Nicola Axford is currently the Education Lead for Children with a social worker at Barnet Virtual School. With a background in secondary education, she has worked in schools in Brent, Lambeth and Wandsworth in a variety of teaching and management roles.

Before working for Barnet, she was a Head of School at a KS4 Pupil Referral Unit in Ipswich where she had a track record of raising outcomes for disadvantaged learners. She believes passionately in providing all young people with the best life chances and works to find positive strategies to help children create their own personal success stories.

Nicola is able to offer support to curriculum and subject leaders in creating an inclusive curriculum, developing effective planning and assessment that addresses the needs of disadvantaged learners. She is also able to help leaders with their strategic planning for vulnerable learners.

Catherine Carroll is an education consultant and university lecturer specialising in inclusion, special educational needs and the education of children and young people in care. Her practice and research interests also include professional supervision for educators and the development of evidence informed practice in schools. For the past ten years she has held senior lecturer/research fellow positions in education at UCL, Roehampton University and currently at St Mary’s university. Catherine’s research has been published in international peer reviewed journals and professional publications. She is an experienced school governor.

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Catherine can offer support in the following areas: SEND, SENCO support, staff supervision, inclusion, and the education of students in care.

Mark Garfield is currently the Assistant Head, Inclusion Manager and Designated Safeguarding Lead at Menorah Foundation School.  He has over 20 years teaching experience, including 10 as a SENCo.  In this capacity, Mark has led both his current and previous school, Akiva, through successful OFSTED inspections, working alongside other senior leaders, governors and colleagues.  Whilst at Akiva two BPSI reviews considered SEND to be outstanding.  Mark is passionate about Inclusion and that every pupil has the ability to succeed.  He has overseen the creation of a sensory room at Menorah Foundation and is now in the process of ensuring the school is dyslexia friendly.   

Mark can offer support in the following areas: formulating and developing a SEND Policy and SEND Information Report; working with parents, governors and other stakeholders; making a request for an EHCP; supporting pupils with challenging behaviour/emotions and learning difficulties.

Jeni has over 17 years of Headteacher experience, ten of which were as an Executive Head; extensive and significant experience of special educational needs at school and county level across different local authorities and 28 years of experience of teaching and leading mathematics, including working as a Primary Strategy Consultant, and obtaining Maths Specialist Teacher status.

Jeni can support your school by offering a wide range of bespoke provision tailored to your needs. This could include professional development and training for your Maths Lead, including effective use of data and how to hold colleagues to account;  delivering small group or whole school staff training on a wide range of teaching, learning and assessment and school improvement aspects; supporting your staff in keeping abreast of changes in education such as the proposed changes in the SEND Green Paper 2022; class based support to improve teaching and learning from Early Years through to Year 6; support for middle and senior leaders to review and improve the use of your chosen schemes of work or professional develop, support and training for middle and senior leaders new to leadership.

Soli Lazarus was formerly the assistant SENCO at Colindale Primary School with 30 years experience. Soli supported children with special needs; including those with cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome, developmental delay, autism and ADHD. Soli is an expert in inclusion, differentiation and planning.

Soli is passionate about ADHD as her son was diagnosed some years ago so has experienced first-hand living with the condition.

In 2015 Soli set up Yellow Sun to support families with ADHD and Autism. She runs support groups and offers advice and coaching. She is presently training teachers and staff on how to effectively support pupils with the neurological condition of ADHD that perhaps affects 2 in every class.

Soli could offer support and training to schools on helping pupils with ADHD.  Practical strategies to use in the classroom that don’t cost a fortune but can make a massive difference to a child’s feelings of self-worth and helping them reach their full learning potential.

Joann Moore has been working in the field of Special Educational Needs and Disability for over 20 years.  She was the Assistant Head Teacher and Inclusion manager at Moss Hall Infant School for 12 years.  During this time OFSTEDs and BPSI reviews considered Inclusion to be outstanding.   Joann has worked in a variety of roles in Barnet, Haringey and Newham and has undertaken considerable work around the implementation of the SEN Code of Practice both in school and with Barnet.  Currently she works as a Pre School Inclusion Teacher at Oakleigh School and the Early Years Centre.  She also works for the specialist team within Barnet and as an Educational Consultant in social care for Camden Local Authority.  She is particularly passionate about Inclusion being at the heart of everything schools do. Joann is able to offer support to SENCos; provide training and advice around all aspects of Inclusion; and provide SEN support for staff, children and families.

Ruth Simpkins is a successful inclusion specialist with over 25 years experience in education. She has worked as a local authority advisory teacher, deputy head teacher, assistant head teacher, resource base manager, teacher and inclusion consultant across six London boroughs. Ruth is an approachable people person who quickly develops positive relationships with all stakeholders in schools. She has successfully mentored many new and inexperienced SENCOs into role and has vast experience of supporting experienced SENCOs, in auditing provision and developing a strategic approach to inclusion in their schools.

Ruth has led on inclusion and safeguarding at 9 different schools and understands the challenges currently facing senior leadership teams. She has vast experience of auditing need and provision in schools, developing inclusion action plans, referring children to outside agencies, setting up effective admin and record keeping systems, developing and monitoring interventions, successfully applying for EHCPs, organising and chairing multi agency meetings and supporting staff in meeting all areas of the SEN code of practice.

Hilary has been working in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) for over 25 years.  A qualified teacher and assistant head at Oakleigh School in Barnet, Hilary leads Barnet’s Pre-school Inclusion Team.  This specialist team advises and supports the inclusion of early years children with SEND in Barnet’s private, voluntary and independent early years settings, in child-minding settings and children’s centres.

Hilary can support schools in the following ways: advise the SENCO and other school staff to help to identify the needs of children with SEND in the early years; offer practical advice regarding specific early years children; support school staff to offer a comprehensive targeted package to each identified early years child with SEND; support the completion of an inclusion audit in the early years; deliver bespoke training to the school SENCO, early years and SEND staff about inclusion and SEND issues in line with recent legislation; offer support and advice to develop an inclusive learning environment in the early years.

Sharon Plummeridge has been a Head Teacher and Deputy Head with more than 29 years teaching experience. Sharon is a very experienced Inclusion lead, NQT induction tutor and mentor. Sharon has also led on ‘School Direct’ across three local authorities. Sharon can offer support and expertise in SEND; organisation & priorities; use of teaching assistants; writing successful EHCP assessments. Sharon can support NQTS, student teachers and new Deputy Head Teachers. She also has considerable experience in training mentors for each of these roles.

Malcolm is a highly motivated and successful educational consultant, trainer, and coach with a strong track record of leading and transforming schools.

He is a Lead Ofsted Inspector with the Qualification for School Inspectors gained through Middlesex University and Tribal in July 2015. He has worked for both Ofsted and the Department for Education (DfE), as an Ofsted Inspector and an Educational Adviser respectively, since 2015. He is a Consultant School Improvement Partner for Haringey Education Partnership and also for a number of other authorities and multi academy trusts across the country.  Malcolm therefore has considerable experience of working directly with schools and supporting them in the raising of standards. During a long career in education, he has nearly twenty years of experience as a headteacher of three different schools, two of which were in particularly challenging circumstances.  He is an EMCC Accredited Coach.  Malcolm is also a self-employed school leader, adviser and consultant and the managing director of LeadingSchs2Success Ltd., an educational consultancy company. He is passionate about education and its ability to enable children to achieve beyond their dreams.

Malcolm offers a wide range of services for schools including headteacher, senior and middle leadership development, subject area audits, whole school reviews, SEND reviews, reading development and training for governors.