Meet the Team

Helen Marriott, Strategic Lead for NELTSH, Headteacher Walthamstow School for Girls

As Headteacher of Walthamstow School for Girls, I am the Strategic Lead for the Teaching School Hub. I was appointed as Headteacher last September, began the role in January and was delighted to learn that we had been designated as a Hub in February. As Strategic Lead, this is a unique opportunity to build on the exceptional practice across our Hub area, to connect schools, facilitate networks and to ensure that everything we do has a demonstrable impact on the lives of young people.

I began my career as an English teacher, progressing to Head of English and then worked as a senior leader in a number of schools in North and East London. My most recent post was as Co-Headteacher at Little Ilford School, an outstanding school in Newham, where I had previously been Deputy Head, responsible for Teaching, Learning and CPD.

Staff training and development has been a key part of all my senior leadership roles. This has included being a PCM, an NPQSL facilitator, a specialist trainer for Literacy and EAL and in sharing best practice nationally with organisations such as SSAT, WomenEd and CUREE. The best training and development is always sustainable and impact-driven, using systems which directly measure the impact on student learning.

I know from my own experience that education is life-changing and if we can harness its inspirational power, through effective training and development, we can dramatically change society for the better. Given the commitment of the schools, teachers and leaders in our Hub area already, I am confident that we can work collaboratively to achieve our vision.

Nick O'Brien, Director of NELTSH, Deputy Headteacher, Walthamstow School for Girls

Welcome to North East London Teaching School Hub!

Having joined the NELTSH Team in January 2022, I’m excited to be leading a Teaching School Hub that is dedicated to provide high quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their career. Whether at the beginning of your teaching journey as an Early Career Teacher or as a leader looking to develop and hone your practice, NELTSH looks to provide opportunities and support you on your development journey.  

Prior to joining NELTSH, I have been a school leader in London schools for over a decade. With a leading role in curriculum, learning and teaching, I'm passionate about working with leaders, teachers, students and families to develop systems and pedagogies to realise engaging and impactful learning experiences for every child. Education is transformative; working with schools to develop practices that enable every child to learn, make progress and thrive has been the fundamental cornerstone of my work over the last 20 years.  

Fundamental to striving to providing high quality provision for all children is a focus and dedication to the development of those teachers who work directly with young people. An interest in and commitment to the development of teachers has been at the forefront of my work in the schools I have worked in and with. As a leader in a Teaching School previously, I have developed professional development programmes for groups of individuals and schools. As a Specialist Leader of Education (SLE) and one of the national trainers for this programme, I’ve had a keen interest in system leadership; looking to build capacity in the professional to support individuals, groups and schools as they develop their practice.  

It is a privilege to join NELTSH at time when there is a national focus on supporting the profession to reflect on and develop their practice. Working with both national programmes and local expertise, we seek to develop a dynamic and exciting professional development offer from which all educators can benefit.  

Adrien Schweitzer, Project Manager NPQs

A little about my experience in education so far….

As Faculty Administrator and Communications Officer, I have been using my administrative skills to support staff here at Walthamstow School for Girls since 2010. My role has been extremely varied – which I loved! As Faculty Administrator I was responsible for supporting up to 5 faculties, plus the Senior Leadership Team; Educational Visits administration; booking trips and conferences; collaborating on funding/award applications, and much more. As Communications Officer, I had responsibility for all content on the school website and the set-up and development of the WSFG Twitter account to promote our Outstanding school to the local and wider community.

Prior to working in education I spent 13 years in Business Travel, then worked as a library assistant, at an estate agency and for a care provider.

Working for the Hub …

As Administrator for the Teaching School Hub, I am using all my skills and experience to support our work as we focus on our aim of ensuring all children have great teachers. I am the first point of contact for our schools and have built strong relationships with colleagues across the three boroughs. I am responsible for record keeping, communications, social media and much more.

My personal values align closely with those of the Hub – I have a strong commitment to helping our young people achieve their full potential and always champion diversity and equal opportunities for all.

