Public appointees

published:31 Aug 2009

The following people have been appointed to sit on the GTC Council:

Clare Craig: Centrally employed teacher
Janet Draper: Senior lecturer
Sheba Joseph: Teacher
Zubair Khan: School governor
Rebecca Kroese: Teacher
Nasreen Majid: Teacher
Stephanie Mason: Accountant
Aamer Naeem: Adult trainer and facilitator
Sue Netherton: Parent governor
Adam Nichols: Chief Executive, Changemakers Foundation
Carl Phillips: Teacher
Sally Townsend: Teacher
Jason Whyborn: Teacher

Scroll down for member biographies.


Clare Craig: Centrally employed teacher
Clare is a centrally employed teacher who was first appointed to the Council in September 2008 via the public appointments process.

She has been working for 16 years as a centrally employed teacher in the East Sussex Early Years Teaching and Support Service. Clare works with children aged 0 - 5 with special educational needs at home, at pre-school and in reception classes.

Clare provides support and training to parents, pre-school practitioners and teachers. This involves working closely with other professionals such as speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and educational psychologists.

She has a particular interest in supporting the educational and communication needs of children with physical disabilities through the use of AAC (augmentative and alternative communication).

Clare also trains parents and practitioners to use Makaton signing. She is a facilitator for the multi-agency Family Partnership course.

Declaration of interests

None declared.


Janet Draper: Senior lecturer

Janet was appointed to the Council by the public appointment process in September 2005.  She currently sits on the Policy and Research Committee and on the Teacher Learning Academy Special Governance Group.

Janet has worked in Higher Education for most of her career, both teaching and researching education. She has been involved in the initial preparation and career-long professional development of teachers for many years. Her research focuses on the experience, work and careers of teachers from newly inducted teachers to highly experienced teachers and headteachers.

Until 2004, Janet worked in Scotland where her research and professional interests brought her into regular contact with the Scottish GTC.  She then moved to Devon to join the staff at the School of Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of Exeter.  She has been on leave of absence at Hong Kong Baptist University since 2007 where she teaches undergraduates and postgraduates in education, researches teachers’ careers and development and teachers’ work life balance. She continues to attend GTC meetings and hearings regularly.

Declaration of interests

a) Posts held in the course of full and part time employment, self employment or practice, including partnerships and directorships.

• Professor of Education Hong Kong Baptist University

c) Membership of professional bodies and trade or other associations which is unpaid, either educational or non-educational

• Scottish Educational Research Association

Sheba Joseph: Teacher

Sheba is a centrally employed teacher with Gateshead Council as well as an associate lecturer teaching ESOL at Gateshead College.  She is a secondary English teacher but teaching is a second career for her. Prior to becoming a teacher Sheba worked for 14 years in the Financial Services Sector – namely in banking and insurance.

At Gateshead Council she is currently working on two projects.  The first is as an Adviser on a project called MERIT (Black and Minority Recruitment into Teaching).  This project has been set up by local teacher training providers in collaboration with the TDA, Aimhigher and EMTAS  at Gateshead Council.  It aims to increase the recruitment of BME trainee teachers in the North-East.  The other project Sheba is working on is the Schools Linking Project.  This is again run through EMTAS and facilitates the pairing of diverse schools within the borough to achieve community cohesion by bringing children together to recognise their own identities and celebrate diversity.

Sheba is also an ESOL tutor and has taught at Gateshead College since 2003.  In recent years she has been mainly teaching 16-19 year-olds and has also been delivering a course in citizenship. 

She is particularly interested in working on equality and diversity issues through developing links within the community, seeking ways in which to support minority ethnic groups and to establish long term sustainable opportunities for children and adults.  Sheba feels our schools will benefit from cultural input through the presence of staff from different ethnic and religious backgrounds.

She is married with two children and a dog.  Her hobbies, which centre around her family and friends, are cooking, entertaining and travelling.

Declaration of Interests

a) Posts held in the course of full and part time employment, self employment or practice, including partnerships and directorships.

