Meet the team

Anton Francic	Principal Secondary Adviser, School Performance & Improvement Anton has a respected, successful track record in school improvement with over 37 years’ experience in the field. He previously led the school improvement service in Haringey and Kent to drive up standards and inspection outcomes in all phases. In Hackney, between 2005 and 2013, he designed an adviser programme and a dashboard approach to intelligence gathering and risk assessment. This ensured that service areas knew the schools they worked with well and could analyse and diagnose their needs to provide tailored support. The partnerships and trusting relationships from this led to rapid and sustained school improvement, transforming Hackney into one the UK's highest performing authorities. Currently, Anton leads the secondary team and Hackney Education's work on improving outcomes for Young Black Men, as part of Council's ten year programme. He has developed a partnership programme, now approaching its second year, aimed at supporting and developing leaders at senior levels in schools by pairing them with experienced and successful leaders from outside the world of education, who provide bespoke mentoring and coaching and a stimulus for growing personal capacity.
Jo Davey	The LIT Programme Lead Jo has worked in education as a teacher, subject lead and intervention programme manager since 2009. She is an experienced Literacy Specialist with a background in supporting both primary and secondary schools, and is skilled in educational assessment, interventions, research, and tutoring. Jo manages Hackney Education’s Literacy Intervention Toolkit (LIT) Programme, which employs evidence based strategies to increase progress in English, Literacy and the wider curriculum for the lowest achieving students in year 7. She also offers advice on assessment and intervention for reading and writing, and developing literacy across the curriculum. Jo has experience of guiding schools through re-evaluating their phonics provision and implementing assessment processes. Her interest in early reading and supporting children who struggle to gain the skills to read led to her to a Masters in Specific Learning Difficulties (Dyslexia) with The Institute of Education, London, and to become a qualified dyslexia teacher.
Bernadette Clinton	Modern Foreign Languages Consultant Bernadette has 40 years' experience of developing curriculum, assessment and pedagogy in schools, locally, nationally and internationally. She has taught in primary and secondary schools and is currently teaching on the primary Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme at Middlesex University, where she previously designed MA modules for teachers. Bernadette has managed a large Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) Department and been an SLT member in secondary settings. She led the implementation of the Primary Languages Pathfinder as the Adviser in Enfield. As part of her role in Hackney Education, she runs the Spanish Initiative in Hackney and provides support to schools across London. Bernadette co-wrote the CILT book, “Leading the Way: Coordinating Primary Languages”. She is a British Council Ambassador with particular expertise in primary languages and the global dimension, and has run international courses across Europe and in Ghana, China and the USA.
Hilary Ryan	Primary Leadership & Management Adviser Hilary has worked with Hackney Education for 10 years and has extensive leadership experience culminated working as a Headteacher of a large urban primary school for 12 years, leading the school through major changes including moving buildings twice and a doubling of the pupil roll. During her time as Headteacher, Ofsted judged the leadership of the school as Outstanding, and the National Education Trust appointed it an Advocacy School to ‘facilitate and promote the sharing of best practice.’ Hilary also worked as an Ofsted inspector in the Midlands and London Regions and as School Improvement Partner and a Local Leader of Education, where she was seconded to work full-time as a consultant with Focus Education for one year to support school improvement in schools across England.
Maggie Kalnins	Head of Governance Services Maggie Kalnins became the leader of governance services after an extensive career as a science teacher and school leader within complex urban secondary schools. Maggie provides strategic advice and support to Chairs of governors and school leaders, across a mixed economy of maintained and academy schools. She has developed an Hackney governance system review and risk assessment to support school boards in developing their effectiveness and also leads and delivers a comprehensive governance training programme and our popular and highly successful annual governors’ conference. Maggie previously served as the CEO of an education charity which develops alternative models of learning. During this tenure, she introduced the term ‘pushed out’ to provoke a debate amongst practitioners focusing on the weaknesses in our education systems rather than the ‘abnormality’ of the individual child. Aware of the excuses used to explain student disengagement from mainstream education, in 2015, Maggie commissioned the publication of ‘The alternative should not be inferior: What now for ‘pushed out’ learners?’, which called on schools and alternative providers to find innovative solutions that support England’s overlooked pupils. Maggie has dedicated more than 20 years to serving as a school governor. For the past 15 years she has been a member of the Mossbourne Federation Governing Board in Hackney. With a clear understanding of how strong governance can play a crucial strategic role in supporting and challenging leaders to drive school improvements, Maggie offers knowledge and expertise on how governance can make an exceptional contribution to ensure that no child is left behind their peers. Maggie Kalnins - Head of Governance Services - Maggie.Kalnins@hackney.gov.uk
Rachel Thomson	Primary Leadership & Management Adviser Rachel has worked in primary education for 30 years, the last 20 of which have been spent in Hackney. She has a wealth of experience working with mainstream and special schools, including a Headship in a Pupil Referral Unit where her leadership was judged to be outstanding. In her current role, she works alongside leaders and teachers to improve and disseminate best practice, reduce exclusions, support wellbeing and personal development, and contributes to the virtual school for Looked After Children. Prior to this, Rachel had a number of roles within Hackney, leading teams to develop and implement new initiatives across primary school, including as Head of Primary Behaviour and Social, Emotional Learning, Head of Standards for Looked After Children, Leadership and Management Adviser and School Improvement Partner. She has also written a number of programmes to support emotional intelligence within the classroom and is an experienced trainer, currently leading the primary leadership training programme.
Helena Burke	Secondary Leadership and Management Advisor Helena has taught and led in London schools for over 20 years, most recently, working as Vice Principal in a Hackney academy. Her areas of particular interest and expertise are wellbeing and personal development and equality for all students, strands of work which she has presented at conferences. Currently, Helena works as a Leadership and Management Adviser in Hackney Education where she leads the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAHMS) staff in school projects. In addition, she is engaged in working to reduce exclusions, improving the transition to secondary school, and the Young Black Men’s Initiative.
Penelope Rodrigues	Early Years Consultant Penny has worked as an Early Years Education Consultant in Hackney Education for 14 years. She has a wealth of experience working as a primary school teacher for over 20 years across age ranges, specialising in early years and emotional development of young children. Her area of particular interest lies in supporting wellbeing and sharing positive behaviour strategies for parents and staff working with children under five. Other areas of expertise include the Solihull Approach, of which she is a qualified trainer; social and emotional development in Early years and infant mental health; and communication language and literacy, including the teaching of phonics.
Anushka Sonpal	Primary MFL Consultant Anushka has over 15 years experience working at primary level. She was a primary Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) Advanced Skills Teacher in London and currently works as a freelance Primary Language Consultant in Hackney Education. Anushka has organised and led trips to Spain for primary pupils across London and supported several schools to lead their own. She is also an experienced teacher-trainer and a Senior Lecturer at the University of East London (UEL) for Primary PGCE. She has a proven track record of supporting trainees and experienced teachers to achieve excellent outcomes with pupils through coaching and mentoring.
Tom Panagiotopoulos	School Improvement Partner Tom has a bachelor's degree in Linguistics and Education, a master's degree in Literature, and over 25 years experience as an educator, including working as a teacher leader to develop Literacy in schools. He currently works as a school improvement partner in Hackney Education. Tom was the Headteacher of a Hackney school for 10 years, leading the school to achieve an Outstanding Ofsted rating, and also worked as an Ofsted inspector. He has extensive experience in leading and coaching teams to achieve their best outcomes. He also runs workshops for organisations to help staff deal with work-life balance through mindfulness strategies.