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.

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.

Dr Nic Crossley, Director of Education and Children’s Services at the National Autistic Society and NAS Academy Trust, has over 20 years’ experience in education which spans primary, secondary, mainstream and specialist provision and her research interests are in the factors which contribute to educational underachievement.  Her current role involves working with schools to enhance the learning experience for all vulnerable learners; however, her specialist interest areas are Autism and Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH).  She is a trained Pupil Premium Reviewer, MAT SEND Reviewer, Chartered Educational Assessor and Fellow of the CIEA (Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors).

She has previous experience as a Consultant Principal to two Special Academies, as a School Inspector, and has written and led leadership development training for middle and senior leaders in Primary, Secondary and Special education in England, Wales and Jersey. She is the co-author of Inclusion: A Principled Guide for School Leaders, published by Routledge, as part of the NASEN Spotlight series.

Nic has contributed to the development of the Whole School SEND MAT Review Guide and was a recent member of the DfE roundtable to improve the availability and use of SEND data from the Get Information about Schools register, a recent member of the ‘Task and Finish’ group for the development of the Early Career Framework from a SEND perspective, and a recent member of the Ofsted and CQC Area SEND Advisory Group.

She is currently a Council member for ASCL (Association of School and College Leaders), a member of the Ethics, Inclusion and Equalities Committee, the national SEND representative, and Chair of the Women Leaders’ Network. She is also a member of the Whole School SEND Steering Group and co-founder of the MAT SEND Leaders Group with fellow practitioner Simon Tanner of Bohunt Education Trust.

Passionate about improving outcomes for all, Nic is currently a Trustee for the charity Football Beyond Borders, which works to address educational and social exclusion for disadvantaged pupils, and also a Trustee for the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors, which seeks to improve standards in educational assessment.  She is also a member of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Board for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, which is committed to improving access to targeted services in mental health.

With a Masters in Educational Leadership and Management and a Masters in Practice-Based Educational Research, Nic is also an Associate Tutor at Leeds Beckett University delivering modules for undergraduates as part of the BSc Educational Psychology and PGCE Primary Education and is an Honorary Teaching fellow at the Centre for Teacher Education at the University of Warwick.

Channels and recent publications

You can find Dr Nic Crossley on Twitter

Crossley, N and Hewitt, D (2021) Inclusion: A Principled Guide for School Leaders (London, Routledge)

Crossley, N (2021) Voices for Change (London, Association of School and College Leaders).

Crossley, N (2020) Closing the Opportunity Gap for Learners with SEND Beyond the Pandemic (London, Queen Street Group).

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.

A Fellow and Chartered Educational Assessor of the CIEA since 2013, David has worked for a professional body, the International Compliance Association. He provided expertise and direction in assessments and associated governance, management systems and compliance for over a decade. He established an End-Point Assessment organisation obtaining recognition for delivery of five Standards by ESFA, has worked closely with standards developers in Trailblazer groups to produce standards and their assessment plans that received approval from IfATE.

Working with programme designers, David successfully took postgraduate diploma programmes through validation processes with University of Manchester, Alliance Manchester Business School and with the University of Law. David designed and developed quality management systems, which includes a peer-reviewed development tool for professional and vocational qualifications from level 3 to level 7, for assessment operations and the risk governance model that supports its function.

David recently started Agora Business Consulting to support education, training and apprenticeships providers in the spectrum of their diverse assessment and governance activities.

Ian has been a Fellow the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors for several years. He taught Economics, Business, ICT, and maths or 35 years in a range of UK education environments including some approved by HM and in deprived areas in the North East. He finished full-time teaching at Whickham School, Gateshead.

As a Chief Examiner with Pearson and a Principal Standards Verifier also with Pearson, Ian has been involved in setting, marking, and moderating a range of subject both academic
and vocational. With NCFE Ian has been Chair of Functional Skills (maths). He has held a Principal Examiner role (English) with NOCN.

More recently Ian has been involved with exam inspections. He conducts extensive IQA and EQA work with a variety of centres.

Over the years Ian has written a GCSE Business textbook and various textbooks for BTEC courses.

Quality Assurance is at the heart of everything in which Ian believes and promotes.

Alison McCree (BSc., PGCE., MA.) is Director of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors based at the University of Hertfordshire. She has almost thirty years' experience in education, having taught English as a Foreign Language in Japan, Denmark and the UK, before qualifying as a science teacher. She taught in the secondary sector prior to joining the University of Hertfordshire as a professional development lead for the Science Learning Centre in 2007, developing and delivering continuing professional development for science teachers. She also headed up the Triple Science Support Programme for East of England and Central regions and managed the UK arm of the Amgen Biotech Experience programme.

In 2016, the University of Hertfordshire became the home of the CIEA and Alison was appointed Director. The role encompasses all aspects of operational management of the membership, training and voice activities of the CIEA.  Key areas of development have been the reintroduction of the Chartered Educational Assessor qualification and developing bespoke assessment training courses for a number of clients.

Alison has also taught on the BA in Education at the University of Hertfordshire and is a visiting tutor, supporting trainee teachers on initial teacher education programmes.

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 Administration team is 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.

Estelle spent 18 years teaching in an inner-city comprehensive school before being elected as the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Yardley, in 1992. She served as a schools minister in the Labour government of 1997-2001 and as Secretary of State for Education and Skills between 2001-2002. She also served as Minister for Arts from 2003-2005. Since leaving the House of Commons in 2005 Baroness Morris has held a number of posts in education, including Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sunderland, Chair of the Children’s Workforce Development Council and Chair of the Institute of Effective Education. She is currently Chair of the Birmingham Education Partnership and is a member of the House of Lords.