Author list

Having worked as an English and special educational needs teacher for twenty-five years, Jon Mayhew is now in demand on the school event circuit ' delivering writing workshops to students from Key Stage 2 to sixth form. He is also a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow, helping students to improve their academic writing at Chester University. Jon is the author of the Monster Odyssey series and the multi-award-winning Mortlock.

Duncan McColl was a member of the International Association of Precision Therapists and the International Society for Professional Hypnosis (USA) and was a biofeedback, behavioural and management science consultant. He served as a pilot in the RAF during the Second World War. He later qualified as a chartered accountant and worked as a senior financial and marketing executive in leading British and American companies whilst spending thirty-five years abroad, mainly in the United States, Canada, Australia, Mexico and Spain. He successfully applied ancient and modern teachings, many of them not available in English, to health and business problems, to stress management, creative thinking, psychometric interviewing, and to staff motivation and development. He had an especially delightful and infectious sense of humour.

Julie McCracken is a primary school teacher, whose passion for children and effective learning has led her to become a certified Clean Language facilitator and NLP Master Practitioner in addition to her busy day job. She believes in the simple but essential solutions this training provides in allowing her to ensure that her students are part of an inclusive, interactive and happy learning environment.

Emma McCrea is a senior lecturer at the University of Brighton, specialising in the design and delivery of evidence-informed teacher training for both trainee and experienced teachers. She has led professional development training for organisations such as the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM), Mathematics in Education and Industry (MEI) and the Maths Hubs. She is currently studying for a Fellowship in Education and is the founding director of an edtech start-up. Having started her career as a maths teacher at an innovative secondary school in East Sussex, Emma has since worked as a head of maths, qualified as an advanced skills teacher and led on teaching and learning and teacher professional development.

Ian McDermott specialises in giving people the skills to innovate their own collaborative leadership solutions. Much of his time is spent advising senior leaders worldwide and coaching the next generation to be innovative leaders.

Ian is an Honorary Fellow of Exeter University Business School where his focus is on leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship. He is Dean of Innovation & Learning for the Purposeful Planning Institute in the US and his work is featured in the Open University's MBA course Creativity, Innovation and Change'. Ian is External Faculty at Henley Business School where he helped create the MSc. in Coaching and Behavioral Change. He is also a UKCP registered psychotherapist.

Ian McDermott has pioneered Leadership and Innovation Coaching, has trained a generation of coaches, is a member of the Association for Coaching's Global Advisory Panel and is AC Global Ambassador for Innovation and Collaboration.

Based in the UK and the US, he is an acknowledged thought leader. A published authority, he has authored and co-authored fifteen books on systems thinking, NLP and coaching. Titles include The Art of Systems Thinking, Principles of NLP and The Coaching Bible.

Ian's primary focus is on delivering practical how-tos' to ensure that learning in leadership and change, innovation and collaboration really happen. That's why he set up International Teaching Seminars (ITS).

25+ years on ITS continues to pioneer the application of practical techniques which are grounded in sound neuroscience for individuals, teams and organizations.



For details of consultancy, coaching and training: www.itsnlp.com

Avril McDonald is the bestselling, award-winning author of the Feel Brave series of books and founder of Feel Brave, a company with a vision to give all children access to tools that help them manage tough emotions and reach their potential. Avril has a Diploma of Education from Wellington College of Education, New Zealand, where she trained as a primary school teacher majoring in music and dance. She then had a varied career in digital entertainment before launching Feel Brave to give teachers and parents simple and practical strategies to help children with their emotional well-being. Her free ‘1 Dose/Day’ emotional well-being programme for children is now used in more than 350 schools across ten countries. Avril is an official partner of the New Zealand Life Education Trust and Patron of Westminster Children’s University.

Click here to read a feature on Avril's Feel Brave series on New Zealand's Stuff' website.

Click here to listen to UKEdChats podcast with Avril McDonald.

'Emotional tools for kids taught through books and songs.'

'Teaching children empathy.'

'Empowering kids to feel brave and tackle tough emotions'

Dr Matthew McFall is an education consultant and practitioner with an interest in puzzles, games, mazes, labyrinths and escape rooms.

His work focuses on the uses of wonderment for learning and engagement within both formal and non-formal educational environments. His second doctorate explores the heritage of wonder and considers how ' and why ' it remains relevant to pupils, families and communities. Matthew believes that at the heart of valuable learning is curiosity and positivity, which leads to a lifelong love of finding out more about the universe.

He has championed the venerable tradition of the Cabinet of Curiosities as a boon for schools, helping to establish dedicated wonder spaces both in mainstream schools and in specialist settings for pupils with learning difficulties. He also collaborates with museums to help create spaces that are stimulating, nurturing and surprising.

His book The Little Book of Awe and Wonder: A cabinet of curiosities is a portable cornucopia of the weird and the wonderful, celebrating the joys of discovery, exploration and sharing. Between the covers is an entire world of brilliant strangeness: riddles and illusions; jokes and wisdoms; wasp eyes and kidney crystals. Open the book at random and be transported, delighted and enlightened.

Matthew as featured in The Guardian, 2011: A Wonder Room - every school should have one.

Ormond McGill was known as The Dean of American Hypnotists. He was a magician and hypnotist of international renown, and toured many parts of the world with his exciting stage shows: East Indian Miracles, The Seance of Wonders, Real Mental Magic, South Sea Island Magic and The Concert of Hypnotism, to name but a few. Ormond McGill was also a naturalist of prominence, his contributions to entomology and conchology being well known in those fields.

Bethan McHugh is an experienced MFL teacher and has held numerous positions of responsibility during her career including head of year, head of Spanish, HE adviser and learning leader. She is currently a senior examiner of MFL GCSEs and a CPD presenter, as well as being an author of assessments and digital resources.

Professor Angus McLeod is pre-eminent in coaching technology and practice. His company Angus McLeod Associates trains coaching-skills for managers, leadership and management development learning journeys' and e-learning solutions as well as supplying 1-2-1 coaching. They also supply ASK MAX', the world's first e-mentoring service, a cost-effective way of getting top coaches into organizations for a whole day at a time, where they coach several people during each day. He is also Principal of the Coaching Foundation, an e-learning platform for practical learning of coaching skills. They cover both life- and executive-coaching as well as business development programmes for coaches as well. A wide range of blended-learning is offered including video-tutorials, webinars, series of small-group tutorials (online) and an e-learners community with monitoring and tutoring by professional coaches. Angus is also Visiting Professor of Coaching at Birmingham City University and a supervisor of PhD applied research in coaching and leadership.

Dr Robert McNeilly had been in family practice for 10 years when he was inspired by meeting Milton Erickson, regarded as the founder of modern hypnosis and credited with profoundly influencing the direction of psychotherapy. Dr McNeilly has been refining this approach in his practice over the last 30 years, and in his teaching. He has taught internationally including at Ericksonian Congresses. He brings a simplicity to potentially complex concepts and creates an experience of respect and trust enabling clients and students to safely explore their own unique abilities.

Darren Mead is an experienced science teacher whohas been described as the 'Jimi Hendrix of teaching' and perhaps 'the most intellectually engaged of all British teachers'. Based in the north-east of England, he shares his classroom-based interpretations of research through his highly respected blog, Sharing Pedagogical Purposes.