Meet the team

Penelope Rodrigues	Early Years Consultant Penny has worked as an Early Years Education Consultant in Hackney Education for 14 years. She has a wealth of experience working as a primary school teacher for over 20 years across age ranges, specialising in early years and emotional development of young children. Her area of particular interest lies in supporting wellbeing and sharing positive behaviour strategies for parents and staff working with children under five. Other areas of expertise include the Solihull Approach, of which she is a qualified trainer; social and emotional development in Early years and infant mental health; and communication language and literacy, including the teaching of phonics.
Anushka Sonpal	Primary MFL Consultant Anushka has over 15 years experience working at primary level. She was a primary Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) Advanced Skills Teacher in London and currently works as a freelance Primary Language Consultant in Hackney Education. Anushka has organised and led trips to Spain for primary pupils across London and supported several schools to lead their own. She is also an experienced teacher-trainer and a Senior Lecturer at the University of East London (UEL) for Primary PGCE. She has a proven track record of supporting trainees and experienced teachers to achieve excellent outcomes with pupils through coaching and mentoring.
Tom Panagiotopoulos	School Improvement Partner Tom has a bachelor's degree in Linguistics and Education, a master's degree in Literature, and over 25 years experience as an educator, including working as a teacher leader to develop Literacy in schools. He currently works as a school improvement partner in Hackney Education. Tom was the Headteacher of a Hackney school for 10 years, leading the school to achieve an Outstanding Ofsted rating, and also worked as an Ofsted inspector. He has extensive experience in leading and coaching teams to achieve their best outcomes. He also runs workshops for organisations to help staff deal with work-life balance through mindfulness strategies.
Claire Tregear	Associate Deputy Headteacher (Primary PSHE and Behaviour) Claire has over 22 years experience in primary education as a teacher, leader, and currently, as an Associate Deputy Headteacher for Hackney Education where she leads on whole school behaviour and PSHE (including primary RSHE) for Hackney primary schools. Claire has a master's degree in Teaching and Learning with a Distinction from the Institute of Education. As a teacher, Claire worked across all key phases, as well as a lead behaviour professional, SENCo leader, ICT Coordinator, ECT mentor and teacher governor. In Hackney Education, she delivers extensive training and support to schools at leadership and classroom level including whole school policy and initiatives, such as positive behaviour management, attachment and trauma training, restorative approaches, solution-focused approaches and social and emotional aspects of learning, and emotional intelligence in the classroom. In addition, Claire supports primary schools as a WAMHS Wellbeing Framework Partner for the CAMHS Alliance pilot project in Hackney, and is a Moderation Manager, training KS1 and KS2 moderators.
Oliver Crooke	Deputy Head of Music Service Oliver joined Hackney Music Service during its formation in 2000. Prior to this, he trained as a classical musician and worked as a professional bassist, playing and recording in punk, rock, jazz and African bands, having grown up in Africa. He is responsible for ICT Music development in Hackney, event production, including the annual festival, and manages the peripatetic tutors teaching in Hackney schools. During his performing career in the 1980s and 90s, Oliver taught bass and music technology in most of Hackney's secondary schools, ran three large scale community music programmes on estates in the borough, and founded music departments in HMP Holloway and Pentonville. Oliver’s interest in teaching music was sparked at age 19 when Joe Strummer from The Clash asked him to explain major scales whilst touring with the band. Since then, Oliver has taught many musicians who have worked professionally with major artists across genres.
Nick Corker	Virtual School Head Nick has been a qualified teacher for 27 years and has worked in Hackney for the past 22. After a leadership role in a large primary school with responsibilities for assessment and behaviour he was seconded to Hackney Education to the newly formed Virtual School for Looked After Children. After taking the job permanently Nick has overseen the expansion of the Virtual School to incorporate Care Leavers and young people in the youth justice system. Nick has developed a multidisciplinary team of professionals that supports children and young people with a range of needs. He has a strong focus of helping them to grow into resilient and successful young adults whatever their academic ability. Nick is also the Chair of the Kench Hill Charity.
Richard Boxall	Associate Deputy Head and Daily Supported Reading Lead Richard is an accomplished trainer and Teacher Leader who trained with Dame Marie Clay at the Institute of Education and has experience working with nursery, primary, secondary and adult students across settings. He originally trained as a teacher of the deaf, and was responsible for leading the first fully integrated hearing impaired unit in Tower Hamlets. He currently leads Hackney Education’s Daily Supported Reading (DSR) programme; an internationally acclaimed approach to the teaching of early reading in KS1, which he designed in partnership with teacher colleagues, currently used in schools across the UK and in Denmark. Central to his development has been a curiosity and deep fascination with the process of children’s language and literacy acquisition, as well as his interest in effective and creative responses to reading underachievement.
Kate Moorse	16-19 Consultant Kate has over 40 years’ experience in curriculum, assessment and professional development at school, local authority and national levels. Specialist in history and the humanities curriculum, she has worked cross-phase as adviser/inspector for 3 local authorities; as Ofsted inspector and Curriculum Adviser for the Qualifications Curriculum Authority (QCA). Since leaving QCA, she has worked as a consultant to schools, local authorities and national bodies. She currently works with primary humanities co-ordinators in a number of London local authorities, as 16-19 consultant for Hackney Education and as a volunteer, developing training programmes for rural young women to teach EY/KS1 classes in rural north India and cross-phase professional development programmes in Delhi and other urban centres. She is also an Honorary Fellow for the Schools History Project.
Wendy Finan	Secondary Maths Consultant Wendy has over thirty years experience with secondary and post-16 Maths education working as a teacher and department-lead in schools and colleges across London, including in Redbridge, Walthamstow and Havering, and as the Director of Maths in a secondary school rated Outstanding by Ofsted. Currently, Wendy leads on Secondary Mathematics for Hackney Education, working with schools in and beyond Hackney to support and deliver school improvement. She is responsible for supporting and developing Mathematics departments, leaders and individual maths teachers, and delivering Mathematics network meetings. Wendy works with schools to develop their departmental processes and ensure that leaders are aware of and able to demonstrate a sound knowledge of and rationale for the intent, implementation and impact of their curriculum.
Caroline Hart	Early Years Consultant Caroline has been an Early Years Consultant in Hackney since 2009. She has a degree and Postgraduate Certificate in Education and previously worked in an infant school and children's centres across Hackney, whilst completing the NPQICL qualification. Caroline has been responsible for developing, implementing and evaluating a number of successful, borough-wide programs. Her work includes the integrated two year developmental review, commended following SEND and CQC inspections; the highly successful ‘Eat Better Start Better in Hackney’ nutrition program; and the ‘Happy, Healthy and Ready to Learn’ training program, which received an ‘Innovation in Training Award’ from NHS London. Caroline's work demonstrates the value of collaborating with education leads, health visitors, dietitians and public health professionals to improve children’s outcomes and reduce inequalities, as well as the importance of early intervention. She is committed to lifelong learning and recently achieved an MSc in Population Health at UCL.