50 Leading Thought Leaders in UK Education Leadership

Last updated: 12 June 2026

As of June 2026, the UK education system is navigating simultaneous, overlapping reform across every sector, making it more important than ever to know whose thinking is worth following.

Who this is for: School leaders, MAT CEOs, further education principals, higher education leaders, and anyone seeking to build a rigorous professional learning practice across UK education.

Who Are the Most Important Thought Leaders in UK Education Leadership in 2026?

UK education leadership in 2026 spans 50 people across schools, multi-academy trusts, further education, higher education, research, policy, and leadership equity. They were selected on three criteria: documented contribution, current activity in 2025 or 2026, and deliberate coverage of the full range of UK education contexts, not just state school practice.

Why Does UK Education Leadership Matter More Than Ever?

The UK's education system in 2026 is navigating simultaneous, overlapping reform across every sector. In schools, the Curriculum and Assessment Review published its final report in November 2025, Ofsted completed its transition from single-word headline judgements to a report card system, and the Every Child Achieving and Thriving white paper set out sweeping commitments to teacher recruitment, SEND reform, and trust governance. In further education, skills policy has been split between two government departments following a ministerial reshuffle, Skills England has been established as an executive agency, and V Levels are replacing BTECs as the primary vocational qualification pathway. In higher education, more than a quarter of Universities UK member institutions changed vice-chancellor in 2025 or were set to do so in 2026, and the financial model that has sustained the modern university is being fundamentally questioned.

The UCL Institute of Education has been ranked number one in the world for education for 13 consecutive years in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026. The research produced by UK education scholars sits at the forefront of global thinking on how leadership shapes outcomes. Research by the Education Policy Institute found that replacing an ineffective headteacher (at the 16th percentile of effectiveness) with an effective one (at the 84th percentile) increases pupil attainment by an average of two GCSE grades across all subjects. Leadership quality is not abstract. It is measurable and it is consequential.

The people profiled below are not commentators watching this from a distance. They are leading the institutions under reform, producing the research informing the policy, and building the networks through which practice improves. Following the right voices across all three sectors of UK education is a strategic decision for anyone seeking to lead with clarity and evidence in this environment.

For more on building high-performing leadership teams in schools, see our companion post 50 Essential UK State School Thought Leaders (2026). For a global higher education perspective, see 

35 Essential Thought Leaders in University Leadership.

How Was This List Compiled?

Every person on this list was selected on three criteria. First, they have made a documented contribution to education leadership through published research, sustained practice, policy influence, or sector leadership. Second, they are currently active, whether through books, speaking, research output, or sector engagement in 2025 or 2026. Third, the list was deliberately built to represent the full range of education leadership contexts in the UK, not just a single sector or a single phase.

What Do the World's Leading Education Leadership Researchers Say?

These researchers are producing the work that defines how educational leadership is studied, taught, and applied across the UK and internationally. Their books, papers, and programmes shape what professional development for school and system leaders looks like.

1. Professor Toby Greany

Professor Toby Greany is Professor of Education and Convenor of the Centre for Research in Educational Leadership and Management at the University of Nottingham. He was previously a professor at UCL's Institute of Education and before that worked for the National College for School Leadership. His research focuses on how policy and practice interact across local school systems and through networks, and his work on England's self-improving school-led system has been described by The Observer as a seminal analysis. He has advised the OECD, the EU, and ministries in several countries on school leadership and system reform.

Greany is the lead researcher on the ESRC-funded Sustainable School Leadership study, which is exploring place-based approaches to school leadership development and retention across the UK. His co-authored book with Rob Higham, published through UCL Press, is one of the most rigorous analyses of how English school policy has reshaped the relationship between schools, trusts, and local authorities. Organisations seeking to understand why the system produces the inequalities it does will find Greany's research essential.