Seet-Ying Fan, Project Manager for ECF, Assessment Lead Gearies primary School

I am working as the Assessment Lead at Gearies Primary School and I am also the manager of the Gants Hill Partnership Teaching Alliance (GHPTA). After a rigorous process, I was appointed as Specialist Leader in Education (SLE) for the GHPTA. Through this role, I have been asked to help support the maths curriculum in many schools

As the Teaching School Manager, I have organised, sourced keynote speakers and led multiple Maths and English forums to meet the needs of the wider teaching community. I focused on the current issues in education such as Subject Focus Deep Dives. This equipped the Middle Leaders in the borough to develop their leadership skills in order to have the confidence to present the standards of their subject during a deep dive. To help support this initiative, I worked collaboratively with both the Maths and English Hub to share best practise and create networks to help support best practise in all schools in a range of different contexts.

In response to the new Ofsted framework, I worked, and continue to do so, with the Redbridge Educational Partnership (REP) to create three bespoke CPD courses for subject leads. The courses were designed to ensure that the subject leads have the subject knowledge to design their curriculum so that it meets the needs of their children in their schools. This project not only develops the subject knowledge of the subject leads but enhances the profile of SLEs and their expertise. SLEs have a vast knowledge and they are a valuable resource which should be utilised.

I am currently now working with the North London Teaching School Hub as an ECF Project Manager. I would like to work closely with all schools across Haringey, Waltham Forest and Redbridge to ensure the smooth implementation of the new Early Career Framework to help support our Early Career

Natalie Lamprell, Project Manager CPD / Curriculum Hubs, Deputy Headteacher, Walthamstow School for Girls

Having joined the NELTSH Team in January 2023, I’m excited to be leading our bespoke CPD provision which uses best evidence to meet local need.

My career began as an English teacher in inner London before stepping up to lead an English department. For the past 7 years I have served as a senior leader, always with a responsibility for professional development. I worked as the Director of Curriculum and PD for an education network in West Africa which educated students from kindergarten through to grade 12. In this capacity I created our pre service training programme, CPD modules for in-service teachers and our leading teaching programme. I then returned to the UK and became the Director of Teaching School for All Saints working with primary and secondary schools across the region. In this role I led the golden thread of CPD as well as designing our own CPD offer. Since leaving this role I have consulted for a number of education organisations supporting them to make gains in teaching and learning. Alongside this CPD Manager role I work as Deputy Head at Walthamstow school for Girls, which means I still have both feet in the classroom and am involved in the strategy and daily running of a school in the region. As Deputy Head I lead on literacy, PSHE and ITT/ECF.

I am passionate about training design and delivery and through my senior leadership roles have seen first- hand the impact this can have on school leaders, educators and ultimately students. This is why I am excited to be a Project Manager for the North East London Teaching School Hub. I know by working in partnership we can ensure “that every child has a great teacher who inspires and unlocks their potential”.

I look forward to working with you.

Vivienne Porritt, Chair of the Strategic Board, co-founder and Strategic Leader of WomenEd and Vice President of the Chartered College of Teaching

I am delighted to join you as Chair of the Strategic Board for the North East London Teaching School Hub.  I have worked with many schools and trusts in East London and am honoured to be invited to contribute to a collaborative, ethical endeavour.

I am a leadership consultant working with schools on vision, strategy and impact as well as professional learning and development.  I am a Co-Founder and Strategic Leader of WomenEd and Vice President of the Chartered College of Teaching. Additionally, I am a Non-Exec Director for Captiva Learning Ltd and a Member of Eko Trust. Previously I was a secondary headteacher, Director of School Partnerships for UCL Institute of Education and Chair of Governors of a secondary school in Camden.

I write for the TES and professional and academic journals and, joyously, am the co-editor of 10%Braver: Inspiring Women to Lead Education (2019) and Being 10%Braver (2021).

Michelle Vanlint, Finance Administrator

I am very pleased to be supporting the NELTSH team with the administration and finance tasks on a part-time basis and I am delighted to be based

at Walthamstow School for Girls where I have worked twice before. It’s a lovely place to work with a great team of people. My first role as finance officer began here in 2008 for several years and then later, I returned to my old role for a year as maternity cover. In the interim period I have worked in other schools in Redbridge and Barnet where I have gained lots of knowledge and experience, which should help me in this new role. At the same time I have also been an Airbnb host through which I have met so many interesting people and enjoyed listening to their stories. Prior to working in education, I lived overseas for 10 years working in a variety of industries along the way.  This definitely helped me learn to be adaptable and flexible and this will benefit me in this new role, where I am looking forward to putting my organisational skills to good use as we get the Hub up and running.