• MERIT Adviser – Gateshead Council. The post has been set up by the TT providers in the North-East with assistance from the TDA to encourage and help BME candidates to enter into teaching.
• Schools Linking Project, Operations Manager - Gateshead Council. 
• ESOL and Citizenship Tutor – Gateshead College.

c) Membership of professional bodies and trade or other associations which is unpaid, educational or non-educational 

• Membership of the Institute for Learning (IfL)
• NASUWT member.

No other interests to declare.

Zubair Khan: School governor

Zubair Khan is a Forensic Scene Manager with West Midlands Police, currently stationed at Solihull Operational Command Unit. He is a diversity champion and first contact advisor within the organisation to promote diversity and equalities issues and to deal with workplace conflict issues.

He has extensive experience in dealing with diverse community issues and working with partners to resolve same partnership working. He is currently a lay Member of Employment Tribunals and a Member of the Disability Living Allowance Advisory Board.

He is passionate about serving the needs of community and to ‘making a difference’ to the lives of children and creating a better and tolerant society.

Declaration of Interests

a) Posts held in the course of full and part time employment, self employment or practice, including partnerships and directorships

• Forensic Scene Manager

b) Any unpaid office held in a professional or public body, including those which are associated with education. Offices include posts such as President, Chair, Chief Executive, Treasurer, Council Member or Secretary

• Disability Living Allowance Advisory Board
• BBC Children in Need Committee

c) Membership of professional bodies and trade or other associations which is unpaid, educational or non-educational

• Transport and General Workers Union Representative

No other interests to declare.


Rebecca Kroese: Teacher

Rebecca currently teaches a reception class in a small village first school in Northumberland.

She is committed to schools helping every child to reach their full potential and celebrating all forms of talent from the earliest age. Rebecca has led on whole school change and creative learning and wishes to see the widest variety of opportunities for learning to occur within and beyond the classroom. She is passionate about music and actively promotes children and adults singing as an integral part of the school day.

She has benefited greatly from a co-mentoring programme and believes that this type of cross-professional networking has a great deal to offer - she is keen to develop such opportunities.

Before her current role Rebecca worked with excluded young people, taught NVQ Level 3 qualification to Teaching Assistants, worked as a supply teacher and wrote for the Teletubbies website.

She is the proud mother of three children.

No interests to declare.

Nasreen Majid: Teacher

Nasreen started her teaching career in the borough of Newham in 1997. Her drive for working in education has always been to raise the level of achievement and aspiration of young people. She has had a range of roles and responsibilities in her 11-year career which has given her the breadth of experience needed to enhance the learning experience of young people.

She gained Advanced Skills Teacher status for the teaching of mathematics and science in December 2002. With this role, she has worked with local schools to develop the teaching and learning within schools. Nasreen currently works as an acting deputy where her responsibilities include assessment, staffing, CPD and monitoring the teaching and learning in school.

Between 2004 and 2006, she took up a teaching post at The British International School (BIS) in Jakarta, Indonesia. Teaching at BIS enabled her to see the development of teaching and learning in a British school on the international stage. During her second year at BIS she had the responsibility to lead on the teaching and learning of mathematics across the primary school.

Nasreen is currently undertaking a Masters in Education and International Development for which she has done extensive research on educational policy for a range of countries. She is specifically looking at the education system in Pakistan and the gender disparities found in the distribution of educational opportunities in the country.

Nasreen os looking forward to being a Member of the GTC and developing her own skills further.

Stephanie Mason: Accountant

Stephanie is a qualified accountant (fellow of Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales).  For the last 15 years she has worked predominantly in the education, learning and skills and charity sectors.

Stephanie currently works for Baker Tilly, leading the work that the firm carries out in the learning and skills and further education sectors.  Prior to joining Baker Tilly, Stephanie worked for the Further Education Funding Council as a regional finance director.

Stephanie’s role includes providing consultancy and audit services to colleges and other organisations working in the sector.  She is a regular commentator on sector issues in the firm’s own newsletter and external publications.  She runs seminars, speaks at conferences and delivers bespoke training sessions to boards.

Stephanie has a particular interest in governance.

Declaration of Interests

c) Membership of professional bodies and trade or other associations which is unpaid, educational or non-educational

• Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales

d) Members must provide details of any connection, or relationship, they may have with any body which supplies goods or services too, or is involved in any other commercial transaction with the General Teaching Council for England    

• Baker Tilly previously carried out the audit of the General Teaching Council for   England under contract from the National Audit Office. Baker Tilly no longer have this role.

