was Head of Tudor Hall School, an all-girls full boarding school. She has held the senior leadership roles of Director of Studies at St Catherine’s School, Bramley, and Senior Mistress at Tormead School, Guildford. During her time as Head Wendy was the Chair of the Boarding Schools’ Association (BSA), a member of the Executive of the Girls’ Schools Association (GSA) and Chair of the GSA Boarding Committee. She has previously served on board of five boarding prep schools and is currently on the board of Westbourne House School, Chichester and on the Council of Wycombe Abbey.
Ed Gyde, CEO, Audience Social Marketing, whose campaign experience includes delivering the ‘Talk to FRANK’ and ‘5 a day’ initiatives
Ed has lived and breathed health campaigns for two decades. Coming from a medical family he is Audience Social Marketing’s public health lead and has shaped many of the biggest national public health campaigns: ‘5 a day’, Talk to FRANK (drugs education) and Know Your Limits (alcohol education).
Dr Jasmine Khouja, Senior Research Associate, The Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, University of Bristol
Jasmine’s work focuses on the causes and consequences of e-cigarette use as well as the potential impact that e-cigarette policy changes could have on adult smokers, adult vapers and young people. Using a range of methods (including novel methods in genetic epidemiology), she has explored a wide variety of topics, including the gateway hypothesis, possible health effects of vaping, and the potential impact of hypothetical e-liquid flavour bans. The overall aims of Jasmine’s research are to reduce health inequalities and to provide supporting evidence for policies and regulations which protect young people from harm and discourage smoking.
Andrea Kis, Doctoral Researcher, University of Sussex
Andrea lived in China from 2010 to 2019, where she tutored and mentored middle school students, taught at the Sir Horace Kadoorie Youth Development Center, Sino-British College, and at both JiaoTong and FuDan Universities in Shanghai. She is currently a departmental tutor in the Social Anthropology Department at the University of Sussex, leading a seminar on Ethnography through Film while completing the final draft of her doctoral thesis on Chinese families’ elite education-migration to the UK.
Ian Lloyd, Interim Deputy Head, LVS Ascot
Ian has taken a rather non-standard route into education after having enjoyed successful careers in both engineering and financial services sectors. During the first 14 years of his career, Ian trained as an apprentice aircraft technician at British Aerospace before moving into high-street banking, personal finance, occupational pensions and high net worth client investment planning. Moving into education in the early noughties, he now has 20 years’ experience in the sector, working in local government and state secondary schools before switching to the independent boarding school sector 8 years ago as Senior Deputy Headmaster of Myddelton College in North Wales and most recently Interim Deputy Head of LVS Ascot. He is passionate about the judicious use of technology to support teaching, learning and streamlining the administrative functions of education, saving staff valuable time to focus on what they do best – supporting, guiding and teaching children.
Adam McRae-Taylor, Legal Director, Moore Barlow
Adam specialises in employment and education law and advises on issues such as unfair dismissal, discrimination cases, safeguarding, parent contracts and data protection. Adam trained and qualified in employment law with a Magic Circle firm in London. Before joining the Schools & Charities Team at Moore Barlow, he spent two years working in-house for a charity.
Simon Pither, Director, PRS Training
Simon started martial arts at a local Judo club when he was 14. Ten years later he got his first instructor qualification and has been teaching martial arts and running self-defence courses ever since, culminating in his current role as the President of the UK Sector of the European Federation of Krav Maga. While running courses for students, teachers, nurses, community clubs, charities and corporate organisations over the years, it became apparent that everyone wished they had learned it earlier.
Chris Pyle, Head, Lancaster Royal Grammar School
Chris is Chair of the BSA State Boarding Forum. He has been Head of Lancaster Royal Grammar School since 2012. The school has grown significantly over that period and has welcomed Sixth Form girls as boarders and day students. It has been judged Outstanding in all categories in three successive Ofsted boarding inspections. Chris was previously Deputy Head of the Perse School, Cambridge. Before becoming a teacher he completed a PhD in Geography at Cambridge University and also worked in the water industry. He holds the NPQH, is currently studying for the NPQEL in school leadership, and is Executive Lead of the NNW Maths Hub. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and regularly writes resources for schools on natural hazards and environmental change.
Paddy Rockett, Head of Middle School Boarding, Reed’s School
Paddy Rockett is the Head of Middle School Boarding/Housemaster at Reed’s School in Surrey. Paddy has been through the Pastoral Care module and Boarding Management module run by the BSA and is currently completing his Masters in Residential Education with the University of Buckingham. His current area of research is focussed on the development of life skills in boarding houses and the development of a national programme for life skills development.
Previously, Paddy was a lead in the “Broadening the Curriculum” strategy of the University of Limerick designing a social responsibility module undertaken by first year students. As a Biology teacher he is interested in the use of VR and AR in the teaching of Science. He is also in interested in Pastoral care, the development of Boarding nationally and internationally and social mobility.
G
uy Schady-Beckett, Director and Head of Research, Next Step Education
Guy has served as Director and Head of Research at Next Step Education Limited
(Independent Schools Show & Bonas MacFarlane) since 2014. Previously he ran Drayson Beckett Limited, a specialist education consultancy working long-term with schools and universities on business development (with a focus on digital
transition), market research and brand / product repositioning for 20 years. Prior to that he taught English at Windlesham and Durston House. He holds a PhD and an MA in History from Birkbeck, University of London, with distinction honours, as well as a second MA from University of the Arts London. His BA was in English from UCL.