2. Professor Peter Earley

Professor Peter Earley is Emeritus Professor of Education Leadership and Management at the UCL Centre for Educational Leadership, UCL Institute of Education. With decades of research on headteacher professional development, school governance, and system leadership, Earley has been one of the most consistent voices shaping how education leadership is professionalised in England. His co-edited volume with Professor Toby Greany, School Leadership and Education System Reform, provides the definitive evidence base for how English schools have been reshaped by successive waves of reform.

His work on school governors, headteacher wellbeing, and the pipeline of future leaders has directly influenced government thinking on professional qualifications and national programmes. Earley's writing makes complex system-level evidence accessible to practitioners and policymakers alike.

3. Professor Qing Gu OBE

Professor Qing Gu OBE is Director of the UCL Centre for Educational Leadership and Professor of Leadership in Education at UCL Institute of Education, where she researches teacher resilience, professional identity, and school leadership. Her work on how teachers and leaders sustain their commitment and effectiveness across careers of increasing complexity has produced some of the most cited UK education research of the last decade. She is a co-investigator on the Sustainable School Leadership study led by Professor Toby Greany, and in May 2026 she was appointed to the Government Skills College of Experts to advise on civil service learning and development.

The landmark book "Teachers Matter: Connecting Work, Lives and Effectiveness" was co-authored by Christopher Day, Pam Sammons, Gordon Stobart, Alison Kington, and Qing Gu, and remains among the most widely read research texts on teacher professional lives. Her work consistently asks what conditions must be in place for leaders and teachers to thrive rather than simply survive.

4. Professor Louise Stoll

Professor Louise Stoll is a Visiting Professor at UCL Institute of Education whose work on professional learning communities, school improvement, and leadership capacity has influenced education systems around the world. Her books on professional learning communities, co-authored with Karen Seashore Louis, are foundational texts for school leaders seeking to build collective improvement capacity. She has led major evaluations for the OECD, the European Commission, and governments in multiple countries.

Stoll's evaluation of the Big Education Leadership Programme, published in 2024, provides practitioners with a rigorous evidence base for whole-school leadership development design. Her work on system leadership and collaborative professional learning is particularly relevant as England's trust-led system demands new forms of cross-school collaboration.

5. Professor Pat Thomson

Professor Pat Thomson is Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham and a prolific writer on school leadership, educational creativity, and the conditions for equitable schooling. Her research on the experiences of headteachers and deputy heads in challenging circumstances has made her one of the most trusted voices in the UK on what school leadership actually feels like from the inside. She writes with unusual clarity and honesty about the pressures, ethical dilemmas, and structural constraints that shape how school leaders work.

Thomson has published extensively on arts-based approaches to school leadership development and on how leaders in disadvantaged communities sustain their practice over time. Her blog Patter, which covers research methods, writing, and education policy, has built a substantial following among educators, researchers, and leaders.

6. Professor Megan Crawford

Professor Megan Crawford is Professor of Education Leadership at the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education, where her research focuses on leadership identity, the emotional dimensions of school leadership, and wellbeing. She is a past president of the British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society (BELMAS). Her book Principled Leadership in Practice, co-edited with Professor Helen Gunter, addressed the gap between abstract leadership frameworks and the lived experience of leading schools under pressure.

Crawford's work on leadership identity and emotion has been particularly influential in understanding why so many talented leaders leave headship early. Her research into the psychosocial dimensions of school leadership has provided the evidence base for programmes designed to sustain leaders through the most demanding phases of their careers.

7. Steve Munby

Steve Munby is a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at UCL Institute of Education and the author of Imperfect Leadership, one of the most widely read books on education leadership published in the past decade. His previous roles included CEO of the National College for School Leadership and CEO of Education Development Trust, giving him an unusually broad view of how school leadership development works at scale.

Imperfect Leadership, published by Crown House Publishing, draws on Munby's conversations with hundreds of school leaders over two decades to argue that great leadership is not defined by having all the answers but by knowing what you do not know and building the team and culture around those honest gaps. The central argument, that vulnerability and self-awareness are leadership strengths rather than weaknesses, has resonated with headteachers and trust CEOs dealing with the unrelenting pressure to appear certain in a system that punishes honest uncertainty.

