The PSTT Team
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Martin Pollard
Chief Executive Officer
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Lisa Percy
Director of National Programme
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Tom Holloway
Director of Regional Programme
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Sophie Franklin
Impact and Research Director
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Ellen Edwards
Finance Director
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Alison Trew
Regional Mentor and Project Manager
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Wendy Woodsford
Operations Manager
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Ruth Shallcross
CPD and Resources Lead
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Barbara French
Communications and Content Manager
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Sagra Diaz Mata
Finance Officer
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Paula Montero
Office Administrator
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Angharad Pass
Regional Mentor
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Chris Lawson
Regional Mentor & Area Mentor for North East England
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Kate Redhead
Regional Mentor
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Kathryn Horan
Regional Mentor and Area Mentor for Yorkshire & East Midlands
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Kulvinder Johal
Priority Areas Mentor, Regional Mentor & Area Mentor for Greater London
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Rebecca Ellis
Regional Mentor
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Sarah Eames
Regional Mentor and Area Mentor for West Midlands
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Stacey Reid
Regional Mentor
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Carol Sampey
Area Mentor for Wessex and South Wales
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Jo Moore
Explorify Coordinator & Area Mentor for Greater London
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Katharine Pemberton
Area Mentor for South West England
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Linda McKee
Area Mentor for Northern Ireland
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Lesley Hunter
Area Mentor for Northern Ireland
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Michele Grimshaw
Area Mentor for North West England
Martin became Chief Executive of the Welsh Centre for International Affairs in 2009, taking the charity through a period of significant growth and change. This included launching the Welsh Government funded Hub Cymru Africa partnership and Wales for Peace, a major World War I centenary programme. More recently, he was Chief Executive at the Learned Society of Wales, a national scholarly academy for sciences and arts.
Among other previous roles, Martin was a founder member of the Celtic Academies Alliance, Chair of the Wales Alliance for Global Learning, national representative on the World Schools Debating Council, and trustee of the Wales Council for Voluntary Action. He was a finalist in the 2018 Leading Wales Awards.
During her time at the BBC, Lisa led on formal learning. She commissioned content across online, TV and radio, and relaunched BBC Bitesize. Lisa also developed and led large-scale educational campaigns including projects on climate change, coding and creative approaches to using technology. She joined PSTT in November 2024.
Before joining the PSTT he was a classroom teacher for 10 years and a Science Leader for 8. Always passionate and enthusiastic about science he became a PSQM hub leader, Ogden Trust teacher fellow and the Science Leader for the Glyn Learning Foundation. He successfully led his school to a PSQM Gold Award, set up dedicated science labs in 3 schools and developed educational resources for the Royal Society of Chemistry (where he was the member of their Primary Teaching Advisory Group). He has delivered CPD for the Surrey and Sussex STEM Science Learning Partnerships and organised large science events for hundreds of children at the University of Surrey.
Tom is now a Regional Mentor for the PSTT. He supports schools in Surrey, Sussex, Kent and Hampshire to develop their curriculums and teaching to ensure that their pupils receive and outstanding science education and are engaged and enthused by the subject.
Sophie has worked across a number of areas within the PSTT, including marketing and events, website management, resource creation and as Cluster Director, where she helped develop the strategy and vision of the Cluster Programme.
After returning from maternity leave in 2020, she became Research Director, a role which includes: supporting PSTT Fellows in their research, and monitoring and evaluating all PSTT activity to develop more efficient tools and improve practices. Sophie understands the importance of evaluation, the sharing of ideas and good practice in science education and actively seeks to produce results from her work which can subsequently help improve the quality of science education for children. Sophie also holds the role of Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol.
As a science communicator, Sophie has engaged with thousands of students and teachers both nationally and internationally; including participating in the SEEDS (Systemic Education and Extra-Mural Development and Support) Scifest Africa Outreach Project, performing chemistry shows and teacher workshops in rural schools in South Africa. Sophie has also worked with students and teachers from township schools in Namibia at the National Science Technology and Innovation Week (NAMSCI), providing teacher CPD and student workshops.
When not working, Sophie can normally be found cooking, doing DIY, or exploring the outdoors, always followed closely by her two young children.
Ellen has worked for the voluntary and local authority sector since graduating from Manchester University in 2021 in Mathematics and English Literature. Working for the Citizens Advice Bureau led to a specialism in welfare rights advice before retraining as an accountant in 2012. She became Head of Finance and Operations for Gloucestershire Counselling Service in 2018, overseeing all aspects of financial management and operations within the organisation. This included contributing strategically to the direction of the organisation and to the significant growth experienced.
Ellen has held many voluntary roles over the years including Chairing a number of charities; North Bristol Advice Centre, Rodborough Playgroup and Friends of Rodborough School. More recently she has become a parent governor for Rodborough Community Primary School.
