Gary Spracklen

He had us when we saw the video of the Polar Express, a ride on train that ran through the school as a Christmas treat for the children in his care. Just another day at Prince of Wales School in Dorchester.

Possibly one of the most inspiring people on the planet and head teachers in our schools, it’s no surprise that Gary is Head Teacher of a school which operates under the mantra of ‘Inspired To Learn’.

When we turned up for an assembly with our green screen studio kit in a trolley, he drove in to the hall on a tractor!

He’s arranged online rhino art classes in lock down and let us put a class of children on top of a 50 foot high cardboard globe.

Indeed Gary’s work has inspired ours in more ways than one, not least our Inspired To Learn 21 Summer tour where we built a cardbaord model of Coventry Cathedrea in their playing fields and then launched the spire like a rocket.

We’re proud to work with and know him, but are careful what we wish for!

While endlessly creative and up for almost anything - even building a cardboard car - Gary has his feet on the ground and brings a robust pedagogical and learning perspective.

BENGY JAKE SPEER

From leadership roles on Coventry Pride and the Warwick Arts Committee, to an assistant lecturer role in the Arts Department at Coventry University, as a non-binary arts activist and campaigner with Arts and Homeless International, Bengy brings a wealth of inspiration and lived experience to our work.

He experienced many years of sexual abuse from childhood and was relentlessly bullied at school. After finding themselves homeless , her mother died in less than a fortnight after being moved to damp housing which gave rise to respiratory problems.

Bengy channels this experience and empathy into all his art which itself is varied, from dance and drumming to fashion design and DJing.

We met via an introduction from the Coventry 2020/21 City of Culture team, when Bengy came to see SeeMonster on one of our Unboxed2022 community trips.

He popped back a few weeks later to help with our petition to #SaveSeeMonster and stayed a week, helping deliver the petition to parliament and stage the milestone screeneing of signatories and premiere of our first STEAM Co. Story - ‘Tayo’s Road Awesome’.

Bengy brings lived experince of the power of art to diverse and marginalised communities.

MULUMBA TSHIKUKA

Nick met Mulumba outside the chip shop in 2015.

Nick had been photographing Cass Art’s shop in Soho as part of a collaboration and couldn’t help but notice Mulumba’s Cass Art bag, so popped the question.

Yes, Mulumba was indeed an artist and delighted to help at STEAM Co.’s upcoming #InspiraNation Day at Wellington College and we haven’t looked back.

During our lock down live streams Mulumba was an invaluable production assistant and has helped at numerous pop-ups we’ve run and fetes and festivals since.

“As a child, i believed every human was good. And as an artist, i remain as naïve. Through my work/www.mulumbatshikuka.com/about, i wish to remind the world of that inherent goodness, even when it demands depicting someone evil in beautiful light”.

KAri Anson

A passionate and experienced educator with a background in psychology and primary education of over 19 years Kari is a strong advocate for representation and diversity in education.

With 9 years of experience as a mainstream teacher from Year 1 to Year 6, she honed her skills in creating inclusive learning environments.

After that, she transitioned into special education, taking on the role of a SENCO and later serving as a Deputy in different SEN schools across the country.

After her first headship role in a Special School in Rotheram, Kari is about to take up headship within the Forward Education Trust in Birmingham and brings insights into SEND Education to STEAM Co.

“I believe that every student deserves to see themselves reflected in the curriculum and see positive role models who inspire them”.

CHRIS DYSON

As head teacher at Parklands Primary on the Seacroft estate in Leeds, Chris is one of the most best known school community leaders and a good friend of STEAM Co.

He took over this struggling primary with soaring exclusions and transformed it into an ‘outstanding’ school in four years. He says the secrets of his success are listening to pupils, all-singing, all-dancing assemblies – and not following the crowd.

He believes passionately in inspiration not isolation, engaging young people in their learning and giving them the best days of their lives.

Chris is an experienced, ‘outstanding’ Head Teacher and skilled in Coaching, Change Management, Public Policy, Public Sector, and Staff Development.

Regularly appearing on national TV and in the press, his accolades include being a Teaching Award Winner, TES Award Winner, Hero of Yorkshire Award; National Business in the Community Winner.

“If you believe in the children, if you believe in the teachers, if you believe in the community, anything is possible.”

MARK EARLS

A writer, strategist and consultant in marketing and communications Mark is world famous as a leading thinker on brands and behaviour. He’s also a best-selling and a prize-winning author of several books notably:

"Welcome to the creative age" Wiley 2002

"Herd: how to change mass behaviour by harnessing our true nature" Wiley 2007

"Copy Copy Copy" (Wiley late 2014)

“Creative Super Heroes” (Unbound 2018)

He says he likes “working with interesting people to do interesting things in interesting ways” which we’d like to think is what brought him to STEAM Co.’s door.