If you are a school or education leader and want support turning ideas into team culture and leadership practice, Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator and author of Step Up or Step Out, works with education leadership teams globally. Email jonno@consultclarity.org to start the conversation.

Who Are the Most Effective School and System Leadership Practitioners to Follow?

These practitioners are doing the leading. They run schools, coach leaders, and write from the messy, complex interior of UK school leadership. Their authority comes not primarily from research but from the fact that they have done the job and reflected on it honestly.

8. Ross Morrison McGill (@TeacherToolkit)

Ross Morrison McGill, known as @TeacherToolkit, is the most-followed educator on social media in the UK and the founder of the TeacherToolkit website, which has been read by over 20 million people globally. An award-winning author of 12 books on education, McGill was invited by the Cabinet Office to Number 10 Downing Street in April 2025 to share his social media expertise with the Secretary of State for Education and the Prime Minister. He has worked across education for 35 years with school leadership experience in some of the most challenging schools in London, and was nominated for The Sunday Times 500 Most Influential People in Britain in 2015.

McGill's work bridges classroom practice and leadership thinking in a way that few UK education figures manage. His most recent focus on teacher workload, AI in education, and the policy implications for school leaders makes him an essential follow for anyone seeking to understand the intersection of technology, accountability, and leadership in 2026.

9. Chris Dyson

Chris Dyson is Deputy CEO of Create Partnership Trust and the former headteacher of Parklands Primary School in Seacroft, Leeds, where he transformed a school with 150 exclusions per year into an Outstanding school with some of the best mathematics results in the country. A National Leader of Education, Dyson has driven improvement across Yorkshire and now works at system level within the Create Partnership Trust. His book Parklands: A School Built on Love, published by Crown House Publishing, tells the story of how compassion, consistency, and genuine belief in every child drives sustainable school transformation.

Dyson's contribution to UK education leadership thinking is distinctive because it is rooted in love, not just strategy. He demonstrates that the deepest school improvement comes from cultural transformation, not compliance mechanisms.

10. Sam Strickland

Sam Strickland is Principal of Northampton School for Boys and the author of several books on school leadership and behaviour, including The Behaviour Manual and Is Leadership a Race?, the latter engaging directly and honestly with questions of race, identity, and authority in UK school leadership. He is a regular conference speaker and a frequent contributor to the national conversation about behaviour, culture, exclusions, and leadership accountability.

Strickland's contribution to leadership thinking is specifically in the area of school culture and systems. He argues consistently that clear, non-negotiable behavioural expectations maintained by every member of the leadership team create the conditions in which teaching and learning can take place.

11. Jill Berry

Jill Berry is a leadership consultant, author, and coach who has worked with headteachers and aspiring leaders across England for over a decade, with a particular focus on supporting women into and through headship. Her book Making the Leap: Moving from Deputy to Head is one of the most useful transition guides available to aspiring headteachers, drawing on extensive research into the experiences of leaders navigating their first headship. She is a regular speaker at ASCL events and leadership conferences.

Berry's distinctive contribution is in the space where coaching, mentorship, and evidence-based leadership development meet. She draws attention to the emotional and relational dimensions of school leadership that formal training programmes often overlook, and her work on women in headship has provided both practical frameworks and honest narratives of how the leadership experience differs by gender.

12. Richard Gerver

Richard Gerver is an international speaker, author, and former headteacher whose transformation of Grange Primary School in Derbyshire into one of the most visited schools in the world attracted global attention. Described by Sir Ken Robinson as one of the clearest and most passionate voices for radical change in education and business, Gerver has authored four acclaimed books and speaks internationally on change, human leadership, and the future of learning. He has worked with leaders in education, business, and government across more than 50 countries.

His book Change: Learn to Love It, Live It, Lead It provides a practical framework for leaders navigating organisational transformation. For education leaders who want to challenge their own thinking about what schools are for and what leadership really demands in a period of rapid change, Gerver offers both inspiration and structured challenge.

