Meet the team

Anton Francic

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.

Hilary Ryan

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. 

Rachel Thomson

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

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.

Tom Panagiotopoulos

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.

Jo Tupman

Jo has over 20 years' experience working in inner London primary and secondary schools, most recently as Headteacher in a twelve-form entry secondary school in Barking and Dagenham. She currently works as a Leadership and Management Adviser in Hackney Education across both primary and secondary age phases. 

Jo’s areas of expertise include SEND, Inclusion, Primary and Secondary curriculum links and leadership coaching and training.

Debra Robinson

Debra has taught across North and East London for over 20 years in secondary schools, most recently at a Hackney academy rated Outstanding by Ofsted. She has a range of experience in curriculum and parental engagement, both at whole school and community level. Debra also led a successful English department and as an Advanced Skills Teacher in North London where she implemented a range of literacy initiatives, and has been instrumental in leading teaching and learning strategies across schools and developing teachers to move from ‘good’ to ‘outstanding’ . 

Debra’s experience and understanding of the lived and professional experience in Hackney has been extremely valuable for her role in Hackney Education. Here she works with a broad range of stakeholders and as a professional advisor to schools and parent groups to foster positive relationships. 

Laleh Laverick

Laleh is a Leadership and Management Adviser with over 20 years experience working in inner city primary schools, including as an Executive Headteacher. She also worked as a National Leader of Education linked to a Teaching School where she supported Women Leading in Education and BAME leadership programmes. Prior to this, she worked in a range of roles, many of them in the field of inclusion and curriculum development, and served as a school governor. 
 
In recent years, she has supported school leaders through management and system changes. Laleh believes that schools are at their best when their vision and ethos are clearly communicated by school leaders to all stakeholders and the culture of schools is one of high ambition for their communities. Laleh has published articles in the Chartered College of Teaching’s journal and in journals on Early Years Education.