Ashley Smith, Deputy Head of Boarding, Worthgate School
Ashley has quickly risen through the ranks at Worthgate in just under three years. Beginning at Worthgate on a zero-hour contract without experience in education or boarding, and originally from a background in printing, the transition into boarding has revealed a deep-seated purpose and passion for working with young people. Promoted to Deputy Head of Boarding in August 2024, Ashley has a desire to guide students through their unique journeys, striving to foster a nurturing environment and shape positive, supportive, and impactful experiences for students and staff alike.
Lotte Tulloch, Head, Denstone College
Lotte was previously the Deputy Head of Sedbergh School and a member of the Senior Leadership Team of Casterton, Sedbergh Preparatory School. Lotte was educated at Loretto School, Edinburgh and was awarded a Morehead-Cain Scholarship to the University of North Carolina where she graduated with a BA with Distinction in English Literature. Lotte gained her PGCE in secondary education from Buckingham University and studied for her Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA Education) at Keele University. Lotte has significant international experience and is passionate about British schools as pedagogical centres of excellence around the world. A champion of diversity and accessibility in independent education, Lotte is an accomplished musician and a passionate fell runner.
Jessica Watts, House Matron, Abbey College Cambridge
Jessica joined the boarding sector in September 2023 after a long career in NHS management, working in hospitals, ambulance services and public health, having graduated in anatomical sciences and subsequently studied for a masters in health services management. Jessica currently works at Abbey College Cambridge, an independent sixth form college, as a House Matron, having started as a House
Parent. Jessica is also a member of the Human Tissue Authority which regulates the use of human tissues and organs, and holds sports volunteering positions in cricket and swimming.
David Wright, CBE, CEO, SWGfL and Director, UK Safer Internet Centre
David has worked extensively in online safety for 20 years with children, schools and wider agencies. He advises a number of governments, organisations and industry partners on online safety strategy and policy and has been appointed an expert child online protection adviser to the UN ITU and nominated by UK Government as an expert to the Council of Europe Tech Facilitated Gender Based Violence committee. David is a member of the UK Council for Internet Safety and has recently been invited to be a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Coalition for Digital Safety. David has led pioneering work, such as the development of multi award winning resources and helplines for victims of online harm and, with Plymouth University, published a number of ground-breaking research reports.
Speakers from the BSA Team:
Kate Hollyer, Executive Director, Legal & Public Affairs & Partner, BSA Group
Kate is Legal and Public Affairs Director of BSA Group and Director of BSA Legal Services Ltd. As a qualified solicitor with more than 10 years’ experience advising clients on UK immigration law, Kate assists members with all immigration and safeguarding legal matters. Prior to joining BSA in 2022 Kate was Partner and Head of Department at a leading full-service UK law firm. Having resided in state, preparatory and senior school boarding houses since 2014 with her Housemaster husband, Kate has a unique perspective of boarding life.
Bethan Hudson, Executive Director Specialist Services and Director, BAISIS, BAISIS
Bethan joined the BSA team as Training Manager in September 2017. Bethan has worked in two independent boarding schools in the UK and Switzerland, the latter as Housemistress to 36 pupils. Following her time in Switzerland, she was a Pastoral Manager for an inner-city state academy before working in the charity sector for Debrett’s running the ‘Debrett’s Foundation’ training programme.
In her role, Bethan plans and manages all Day Seminars, Conferences, INSET and Consultancy, as well as being Director of BAISIS. She believes boarding can be a positive force for young people and in order to fully support their needs staff can never learn too much. As such she is passionate about the CPD BSA delivers to our pastoral communities in the UK and worldwide.
Aileen Kane, Chief Operating Officer, BSA Group
Aileen is COO of BSA Group, and the Director of SACPA (Safeguarding and Child Protection Association). Aileen leads operations at BSA providing guidance and training and works closely with government departments, local authorities and other agencies to support members. She heads up the group’s work to find places for refugee children escaping from conflict countries and is also a trustee for a children’s charity.
David Walker, Executive Director, Boarding and Director BSA/TIOB
David is the Executive Director, Boarding and Director BSA/TIOB and joined the BSA group in August 2023. He has over 20 years’ experience in boarding schools and has worked in a range of schools in the UK and Africa, alongside being a prep school governor and a trustee of a MAT. Before taking up his post at the BSA, David was Deputy Head Pastoral at a large co-ed independent school in the South-East.
Dale Wilkins, Executive Director, Scotland/Wales and Accredited/Compliance, BSA Group
Dale joined the BSA in 2017 with responsibility for safeguarding and standards, having previously been a course tutor since 1998. In 2019 he also assumed responsibility for the BSA’s training programme, including both day seminars and accredited training courses. Dale leads on all safeguarding and inspection matters for the BSA, including managing the Commitment to Care Charter, and has developed a process of BSA Accreditation for our international members. He also liaises with ISI, Ofsted and DfE on matters relating to compliance and inspection standards, and compiles the BSA Self-Assessment toolkit, which he first produced in 2002, since which time he has been closely involved in inspection in state and independent boarding.
For 31 years Dale was a boarding practitioner. After boarding positions at Norwich School and Tettenhall College, Dale became a Housemaster at Old Swinford Hospital in 1992, and was promoted to Deputy Head in 2007, and subsequently also DSL. He has also been a multi-agency trainer for the Dudley Safeguarding Children’s Board.
Exhibiting and sponsorship: We are delighted to be able to offer sponsorship and exhibition opportunities at this event. For full details please reach out to Neil Rust, Head of Commercial neil.rust@bsagroup.org.uk or Laura Brain, Senior Commercial Consultant, +44 (0)207 798 1580, laura.brain@bsagroup.org.uk