13. Andy Buck

Andy Buck is the founder of FLARE Learning and Leadership, the creator of the BASIC coaching model, and one of the most trusted voices on educational leadership coaching in England. A former secondary headteacher and national leader of education, Buck has trained hundreds of leadership coaches working in schools and trusts, and his book Leadership Matters 3.0 has been widely adopted as a practical leadership development framework for educators at all stages.

Buck's specific contribution is in making coaching accessible and practical for school and trust leaders who have limited time and significant development needs. His BASIC model provides a structured conversational framework that practising leaders can use immediately, and his conviction that middle leadership development is as important as senior leadership development has shifted how some trusts invest in their people.

14. Rachel MacFarlane

Rachel MacFarlane is a school improvement consultant, author, and former headteacher whose book Outstanding School Leadership provides research-informed principles for effective and ethical school leadership. A former Ofsted inspector and headteacher in several challenging schools, MacFarlane draws on cognitive science, school improvement research, and her own leadership experience to guide leaders in building strong professional cultures.

Her work sits at the intersection of evidence-informed practice and the practical realities of leading a school. MacFarlane argues that outstanding leadership is not about personal charisma but about the disciplined application of evidence-based strategies to the specific cultural and contextual challenges a school faces.

How Are MAT and Trust Leaders Redefining System Leadership?

Multi-academy trust leadership has reshaped English education over the past decade. These leaders are defining what trust leadership means: how it is exercised, how it is governed, and how it is held accountable.

15. Leora Cruddas CBE

Leora Cruddas CBE is Chief Executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, the main sector body for school trusts in England, and one of the defining voices on civic leadership, MAT strategy, and trust governance. Her thought leadership through CST's Bridge to the Future series has shaped how the sector understands trust leadership as a discipline distinct from both school management and corporate governance.

Cruddas is a consistent and articulate advocate for the view that trusts are not simply delivery vehicles for government policy but are civic institutions with responsibilities to the communities they serve. Her writing on ethical leadership and civic trust has given MAT CEOs a language for talking about accountability that goes beyond Ofsted grades and exam results.

For anyone navigating difficult conversations in education leadership, explore Jonno's Working Genius facilitation at consultclarity.org/post/jonno-white-certified-working-genius-facilitator-australia.

16. Tom Rees

Tom Rees is Chief Executive of Ormiston Academies Trust, one of England's largest and most established academy trusts, serving approximately 35,000 children across 42 schools. Rees was named chair of the government's advisory group on inclusion in March 2025 and delivered the keynote at the Tes SEND Leadership Summit 2025, demonstrating the breadth of his engagement beyond his own trust. Before joining OAT, he was Executive Director of Programmes at Ambition Institute, where he led professional development programmes for more than 54,000 teachers and school leaders.

His background moves fluidly between practitioner leadership and sector-level professional development, giving him an unusually complete picture of the pipeline from teacher to trust CEO.

17. Sir David Carter

Sir David Carter is a former National Schools Commissioner and the most influential system-level voice on trust governance and executive leadership development outside of the current government. He now works as an executive coach and adviser to MAT CEOs and trust boards, and speaks at major conferences about system leadership, trust growth, and the ethical dimensions of executive authority in education.

Carter's specific contribution is in translating complex system-level thinking into actionable guidance for trust boards and CEOs. His experience as National Schools Commissioner gave him an unparalleled view of what distinguishes trusts that consistently improve schools from those that do not.

18. Rob Carpenter

Rob Carpenter is Chief Executive of the Inspire Partnership, a multi-academy trust in south-east London, and the author of A Manifesto for Excellence in Schools. A National Leader of Education, Carpenter has built his career in the most challenging school contexts in London and has become a credible voice on school transformation, high expectations in disadvantaged communities, and the leadership required to move a school from failure to excellence.

His book A Manifesto for Excellence in Schools provides a practical and values-driven framework for school leaders who want to deliver genuine excellence without sacrificing inclusion. Carpenter argues that high expectations and deep support are not in tension.

