Who's Involved

Mick Walker

Former Executive Director QCA, accountable for National Curriculum Tests 2009-2011

Mick’s teaching career extended over eighteen years including work in secondary, sixth form and Further Education institutions as well as work in Higher Education as an external examiner. He has worked as a local education authority advisory teacher and as a general adviser working with primary and secondary schools. Throughout his career, he has been closely associated with the assessment system holding the posts of chief examiner and senior moderator.

Following his position as head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority’s (QCA) regulatory monitoring programme of general and vocational awarding bodies, Mick played a key role in the National Assessment Authority’s (NAA) modernisation programme leading on support for examiner recruitment and recognition of their professional status through the formation of what is now the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors (CIEA). Following delivery failures of national curriculum tests in 2008, Mick took over the post of Acting Managing Director of the NAA and is credited with re-building the national curriculum assessment system.

A former acting Director of QCA and Executive Director of Education at the QCDA, he was accountable for national curriculum assessments and supporting the delivery of general qualifications. He was an adviser to the Expert Group on Assessment in 2009 and more recently supported the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) Commission on Assessment without Levels and was a member of the DfE Independent Teacher Workload Review Group. Mick has acted as an Associate Director of AQA, an Adviser to the Welsh Government, PwC and FrogEducation and chairs the Assessment Committee of the Institute of Directors (IoD). He has chaired and presented to numerous conferences and lead training on education and assessment to a range of organisations in the UK and aboard.

Mick holds degrees at masters and bachelor levels and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Trustee and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors. He is passionate about education and aligning the aims of a national education and training high volume examination and testing systems with the aims and realities of everyday teaching and learning in schools, colleges and the workplace to benefit society and support each individual to reach their true potential.

Simon Sharp

Former Director of OCR, serving Deputy Chair CIEA

Simon has over 25 years of experience as a senior manager in education and assessment providing professional support to a variety of clients in the education, assessment research and training sectors in the UK and internationally. He is a respected senior leader with expertise in high stakes assessment programmes together with board-level experience.

A former Director of Policy at OCR, Simon has managed a wide variety of projects, including designing and running training programmes, awarding body accreditation and recognition from regulatory authorities and the development of qualifications and associated assessments. He has a breadth of experience covering academic and vocational qualifications including apprenticeship development and delivery, liaison with Higher Education Institutions and writing and editing a range of materials for publication. External communications advice, policy development and managing stakeholder relationships to secure support for new initiatives have been a key feature of Simon’s work.

He has in depth knowledge of assessment systems used across the age range, including curriculum and qualification design and quality assurance processes. Simon was a senior manager at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) during which time he held a number of posts including responsibility for aspects of the delivery of the Key Stage 2 test series (2006) and all Key stages (2007) from entry data through to issue of the final results. In 2008, Simon was given responsibility of developing and delivering support for senior managers in schools and colleges to implement effective quality assurance arrangements to deliver robust assessment of learners' work.

He has extensive experience of working with assessment professionals and during his time at QCA he was responsible for establishing a collaborative programme of work with awarding bodies to support the recruitment and retention of examiners and markers for GCSE, GCE qualifications and National Curriculum Tests. During this period, he supported the establishment of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors of which he is now Deputy Chair.

Simon has significant experience of presenting to senior management teams and educational professionals on matters ranging from national policy initiatives through to verification of assessment processes and training for educational and assessment professionals on assessment methodologies used across academic and vocational qualifications.

Graham Herbert

Former Chief Executive of CIEA

Graham taught for thirty years in secondary schools, across all year groups. As co-ordinator in a Beacon School, he also worked closely with primary school staff within a large secondary school’s catchment area. During this time he also worked as a senior examiner for both general qualifications and vocational qualifications. He was awarded a Fellowship at the University of Warwick where he still teaches on the post graduate qualification in educational assessment.

He left teaching to join QCA, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, where he was responsible for developing greater co-operation between Awarding Organisations, in organising accessibility arrangements as well as special considerations. He then moved to the NAA, the National Assessment Agency, where he was responsible for developing the Institute of Educational Assessors and oversaw the granting of Chartered status for this institute. He became a Chartered Educational Assessor and was for a time, the Chief Executive Officer at the CIEA. He is also the author of a variety of publications relating to educational assessment, including: Key Concepts in Educational Assessment (Sage, London, 2013).

He has chaired numerous conferences, developing themes in educational assessment, and running a multitude of training courses on this topic across the United Kingdom, as well as in South Africa and, more recently, Australia. He has also worked closely with the NAHT, the National Association of Head Teachers, in developing its unique Curriculum and Assessment Framework which looks at how to develop systems that ensure the secure delivery and assessment of the new National Curriculum. He has run many courses for the NAHT on this topic to help teachers in schools to assess accurately without levels.

Graham has degrees at both Masters and Bachelor levels and is committed to the development of effective assessment systems, nationally, locally and in individual schools. He believes that only by developing effective assessment systems can learners fulfil their true potential.