Author list

Dr Amanda Sara is an author and educational consultant. Previously she was Principal Director of Academies (11 - 16) - Head of two London schools. In addition to her current role, she is also literacy consultant for The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust and a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts.

Julie Sargent has over 10 years’ experience of working across the whole of the primary sector as an English Consultant. This includes developing bespoke CPD for individual schools, multi-academy trusts and local authorities. She has a particular interest in Early Years/KS1 and using high-quality texts to promote and develop all aspects of English.

Tom Saunders MD merged his life's work as a physician with his life's pleasure, golf. He practiced as a Family Physician in Calgary until 1968 when he joined the new Faculty of Medicine as head of Family Practice. As a professor he taught medical students and trainees how to use self hypnosis techniques to help their patients manage medical problems. He set the principles of hypnosis on his own game, and with other golfers.

Mel Scott is an MFL and English specialist who currently leads a year six team at Vale School. Prior to entering the teaching profession, she worked in industry using her language skills in areas as diverse as buying and copywriting. She has a particular interest in raising the level of children's engagement in and enjoyment of writing. @melscott123

David Shephard BSc, DES is Chairman and Head of Research and Training for The Performance Partnership. David is a Master Trainer of NLP, Time Line Therapy, instructor of Hypnotherapy and teacher of Hawaiian Huna. He presents public seminars including Presenting Magically throughout the year. His companies include The Performance Partnership, the Coaching Partnership and The Profitability Partnership.

Dan Short is currently in private practice in Scottsdale Arizona and a member of the graduate faculty at Ottawa University. He was Associate Director and Chief Archivist for the Milton H. Erickson Foundation in the USA, former Editor for The Milton H. Erickson Foundation Newsletter and was the Editor and Designer for Milton H. Erickson: The Complete Works.

Julia Silver is the founder of Qualified Tutor, a professional development community that develops and certifies tutors. She lives in North London with her husband Simon, her five children and her Labrador puppy.

Julie Silverthorn MS and John Overdurf CAC are highly respected international therapists and trainers of hypnotherapy and NLP, with over thirty years of combined experience. They are both certified Master Trainers of NLP and are the developers of Humanistic Neuro-Linguistic Psychology, which integrates hypnosis, neuro-linguistics, quantum theory and spirituality. Julie has a master's degree in clinical psychology, while John is a certified addictions counsellor and a former instructor of psychology.

Joseph Sinclair has been a member of the Institute of Transactional Analysis, the International Co-counselling Community and the Institute of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. He is a member of the Association for Humanistic Psychology and editor of the Independent Practitioners Network Newsletter.

Iesha Small is an educator, a writer and an innovation lead at an education think tank. Iesha was previously an assistant head teacher and taught for fourteen years. After a breakdown in 2011, she started using photography to improve her mental health and explore people's stories ' and this journey ultimately led to her becoming an author. Iesha writes about education for various publications, including The Guardian and TES, and was previously a monthly columnist for Schools Week. To keep things interesting, she is also a speaker, blogger and podcaster. She lives near London with her family and a tiny but loud dog.

Jim Smith, the laziest (yet still professional) teacher in town, is a head of school, education consultant, Independent Thinking Associate, speaker and bestselling author.

Alistair Smith is an internationally known consultant, author and trainer. He has spoken to tens of thousands of teachers across the world and has written a number of books including: The Brain's Behind It: New Knowledge about the Brain and Learning, Help Your Child to Succeed: The Essential Guide for Parents and Accelerated Learning: A User's Guide. He is the designated learning consultant to the Football Association. He is also the author of Learning to Learn in Practice (ISBN 9781845902872).