I’m an Education Policy Consultant with interests including teacher professionalism and agency; curriculum, assessment and accountability; and early years. My skills include developing and critiquing policy, building relationships for policy influence, and facilitating policy conversations. I’m an experienced senior leader, with expertise in organisational strategy, team leadership and change management. After long experience of union policy work, I left the National Education Union (NEU) in early 2022.
Please contact me on nansi@nansiellis.co.uk for further information about any of the work below, or to discuss projects I could help you with.
Recent projects include:
Reimagining Progress 8 (current). Working with Edge Foundation and Rethinking Assessment to bring together the different options for a whole school progress measure.
An Exploratory Study of the Early Career Framework (March 2024). Supporting Teacher Development Trust (TDT) and Professor Sam Twisleton OBE with stakeholder interviews and report writing.
Pathways for all: Commission on Post-16 education and training (Feb 2024) Supporting Youth Employment UK to bring together a Commission looking at the evidence on pathways for young people. Supporting online and face-to-face meetings, providing background research, writing the evidence base and short-term recommendations for the final report.
Thinking towards a Baccalaureate (May 2023) Working with Edge Foundation and Rethinking Assessment bringing together a range of organisations considering the future of assessment 14-19, developing vision, principles and options, and supporting thinking towards implementation. I wrote 3 reports: Principles for a Baccalaureate; Baccalaureate comparison table; and a summary of useful reports to guide discussion.
Save Our Subjects: a campaign for broadening the curriculum (Feb 2023) Working with Edge Foundation and ISM, developing the evidence base and rationale for the project, and other campaign collateral.
Other consultancy work includes:
Ufi VocTech Trust (current). Supporting the delivery of the VocTech Challenge, specifically place-based collaborations around adult participation in learning in Newport, South Wales.
The Chartered College of Teaching (current). Providing public relations support, developing stakeholder relationships, providing advice, copywriting blogs, newsletters and press releases.
ASCL (to December 2022). Pulling together equality, diversity and inclusion content across the ASCL website and beyond, developing a structure for the EDI webpages, providing advice to senior leadership and Executive.
Policy development
At the National Education Union, I led the Independent Assessment Commission, recruiting the chair and working with her to select Commissioners from different communities – students, parents, teachers, employers, policy-makers, researchers and exam boards, and to co-produce meeting agendas and papers. We held expert webinars, gathered evidence from different communities, met with politicans and held fringe events at political party conferences, and I co-wrote the interim and final reports, culminating in a set of principles and recommendations for an equitable, reliable assessment system.
At ATL, the education union, I commissioned research into the place of the reception year in the newly formed Early Years Foundation Stage, and into the national curriculum ten years from its beginnings. I led policy work, including a range of Specialist Task Groups (STGs) to develop ATL’s policy. This involved curating research and facilitating member discussions to develop position statements including on early years, teacher professionalism, and radicalisation. I also led collaboration with other unions to develop shared positions on assessment.
Policy influence
Policy vision isn’t much good unless it leads to influence. I represented Union policy at meetings with civil servants and ministers and with education stakeholders such as Ofsted. I’ve built relationships with policy and education experts in think tanks including ippr and CfEY; charities such as Education Support, TeachFirst; research organisations like NFER and the education policy institute. I’ve worked closely with the National Governance Association, the Royal Institution and the Royal Academy, and with education researchers in a range of universities.
At ATL, we regularly evaluated our policy influence and impact, building stakeholder networks, and working to bring members and stakeholders, particularly MPs, together at events. I’ve written consultation responses and policy briefings, and contributed to development of party policies and manifestos.
I built relationships with journalists in the education press and more widely, and have appeared on TV and radio both national and local, often live. I’ve spoken at national conferences, webinars and podcasts, as well as roundtables, seminars and parliamentary events.
Leadership
I have built and led teams through restructures and amalgamations. As Assistant General Secretary (AGS) at ATL, I was at the heart of the amalgamation process with the National Union of Teachers (NUT), including managing strategy for policy development. Following the amalgamation, I became AGS of the first education policy and research department for the National Education Union, bringing together two teams and cultures, some different policy positions and different ways of doing policy. I believe that everyone in a team plays a part in developing the vision, practices and culture of that team, and needs to be supported, and sometimes challenged, to do that.
Early career
Having trained as a primary teacher, specialising in RE, I taught in West Wales (in Welsh) and in London, beginning my teaching career alongside the first national curriculum. I also spent some time as a supply teacher. After a period of working on statutory assessment for the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority (SCAA), I managed the early years team at the Qualifications and Curriculum Agency (QCA), supporting the development of the first early years foundation stage curriculum.
Voluntary roles
I’m a trustee of the Culham St Gabriel’s Trust , a charitable foundation that supports teachers of religious and worldviews education and promotes the benefits of high quality study of religion and worldviews. I chair the Grants, Programmes and Education Committee, overseeing a range of projects including grants for curriculum development across schools, early years and universities, and funding and supporting teachers undertaking Masters and Doctoral programmes.
I’m also a trustee of the Association for Citizenship Teaching, the subject community for citizenship teachers and educators.
I’ve been a school governor since 2014, and I’m currently vice chair of governors at a primary school, with responsibility for staff wellbeing. I chair the curriculum committee, and I’m a member of the pay committee.
I’m also leader of a Guide and Ranger Unit, with girls from 10-18.
Education
I did all my school education, including A levels, in Welsh before studying for a BEd with religious studies at Homerton College Cambridge. I got a taste for both philosophy of education and philosophy of religion as an undergraduate, so after a few years teaching, I studied for a MA in philosophy at University College London.
Please contact me via nansi@nansiellis.co.uk, LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/nansiellis or X @NansiEllis