Anne has worked on national education projects for 20 years. She has been Head of Education at the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment; Director of Research, Media and Communications in the Innovation Unit (initially based in the government's education department) and Research Manager for BBC Education Policy investigating technology futures and the impact of digital media.
Earlier, as a BBC/Open University producer, Anne worked worldwide making arts, science, business and education programmes for BBC2 and Radio 4, and, with others, won the Queen's Anniversary Prize for the OU's pioneering PGCE teacher training course. She led the production of education projects such as UK-wide ICT teacher training, as well as working on the BBC children’s programme Blue Peter. Originally a teacher and team leader in Hertfordshire schools, Anne has also been a literacy and change management leader for London schools, and a senior arts advisor for the London Schools TV Centre.
Anne helped establish the National College for Leadership of Schools and Children's Services,Teachers TV and theTeaching Awards for whom she has been a national judge. As a founding member of the National Education Research Forum, she chaired innovation studies, and helped set up leading education research centres. She has degrees from Nottingham and London Universities, is an RSA Fellow, and a member of many professional bodies, including the RIBA. She's been an independent advisor or board member to many committees and organisations on research into technology futures, learner perspectives, lifelong learning and neuroscience.
Her favourite place is the area outside BBC Broadcasting House in Langham Place, London, by All Souls Church, the last remaining Nash Church. ‘The elegance of the Nash spire is a stunning compliment to the stately and iconic curved BBC building, with Georgian-style windows complementing the Art Deco design, and Eric Gill’s sculpture of Ariel and Prospero above the bronzed doors.’
Senior Associate - Don Henson
Don Henson is an archaeologist, originally specialising in prehistoric stone tools. Having seen the light, he switched to being a specialist in heritage education. Don has 30 years experience in adult education, has been a museum educator and has been involved in the Young Archaeologists' Club. He was employed at the Council for British Archaeology for 17 years, latterly as Head of Education. He has also been Chair of the Learning Outside the Classroom Advisory Group, Education Coordinator for the Heritage Alliance, and is currently the Hon. Director of the Centre for Audio-Visual Study and Practice in Archaeology (CASPAR) at University College London. Don is also a member of the National Trust Learning Panel. He currently works as a freelance heritage education specialist.
Don is still active in field archaeology, helping to supervise a landscape archaeology project in the Yorkshire Dales. He has also published books on Anglo-Saxon history. He is interested in how landscapes and place-names reflect the lives of people who have lived in them over the last 2,000 years.
'Places have very personal meanings, and form a big part of people's lives. People shape the places in which they live, and these places in turn shape the people who live in them.'
Don was born in Chester, brought up in Lancashire and then Swansea, but has lived most of his life within easy reach of the Pennines, currently in York. In spite of an irrational fear of heights, he is happiest when walking on the tops of the Pennine hills; in all weathers.
'The walk between Todmorden and Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire has long been a favourite place, where the traces of human settlement since the Medieval period and earlier can be walked on and seen. Human settlement is here pushing at the edges of what is possible into the moors, and we can see the fragile relationship people have with places. As well as being very beautiful, it is intensely humbling.'
Anna is an experienced secondary English teacher. For the past ten years she has taught in a range of schools in London and Norwich, most recently as a Second in department and Subject leader for KS5 at Seven Kings High School, Redbridge, and at City and Islington Sixth Form College. In the past Anna also worked for CABE as an Education advisor, with particular responsibility for the national environmental project, Green Day.
Anna specialises in creating educational resources and is on the Times Educational Supplement's English advisory panel. In her spare time Anna is a keen member of the interactive theatre and events company, Coney. She has helped write and run events for a range of organisations including the Science Museum, Battersea Arts Centre, NESTA and the Dublin Fringe Festival. She also co-wrote and designed an on-line fundraising game for Cancer Research UK, Operation: Sleeper Cell, which was highly praised by the Guardian’s games blog.
Anna has a BA from the University of East Anglia in English and American literature, a PGCE from Cambridge University, and more recently a BSc in Psychology from the Open University. Her favourite places are the Brighton Pavilion which she likes primarily for its silliness, and the view from the steps of the Sacré Cœur in Montmartre over the whole of Paris.
