Expert advisors
EmpathyLab draws on the generous support and advice of a team of expert advisors
Professor Robin Banerjee
Robin Banerjee is Professor of Developmental Psychology in the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex. He directs the CRESS (Children's Relationships, Emotions, and Social Skills) research lab, which investigates children's social and emotional development, and involves close working partnerships with practitioners and policymakers in the areas of education and mental health. Recent studies have examined the social and emotional dimensions of school ethos, factors involved in peer acceptance, rejection, and bullying, the social and cognitive processes involved in childhood social anxiety, the psychosocial development of children in the public care system, and the connections between consumer culture and well-being in school children. A core applied focus of the CRESS lab is the development and evaluation of strategies to support young people’s social and emotional functioning.
Professor Teresa Cremin
Teresa Cremin is Professor of Education (Literacy) at The Open University. Teresa is a Fellow of the English Association and the Academy of Social Sciences, a Director of the Cambridge Primary Review Trust, a Trustee of UKLA and the Society for Educational Studies, a Board Member of Booktrust, co-convenor for the BERA Creativity SIG and a member of the ESRC Peer Review College. Her socio-cultural research is frequently co-participative, involving teachers as researchers within and beyond the classroom. Her research interests relate to teachers’ literate identities and practices, pedagogies which foster building communities of readers and writers and the role of creativity in teaching and learning. Teresa has written and edited over 25 books and numerous papers and professional texts, most recently Building Engaged Communities of Readers: Reading for Pleasure(2014, Routledge) Researching Literacy Lives : Building Home School communities (Routledge , 2015) and editing Learning to teach in the Primary School (3rd edition) (Routledge, 2014) and The International Handbook of Research into Children’s Literacy, Learning and Culture (2013, Wiley Blackwell) with colleagues.
Gillian Cross, children’s author
Gillian Cross has been writing for children since 1979. Since then, she has had over fifty books published and her work has been translated into many languages.
Her novel Wolf won the Library Association’s Carnegie Medal for the best children’s book of 1990, and The Great Elephant Chase won both the Smarties Prize and the Whitbread Children’s Novel Award. Her Demon Headmaster books have been dramatised very successfully as a BBC television series.
For over thirty years she has been working with children, in the UK and abroad, running workshops about writing and exploring character. She and her husband Martin have four children. They live in Dorset.
Louise Johns-Shepherd, CEO, Centre for Literacy in Primary Education
Louise Johns-Shepherd has a wealth of experience in education leadership and in primary schools. She was a Senior Director at the Primary National Strategies and Headteacher Consultant at the National College of School Leadership. She was also the director of an Education Action Zone. Louise trained as a primary school teacher at Homerton College Cambridge and has taught for her entire career in London.
She studied for her MA at the Institute of Education. Louise has been the headteacher of two schools, a nursery school and children’s centre in Lambeth and, most recently, a primary school in Southwark. Under her leadership the school moved from a very challenging position to one of the fifty most improved schools in England.
Louise’s interests are in assessment, progression and curriculum development as well as all aspects of organisational leadership. In 2014 Louise was pleased to be recognised by The Education Foundation as an Education Reformer of the Year.
Bali Rai, young people’s author
Bali Rai was born in 1971 and grew up in Leicester. His debut novel, (UN)ARRANGED MARRIAGE published in 2001 to fantastic reviews and has since been shortlisted for nine regional book prizes, winning The Angus, Stockport, North Lanarkshire and Leicester Book awards. The novel is now in eleven languages and Bali is firmly established as a leading voice in teenage fiction after following his debut with a succession of acclaimed titles.
As a child, Bali wanted to be a footballer or to write stories. Always an avid reader, he hails Sue Townsend, Douglas Adams and Robert Swindells as his writing heroes. Bali grew up reading Dr Seuss and Meg and Mog and his first book purchase was The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. He realised he wasn't good enough to play for Liverpool F.C. and after gaining a politics degree in London he returned to his home city and combined a variety of jobs in pubs and clubs with completing his first novel. Bali set about writing a story he had been thinking about for many years. He wanted to write accessible material for children of all ages and backgrounds and realising there were no British Asian authors writing for children, he saw a gap. Bali hopes his novels capture the unique ethnic mix of the UK, of which he is proud to be a part.
Jon Biddle
Jon Biddle is a senior teacher at one of EmpathyLab’s pioneer schools, with a passion for developing genuine reading cultures.
He is the 2018 winner of the Egmont Reading for Pleasure Experienced teacher award and coordinates the national Patron of Reading initiative, which supports authors and poets in developing relationships with schools.
Jon is a member of the UKLA National Council, a regular contributor to the Open University Reading For Pleasure website and a reviewer for Books for Keeps and Just Imagine Story Centre.
He writes a blog on building reading communities in schools and talks about books at every possible opportunity.
Rachel Snape – Headteacher and National Leader of Education
Rachel Snape has been the Headteacher at one of our EmpathyLab pioneer schools since 2007.
Spinney Primary is a happy, welcoming, creative and OfSTED “Outstanding” school in Cambridge. One of 15 Ashoka Changemaker Schools in the UK, The Spinney is also a National Teaching School and the lead school of the Kite Teaching Schools Alliance. Rachel is passionate about the positive and transformative power of Arts, Culture, Creativity and Connection in young people’s lives.
In addition to her busy role as Headteacher, Rachel is the Chair of Cambridgeshire School Improvement Board, a member of Cambridgeshire Culture and is Festival Designer of the Cambridgeshire Festival of Education, an annual optimistic celebration of teachers and teaching that takes place at the Faculty of Education, Cambridge University.
Graham Frost
Graham has been a Headteacher for 16 years and maintains a passion for child-centred school leadership at Robert Ferguson Primary School, Carlisle. Kindness and empathy are key words in his school’s ethos.
Graham studied English Literature at University, with a focus on Children’s Literature, and has maintained a passion for promoting reading throughout his career.
His school is noted for its culture of professional development through coaching and mentoring, practitioner research and encouraging and supporting staff to undertake academic studies. In 2018 Graham completed his MA in Educational Practice with a research focus on children’s motivation to read for pleasure.
Since 2013 Graham has been Cumbria Branch Secretary of the National Association of Headteachers, supporting school leaders across Cumbria individually and collectively, keeping them informed and organising local conferences and training events.
Dr Helen Demetriou
Dr Helen Demetriou is a chartered psychologist and currently teaches at the Faculty of Education of the University of Cambridge. Her research here and also at the Institute of Psychiatry in London has covered areas in developmental psychology and education. She has researched for OFSTED, QCA and DfE and published widely on topics including friendships, pupil consultation, teachers’ professional learning, empathy, and currently, ways of developing creativity in the design and technology classroom. Helen is on the editorial advisory board for journals including Improving Schools, Social Development, and Educational Studies. Her book, Empathy, Emotion and Education (2018) was published by Palgrave Macmillan Press.