19. Steve Rollett

Steve Rollett is Deputy CEO of the Confederation of School Trusts and one of the sharpest policy minds in the MAT sector. His work on trust governance, accountability frameworks, and the legislative environment in which trusts operate makes him an essential voice for any MAT leader seeking to navigate the regulatory landscape of English education.

Rollett's specific value is in his ability to translate complex regulatory and policy changes into guidance that trust leaders can actually use. When the government makes changes to inspection frameworks, accountability measures, or funding arrangements, Rollett is typically among the first sector voices to produce clear-headed analysis of what the changes mean in practice.

20. Jonny Uttley

Jonny Uttley is CEO of The Education Alliance, a multi-academy trust in the East Riding of Yorkshire, a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Young Lives, and a Trustee for SHINE. He is a regular speaker at sector events on inclusion, admissions, and what it means to lead a trust with genuine social mission.

Uttley's contribution to UK education leadership thinking is in the intersection of inclusion and institutional leadership. He is willing to name the tensions that other trust leaders sometimes avoid: that accountability frameworks can create perverse incentives against inclusive admissions, and that genuine inclusion requires trust leaders to make institutionally costly decisions.

21. Carolyn Roberts

Carolyn Roberts is Headteacher of Thomas Tallis School in Greenwich, one of London's most celebrated comprehensive schools, and a prominent voice on governance, standards, and what it means to lead a school with values at the centre. She is a regular contributor to sector media and a speaker at leadership conferences, and her advocacy for a rigorous but humane approach to comprehensive secondary education has made her a credible voice in debates about accountability, curriculum, and what schools owe to the communities they serve.

Roberts has been particularly visible in debates about Ofsted inspection, workload, and the pressures of the current accountability system on school leaders' mental health and decision-making. Her willingness to speak publicly about what inspection feels like from the inside has given a voice to thousands of headteachers who face the same tensions but lack the platform to name them.

Jonno White, host of The Leadership Conversations Podcast with 230 episodes reaching listeners in over 150 countries, works with education leadership teams to build the trust, communication, and alignment that allow great leadership to actually happen. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

What Does Effective Further Education Leadership Look Like in 2026?

Further education is the part of UK education that connects young people and adults to skills, employment, and economic participation. Its leaders operate at the intersection of education, employment policy, and community development, often with less national visibility than school or university leaders despite serving millions of learners.

22. David Hughes CBE

David Hughes CBE is Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges, the representative body for further education colleges in England, which he has led since 2016. In that time, he has significantly raised the profile of the FE sector through initiatives including Colleges Week and the Love Our Colleges campaign, and he was awarded a CBE for services to further education, particularly during the Covid-19 response. Hughes is the most consistent national advocate for the FE sector.

His work at AoC has included building the Future Skills Coalition, advocating for sustainable college funding, and positioning the sector within successive government narratives about economic growth, social mobility, and skills development. For anyone seeking to understand how FE leadership is exercised at the national advocacy level, Hughes is the essential voice to follow.

23. Shelagh Legrave CBE

Shelagh Legrave CBE served as FE Commissioner from October 2021 to early 2026, overseeing inspection, support, and intervention for further education colleges across England during one of the most turbulent periods in the sector's history. In her final months as commissioner she was outspoken about the governance challenges facing colleges, with FE Week describing her parting advice to governors about challenging powerful leaders as frank and significant. Her career before the commissioner role included extensive experience as principal and CEO of Chichester College Group.

Legrave's contribution to UK education leadership thinking is specifically in the area of governance and institutional accountability. Her work as commissioner produced a clear-eyed analysis of how governance failures enable institutional decline.

24. Lynne Sedgmore CBE

Lynne Sedgmore CBE is a former Chief Executive of the 157 Group, the body representing high-performing further education colleges, and one of the most respected elder statespeople of UK further education. She now works as an executive coach and conscious leadership consultant, and her work on authentic leadership development and the inner dimensions of executive authority represents one of the more distinctive contributions to UK education leadership thinking.