Before joining PSTT , Alison was a postdoctoral research biochemist before retraining as a primary teacher; she taught in several primary schools in Devon.
Alison has written for science and teacher journals and is co-author of PSTT’s Standing on the Shoulders of Giants. She has written several of PSTT’s online resources: Floorbooks, Enquiry Skills, Enquiry Approaches, Did you know? resources, Play Observe and Ask, and A Scientist Just Like Me . Alison has also worked with the Teaching Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) team developing focused assessment tasks, is an accredited trained for the Primary Science Capital Teaching Approach and PSTT’s Project Lead for Thinking Doing Talking Science courses.
Alison is a Regional Mentor would be delighted to hear from anyone wanting to develop primary science in their setting.
She has extensive experience in events and marketing with a strong track record in project management, planning, supplier and stakeholder management. Skilled in the management of multiple concurrent projects, Wendy is enjoying drawing on her organisational skills to support the PSTT.
Wendy has a broad range of experience and previous roles within a range of organisations including multinational corporations, an ethical bank and individual local charities. She has a degree in Environmental Science and a love of nature and the world around us.
Ruth is passionate about helping all children to succeed and seeks to achieve this through creative approaches to teaching often using cross-curricular links to deepen engagement. Her particular areas of interest are scientific literacy, making abstract concepts understandable and creating enjoyable learning experiences.
Her desire to work for an organisation that improves educational standards was her reason for joining PSTT. Barbara’s role within PSTT consists of managing the Trust’s websites, social media, branding and marketing opportunities.
Sagra has completed several courses over the years in business/administration/bookkeeping and payroll with the latest addition being an AAT course, which she started in September 2018. Some of Sagra’s hobbies include reading and travelling as well as spending time with family and friends.
When Paula is not working, she enjoys listening to music and spending time with friends and family.
Angharad became a PSTT Fellow in 2018 after winning a Primary Science Teacher Award (PSTA) and is also the Chair of the ASE Primary Committee. She has worked with a wide range of organisations delivering CPD and developing resources, including Findel Publishing, the Great Science Share for Schools as a Regional Champion, NFU and STEM Learning and has also worked as an Associate Lecturer for ITT in Leeds.
Both primary science and outdoor learning continue to be passions for Angharad, and she is proud to be supporting schools and science leaders to inspire the next generation of scientists in her role as Regional Mentor.
Chris left the classroom in July 2024 and now works as a Regional Mentor. Chris is passionate about ensuring all children can access high quality science lessons and extra-curricular experiences and helping them to realise that there is something for everyone in the world of science. She has a particular love for science in EYFS, firmly believing that it is never too early to become a scientist.
Before joining PSTT, Kate worked in a large primary school in Birmingham; first as Science Subject Leader and later as an Assistant Head. During her time as a teacher, Kate gained her Masters in Education, focussing her dissertation on the design and implementation of Science schemes of work, and also completed her NPQH qualification. Kate introduced a Science Lab in her school and led a Research Learning Community of local science leaders in exploring the impact of dialogue on the teaching and learning of science.
Kate has written for teacher journals, is a member of the West Midlands ASE committee and is also an Ambassador for Children’s University. She is a Regional Champion for the Great Science Share, running events in the West Midlands and has written several PSTT resources to support teachers in school. Committed to lifelong learning, Kate is currently studying part time towards a Doctorate in Education at Birmingham University.
Kate is passionate about supporting and developing science leaders, empowering them to take ownership and build a love of the subject within their schools.
Kathryn Horan
Regional Mentor and Area Mentor for Yorkshire & East Midlands
In addition to her work as a Regional and Area Mentor for the PSTT, Kathryn is also a PSQM Hub Leader, a Lead Facilitator for STEM Learning, and chair of the ASE Yorkshire Regional Committee. In her role as an independent consultant and author, she has worked with a wide range of organisations, including the Royal Society, Cambridge International, the Royal Society of Chemistry and Oak National Academy. She has also authored a book, ‘Wow! But Why?’ which aims to help primary teachers deliver ‘wow moments’ in science that lead to real, meaningful learning.
Kulvinder Johal
Priority Areas Mentor, Regional Mentor & Area Mentor for Greater London
As a PSTT fellow, she was involved in the 'Growing Music' project, supported by Carole Sampey and participated in the early TAPS work. Kulvinder has run a PSTT Barking Cluster, as well as supporting grant and cluster proposals as part of the central PSTT team.
In a wider role, Kulvinder is a Regional Champion for the Great Science Share and has been running events in her area for several years now. She has been a member of the ASE Primary Science Committee and is part of the Science on Stage steering committee. Kulvinder is currently a part of the Royal Society Partnership Grant committee and also the Royal Society Public Engagement Committee. She has written for the TES, Primary Science magazine and also helps judge the Teach Primary resource awards. Kulvinder has gained her SLE qualification and is Chartered Science Teacher (CSciTeach). She is also a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and a Fellow of the RSA.
