Heads & Tales

Vicky Bingham is headmistress of North London Collegiate School, only the 10th head since the school's founding in 1850. A classicist by training, she's spent her entire career in girls' education after falling in love with the culture at her first teaching interview. In this episode, Vicky explains why girls' schools have a culture that enjoys change, shares her phone policy (Year 7s can't bring...

Charlie Burley was a primary school teacher until a panic attack in his year six classroom led to a diagnosis of chronic stress and anxiety. The doctor told him he needed a whole lifestyle change. Now he runs The Teacher's Health Coach, helping teachers build sustainable habits without sacrificing their health. In this episode, Charlie explains his six Cs framework for teacher wellbeing, offers a...

Jamie Beaton started Crimson Education at 17 after getting into 25 of the world's top universities. He went to Harvard two years ahead of schedule, is now on his 12th degree and has built Crimson into a billion-dollar company operating in 20 countries. In this episode, Jamie explains what his mum did differently when he was growing up, shares his view that countries moving away from standardised e...

James Hooke has been headmaster of Harrodian School for over 25 years. He joined in 1995, just two years after it was founded, responding to a tiny ad in the TES and turning up to the interview with his six-month-old daughter in a car seat. The school then had 60 pupils; today it serves over a thousand. In this episode, James reflects on how to retain a family feel as a school grows, explains the...

Bill Kuhn is head of school at Birch Wathen Lenox, a K-12 school on Manhattan's Upper East Side. He came to education late after a career in finance, and fell in love with explaining things to kids while tutoring on the side. In this episode, Bill explains why BWL puts "constructive dialogue" at the heart of everything, from kindergarten debates about ice cream flavours through to upper school stu...

Susannah Hardyman MBE is CEO of Impetus, the organisation that finds the best education and youth employment charities and helps them scale. She founded Action Tutoring from her kitchen in 2011, grew it to 7,000 pupils a year, then found herself advising government on the National Tutoring Programme when COVID hit. In this episode, Susannah reflects on what that whirlwind taught her about implemen...

Melody Lang isn't a head teacher. She's an investor, a mathematician and an engineer who's spent 15 years figuring out what actually works in EdTech and what's just noise. In this episode, she shares the red flags she looks for in products, explains why she thinks traditional exams are testing the wrong things, and doesn't hold back on higher education: the middle tier is in trouble, and maybe you...

Guðmundur Hegner Jónsson is the founding principal of Lisbon International School, a new values-driven school housed in a converted 1905 pasta factory. His path to education is unlike any other: he dug up Viking burials for Iceland's National Museum, trained as a bass vocalist at the Royal Academy of Music, and spent 20 years teaching across Serbia, China, the UAE and South Korea before becoming r...

Toby Seth is Whitgift's 30th headmaster, back in his South London roots having been educated at Dulwich College. A linguist by training with a degree from Trinity Cambridge, he's held leadership roles at Wellington College, Godolphin and Latymer and Pocklington before returning south. Now midway through his first year at Whitgift, Toby shares his passionate case for languages as a way of becoming...

Jesse Elzinga has been head of Sevenoaks since 2020, leading one of the UK's flagship IB schools. A dual US-UK citizen raised on a farm outside Detroit, Jesse sold apples at farmers markets before winning a place at Harvard with a generous bursary, then a scholarship to Oxford. That journey drives his ambition to have one in three Sevenoaks students on a free or assisted place by the school's 600t...

James Monaghan is the CEO and founding principal of GEMS School of Research and Innovation, the group's new flagship in Dubai which opened in September 2025. With 30 years in international education spanning the UAE, UK, USA and South Korea, this is the third school James has opened from scratch. In this episode, he explains what makes launching a school so uniquely challenging, why teacher traini...

Helen Pike is the first female master in Magdalen College School's 500-year history. Originally from Preston and the first in her family to attend university, she read history at Christ Church, Oxford, just 300 yards from where she now leads one of Britain's top day schools. In this episode, Helen shares what she tells sixth form girls about imposter syndrome and why confidence is the trait most c...

