Jonathan Reid

Jonathan has worked on the Post-16 team in Hackney Education for 8 years. Prior to this, his experience spans youth work, careers, publishing and the arts, including his work with the Connexions career service in Moss Side, Manchester, the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and as a database manager for a school in central London.

Jonathan specialises in supporting all Hackney’s Post-16 products and services for KS5, working to foster a sense of community between schools and colleges by organising Post-16 networks, training and events. Central to his role is the coordination of Post-16 project activity, including managing local initiatives, building and maintaining relationships with external stakeholders and schools, and embedding positive cultures and collaborative ways of working.

Debra Robinson

Debra has taught across North and East London for over 20 years in secondary schools, most recently at a Hackney academy rated Outstanding by Ofsted. She has a range of experience in curriculum and parental engagement, both at whole school and community level. Debra also led a successful English department and as an Advanced Skills Teacher in North London where she implemented a range of literacy initiatives, and has been instrumental in leading teaching and learning strategies across schools and developing teachers to move from ‘good’ to ‘outstanding’ . 

Debra’s experience and understanding of the lived and professional experience in Hackney has been extremely valuable for her role in Hackney Education. Here she works with a broad range of stakeholders and as a professional advisor to schools and parent groups to foster positive relationships. 

Laleh Laverick

Laleh is a Leadership and Management Adviser with over 20 years experience working in inner city primary schools, including as an Executive Headteacher. She also worked as a National Leader of Education linked to a Teaching School where she supported Women Leading in Education and BAME leadership programmes. Prior to this, she worked in a range of roles, many of them in the field of inclusion and curriculum development, and served as a school governor. 
 
In recent years, she has supported school leaders through management and system changes. Laleh believes that schools are at their best when their vision and ethos are clearly communicated by school leaders to all stakeholders and the culture of schools is one of high ambition for their communities. Laleh has published articles in the Chartered College of Teaching’s journal and in journals on Early Years Education.
 

Madalina Brockmann

Maddie is a professional with strong experience of quality assurance, governance and regulatory compliance in the UK education sector. She is an experienced trainer, and a qualified complaints handler and mediator with over ten years of managing complaints and conduct casework.

Maddie is well versed in policy development and interpretation, and providing advice on complex governance matters. 

Donna Knight-Olds

Donna is a governance professional who brings experience both from educational settings and local authorities. Her earlier work within local government Democratic Services, including for London Borough of Hackney, involved supporting elected Councillors and minuting formal meetings. In addition, she has years of experience supporting school Governing Bodies (primary and secondary, mainly academies) directly as a Governance Professional and administrator. Her work with the Schools Team of the Diocese of St Albans offered her insights into the specific circumstances of Church schools.

Donna served as a co-opted Governor at her own children’s primary maintained school so she also understands the roles and responsibilities of a school Governor personally.

Donna is an advocate for the importance of strongly supported strategic governance as vital underpinning to the work done in schools to ensure the fulfilment of children’s potential.

Cimone Brown

Cimone has over 15 years experience in primary education, starting her teaching career here in Hackney. As a teacher, she has held a variety of senior leadership roles including EYFS Lead and SENCO before becoming Head of School within a high achieving MAT. Alongside this responsibility, Cimone facilitated EYFS networking and supported other schools within the Trust to improve early years provision and prepare for OFSTED inspection. She also has experience of opening successful school-based nursery provisions.

Cimone led the Early Support Team within the Hackney Integrated Service prior to taking up post leading the Early Years team. Her areas of expertise are SEND, inclusive practice (including diverse curriculum design), early reading and fostering positive relationships/interactions in the Early Years.

Caroline Hart

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.

Penelope Rodrigues

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.

Hannah Avis

Hannah joined Hackney Education as an Early Years Consultant in May 2024. Prior to that, she gained over 11 years of experience working as a teacher (specialising in the EYFS) in a wide range of infant and primary schools. At her most recent setting, an ‘Outstanding’ primary school in Camden and a member of the North London Alliance Research School, Hannah worked as the Early Years Lead and also carried out Systems Leadership roles in both Oracy and STEAM.

After leaving the classroom in 2022, Hannah used her specialist knowledge of the early years sector to undertake independent consultancy work. She collaborated with a range of education-based clients including early years organisations, a local authority and an education charity whilst also carrying out advisory work and leading CPD for individual early years settings.

Hannah is passionate about putting communication and language at the heart of early year practice and therefore specialises in supporting practitioners to develop high-quality interactions, implement a language-rich curriculum and to transform their learning environment into one buzzing with talk!

Joanna Murray

Jo has worked in education settings for over 24 years. Since graduating in Media Communications, she has worked on various projects, ranging from company CPD to University recruitment within the UK and internationally. Jo is also a school governance clerk supporting several outer london schools and Hackneys SACRE.

Jo joined Hackney Education’s School Improvement Team in 2008 and has had varying roles. She is currently the Project Officer for Hackney’s literacy projects, Destination Reader, Daily Supported Reading and The Lit Programme, The Literacy programmes are used by schools across the UK, China and Denmark and at times funded by the SSIF/EEF. Jo also provides administration support for our School Governance team. She works with colleagues across all areas to ensure a high level of support across all aspects of the programmes and services.