No other interests to declare.

Aamer Naeem: Adult trainer and facilitator

Aamer Naeem is a qualified adult trainer and facilitator. A pharmacist by profession, he completed his MBA from Nottingham University Business School with distinction and is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership & Management and the Royal Society of Arts. With experience across private, public and voluntary sectors, Aamer is the Director of Innov8 Creative Solutions - a management consultancy working predominantly in the third sector, an associate consultant with the Community Development Foundation (CDF) and Chair of Trustees for The Charity Network. He coordinates the Muslim Council of Britain’s Leadership Development Programme and has developed and delivered similar programmes for other regional agencies such as Woking Borough Council and the Bolton Council of Mosques.  

Declaration of Interests

a) Posts held in the course of full and part time employment, self employment or practice, including partnerships and directorships

• Director, Innov8 Creative Solutions Ltd
• Director, Innov8 Creative Training Ltd
• Director, Muslim Business Services Ltd

b) Any unpaid office held in a professional or public body, including those which are associated with education. Offices include posts such as President, Chair, Chief Executive, Treasurer, Council Member or Secretary

• Chair, The Charity Network

c) Membership of professional bodies and trade or other associations which is unpaid, educational or non-educational

• Member, The Royal Pharmaceutical Society
• Fellow, Royal Society of Arts
• Fellow, Institute of Leadership Management

No other interests to declare.

Sue Netherton: Parent governor

Sue Netherton is currently a parent governor of Wellsway School, Keynsham and has previous experience as a governor of a Church of England Primary School in Somerset.  She was appointed as a lay member of the Council from 1 September 2009.

After a career in the Ministry of Defence spanning nearly 30 years Sue took early retirement in 2007 and now works part time almost exclusively in her preferred area of gender diversity and equality.   Her previous experience includes change management consultancy, project finance, support to Ministers and various HR activities.

Sue was awarded a Post Graduate Certificate in Managing Diversity by the University of London in 2006.  Her dissertation was research-based and explored the gap between policy and practice in respect of the achievement of work-life balance.

Sue is married with two daughters. 

No interests to declare.

Adam Nichols: Chief Executive, Changemakers Foundation

Adam has over a decade’s experience of empowering and promoting the interests of children and young people across a wide range of settings.

Following several years of local and national youth activism, he began his career as a Campaigns Organiser with the Trades Union Congress. His work, which was focused on raising young people’s awareness of their employment rights, became the subject of a BBC fly on the wall documentary.  He then spent two years at the National Union of Students, the largest youth organisation in the world, where he was responsible for two national government funded projects focused on student skills development. In 2001, he moved to CRAC, the Cambridge based career development organisation, to set up a national accreditation scheme for work experience, going on to become Head of Business Development. 

Adam joined Changemakers in 2004, where he has engineered a fivefold increase in the organisation’s scale and scope, to the point where it now reaches over 12,000 young people per year.  He is a prominent and widely respected speaker, writer and influencer and has helped to shape many of the key youth policy developments of recent years including the rollout of enterprise education in schools, the Russell commission and establishment of youth volunteering body ‘v’ and the government’s Aiming High ten year youth strategy.  Most recently he launched ‘The Youth of Today’, the government’s new National Body for Youth Leadership.

Adam is a member of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary organisations and he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2006.  In 2009 he was appointed as a Member under the public appointments process of the General Teaching Council for England.

Adam lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and daughter.  Away from Changemakers, he is Artistic Director of St Albans based theatre company OVO and a passionate supporter of Liverpool Football Club. 

Declaration of Interests

a) Posts held in the course of full and part time employment, self employment or practice, including partnerships and directorships

• Chief Executive of Changemakers Foundation

b) Any unpaid office held in a professional or public body, including those which are associated with education. Offices include posts such as President, Chair, Chief Executive, Treasurer, Council Member or Secretary

• Chair of OVO Theatre Company

c) Membership of professional bodies and trade or other associations which is unpaid, educational or non-educational

• Fellow of Royal Society of Arts
• Member of Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations

f) Family interests: Please list any interest of yourself, your partner or close family members that might be considered relevant to your position on the Council or in the business dealings of the GTC.