The Guardian just says he’s “like Malcolm Gladwell on Speed “ (Whatever that means)

LINETT KAMALA

As an interdisciplinary artist, educator, facilitator and carnivalist born in London to Jamaican parents Linett brings a grass roots community art perspective to our team.

Her passion for enriching the lives of others through art, well-being and education is demonstrated by partnerships with numerous organisations spanning over 30 years.

Deeply rooted in community empowerment, her socially engaged creative practice ranges from developing school leaders, to taking up space through Carnival culture.

She draws inspiration from oral histories, carnival culture, academic papers and abstract expressionism.

JIMMY ROTHERAM

Jimmy teaches music at Feversham Primary School in Bradford - one of the most deprived areas of Britain, with 80% of households in deprivation and 60% of households unemployed or in low-skilled manual work.

Influenced by Kodaly and Dalcroze teaching practices, Jimmy believes in a long term and deeply embedded approach to slowly teaching children the key musical concepts.

In the last few years his work, passion and art have made him one of the UK’s leaders in the musical education of young children and brings that specialist view to our team.

In 2019 he was shortlisted to the last 50 in the $1m Global teacher Prize.

Pam Burnard

Pam is Professor of Arts, Creativities and Education at the University of Cambridge. She sits on and advises a number of boards and is behind a wide range of highly respected books, papers and talks.  

She has dedicated her career to understanding not only why creativity is important but how to teach it, and its relationship to what are often seen as more academic subject areas. She has a particular interest and specialism in STEAM and recently invited us to join a BERA project she is leading into STEAM Education in conjunction with the Universities of Warwick, Aberdeen and Aberystwyth 

“My interests involve creativities of all kinds and in all contexts. I’m particularly drawn to the way that STEAM Co. focusses on all aspects of creativity in real world and relevant ways by engaging with social, cultural, business and academic communities”

JAZ AMPAW-FARR

Married mother-of-three Jaz began her career as a teacher and is passionate about children’s education and learning.

She runs a highly successful phonics business and is sought after as a speaker at international conferences - see her amazing #TEDxNorwichED talk here - and has a couple of books underway.

A flamboyant character on an off day, one of Jaz's milestones was an appearance on the BBC's Apprentice show where she explained phonics after getting fired in the first episode for taking her nan's advice.

“I firmly believe in a holistic approach to education, educating the whole child and drawing on a range of inspiration.

And I agree with Sir Ken that "Creativity IS as important as literacy”

Marva Rollins

Marva Rollins is in her 22nd year of Headship and is in her 17th year as Headteacher of Raynham Primary (880 pupils, aged 2 - 11), in Edmonton serving one of the UK’s most challenged communities.

She is committed to giving children in inner city schools an opportunity to excel and has been the recipient of two awards for her contribution to education and the community: an honorary degree and the Windrush Education Champion.

Marva has been named by the Evening Standard as one of the 1,000 most influential people in London, and featured in the Metro’s top 50 Black Heroes.

A regular conference speaker, trainer and facilitator Marva uses her training in Personal Development to train and motivate others.  

At the STEAM Co. Blue Sky Doing event, Marva said "Creativity is a luxury for our children.

Our community is broke but not broken. We'd love to have a STEAM Co. Day in our school."

CHRIS SULLIVAN

Chris Sullivan, is, and has been at various times, a DJ, author, nightclub host, pop star, painter, style commentator, entrepreneur and fashion designer.

Coming to London from Merthyr Tydfil in the mid 70s,he went onto to study art at St Martins than fronted the high-concept Virgin-signed Latin funk band, Blue Rondo A La Turk.

His most recent book ‘Rebel Rebel’ has been warmly received with a 15 page profile in GQ and photos by David Bailey.

Chris has spoken at many STEAM Co. events bringing many of his A-list friends with him.

He recently Produced and Directed the ‘We are all born Artists’ film for us..

I am passionate about the role of art in culture in everybody’s lives, particularly the most deprived members of our society, and delighted to help bridge the creative industries and entertainment world with the great work STEAM Co. does

PROF. SUGATA MITRA

You won't have failed to notice the inspiration we've drawn from TED - the global talks and content organisation. Their TED-Ed content - 'Lessons worth sharing' offers an international curriculum for any school in itself.

Without doubt a highlight is a talk by Prof Sugata Mitra from Newcastle University who most famously put a computer in a wall for local children in a slum to see what would happen. What happened helped win him $1m in prize money from TED to build a 'School in the Cloud', powered by Grannies.

We were delighted that Sugata and his SOLE Central team spoke at a regional launch event we're planning for the North East and contribute to the development of a collaboration activity that any community can use in its own STEAM Co. Day.

“Schools of the 19th century were meant to produce soldiers, clerks and factory workers. Creativity would adversely affect the smooth operation of Empires.

