Catherine SimonDr Catherine Simon has forty years experience as a teacher, senior leader and academic.
Her early career was spent teaching secondary RE and History both in the UK and in Germany for the Forces Schools Education service. On returning to England in 1999 she retrained as a primary teacher before taking up an academic post in Education Studies. She completed both her MA in Education and EdD at the University of Bath and took up her role as Programme Leader of undergraduate Education Studies awards at Bath Spa University in 2015. Her research interests focus on Education Policy in the UK, schools’ leadership and management and structural reform. She is co-convenor of the BELMAS Structural Reform RiG and Chair of the Grants and Awards Committee. Catherine continues to supervise Masters dissertations and PhD candidates. She is author editor of a number of books in the Routledge Ed Studies series edited by Professor Steven Ward and sits on the editorial boards of EMAL and MiE.
As an educational leader and academic I have first-hand experience of the two key pillars of our learned society: research and practice in educational leadership and I understand the tensions, issues and potential of promoting quality education through effective leadership and management. Furthermore I have experience of implementing change management during a period of University restructure and in recent months, I have used this knowledge and understanding in the support of BELMAS Exec as an ex-officio member, helping with the review of policies as the Society navigates its way through a period of review and renewal.
I have prior experience of working on BELMAS Council having served two terms from 2016 with responsibility for publications. As an academic and author I am keen to support new writers and to encourage ongoing and effective collaboration between practice and research. Most specifically I enjoy mentoring new writers and look for opportunities to support those in the early stages of their academic or leadership career utilising my ILM Level 7 executive coaching training.
I am keen to see that BELMAS meets its charitable aims in all of its activities and that it maintains its democratic and inclusive remit going forward.
