Dan Sandy : Director of School Improvement 

With nearly twenty-five years of experience in education, Dan has taught years one to six in a range of primary school settings; from church schools to those in areas of high deprivation. He has led a wide range of subjects across the curriculum (including leading the curriculum itself) and has worked as a senior leader for the last sixteen years, recently completing the National Professional Qualification for Headteachers and a Master’s degree in education. He has extensive experience as an Advanced Skills Teacher and KS2 moderator and has supported both primary and secondary schools across Staffordshire, Walsall and Birmingham to improve standards of teaching and learning in KS1 and KS2, as well as how they transition into KS3.

Dan has significant experience of school improvement and is currently the Director of School Improvement Adviser for the Lighthouse Federation. He leads the School Improvement team to conduct Supported Self Reviews of schools and helps to prepare staff, senior leaders, subject leaders and children for Ofsted inspections. His role includes one-to-one coaching support for both experienced teachers and ECTs; training for teachers, teaching assistants/learning support assistants; subject leadership development; monitoring and feedback, curriculum development, senior leadership support and the planning and delivery of Black history. Dan has an extensive background in research and has previously worked in print, television and broadcast radio as a researcher for flagship national programmes. He researches, designs and delivers bespoke CPD across the federation, including the Emerging Lighthouse Leadership Programme, which was recently featured in the TES. He is also a governor with nine years of experience.

 

Emma Wanglin :Head of Early Years and Curriculum 

Emma is currently Head of Early Years and Curriculum at the Lighthouse Federation. She has extensive leadership and has experience of teaching in all Key stages including Early Years, Key stage 1 and Key stage 2 in a range of schools across the West Midlands.

Emma has significant experience of successful school improvement and has developed and created a range of teaching materials that are used effectively by teachers in schools across Walsall. She has supported many schools with reviewing and developing their core and non-core curriculum as well as developing the skills of curriculum leaders, the provision in Early Years and preparing them for OFSTED.

Emma’s background includes mentoring staff, preparing and delivering staff training materials, supporting ECT’s, creating interventions and lots more. Emma is also a qualified Early Years Specialist Leader of Education, and has supported many schools across Walsall LEA who have commissioned her on many occasions to lead initiatives such as ‘Schema Play’ and ‘The Early Years Practitioner’, create ‘Home Learning Projects’ to engage parents in their learning and deliver training to all Early Years practitioners.

She understands child development and offers realistic and practical advice to improve outcomes and provision for all pupils including vulnerable, SEN and more able pupils. She is very passionate about Early Years and the Curriculum and has a philosophy that ‘every’ child should be provided First Quality Teaching opportunities to enable them to succeed through a well-planned curriculum.

 

Joanna Austin: Associate School Improvement Advisor 

Joanna has enjoyed working in the education sector for over 35 years. She has dedicated her life to make things better for children. From humble beginnings, Joanna has worked hard to establish herself as a lead high impact improvement adviser supporting continuous professional development. Her energy comes from creating an environment where people feel valued and are encouraged to develop themselves to be the best that they can be. She believes that schools have a role to play in raising aspirations for teachers and children and that we can all work together to make a real difference.

Currently, Joanna works with school leaders at all levels, providing all forms of support including writing the SEF; School Improvement Plans; data analysis and bespoke support and CPD for schools; her work with curriculum leaders has been highly impactful. She leads school reviews across a number of Multi Academy Trusts and works with all the schools in the Lighthouse Federation. Joanna also conducts Performance Management for leadership teams at the Lighthouse Federation. Her down to earth, motivational style makes her very popular and schools continue to request her services.

Over the years, Joanna has held significant transformative leadership positions including headteacher and executive headteacher of five schools. She led the teams of three primary schools to successfully amalgamate into an outstanding National Support School. She continues to enjoy supporting headteachers to manage change. Joanna has worked as a Local and National Leader of Education with considerable impact over the years in many schools across England in challenging contexts.

After working as an Ofsted inspector, Joanna took on the role of Senior Improvement Advisor in a new Multi Academy Trust and was promoted to Head of School Performance. She became Director of Learning for the Trust and worked tirelessly with the team to successfully grow the Trust to 19 schools. A leading aspect of her work was to signpost school to school support.

Her previous work as an accredited Advanced Skills Teacher has also supported hundreds of teachers, including new teachers, to improve the craft of teaching and learning. She has run several programmes for Early Careers Teachers and many conferences for teaching assistants. Joanna has written the Midlands Air Ambulance curriculum as part of a drive to engage future fundraisers.

One of the most humbling experiences that Joanna has had, was to travel to Zambia to work with staff in Africa who were then were able to come over to spend time in schools in the UK. She says that she came back a different person, with a deeper understanding of how remarkable people can transform lives with so little. Professional generosity and collaboration and a strong drive to make things better for children continues to be Joanna's purpose in life.

Louise Brown : Operations Manager

Louise began her career in Early Years Education over 25 years ago, progressing to the role of Deputy in Charge of the Early Years Department. Her passion for education and leadership led her to pursue a new professional direction, qualifying as a School Business Manager.

Committed to lifelong learning and professional growth, Louise is currently studying for her AAT qualification in Accounting. Alongside her educational expertise, she has extensive experience in Business Marketing and Communication Management.

Louise brings a wealth of leadership experience and a diverse skill set to the Central Team, combining her background in education with strong business acumen to support strategic planning and operational excellence.
 

Richard Rose : Safeguarding and Attendance Manager

Richard is an experienced safeguarding and attendance professional with over 20 years of experience of working with children, young people and families. 

His career spans both primary and secondary education, and he has a proven track record of supporting schools to establish and maintain strong safeguarding, attendance and pastoral care practices. 

He previously led safeguarding, attendance, and pastoral care at an Academy Trust level, providing strategic oversight and hands on support to academies across the Trust. 

As a former Designated Safeguarding Lead, Richard has in -depth and knowledge of both operational and strategic safeguarding and now works across The Lighthouse Federation to ensure that statutory responsibilities are met and that effective systems are in place to support all children and families. 

Richard has extensive experience in managing complex safeguarding issues, developing policies and procedures and working closely with multi agency partners. 

He regularly delivers high quality training to school staff and has also delivered multi agency safeguarding training to wider service providers, helping to build strong collaborative approaches to safeguarding and child protection. 

Jasmin Kaur : Attendance Officer