In 2019 Kulvinder took on the role of Regional Mentor for London and the Southeast. This role allows her to work collaboratively with teachers to promote and inspire them to deliver practical primary science, monitoring, planning, assessment, particularly linking science to cross-curricular topics and active learning outdoors.
When not working for PSTT she enjoys going to the theatre, watching sports and travelling.
Rebecca’s motivation to teach comes from a desire to understand each individual child in her care so that she can creatively inspire a love of learning. Her 20-year teaching career included leading science in a 3-form entry junior school in Warwickshire, achieving gold standard in PSQM and SSQM and developing a program of family learning opportunities.
As an Explorify Engagement Leader, Rebecca is a resource developer and is particularly proud of the ‘Climate Challenge’ collection, the ‘Celebrating Scientists’ section and the ‘Early Years’ activities. She also delivers teacher CPD and enjoys creating professional learning communities. Rebecca is responsible for the ‘Explorify for Inclusion’ project and is currently working on supporting teachers to use Explorify for building children’s long-term memory.
Rebecca is part of PSTT’s ‘Did you know?’ team and she is currently developing interactive computer models and resources to build children’s understanding of climate change. She aims to build children’s constructive hope for the future by helping them connect their positive actions for the environment to the collective actions of scientists and engineers across the globe.
As a regional mentor, and a PSQM hub leader, Rebecca loves being able to work collaboratively with teachers, building their confidence in teaching primary science so that they can inspire children to think that science is ‘for them’.
She is passionate about the environment and sustainability. Under Sarah's leadership, Sandfield Close Primary School gained the Primary Science Quality Mark Outreach Award and the Eco Green Flag Award. She was very excited to win the Royal Astronomical Society's Patrick Moore Medal. Sarah's Cluster of schools recently won the Royal Society of Chemistry's Team Prize for Excellence in Primary Education. She has also worked with the Royal Society, Learning Through Landscapes and Science on Stage.
Sarah is an active member of the Association of Science Education (ASE) and is on the Primary Committee. She gained her Chartered Science Teacher status in 2012 and proudly became a Primary Science Teaching Trust Fellow in the same year. For the past 10 years she has taught primary science to Leicester SCITT. Sarah is delighted to be an Area and Regional Mentor as she wants all science leaders and teachers to feel supported, encouraged and eager to teach excellent science throughout their school.
Stacey was awarded the Primary Science Teacher of the year in 2013 and became a PSTT fellow. She has trained science leaders and teachers on how to deliver best practice science within schools. She has also led a Science Cluster which helped to develop science across a number of schools and the local authority.
In her previous role, Stacey worked as an Explorify Engagement Leader where she developed curriculum resources, trained teachers on how to get the best from Explorify and led the Explorify Champions group.
Stacey has a passion for science and delivering science that is practical, meaningful, and relevant to children, as well as ensuring that teachers feel confident and enthusiastic about science too.
She has a particular interest in Outdoor Learning and, inspired by Darwin, maximised the teaching and learning opportunities in the grounds of Shaw Primary School by developing a "Thinking Walk" including; a wildflower meadow, bug mansions, a Cornus Walk , a human sundial and converted an old mobile home into an Exploratory classroom.
She also worked extensively outside of the school both locally and nationally, including work on the Wiltshire Science team and helped to organise conferences for the county. She currently leads the PSTT funded Melksham Science Cluster and is a STEM CPD Facilitator, contributing to primary science conferences, leading CPD courses and Science Leaders Network meetings to support Wiltshire and Dorset teachers, a role which she particularly enjoys, seeing it as a great way to pass on the wonderful ideas gained through being part of PSTT!
Carol has been a member of ASE for many years serving on the Editorial Board of Primary Science Magazine from 2011-2020. This provided a wonderful opportunity to not only meet other teachers and experts from across the UK, but also to contribute ideas for the magazine and keep abreast of current thinking in Science.
Carol led Shaw Primary School to a PSQM gold award and she received a Primary Science Teacher of The Year Award in 2012. Primary Science Assessment is a particular strength: the assessment work at Shaw made a major contribution to the PSTT/Bath Spa University’s Teacher Assessment In Primary Science Project (TAPS) and she has also worked with other nationally recognised experts on developing Assessment exemplars for the DFE. Other PSTT projects Carol has undertaken include working with WOMAD to develop The Growing Music project and, in 2018, after training from the Jurassic Coast Trust, she became PSTT Jurassic Coast Champion, developing a teaching resource box of Rocks and Fossils, CPD, entitled “Bringing The Wonder of The Jurassic Coast To Your Classroom and an accompanying Teacher Guide.” This has been very well received and led to her PSTA award being endorsed by The Geological Society in in June 2019.
