Simon Blackburn

Simon was the headteacher of a medium sized comprehensive school serving the poorest wards of a town in the West Midlands for 5 years. Since then he has coached, consulted and inspected, leading 65 inspections in both primary and secondary schools. Simon has also trained governors for the NCTL, coached middle leaders as part of the Teaching Leaders programme and facilitated training on various programmes including NPQML, NPQSL, NPQH and bespoke school and cluster training. Simon is also a coach and mentor with the Ambition Institute. He has been trained in many different coaching styles and draws on them all in different situations and has practised as a qualified Cognitive Behavioural Therapist. He is a member of the EMCC, abiding by their code of ethics. He provides supervision to headteachers and executive headteachers, combining CBT methodology with extensive leadership experience. In common with Trevor and Louise, he has developed significant expertise in helping schools to support disadvantaged pupils through the RADY project and relishes this aspect of his work.

Simon is a trustee of a Multi-Academy trust and has chaired an Interim Executive Board.