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Peter Lacey is Founder and Managing Director of ECARDA Ltd.
After teaching in three schools for sixteen years Peter worked as an education adviser in three different LEAs. Between times, he worked at Newcastle and Sunderland Universities co-ordinating a Government-funded raising achievement research project. He was a lead professional officer at the National Curriculum Council, and a member of the professional officer team at the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority, where he shared a responsibility for revising the National Curriculum, setting of end of key stage tests and core skills specifications. Peter published many articles and papers and a book on learning and teaching numeracy. He worked with teacher groups across this country and abroad and was education consultant to a series of TV broadcasts. Between 1993 and 2005 he was a qualified school OFSTED inspector and was twice elected Chair of the General Council of the Association of Teachers of Mathematics.
Peter’s last local government appointment was as Deputy Director of Education. His strongly held principle of “putting the learner first” guided effective school improvement services and internal workforce remodelling and development. Securing over £80m for educational capital projects, Peter led on the reorganisation of schools across the area.
Working with ECARDA, an independent education consultancy, Peter has developed a range of tools to help settings, schools and colleges analyse, evaluate and manage their performance towards improved outcomes for young people. His work on standards and their exemplification provide frameworks for personal and institutional development and have been recognised at a national level.
Peter has provided education consultancy services and project management to over twenty academy projects all of which have been delivered on time, within cost and with local community support.Peter remains actively engaged in research, evaluation and development at local, regional and national levels across all phases of education. His published papers on edumetrics examine quantitative approaches to evaluating educational outputs. His work on public sector governance seeks to influence the future pattern of an accountable state-funded education service.
Peter has served as governor at an NHS Foundation Trust providing mental health services and at a sixth form college.
Diane Thompson is the Client Services Manager of ECARDA Ltd
Diane is the Managing Director of an independent management support company and brings to her role within ECARDA extensive experience of Business Administration and Management from both the private and public sectors. Her knowledge has been developed working at management level within various roles including working as a School Business Manager for an Academy Trust and Practice Manager within the NHS. More recently she is working for a range of clients including an Educational Consultancy, an Occupational Health provider and several small to medium sized businesses, facilitating their business co-ordination and management.
Following on from her Diploma in Business Studies, Diane completed the Certificate in School Business Management, through the National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services and continues to further her professional development with various courses appropriate to her role for each client. With highly developed IT skills Diane well placed to undertake analyses of data and produce statistics and reports. Operating in a friendly and amenable manner, Diane offers clients a systematic approach to all administration processes; in particular, financial management and budgeting in which she specialises.
Christine Lacey is the Principal Primary-Phase Consultant of ECARDA Ltd
Christine is an experienced and successful headteacher with headship experience in both Junior and Primary schools. Her last appointment was as an Executive Principal and Primary Lead for a multi academy trust. With a recognised track record of improving children’s educational outcomes, Christine has held six interim and substantive headships where she has built and worked with teams to navigate schools along their roads of improvement. This includes bringing one school out of ‘special measures’ and another from ‘requiring improvement’.
In Christine’s first substantive headship appointment, she worked with a neighbouring school to design a collaborative of ‘high aspiration’ schools which has now been adopted as an alliance of primary phase academies. Christine presented a case study to the (then) Teacher Development Agency illustrating how achieving the IIP standard can have a direct bearing on teaching quality and improved pupil progress.
Christine’s strongly held belief is that a good primary school education is about providing every child with the experiences and building blocks that will maximise their life chances. This means a priority on developing basic skills in reading, writing and mathematics because they secure social and economic inclusion and unlock learning opportunities across the curriculum. To deliver on this priority it is necessary to focus on the social, moral, spiritual, emotional and cultural development of each child. ‘Being’, ‘feeling’ and ‘interacting’ underpin ‘understanding’ and ‘knowing’. Being effective on all these fronts defines a healthy, thriving and successful school.
Christine’s higher degree is in Special Educational Needs with research into dyscalculia. Her subject specialism is mathematics.
Christine is highly skilled in using quantitative measures to evaluate and drive school improvement. For the past fifteen years she has been trialling and contributing to the development of the elements of the Ecarda toolkit which supports and facilitates the management of school performance. With a “learner first” attitude and a future-orientated management approach, Christine has been a highly effective and respected school and multi academy trust leader.
