Our team

Simon brings to the role of trustee considerable experience of the 14-19 education sector and qualifications system. He worked for 16 years in a major awarding body, latterly as its Director of Policy.  More recently, he worked for QCA and its successor body (QCDA) managing a variety of projects.

Since 2010 Simon has been a freelance consultant, contributing to a wide variety of projects, including the development of a work-based learning degree, higher level apprenticeships, editing learner support materials for a professional body, training awarding body staff on writing units to meet Ofqual’s QCF requirements and writing assessment development processes for a vocational awarding body.

Mick’s teaching career extended over eighteen years including work in secondary, sixth form and Further Education institutions as well as work in Higher Education as an external examiner.  He has worked as a local education authority advisory teacher and as a general adviser working with primary and secondary schools. Throughout his career, he has been closely associated with the assessment system holding the posts of chief examiner, senior moderator and external university examiner.

Mick joined the National Curriculum Council in 1992 and worked on several iterations of the National Curriculum and non-statutory guidance. Following his position as head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority’s (QCA) regulatory monitoring programme of general and vocational awarding bodies, Mick played a key role in the National Assessment Authority’s (NAA) modernisation programme leading on support for examiner recruitment and recognition of their professional status through the formation of what is now the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors (CIEA). Following delivery failures of national curriculum tests in 2008, Mick took on the post of Acting Managing Director of the NAA and is credited with re-building the national curriculum assessment system.

A former acting Director of QCA and Executive Director of Education at the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA), Mick was accountable for National Curriculum assessments, supporting the delivery of general qualifications and oversight of the National Curriculum. He was an adviser to the DfE Expert Group on Assessment in 2009 and supported the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) Commission on Assessment in 2014. Mick was a member of the DfE Independent Teacher Workload Review Group and an adviser to the DfE Workload Team.  He has acted as an Associate Director of the AQA awarding body, an Adviser to the Welsh and Pakistan Governments, PwC and FrogEducation. Mick is Vice-Chair of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors (CIEA), Chair of the Evidence Based Education (EBE) Advisory Board, and Chairs the Assessment Committee of the Institute of Directors (IoD). He was a member of the Joint Council for Qualifications’ (JCQ) Commission on Malpractice in Public Examinations and has advised the DfE Educational Technology and Data Policy Teams. Mick is a lay member of the Health Research Authority Ethics Committee and lay member of the University of Leeds Business, Environment and Social Sciences Research Ethic Committee. He has chaired and presented to numerous conferences and lead training on education and assessment to a range of organisations in the UK and aboard.

Examples of recent projects include:

1. Designing the NAHT Curriculum and Assessment Framework. (2015)
2. Research and advisory support for the DfE Teacher Workload groups on Marking and Data (2015 and on-going).
3. Providing a framework for the evaluation of schools’ curriculum and assessment systems across the world for Opportunity International Pathways to Excellence (2017);
4. Development of an Assessment Policy and Curriculum Framework for the Punjab – sponsored by DFID (2017);
5. Member of the Independent Commission on Examination Malpractice (2019).

Mick holds a PhD in educational assessment from the University of Leeds and degrees at Masters and Bachelor levels. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and a Fellow of the CIEA. He is passionate about education and aligning the aims of national high volume assessment and testing systems with the aims and realities of everyday teaching and learning in schools, colleges and the workplace to benefit society and to support each individual learner to reach their true potential.

Ian Crawford BA, PGCE, NPQH, FRSA and FCIEA has worked as a Senior Leader in post 16, a Curriculum Advisor in Cumbria CC and Sandwell MBC, and since 2011 has run his own Education Projects Business in the West Midlands.

Work has focused on STEM Careers, European Projects around NEETs and Science, Mental Health and Wellbeing projects in prisons, bid writing and data analysis support for the Post 16 sector. Ian has significant experience as a senior examiner, moderator and advisor working with the main UK Awarding Bodies.

Dr Joanna Goodman is an educationalist with a vast experience of school leadership, both in maintained and independent sectors.  She has worked at every key stage in education.

She graduated with a Doctor in Education degree from University of London, King’s College London, where she researched the role of assessment in improving learning outcomes. Her assessment expertise is internationally recognised, and she has been widely published in the UK and abroad, including peer-reviewed publications.

Her research interests include educational assessment, teaching and learning, and leadership development.

She is an Educational Consultant and a Director of Cromwell Consulting Ltd, and a school inspector. She is also a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors, which she joined when it was first established. Joanna is a member of The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline committee working on developing national clinical guidelines.

Neil King, BA (Durham), PGCE (Cambridge) was at various times Head of English, Director of Sixth Form and Senior Master at Hymers College, Hull, UK. He has been an examiner since 1970 and has worked for four different GCE/GCSE boards and for the International Baccalaureate, where he has just finished a fixed term as Deputy Chief Examiner for English. He has served as Team Leader and Principal Examiner for several examinations, and was Chief Examiner for English Literature in the former Oxford & Cambridge Schools Examination Board.

He is the author or editor of over 60 publications. He is joint Artistic Director of Other Lives Productions, a professional theatre company based in Yorkshire, UK (see www.otherlives.org.uk). In 2004 he was a founder member of what is now the CIEA.

Carolyn has been a Fellow member of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors since 2013. She taught English for 35 years in a range of UK secondary schools: state, comprehensive, grammar, independent, day, and boarding; she has also held senior positions in British and other international schools. Since 2011 she has been a freelance consultant, specialising in assessment.

Carolyn has been an examiner for many boards, starting with Oxford in 1980. Until 2017 she was Deputy Chief Examiner for IB English Literature and is currently Principal Examiner for one of its components and an exam paper setter.