What attracted me to help STEAM Co. was that they want to get their work and influence out to every UK primary school."

NEIL ATKIN

If death by PowerPoint lies at one extreme of the effective communictions spectrum, then Neil Atkin bungee jumps off the other.

We first came across him at a TeachMeet event in London organised by the Master Connector Ross Morrison McGill of Teacher Toolkit which we blogged about here.

Convinced that the tedious way he’d been taught to swim had caused him to never swim for pleasure, he's dedicated himself to ensure that children aren't put off science eduction for the same reason.

He teaches physics using extreme sports and magic to explain maths concepts.

We were delighted when he gave a short talk at #SCOL1, our regional launch event in Liverpool that got everyone on the edge of their seats looking for a life jacket.

“Some of the best scientists we have are sitting in classrooms bored to tears.

I want to help STEAM Co. excite and educate our children by getting parents and businesses to work with schools."

Lindsey Woodford

Without doubt, STEAM Co. would not be here today without Lindsey Woodford's support. 

Without her leadership, St Saviours C of E Primary School in Paddington, London would be just another challenged inner city state primary with a roll of children from a diverse range of backgrounds.

Over two decades under her leadership, the school has been transformed from academic, physical and engagement perspectives into a centre of excellence, acknowledged by a bevy of awards and accolades.

Lindsey embraced the idea to stage the first STEAM Co. Day and gave it the support  needed to to see 'STEAM Co. at St Saviour's' becoming a finalist in the TES School Awards for Community and Collaboration'

"Our STEAM Co. Day is a cherished date in our school calendar and one many of our children will remember forever.

But it's particularly special to me because of the way it involves parents in school life, parents that might not normally get involved in school activities. There's something for everyone in STEAM Co."

Nigel Ward

With several decades under his belt in media and publishing with companies as diverse as Chrysalis Records and Harper Collins, TED-X Liverpool's description of Nigel Ward as an 'industrialist turned academic' was spot on.

After a call from then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, he was asked to visit a failing school in a challenged community and told he was "the best chance these kids have got".

He seized the bull by the horns and is now Founder and CEO of Northern Schools Trust with 4 amazing and innovative schools under their wing, including the UK's first specialsit science and coding schools.

Nigel provides a range of perspectives and connections for STEAM Co. not least the provision of a venue and connections for the first regional launch #SCOL1 on whch he said:

“Collaborating with and engaging our local community is important to us.

Staging this STEAM Co launch event not only allows us to give back to our feeder primary schools but also gives our students an invaluable opportunity to step up and play their part in working with the 250 children we’ll have in, acting as inspiring role models themselves”.

HANNAH WILSON

Hannah was the Headteacher for Aureus School, Didcot and Regional Director of the Oxfordshire Hub for GLF Schools. Aureus is a Year 7 start-up school which opened in September 2017 and which counts STEAM thinking as one of its founding pillars.

Prior to this Hannah was the Professional Learning Lead Consultant for the Harris Federation after career progression there. She has led rapid improvements in Teaching and Learning moving inadequate provision to excellent through coaching and targeted professional learning.

Hannah is also the Co-Founder of #WomenEd, a grassroots gender equality movement that connects aspiring, emerging and serving women leaders in education. She wants the school leadership teams around the country to reflect the diverse workforce. She is also a coach in the DfE’s women leading in education coaching pilot.

"STEAM is a specialism in the school. My background is the performing arts and I believe in the power of the arts to develop young people. We must develop whole people."

PROF. DAVE HORNBY

Having been motivated to "see what is beyond the door" over 40 years ago by an inspirational teacher, Dave Hornby has combined his research interests  with a long-standing collaboration with Biotechnology Companies.

After completing his term of office as Head of one of the UK's most successful Life Sciences Departments, at the University of Sheffield, along came the opportunity to take a hands-on role in Science education at the school level at Liverpool Life Sciences UTC where he gave a short talk at #SCOL1 : our regional launch.

"I have been staggered by students' ability to cope with high level scientific concepts and to adapt to a contemporary research environment with ease and confidence. 

The challenge is now to harness these experiences and roll them out more widely.

It is vital that we start at an early age and continue to nurture young talent to ensure we make a career in Science as appealing as being a footballer or rockstar!"

MATT ROGERS

Based in South Wales, Matt is the visionary founder of SBP Music working with creative Artists all over the UK by combining networking, coaching, training and strategy advice to support mainly unsigned Artists breeding success, growth, skills and behaviours.

He is a CIPD Qualified Trainer and has been developing people since 1996, also training, coaching and lecturing in high level Sales Process and Sales Theory.

DO YOU CARE?

If you’d like to help us on our mission, if you’re a creative carer and care about children, creativity and all our futures do get in touch.

We’d love to hear from you.

It’s all about collaboration.

Collaborating for creativity.