Recently, Jo has been part of the Primary Science Capital Teaching Approach research project and is eager to bring some of those ideas to Explorify. Jo has used Explorify regularly in the classroom, to develop children’s talk and higher order thinking skills, and is looking forward to contributing to such a great resource.
Jo joined the Explorify team after 18 years of primary teaching - with the last eight years as a specialist science and computing teacher at Vittoria Primary School in Islington. During that time, she taught science across the school and supported teachers to build their skills and confidence. Prior to that, Jo was an Advanced Skills Teacher in Science, supporting teachers and Science Leads in other schools. Jo has lots of experience of teaching the English primary science curriculum and is keen to support new and more experienced teachers across the country, as well as Science Leads. She has been a fellow of the Primary Science Teaching Trust since 2013.
Jo was part of the Primary Science Capital Teaching Approach research project and has used that experience to develop new resources for Explorify - the 'Have You Ever?' activities. She has also worked with colleagues to develop the new Early Years Explorify activities as well as resources to support retrieval practice.
Before teaching, Katharine worked as a researcher in aquatic science. She gained her first degree in Marine Biology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and then carried out her PhD research between Plymouth Marine Laboratory and the University of Southampton.After her PhD, Katharine held research posts in Canada and Switzerland. Her work focussed on comparing different ways of measuring and estimating aquatic photosynthesis and primary production. An understanding of this is really important to help scientists make predictions about levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, to help understand climate change.
Having visited schools as a researcher, Katharine discovered how rewarding teaching could be. She retrained as a primary teacher and is interested in helping her pupils learn how science appears in every part of their lives. She is keen to help children understand climate change and to recognise that they can have a positive role in improving the future of our planet. Katharine has written articles for the Why and How magazine on marine plastics and, more recently, on the Royal Society Partnership Grant scheme.
Katharine has been involved in a number of PSTT projects including Starters for Science. She is also part of the “I bet you didn’t know…” team and really enjoys making cutting edge research accessible to primary school children. Katharine worked on the pilot scheme for the Primary Science Capital Teaching Approach and is now a trainer for the approach.
Between 2020 and 2022, Katharine was a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Education Awards Committee. She was also part of the 2022 judging panel for the Royal Society’s Young People’s book prize.
In her free time, Katharine enjoys spending time outdoors and trying to learn foreign languages.
Over the past seven years she has delivered CPD for NSLC Enthuse Award courses which focus on promoting the learning and teaching of science and STEM projects. Linda worked as a Teacher Developer where she modelled Science lessons and shared good practice with teachers in eight EA schools. She is a member of the ASE(NI) committee and she helps to plan and organise ASE Primary Teachmeets.
Linda promotes the development of scientific enquiry through project work including STEM assignments and challenges which are showcased each year at the Young Innovators Exhibition and Science Blast Fair. Under her guidance the school’s F1 team were the overall champions at the UK F1 in Schools national finals in Birmingham and won a trip to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Linda piloted PSQM in Northern Ireland along with another school and achieved the gold award. In 2012 she proudly became a Primary Science Teaching Trust Fellow and is now an Area Mentor for Northern Ireland.
She was seconded to work with a number of schools, with a focus on outdoor learning and then, after returning to her own school, was awarded what was then called the AstraZeneca Primary Science Teaching Award in 2011. Along with another school, she piloted the PSQM Quality mark in Northern Ireland, leading her school to achieve the Gold Award.
Lesley currently works as a primary science consultant, working with individual schools and clusters and helping to design and present courses in Northern Ireland for STEM Learning. She has produced a series of four booklets entitled “Here’s my topic..Where’s my Science?” Her desire to improve the provision of science in all NI schools has seen her frequently meeting with politicians and inspectors and she is also a professional associate with CCEA, an Edina consultant and a member of the Northern Ireland ASE committee.
Despite all this she stills finds time to relax with family and friends, grow vegetables and fiddle round with wood.
In 2006 she was awarded an AstraZeneca Primary Science Teaching Award which has resulted in many wonderful opportunities to promote science in the primary school sector and develop her own knowledge and skills. Michele has taught science to PGCE students at Manchester University and has been a member of the Primary Science Editorial Board reviewing and writing. She has worked with ESERO-UK supporting teachers with space science and enthusing children to become the next British Astronaut. This led to her being invited to the ESTEC centre in Holland to meet astronauts who had returned from the ISS.
Michele is passionate about outdoor education and recognises the importance of children and adults reconnecting with the wonders of nature and the benefits this can bring.
When not working in her mentor role for the PSTT she can be found protecting wildlife, bird watching and scanning the sky for meteorite showers.