Richard Jones never planned to be a teacher. He studied economics, worked in recruitment, rented out custom-wrapped camper vans to backpackers, and only discovered teaching after spending a week shadowing his best friend in a classroom. Now he's head of Bryanston, one of Britain's most distinctive schools, having made the leap from senior deputy to headship in just 15 months during Covid. In this...

This week marks Oppidan's 10th birthday, and we're turning the microphone around. Chief of Staff Adam Goodbody, who has worked alongside the founders for eight years, puts Henry Faber and Walter Kerr in the hot seat. They share the real origin story: a kitchen table office, a dad in a dressing gown and a phone call to a headteacher that launched their first school programme days later. Henry and W...

Dr Mary Ashun is CEO of Ghana International School, one of West Africa's leading international schools, where she's spent over 12 years building what she calls "talent architecture" - pipelines to grow Ghanaian teachers and leaders rather than relying on expat hires. A scientist turned educator with degrees from London, Toronto and Buffalo, she's also a Klingenstein Fellow from Columbia and an aut...

Dr Kelly Fradin is a pediatrician, childhood cancer survivor and author of Advanced Parenting. Now chair of pediatrics at Atria in New York, she's spent her career at the intersection of healthcare and education, from public schools in the South Bronx to supporting families globally. In this episode, Kelly shares her nuanced take on the ADHD diagnosis debate - why we're both overdiagnosing and mis...

Dr Michel Khoury went from M&A at the notorious investment bank Bear Stearns to building a global education empire. After returning to Lebanon to take over Eastwood College – the school his father founded – he's expanded into Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Nigeria and beyond, with an online school he calls the "crown jewel" of the group. In this episode, Michel explains why he believes focus...

Erica Corbin is the Head of Cathedral School of St. John the Divine, the K-8 Episcopal school on Manhattan's Upper West Side now approaching its 125th year. After leadership roles at Collegiate and Chapin – two titans of NYC private education, one boys and one girls – she brings a rare perspective on what different school environments offer children. In this episode, Erica shares the uncomfortable...

Rob Millar has been at Shrewsbury International Bangkok since 2010 – long enough to see the city's British school market explode from a handful of institutions to over 100. Now principal, he shares what it's really like navigating a culture where grandparents influence university choices, parents enquire about Ivy League prep for newborns and the hardest conversation is helping a student find thei...

Jo Duncan became a headmistress at 34 with no senior leadership experience because someone saw something in her she hadn't seen herself. Now leading Wycombe Abbey, one of the UK's top girls' boarding schools, Jo shares what makes their mixed-age dormitories unique, why she's sceptical of boys' schools taking girls in sixth form and what a delayed flight from Delhi taught her about leadership. Plus...

Up next on Heads & Tales, we're joined by Tom Ferguson, Head of Dwight School Seoul. Speaking from South Korea, Tom reflects on a leadership journey shaped as much by early missteps as by success — from learning when to slow down and listen to navigating cultural expectations in a different country. He shares what it’s really like leading an IB school in Seoul, why being clear with families ab...

On this episode of Heads & Tales, we're joined by Gareth Parker-Jones, Head Master of of Rugby School – one of the UK's most historic schools and the birthplace of the sport. Gareth discusses leading the near 500-year-old institution in the modern world, from character education and the curriculum, to smartphone policies and the wider pressures facing young people today. It's a great conversat...

Recorded from his office beneath a poster reading “Work hard and be nice to people,” Matthew Shanks joins Walter Kerr for the first episode of 2026 to reflect on leadership, accountability and what success in education really looks like. Drawing on more than 30 years in the profession – as a headteacher, CEO of Education South West and Ofsted inspector – Matthew makes a compelling case for judging...

In this episode, Peter Hyman shares his unique journey from political strategist to educator, discussing the evolution of education in the UK, the importance of oracy and the challenges faced by teachers and politicians alike. He reflects on his experiences in the classroom, the significance of mentorship, and his vision for the future of education, emphasising the need for authenticity in politic...

Our next guest on Heads & Tales needs little introduction. As Head Master of Eton College for the last decade, Simon Henderson is at the helm of one of the world's most recognisable, and scrutinised, schools. In a Heads & Tales first, Simon joined us in person in the studio, speaking to Walter Kerr about the reality of running a near 600-year-old institution whilst preparing teenage boys f...