agendaNi ICT in Skills & Education seminar

Speaker panel

	Jon Barker is Principal of Hugh Christie Technology College. He has been in the post for five years and has overseen a total rebuild of the school. This has involved significant changes that are now resulting in much improved student outcomes. Hugh Christie has a strong reputation for innovation and change. Successful innovations include the ubiquitous access to ICT, a staggered school day to suit the workings of teenage brains, a small schools organisation and a personalised curriculum model. Jon has been teaching for 17 years and has always worked in mixed non selective schools. Prior to coming to Hugh Christie, he was a Deputy Headteacher at The Cornwallis School in Maidstone. He is a Science teacher by trade and still continues to teach for a significant number of hours a week.
	Anne Casey joined Partnerships for Schools as an Education ICT Adviser in November 2006. She works supporting and challenging local authorities and schools as they develop their aspirations for educational transformation through BSF investment. She advises local authorities on the development of the ICT aspects of their Strategy for Change, School Strategies for Change and Outline Business Case to ensure that their BSF programme is both ambitious and achievable. She also supports the work of PfS with organising the BETT show, and developing ICT network events in London. Anne has extensive experience in secondary ICT education and the use of ICT to enhance teaching and learning, and has co-ordinated ICT projects for universities, EAZs, SSAT, the British Council, Becta, NCSL, local authorities and London Challenge. From 2001 she was Director of Camden City Learning Centre, designing innovative teaching and learning programmes across all key stages, and training programmes for education professionals and the local community. She has been a contributor to international ICT workshops in Canada, the US, China and Singapore.
	Johnny Graham has been Principal of Belfast Model School for Girls since 2001, having previously been Vice Principal of Dromore High School. Belfast Model School has won a host of awards including Overall Winner NI in Becta’s ICT Excellence Awards in 2008 and 2009. They were awarded the Becta ICT Mark in 2007, and have won a number of other awards for the use of ICT in education including winning the UK-wide BT Broadband Challenge in 2003. The school was also designated an ICT Specialist School in the first Specialist School Cohort in 2006.
	Richard Hanna is Director of Education Strategy for the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) with responsibility for developing policy advice related to curriculum, assessment and reporting and for providing support and guidance to schools. He is also responsible for implementing revised assessment and reporting arrangements. He has recently been appointed Director (Designate) of Curriculum, Assessment and Examinations for the Education and Skills Authority (ESA) and is currently on secondment to the ESA Implementation Team. Richard has held a number of management positions in CCEA which have included development and support for qualifications, e-learning and the use of ICT in support of teaching and learning. He is an experienced educator having spent 18 years in post primary education as a practicing teacher and school manager before joining CCEA.
	Marie-Therese McGivern was appointed Director and Chief Executive of Belfast Metropolitan College in March 2009. It is the biggest further education college in Northern Ireland, with a staff of 1,600 and 48,000 students. Marie-Thérèse began her career as a teacher in further education. From this grew a desire to deal in a more proactive way with long-term youth unemployment and as a result, she spent most of the 1980s working in the areas of unemployment and enterprise development. In the 1990s she moved to develop policy for the youth service in Northern Ireland and in 1995 joined the Civil Service as a secondee to the Urban Regeneration Initiative, Making Belfast Work. In 1999 she joined Belfast City Council as Director of Development, heading up a newly-created department. In addition, in 2003 she was appointed as visiting Professor in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of Ulster. In 2004 she was elected as a Board member of the British Urban Regeneration Association and re-elected in 2007, as well as being an advisor to the Academy for Sustainable Communities.
	Jimmy Stewart was appointed Director of Services for C2k in 1999 and now has overall responsibility for the delivery and development of this integrated ICT service for all schools throughout Northern Ireland. A teacher by profession, he taught for 13 years at Coleraine Academical Institution before moving to Ballymoney High School as Vice-Principal. In 1988 he became Headteacher of Ardnaveigh High School, Antrim’s first community high school. While in this role he was invited to contribute to the development of a specification for a computerised management information system for schools. He worked for the CLASS Project as the Support Manager in the NE Board area during the 1990s until the establishment of the Classroom 2000 Project (C2k).
	Ray Wright is a Deputy Director of the Delivery and Innovation Division with responsibility for Modernisation and Innovation Policy. He is a career civil servant with policy experience in Roads, Water, Housing and Urban Regeneration. In the nineties he was Head of Internal Audit and later Head of the Information Systems Unit in the former DoE(NI). In 2000 he moved to the Central Information Technology Unit, later to become the eGovernment Unit, and then most recently DID in the Department of Finance and Personnel. He has been closely involved in the NICS reform and modernisation programmes, leading the strategy development which ultimately led to the introduction of NIDirect. Information Assurance Policy is one of his key responsibilities.