Expert Advisors
Professor Robin Banerjee
University of Sussex
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.
Jon Biddle
Senior Teacher, Primary
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.
Kate Clarke
Pembroke Dock Community School
Kate Clarke is a Senior Leader with responsibility for Health and Well-being, Rights Respecting Schools and Empathy in Pembroke Dock Community School in West Wales. Kate has been a primary school teacher for over 20 years and is a passionate advocate for pupil mental health, equity and diversity. Kate attended EmpathyLab cluster training with her school in 2020 and now regularly contributes to EmpathyLab training for schools and authors. Kate teaches empathy in a cross-curricular manner in her school using the Four Purposes of the Welsh Curriculum, she uses her experience to advise and support EmpathyLab. Currently, Kate leads our Share and Learn sessions for our Alumni and Affiliate Schools encouraging schools to share good practice and support each other on their empathy journey.
Professor Teresa Cremin
The Open University
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.
Dr Helen Demetriou
University of Cambridge
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.
Anne McNeil
Publishing Director
Anne founded Anne McNeil Creative Limited in February 2022 after almost forty years’ experience working in Children’s Publishing – for the last thirty as a Publishing Director at two of the UK’s most prestigious imprints, Hodder Children’s Books, part of Hachette, and Bodley Head Children’s Books, part of PRH.
Known for her unique vision, editorial flair, business insight and commercial awareness, she has developed and led the careers of some of the UK’s most prestigious writers and illustrators.
Rashmi Sirdeshpande
Author
Rashmi Sirdeshpande is an award-winning children’s author who loves taking big ideas and making them accessible and exciting for young readers. Rashmi writes non-fiction picture books that ignite children’s curiosity, as well as fictional stories that crackle with imagination.
Meeta Thareja
Entrepreneur
Meeta is an entrepreneur with over 20 years of international experience in Business Strategy Consulting, Operations and Marketing. She co-founded consulting firm MetaValue in 2012 with the vision to be an antidote to austerity by helping more businesses grow and thrive. Since founding, MetaValue has delivered projects across the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. The company has been a leading supplier to the Cabinet Office on two flagship programmes that aimed to support the redesign of public services with innovative new models of delivery. MetaValue’s work has been recognised and presented at the Cabinet Office as best practice in the sector.
Meeta is also a well-established business mentor for start-ups and SMEs in the UK. She has worked with Universities, Business Accelerators, Local and Central Governments and the European Regional Development Fund to support over 300 start-up, SMEs and social innovators to bring bold ideas to life and amplify their impact. She has been a specialist advisor at innovation foundations such as Nesta and The Young Foundation to support social innovators addressing some of the most pressing issues of our times.
Meeta is Chairperson of the Advisory Board of award-winning social enterprise – Auticon – that creates employment opportunities for autistic people in the technology sector, placing them on projects with large Fortune 500 companies. Meeta is also on the Board of Money A+E, a non-profit working to support disadvantaged minority communities with money advice and education. Previously she was a Member of the Independent Advisory Panel for the British Army’s Defence College of Logistics, Policing & Administration.
Meeta was one of six women in the UK named Asian Women of Achievement (Entrepreneur) in 2014. She is part of Women of the Future Network – a national forum for high potential women in business.
A believer in the unlimited potential for good in every human, for over 20 years, Meeta has been an active local community volunteer with SGI – an international organisation committed to peace through dialogue, education and culture. She is also an amateur painter with an ambition to ace her game in watercolour.
Sonia Thompson
Headteacher
Sonia is the Head Teacher at St Matthew’s C.E. Primary School, in Nechells, Birmingham: the first winner of the OU/UKLA Whole School Reading for Pleasure School of the Year.
She is passionate about evidence-based reading for pleasure practices and places these at the heart of the school.