Regional PSHE Seminars – Summer 2024

Tanya Cross — Schools Health & Well Being Adviser, Stockport Council

Tanya Cross has worked for Stockport LA for 24 years, supporting schools on PSHE and Well-Being. Tanya is passionately committed to enhancing the achievement and life chances of children and young people, through School Improvement and Public Health by supporting the professional development of individuals, schools and the wider school community.

Sophie Collins & Cat Chester — Health Improvement Practitioners for PSHE and RSE, Manchester Healthy Schools

Sophie Collins learnt their skills within PSHE through Philosophy for Children, and youth work. They now bring their passion for oracy and democratic education methods to Manchester Healthy Schools, where they train teachers across all ages and stages in PSHE pedagogy.

Cat Chester was a secondary teacher, PSHE subject lead, regional RSE curriculum advisor, PGCE trainer and professional mentor. Cat has a wealth of experience working with young people, their families and faith communities in the Manchester city and beyond, and is passionate to support schools and their communities in the development of their RSE provision.

Ellen Weedon — Training Officer for Children, Oldham Safeguarding Children Partnership

Ellen Weedon has been a qualified teacher for Relationships and Sex Education for the last 12 years and works with schools and colleges in Oldham to support them to deliver RSHE as part of the wider PSHE curriculum. She is the chair of the Primary, Secondary and Further Education PSHE curriculum networks across Oldham and also delivers direct work in schools and colleges with pupils on a wide range of PSHE topics. Ellen has a particular interest in supporting teachers to deliver RSE confidently and in a trauma-informed way.

Rebecca Clift — Senior Lecturer, Department of Language and Linguistics, University of Essex

Rebecca Clift did her PhD on ‘Misunderstandings in Conversation’ at Cambridge University and is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Language and Linguistics, University of Essex. Working with the PSHE Association and using videoed data of family arguments, she has used her research to develop PSHE classes on escalating and de-escalating communicative conflict in the home.

Cathy Murphy & Steph Hoskin — Lead Advisors Cambs PSHE Service

Cathy Murphy manages the Cambs PSHE Service partnership with Public Health and with secondary schools. She leads on RSE and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion across phases. Cathy has been working for the PSHE Service for over 20 years.

Steph Hoskin leads on the Cambridgeshire Primary Personal Development Programme, a complete resource for leading and teaching PSHE, and the subscription/licence holder arrangements for this programme. She also leads on Mental Health, Managing Loss & Change, Body Image and Healthy Lifestyles, as well as having oversight for Life Education Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

Helen Lord — PSHE and Healthy Schools Consultant (Health & Wellbeing Service, Leeds)

Helen Lord (BSc. (Hons), PGCE) is a PSHE and Healthy Schools Consultant for the Health and Wellbeing Service in Leeds. Helen has been a consultant within the service for 16 years and manages PSHE for the service, as well as offering individualised training, advice, resources, and support in all types of schools and settings across Leeds and beyond.

Bryony Turford — Associate Professional Learning Lead (Primary), Red Kite Alliance

Bryony Turford's role with RKA includes the creation of an annual cycle of profile meetings and subject association membership for all foundation subjects for primary leaders across all RKA schools.  This began 3 years ago and involves working closely with the subject associations, including PSHE, and developing relationships, connections and a support network for all RKA's primary leaders. 

Amanda Evans — PSHE Advisory Teacher (Public Health)

 Amanda Evans has been with City of Wolverhampton Council for 5 years and supports over 120 schools and educational establishments in Wolverhampton with their PSHE curriculum. Amanda also acts as the Council's partner representative with SEF (Sex Education Forum), an executive member of the City councils LGBTQ+ forum and has been Chair of Governors at a local Primary School for 10 years.

Jane O’ Byrne — Health and Wellbeing Consultant , Derbyshire County Council

Jane O' Byrne, formerly a teacher, has worked supporting schools with RSE for over 20 years. She is part of the Education Improvement Service at Derbyshire County Council. Jane is the Lead for the local RSE Award for schools , the ‘Building Effective Relationships Together’ Award, championing a whole school approach to RSE.

Sam Whittaker — Education, Safeguarding & Intervention Consultant for East Sussex County Council & Assistant Headteacher at Seaford Head School

Sam Whittaker is an experienced practitioner and leader with 20 years experience supporting Young People across Education, Children's Services, Health and Youth Work Sectors.  He is currently responsible for inclusion, health and wellbeing in a large secondary school and seconded to Local Authority Public Health & Safeguarding Teams providing support and development of PSHE and preventative education across East Sussex.

Zoe Fish — Whole School Health Lead, Kent School Health

Zoe Fish has been working within the Kent School Health Team for  the last 10 years, initially as a Healthy Schools Specialist Practitioner and more recently leading the Whole School Health team.  Prior to working within the School Health Team, she spent 5 years working for a National Mental Health Charity, with a remit around supporting children and young people.

Mel Turner — Gloucestershire Healthy Living and Learning Lead Teacher

Mel Turner is an experienced Primary School Teacher and was subject lead for PSHE at her school for fourteen years. For the past four years, she has been seconded to Gloucestershire Healthy Living and Learning (GHLL) as a lead teacher, where she supports primary schools across Gloucestershire in all aspects of health and wellbeing. As a GHLL lead teacher, Mel delivers Primary RSHE and Mental Health training, writes Primary RSHE resources, and supports schools to gain their Healthy Schools and Mental Health Champions Awards.

Second speaker to be announced soon!

Elaine Robson - Health and Wellbeing Advisor, Education North Tyneside

Elaine Robson supports schools to develop effective, evidence based policy and practice related to many aspects of health and wellbeing, with a particular focus on PSHE education. She is passionate about the need for an effective PSHE education that not only teaches young people how to be healthy and safe, but also develops personal and social skills to  prepare children and young people for life in modern Britain.

Eve Conner-McGill – Health Education & Relationship Manager, Stockton on Tees Borough Council

Eve is passionate about health and wellbeing in education and has worked in this area for over 16 years. She has previously worked on the National Healthy Schools Programme and more recently in Public Health and Education Improvement Service on local whole school approaches to health and wellbeing within primary, secondary and further education settings.

Zoe Barkhammanlow & Liz Spendlove — Education Adviser Health & Wellbeing, Croydon Education Partnership

Liz and Zoe have worked together for almost three years and their ambition is to make Croydon a hub for educational wellbeing with RSHE at its heart.

They are currently building an innovative and flexible offer to schools based on bespoke data gathered from an ambitious public health survey programme, but at the same time ensuring that their support is pragmatic, accessible and always has the child at its heart. Working in one of the most diverse boroughs in the country they are also part of a wider drive to improve equality and to help schools negotiate some of the challenges they face in dealing with 21^st century challenges.

Kate Smith — Head of Healthy Lives, London Borough of Tower Hamlets

Kate Smith has many years’ experience working in primary, secondary and special schools both delivering PSHE and working at a strategic level.  She has worked across many sectors including schools, NHS, Third Sector and Local Authority.