WritersEngaging Places features resources produced by experienced built enviroment education specialists from the former Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, Open City and other architectures centres from around the country as well as some independent experts. Between them they have hundreds of years of experience in this field.
The Engaging Places team is advised by a partnership board including:
Anthea Case is a former Chair of Heritage Alliance (the national umbrella body for historic environment voluntary bodies) and a former Commissioner for the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE). She is also Chair of the National Trust East of England Regional Committee, a Trustee of HEART (the Norwich Heritage and Economic Regeneration Trust) and a Trustee of the Institute for Philanthropy and the Lakeland Arts Trust.
Between 1995 and 2003 she was the Chief executive of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and Heritage Lottery Fund. She was awarded a CBE in 2003 for services to the heritage. Her earlier career was spent in Her Majesty’s Treasury.
The Engaging Places team is also supported by a partnership board:
Professor Anne Bamford
Professor Anne Bamford is Director of Cultural Programmes at new national organisation Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE). The organisation aims to harness the potential of creative learning and cultural opportunity to enhance the aspirations, achievements and skills of children and families. Anne oversees some of CCE’s core programmes including Find Your Talent, the government’s pilot cultural offer, and Prevent, a programme designed to engage vulnerable individuals who may be targeted or recruited to the cause of violent extremism.
Anne joins CCE on a year’s secondment from her role as Director of the Engine Room at the University of the Arts London. Anne has been recognised nationally and internationally for her research in arts education, emerging literacies and visual communication. She is an expert in the international dimension of arts and cultural education, and through her research she has pursued issues of innovation, social impact, and equity and diversity. A World Scholar for UNESCO, Anne has conducted major national impact and evaluation studies for the governments of Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, Iceland, Hong Kong and Australia, and was awarded the Australian Institute for Educational Research Outstanding Educational Research Award for 2002 and was short listed for the British Female Innovator of the Year in 2006.
Amy Nathan
Following a degree in Animal Behaviour and Environmental Biology (1999), Amy Nathan embarked on a career in the environmental sector, initially leading practical conservation tasks across Nottinghamshire and supporting the government’s Millennium Volunteers project, which encouraged young people to develop their skills and employability through volunteering.
After several years, Amy started work in community development at a local authority, with a particular focus on climate change and delivering sustainability projects, throughout the Borough of Broxtowe. She subsequently became the Environmental Co-ordinator for Nottingham Trent University (NTU) where she engaged staff and students in recycling and environmental projects and oversaw the university’s energy and waste strategies.
Amy has always harboured a love of the arts, working as a freelance designer and illustrator in her spare time. In 2006 she left work at NTU to do a degree in Graphic Design.
Over the years Amy has been involved with education on a number of levels, being a part of and delivering a variety of LOtC activities. She has a deep appreciation for real, hands-on learning that motivates and stimulates young people. Since completing her second degree, Amy has become Project Development Manager for the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom (CLOtC). She has chosen the Built Environment as one of her key focus sectors and represents CLOtC on the Partnership.
Ajay Sharman, Regional Director, STEMNET
Andy Beer, Head of Learning, National Trust
Anra Kennedy, Head of Learning, Culture 24
Cara Courage, Head of Learning, Architecture Centre Network
David Gardner, Curriculum Advisor,
David Lambert, Chief Executive, Geographical Association
David Souden, Head of Access and Learning, Historic Royal Palaces
Don Henson, Head of Education, Council for British Archaeology
Gavin Smith, Vice Principal, Wren Academy
Janette Welton-Pai, IAG Manager, Construction Skills
Jo Reilly, Head of Participation and Learning, HLF
John Hamer, Independent Education Consultant
John Stevenson, Director of the Group for Education in Museums
Judy Ling Wong, former UK Director, Black Environment Network
Kirsty Leith, Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Natasha Innocent, Senior Policy Advisor, Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
Nick Flesher, Independent Education Consultant
Partnership with Culture24
Engaging Places works in partnership with Culture24, a non-profit, digital cultural publishing organisation to support the cultural sector in reaching online audiences. Culture24 supply the web platform and website architecture for Engaging Places, as well as the system for organisations to put information up on the Engaging Places website. This system is called the DDE - the direct data entry system - and data that is put up there can reach a wide audience as it will appear on Engaging Places and also be held within the Culture24 site as well.
