BSA/TIOB – Annual Boarding Conference
28 January 2025 @ 09:00 - 29 January 2025 @ 17:00
-
- 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.
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.
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.
Robin Fletcher, CEO, BSA Group
Robin Fletcher is CEO of BSA Group, comprising BAISIS (British Association of Independent Schools with International Students), BSA (Boarding Schools’ Association), BSA Legal, HIEDA (Health in Education Association) SACPA (Safeguarding and Child Protection Association) and TIOB (The Institute of Boarding). A former journalist, editor and communications director, Robin is a non-executive director of the manufacturers’ trade body Make UK, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Honorary Fellow of Cardiff Metropolitan University.
Will Goldsmith, 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.
Wendy Griffiths, Chair, Independent Schools Examinations Board
Wendy Griffiths was Headmistress at Tudor Hall from January 2004 to December 2021, where she made the school motto Habeo ut dem, “I have that I may give”, part of every day life with a huge focus on giving back to the community both locally and across the world. She has also served as a Governor of five prep schools. She was chairman of the Boarding Schools’ Association in 2014/2015 and a member of the executive for six years. She also chaired the GSA Boarding Committee and served on the GSA executive. Wendy is currently Chair of ISEB joining at a time of significant change and innovation within the organisation. Wendy’s drive is challenging girls to allow them to gain the confidence needed to fulfil their potential.
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).
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.
Dr Jasmine Khouja, Senior Research Associate, The Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, University of Bristol
Professor Jessica Ringrose, Co-director, UCL Centre for Sociology of Education and Equity
Jessica has lived and conducted research in England for 21 years, developing an extensive public engagement profile and informing policy and practice across education, communications, health and justice. Her research specialisms are youth digital cultures and online safety. Recent projects focus on developing education to prevent tech-facilitated gender-based and sexual violence and online misogyny. She is a widely cited and internationally recognized expert in these fields and in 2020 was the recipient of The American Educational Research Association (AERA) Distinguished Contributions to Gender Equity in Education Award. Her latest book, Teens, Social Media and Image Based Abuse, is out in early 2025.
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.
Guy Schady-Beckett, Director and Head of Research, Next Step Education
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.
David Wright
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.
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