• My wife has just completed her initial teacher training and will be starting employment as a newly qualified teacher in September 2009 in a primary school in Hertfordshire.

No other interests to declare.

Carl Phillips: Teacher

Carl came into the teaching profession as a mature entrant having worked in industry for over 12 years. His experience of not always having been a teacher has given him an understanding of how the profession can sometimes be perceived by others and, because of this, he looks forward to being able to bring a different perspective to the work of the council. During his 14 years as a teacher he has worked in inner city schools and in areas of socio-economic disadvantage.

In the past he has had the opportunity to work closely with teacher trainers, student teachers and NQT’s as a university mentor. He has contributed to action research projects based on the effective use of ICT in enhancing teaching and learning and his experience of Masters-level study gave him an appreciation of the impact that research-led practice can have raising standards within the profession. Carl has worked as a middle leader for most of his time as a teacher which has given him an insight into the importance of CPD in enhancing professional standing and expertise. 

He passionately believes in the role that education, good schools and teachers can have on the life chances and aspirations of our young people. Carl has had the privilege of working with talented and committed teaching professionals and looks forward to his term as a Member working to continue the drive on upholding and developing professional standards and in helping to raise the profile of the teaching profession more widely.
  
No interests to declare.


Sally Townsend: Teacher

Sally has been teaching for 16 years, is totally dedicated to her job and loves being able to make a difference to the lives of so many children, families and colleagues.

Originally from Somerset, Sally has taught in two very different schools in Hampshire across the Key Stage 1 and the Foundation stage.  The majority of her experience and passion lies within Early Years.  She currently works part-time as deputy head teacher in a small school near Portsmouth, sharing a class of YR/1 children.  Sally has held various leadership roles including a range of subject areas, but most importantly leading and developing staff, and trying to keep everyone physically and emotionally healthy!  She is also currently SENCO.

Extending her interest to Early Years, Sally is an Early Years cluster teacher, supporting and developing nine other Foundation stage settings in her area.  She also is a Partnership board member of a local Children’s centre.

Sally believes it is of great professional benefit to share and learn about other approaches nationally in education and beyond, and to reflect upon how this can impact on our own.  She is a member of the Heads of Trades and Industry forum and looks forward to being part of the General Teaching Council.

Outside of work, Sally loves to spend time with family and friends, being very active outdoors, travelling and hearing live music.

Declaration of Interests     

c) Membership of professional bodies and trade or other associations which is unpaid, educational or non-educational

• Member of NASUWT     
• Member of HTI

e) Consultancies, directorships, management or advisory positions in an organisation which might be affected by regulatory or commercial decisions taken by the Council.

• Partnership Board Member of Local Children’s centre

f) Family interests: Please list any interest of yourself, your partner or close family members that might be considered relevant to your position on the Council or in the business dealings of the GTC

• Husband is a Primary school Advanced Skills Teacher

Jason Whyborn: Teacher

Jason currently teaches science at a secondary school in London and has taught at schools in Suffolk and Essex over Key Stages 2-5. 

Previously he has worked as a marker for Edexcel, as a mentor on the Cambridge University PGCE programme and has sat on the board for the National Lottery Charities Commission.

Having graduated with a degree in biology from the University of East Anglia he completed a PGCE through Greenwich University before entering into teaching.  During his NQT year Jason took an A-Level in philosophy which he enjoyed as it opened his eyes to a vast range of ideas and questions.

He then moved on to complete a Masters degree in Education and graduated with a distinction. His dissertation focused on the use of different teaching methods and their effect on pupil performance in relation to standard attainment tests.

Jason was pleased to be offered a place on the Educational Doctorate at Kings College and left his role as assistant head of year to move to London to study. Currently he is focussing on the effect of external factors on motivation to learn and the implications of change; he is particularly interested in the foreseen and unforeseen effects of decision makers within hierarchical structures on individuals at various levels. 

Declaration of Interests            

c) Membership of professional bodies and trade or other associations which is unpaid, educational or non-educational

• Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL Union)

No other interests to declare.