Meet the Team

Angharad Morgan – Gender Action Programme Coordinator

Angharad joined the team in July 2023 and is based in the north of England.

Clive Belgeonne – Global Education Adviser / Gender Action Programme Consultant

Clive is involved with many of DECSY’s projects and training courses including Climate Change and Outdoor Learning and a consultant on the Gender Action programme.

Helen Griffin – Philosophy for Children Adviser / Global Education Adviser / Gender Action Programme Manager

Helen is responsible for the resource centre and Philosophy for Children training as well as overseeing projects.

Rob Unwin – Global Education Adviser

Rob oversees projects at DECSY and is involved with DECSY publications and consultancy work as well as P4C training.

Jane Anderson – Administration and Fundraising manager

Jane joined the team in September 2013 as the office administrator.

Associate trainers

Sarah Ahmed
Sarah is the Head of Initial Teacher Education for Secondary and Lifelong Learning at the University of Huddersfield, making her the first person from a BAME background to have a leading role in education across Yorkshire. She has worked within a range of roles from being a Teacher to Associate Assistant Head, her current PhD research is based on the experiences of BAME teachers and pupils. Sarah is passionate about community cohesion and has supported events run by local organizations (Family Voice and SHARE-Sheffield Anti-Racist Education), promoting education and building relationships with BAME communities.

Rosie Carnall – a SAPERE accredited P4C facilitator

Rosie is particularly interested facilitating enquiries with adults and mixed age groups – Philosophy for Communities – and for using the method to develop community cohesion by talking across difference.

Kate Halliwell – a SAPERE accredited trainer qualified to train teachers at P4C Level 1

Kate also runs Philosophy for Community projects and is a primary school teacher.

Ann Dawson – Early Years consultant and trainer

Ann has taught in Early Years in EAL schools for over 20 years, leading Foundation Stage as part of the SLT. Ann is the creator of Rainbow Talk and is passionate about enabling children to be confident and articulate communicators through Rainbow Talk and Early Years P4C.

Board of Trustees

Olwen Lintern-Smyth – Chair

Olwen Lintern-Smyth has worked in education for 15 years, and was Programme Director of the Global Learning Programme (GLP) in England from 2014 to 2018. She is experienced at leading and directing national and international projects.

Paul Highfield – Vice Chair

MA in Educational Planning and Programming. Taught Economics in secondary schools in Wales and England, then worked 11 years in Eritrea (5 with EPLF) as a teacher trainer, curriculum developer and then Programme Coordinator at Ministry of Education. After a stint as Manager of an Eritrean refugee charity in London, for the last 20 years I’ve taught Humanities in a multi ethnic Sheffield secondary school, 12 of those also as Global Learning Co-ordinator.

Mary Stead – Secretary

Qualified secondary school Geography teacher. MA in Latin American Studies, followed by an MA in Women’s Studies and research in Nicaragua. Worked in local government for 25 years, responsible for twinning including a link with a town in Namibia. Secretary for 11 years for the UK One World Linking Association and more recently secretary for the Friends of Namibia Society.

Brian Kerslake – Treasurer (non-trustee)

Donald Mclean

Recently retired having worked in education for 40 years. Donald started his career as a teacher of Social Studies in a community college in Coventry and then worked in Nottingham as a Section XI support teacher for the city’s African Caribbean Education Team. Most of his career though has been in Sheffield, working as an adult community education tutor, teacher of Geography and Adult Access courses at a further education college. He has a range of managerial experience and was Vice Principal at a sixth form college in the north east of the city. He has also been a staff governor, governor of two secondary schools, non-executive director of a health trust and a trustee of a local environmental charity.

Laura McMullen (co-opted, July 2024)

Laura has worked in business and finance for 18 years and is currently Head of Sustainability and Impact at Five Arrows Investment Managers based in London. She has experience driving change projects across ESG and sustainability with public listed companies as well as building teams and driving growth in technology start ups and in consulting. She has an MBA from INSEAD and a Masters from Oxford University and has spent the last 7 years working in sustainability across the commercial sector.

Fiona Roberts (co-opted, July 2024)

Cheryl Smart

Christine Winter

Chris started her career as a geography teacher in Sheffield before moving to the University of Sheffield School of Education where she worked for 30 years as a lecturer and curriculum researcher.  She retired in 2020. She now works part-time for the Geographical Association as Research Engagement Lead. She contributes to the work of Sheffield Anti-Racist Education and Decolonising Geography collectives and leads a Racial Literacy in Teacher Education research project in the University of Sheffield School of Education.