S1: Education: GE2019 - a podcast by Abimbola Johnson and Ayo Afolabi

Set up by two friends, Abimbola Johnson (known as OJ) and Ayo Afolabi. The Manifesto Read has gathered groups of experts to have round table discussions about the areas of the big three's manifestos that correspond with their areas of industry.

This Episode’s Panel:

Lotis Bautista Lotis is one of the Co-founders of VOLO Group, a technology company aiming to help people develop careers they love through volunteering. She currently manages client relationships, training and operations in her role at VOLO, liaising frequently with university partners and students. Lotis started her career in education as a participant on the Teach First graduate programme in 2012, where she taught English and Politics in West London for 3 years, becoming Assistant Head of Sixth Form in her second year. After leaving teaching, Lotis was part of the Founding Team at the Church of England Foundation for Educational Leadership, who sought to develop a hub of resources and training for all teachers in Church of England Schools across the UK and she has also been a School Governor since 2015 for a Primary school in North West London. Through this role, she has been part of the governing body that oversaw the school's transition from 'Requires Improvement' to 'Good,' and has developed an ongoing marketing strategy to increase the school's role. Lotis has also trained incoming Teach First English teachers since 2016 and also manages the Access course at City Lit, one of London's biggest Adult Education providers, where she supports adult learners to gain the qualifications required for university through an intensive one-year Access course. Her experience has lead to an in-depth understanding of the inner functions of educational institutions, at all levels, and provides her with the unique ability to understand the sector as a whole.

Charlotte Nicholls is a Deputy Headteacher based in a large comprehensive secondary school in Surrey, part of a multi-academy trust (MAT) of 10 schools spanning the county. She is also Director of Initial Teacher Training across the MAT, working to promote high-quality teacher training across all of the schools with the ambition of enticing more people to train to teach, and leading to the recruitment and retention of more excellent teachers in both the primary and secondary phases. Charlotte studied Modern Languages at Oxford University, before gaining a distinction in her post-graduate law conversion. After this, Charlotte realised her heart was in the classroom and has never looked back. Within two years of completing her PGCE at the Institute of Education, Charlotte was appointed as Head of Languages in a large comprehensive secondary school in Berkshire, where she led changes which resulted in a 23% increase in GCSE results on universal entry. Within a further two years she entered the senior leadership team of her current multi-academy trust. Having gone through the comprehensive system herself, Charlotte was the first in her family to go to university. She has experienced first-hand - as a student, teacher and senior leader - the enormous benefits of a comprehensive state education, how it can bring out the best in all students and give them strong foundations to go out into the world and realise their full potential. 

Guy Forbat is the Head of Music at William Ellis School, an all-boys secondary school in Camden, where he teaches Music Technology A-level and leads the school's Music provision. His department has exceeded national expectations for the uptake of Music GCSE since 2016, as a result of an outstanding team and highly supportive headteacher. He is extremely passionate about his subject and has a First Class degree in Music from the University of Leeds, as well as an MPhil in Management from the University of Cambridge's Judge Business School. After starting his career as a Teach First Music participant in 2012, he has been a Music Subject Tutor for Canterbury Christ Church University and has delivered teacher training to Teach First Music participants across London since 2014. Guy is also heavily involved in the Music provision in his local borough and is a Governor at WAC Arts, an alternative provision college aimed at supporting young people through the power of the arts. Alongside his teaching, he is also the Secondary Music Coordinator for the London Borough of Camden, where he leads on supporting the borough's Music teachers through sharing good practice and is an advisor for Future DJs, an innovative Music startup aiming to professionalise the teaching of DJing and spreading its provision to schools and students across the UK. Guy is a highly experienced drummer and pianist and enjoys drumming in big bands and concert bands in and around London.

Yansé Cooper graduated from Durham University with a first-class degree in Modern Languages and Cultures (French, Spanish & Arabic) before training to teach Modern Foreign Languages to secondary pupils through the Teach First Programme in 2010. Since then, she has taught across London secondary schools, led a primary school’s Spanish-teaching pilot, and obtained a PGCE from Canterbury Christ Church University, a post-graduate certificate in Leadership from UCL Institute of Education, and an MSc in Comparative and International Education from The University of Oxford. She has been working for Teach First as an Initial Teacher Educator since leaving the classroom in 2016, and undertook the role of associate teaching and learning tutor for early-career teachers in the inaugural training institute of Le Choix de l’école (formerly known as ‘Teach For France’).She is the co-founder of the Teach First BAME Network through which she addresses the underrepresentation of BAME leaders in education through: advocacy, research and consultancy, and convening sector events. She is a committee member of the Amos Bursary charity, through which she trains both prospective and experienced mentors to meet the academic and social needs of Black-British boys from low income backgrounds.

Ekow Oliver is the Communications Lead for Rivers Coaching, a social enterprise dedicated to the abolition of social inequality through the dismantling of an unjust education system. Ekow's activist voice was formed by growing up black in the North London borough of Haringey, where social inequality was laid bare by a north-south wealth divide, that was effectively a form of segregation. Before finishing school, he had joined the borough's youth council and upon the creation of Connexions North London (Labour's initiative at creating an umbrella youth services organisation for 13-19 year olds) he joined and eventually chaired the Young People's Partnership Board. From there he transitioned to a full board member and after the financial collapse of 2008 and the cuts to youth services, sat as a director of a private company attempting to fill the void left by a now defunded and defunct Connexions North London. Ekow started working at 16 and for 10 years, worked exclusively for charitable organisations and youth services. His experience in delivery, strategy, governance and fundraising gave him an insight into why many of our social injustices manage to persist despite decades of funding and intervention.Joining Rivers Coaching in 2017, Ekow works to fight for social justice and is only interested in society wide cultural shifts coupled with systemic changes that serve the most vulnerable and disenfranchised members of our society.

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