Sedgmore's contribution is particularly relevant for FE principals and college CEOs navigating the unrelenting pressure of running complex institutions under severe financial constraint. Her frameworks for conscious and authentic leadership provide an alternative to the performance-management-heavy models that dominate sector leadership development.

25. James Kewin

James Kewin is Deputy CEO of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, the representative body for sixth form colleges in England, and one of the clearest voices on post-16 education policy, funding, and the distinctive contribution of sixth form colleges to social mobility. His analysis of policy developments affecting 16-19 education, from V Levels to funding reform to the implications of the skills white paper, is among the most reliable in the sector.

Sixth form colleges serve disproportionately high proportions of disadvantaged young people and students from minority ethnic backgrounds, and Kewin's advocacy consistently draws attention to how policy decisions affect these learners.

26. Dr Ann Limb CBE

Dr Ann Limb CBE is one of the most respected figures in UK further education and skills, with a career spanning college principal, higher education governor, and sector advocate. She has served as Chair of the Skills Funding Agency and has been influential across both FE and HE governance. Her book The Ambitious College, co-written with Andy Goldsmith, is among the most useful practical guides to college leadership and governance published in the UK.

Limb's contribution is in the intersection of ambition and governance. She argues that genuinely ambitious colleges are those where the board provides both robust challenge and genuine support to the principal, where the strategy is owned collectively, and where the community the college serves is visible in its governance structures and priorities.

27. Shane Chowen

Shane Chowen is Editor of FE Week, the principal trade publication for the further education and skills sector in England, and one of the most-read commentators on FE policy, accountability, and college governance. His annual review of the FE sector provides the most accessible and honest summary of how the sector is faring. His commentary on college governance failures and on the outgoing FE Commissioner's parting advice about challenging powerful principals exemplified the kind of honest editorial voice that the sector needs.

Chowen's value for education leaders is in his willingness to name the uncomfortable truths that institutional leaders sometimes cannot say publicly: when governance has failed, when policy has produced perverse outcomes, when the gap between ministerial rhetoric and sector reality has become too wide to sustain.

How Are Higher Education Leaders Navigating the Sector's Biggest Crisis in a Generation?

Higher education in the UK is in the most significant period of structural stress since the introduction of tuition fees. These voices are shaping how the sector responds, how it understands its own leadership challenges, and how it navigates the intersection of government policy and institutional autonomy.

28. Nick Hillman OBE

Nick Hillman OBE has been Director of the Higher Education Policy Institute since January 2014 and was awarded an OBE for services to higher education in June 2025. He was previously Special Adviser to David Willetts as Minister for Universities and Science, giving him an unusual combination of insider government experience and independent analytical credibility. HEPI under his directorship has become the most reliable source of rigorous, accessible analysis of English higher education policy.

Hillman's specific contribution is in making complex higher education policy debates legible to practitioners who are running institutions rather than studying them. His analysis of the five forces shaping English higher education, published in late 2025, exemplified the combination of breadth and precision that makes HEPI output so useful to vice-chancellors, registrars, and senior managers.

29. Professor Edward Peck CBE

Professor Edward Peck CBE became Chair of the Office for Students, the higher education regulator for England, on 7 July 2025, having previously served as Vice-Chancellor of Nottingham Trent University for over ten years. Under his vice-chancellorship, NTU was awarded Times Higher Education University of the Year in 2017 and Sunday Times Modern University of the Year in both 2018 and 2023. He brings to the OfS both the practitioner experience of running a major university and the credibility of a leadership record that achieved sector-wide recognition.

Peck has been vocal about the need for the higher education sector to respond positively to the challenges of the current financial environment rather than treating every regulatory intervention as a threat to autonomy.

