Susie Averbrook is an Assistant Headteacher at Colindale Primary School, leading on EMA/EAL throughout the school as well as phase leader for LKS2. She has a wide range of experience from different school communities in London, having worked at Colindale for the past 10 years and prior to this as Deputy Head at Islington Pupil Referral Unit; as a specialist teacher for children with EBD in Southwark, and class teacher in Enfield.

As part of the Senior Leadership Team, Susie’s role of leading the EAL team has involved her working closely with children and families who are New Arrivals to the UK and school community.

Susie has set up a very successful initiative called Parent Champions in her school, which is part of a National Network, helping empower parents through peer-to-peer support; sign-posting other parents to local early education services, such as nurseries and children centres.

Susie can offer support by enabling interested schools to set up their own Parent Champions scheme as part of the new borough wide Barnet Parent Champions Scheme; helping to recruit and train staff and parents in schools, meeting with parent coordinators, organising meetings and networking between the local and National Network of Parent Champions.

Özlem Imil is a qualified and DISC accredited Executive Coach, Facilitator and Trainer. She has 20 years’ experience in education, predominantly in inner London primary schools- as a senior leader, teacher and a coach. During her years as a teacher and senior leader she was known to be an expert in bringing outstanding results to children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Özlem’s current passion is to raise the achievement and well-being of children and young people through raising the achievement and well-being of the adults working with them first.  She is a coach who connects with clients quickly to get to the heart of the matter and is skilled in helping them change mindset, behaviours and habits.  She has a keen eye for detail and is experienced in creating strategic roadmaps to meet individual and organisational needs. As well as one to one coaching and group coaching, Özlem offers facilitation and interpersonal skills training to schools in the areas of leadership, communication, team building, productivity and well-being. She works with leaders, staff at all levels and governors. Her training is designed carefully to meet the individual needs of each school.

Eleanor Martlew has over 20 years’ experience in teaching in secondary and primary schools, with a particular focus on English, Literacy across the Curriculum and working with EAL pupils. Eleanor worked as Secondary English Consultant for Kensington and Chelsea before moving into primary education. She has worked alongside teachers and senior leaders in schools to improve teaching and learning and outcomes for pupils, providing specialist English training, targeted support and coaching. She has run successful school-based projects such as the “Excellence in Reading” project which resulted in higher attainment for pupils in Year 6 across a number of schools in Kensington and Chelsea. Eleanor has supported schools to lead on whole school initiatives, such as Literacy across the Curriculum and Assessment for Learning. She has delivered highly-evaluated training courses for a number of local authorities and bespoke in-service training for schools. Prior to working for Kensington and Chelsea, Eleanor worked in two large secondary schools in Haringey as Ethnic Minority Achievement Coordinator and EAL teacher. Eleanor is able to offer literacy support for reading and writing, in particular with a view to challenging more able pupils. She also has a keen interest in improving teacher subject knowledge and confidence to teach grammar in interactive and engaging ways, both at KS1 and 2.

Helen Myers has over 12 years’ experience in working with children and their families from diverse backgrounds. Helen can offer support on attendance and punctuality, implementing tracking, data collection and putting robust, consistent procedures in place.  Helen was recognised by the Local Authority to deliver a presentation at the Higher Level teaching assistant champions event in Westminster.  Helen has introduced initiatives to support vulnerable families and families with English as an Additional Language. She has delivered training and INSETS in effective use of teaching assistants within the classroom, as well as supporting schools with strategies for good practice in Ethnic Minority Achievement, attendance and punctuality.  Helen’s experience and passion for improving attendance and punctuality has been her motivation for initiating ‘robust and sustainable systems’ that have supported the increase in attendance figures at Queenswell Infant and Nursery School, where she is a Child and Family Support Worker. Helen strongly believes that engaging parents/carers, identifying and addressing their needs effectively, with empathy, building trust, whilst remaining professional and ensuring confidentiality is key to her success. Helen has experience in working with various outside agencies to offer support as very often poor attendance or punctuality are the result of underlying concerns.

Julie Taylor has supported many Barnet schools with different aspects of EMA practice in her role as an Advanced Skills Teacher. She has 25 years of experience in primary education and is currently employed at Martin Primary School. Julie has provided training in race equality and aspects of EMA and inclusive practice for children at different stages of language acquisition. Julie can offer support in the following areas: Induction and assessment of new arrivals; Planning and scaffolding learning for EAL children; Inclusive approaches for EMA pupils: Parent partnership: Developing collaborative learning approaches: Promoting speaking and listening across the curriculum. She is the author of Start with a difference: Promoting Race Equality in the Early Years (2006).