She has served on many ISI inspection teams, in the UK and overseas, was an English consultant to Chris Woodhead’s Cognita group, has been involved in INSET provision for the European Council of International Schools and is generally an all-round enthusiast for high standards in education.

Dr Andrew Flory began his teaching career in comprehensive and private schools in East Anglia before moving first to Norway, where he began teaching the International Baccalaureate (IB). He continued his involvement in teaching the IB at the United World College of South East Asia in Singapore, where at various times he led one of school’s boarding communities and also had leadership of the English department.

After a further spell in Norway, as an English teacher and part of the school’s senior management team, he began working as a Subject Area Manager and eventually Curriculum Area Head for the IB curriculum and assessment centre in Cardiff, with responsibility for curriculum development leading to the new Group 1 (Studies in language and literature) courses first examined in 2013. From 2011 until December 2017 he was Head of Academic Services at Pamoja Education, delivering the IB Diploma Programme Online to over 600 schools.

Since 1996 he has examined Group 1 course assessments for the IB and has extensive examining experience, including the standardisation of marking and grade awarding, currently for the Language and literature components. In addition to this he has substantial experience of examination paper review and standardisation and has been on the curriculum review team for the new IB Group 1 courses which launch in 2019. He is currently authoring a workshop for the IB to support aspects of the new courses.

Particular interests are in community languages, online training and English literature, and his doctoral study, which was undertaken at the University of Essex on British Travel Writing in Central Asia, was completed in 2012.

Tim Sherriff (B.Ed DASE M.Ed) is Headteacher and Head of Centre at Westfield Community School and Start Well Family Centre in Wigan which was rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted in May 2010 and May 2013. Westfield is a designated NCTL Teaching School and National Support School. Tim is a National Leader of Education and has supported many schools in this role. In 2007 he was named as the NCSL Headteacher of the Year in a Primary School for the North West of England.

Tim has a particular interest in assessment and in 2011 was a panel member of Independent Review of Key Stage 2 testing, assessment and accountability led by Lord Bew. He was also member of the NAHT’s Commission on Assessment in 2014 and is currently a member of their Assessment and Accountability Group and a Co-opted member of the National Executive’s Primary Sector Council. In 2018 Tim was a member of the NAHT’s Accountability Commission.

Tim is a member of the Ofsted Headteacher Reference Group for the North of England and has given evidence to the Education Select Committee. He was invited to deliver training on assessment in his school to Ofsted Her Majesty’s Inspectors (North West) He chairs and speaks at national conferences on assessment, behaviour and attendance. Recently Tim has delivered training for the DfE on Reducing Teacher Workload.

Lorraine Wilson (B.Ed., LLCM., ALCM., FCIEA) is an expert in Functional Skills English. Until becoming a self-employed education consultant and adviser, she was Manager of the national Functional Skills Support Programme with LSN and was previously a Development Advisor with both the Key Skills Support Programme and the Skills for Life Quality Improvement Programme.

Before working at national level, Lorraine was Key Skills, Basic Skills and ESOL Manager in a large FE College and has had extensive experience of the school, college and work-based routes.

Lorraine is currently a Chief Examiner for Functional English. Previous assessment related roles have included Chief Moderator for Essential Skills Wales (Communication), Principal Moderator for Key Skills, Inter-School Assessor for English and, many years ago, a GC(S)E English Examiner. She is on the list of Specialist Advisors with OFSTED and a Subject Expert with OFQUAL in Functional English and ESOL. In addition, she was Chief Editor for the production of Communication, Literacy and ESOL tests for BKSU/QCA. She was previously an Associate Inspector with ALI. Lorraine has worked as a consultant for a range of organisations including NCVQ/QC(D)A, CfBT and the BBC.

Matthew Lumby has over twenty years’ experience of working in the public sector for a range of different organisations.

In education, he has worked at the Department for Education, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, Ofqual and Ofsted.

A Trustee of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors since 2017, he has researched parental attitudes to teacher assessment at Warwick University and has also studied at Newcastle University and Leeds University.

Alison McCree has been involved in education in various guises for many years. Having taught English as a Foreign Language in Japan, Denmark and the UK she completed a PGCE and MA in Education at the University of Hertfordshire.

Alison taught secondary science in a number of schools across Hertfordshire before joining the University of Hertfordshire as a professional development lead for the Science Learning Centre, developing and delivering CPD for science teachers. More recently, she has been involved in managing educational programmes including the Triple Science Support Programme for East of England and Central regions and the UK Amgen Biotech Experience programme.

'I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to become involved in the partnership between the University of Hertfordshire and CIEA which promises exciting times ahead. I look forward to continuing and developing the work the CIEA carries out to support teachers and examiners in assessment and in pursuing the goal of promoting excellence in assessment. This is a particularly relevant in the current environment of change in the education landscape and the world of assessment.'

Miranda began her career in local government where she worked in both the legal and print department as a secretary then type setter. She then moved into office based work where she became an Account Executive, and then progressed into production. Alongside this, she joined the Royal Navy Reserve in 1991 and is now a Petty Officer in the warfare seaman specialisation of which she was mobilised in 2011 for 8 months.

Miranda went into bookkeeping in 2002 and is now a member of The Institute of Certified Bookkeepers. She joined the CIEA in May as the organisation’s Accounts Administrator. Her methodical and investigative approach makes her a valuable and hardworking member of the team.

The CIEA has three part-time administrators, Claire Chivers, Nicky Bright and Jane Bateman. Based at the University of Hertfordshire, they are a close-knit team who work together on a wide range of administration tasks covering membership, training, finance and marketing.