30. Alistair Jarvis CBE

Alistair Jarvis CBE became Chief Executive of Advance HE in August 2025, taking over from Alison Johns. He joined from the University of London where he had served as Pro Vice-Chancellor of Partnerships and Governance, and brings nine years of experience as CEO of Universities UK, leading the representative body for the UK's universities through both Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic. Three months into his role, he published a piece for Wonkhe on how Advance HE must deepen its support for transformation and change to help institutions facing funding pressure, shifting student demands, and the rapid development of AI.

Jarvis's significance for education leaders is that he leads the organisation most directly responsible for developing the people who run higher education institutions in the UK, across leadership development, governance, and equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator and author of Step Up or Step Out, delivers Working Genius sessions and leadership team offsites for education teams. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

31. Professor Vivienne Stern MBE

Vivienne Stern MBE is Chief Executive of Universities UK, the representative body for the UK's universities, a role she took up in September 2022 having previously served as Director of Universities UK International. Her transition from leading UUKi to leading the parent body placed her at the centre of the sector's most pressing challenges: the financial sustainability of English universities, the relationship between government and institutional autonomy, and the ongoing management of international student flows in a politically contested visa environment.

Her combination of deep internationalisation expertise and her current role as the sector's most prominent collective voice gives her an unusually integrated view of how domestic and international pressures interact to shape the conditions in which university leaders operate. She is a member of the UK Government's Soft Power Council and was awarded an MBE for services to international education.

32. Jo Saxton

Jo Saxton is Chief Executive of UCAS and a former Chief Regulator of Ofqual. Her combined experience at the two organisations that most directly shape how young people access higher education, through qualifications on one side and admissions on the other, gives her an unusually integrated view of the access and transition pipeline. She is a prominent public voice on widening participation, application trends, and what the data on student choices reveals about the health of the UK higher education system.

Saxton's specific contribution is in using UCAS's unparalleled data position to surface what is actually happening in the HE pipeline. Her public engagement with questions about social mobility, school attainment gaps, and the relationship between qualifications reform and university access provides a data-grounded reality check for leaders in both school and higher education sectors.

33. Mark Leach (Wonkhe)

Mark Leach is the founder and Editor of Wonkhe, the most-read higher education policy and analysis platform in the UK, which provides daily commentary, analysis, and debate on everything affecting universities in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Under his editorial leadership, Wonkhe has become the defining forum for serious engagement with HE policy, regulation, and strategy.

Wonkhe's contribution to UK education leadership is in creating a space for serious, high-quality debate that is accessible to practitioners rather than locked behind academic journals. Leach has built an editorial culture that privileges rigour and honesty over institutional reputation management.

How Are Diversity, Inclusion, and Leadership Equity Changing UK Education?

These thought leaders are challenging how UK education leadership looks, who it includes, and whose experiences and insights shape the frameworks that govern it. Their work is not merely about representation but about what better, more equitable leadership actually produces for students.

34. Hannah Wilson

Hannah Wilson is the founder of Diverse Educators and a leadership coach whose work on diversity, equity, and inclusion in education has built one of the most active practitioner networks in the UK. Through Diverse Educators, Wilson has created a platform that connects school leaders, teachers, and researchers working on representation, curriculum inclusion, and leadership equity. She has co-authored the Diverse Educators: A Manifesto, which provides a framework for thinking about inclusion as an institutional leadership responsibility rather than a curriculum add-on.

Wilson's specific contribution is in creating infrastructure for the inclusion conversation in UK education. Her work in connecting the overlapping communities working on race, gender, disability, and LGBTQ+ inclusion under a coherent framework makes her an important convener as well as a practitioner voice.

35. Evelyn Forde MBE

Evelyn Forde MBE is a former headteacher, former ASCL President, and TES Headteacher of the Year who has become one of the most recognised voices on race equity, representation, and belonging in UK school leadership. Her conference presence, keynote speaking, and writing on the experience of Black school leaders in England has provided evidence and narrative for a conversation the sector needed but often lacked the language to have. She continues to work as a consultant and coach.

Forde's work is significant because it combines personal authority with structural analysis. She provides frameworks for understanding how the structures of school accountability, inspection, and professional development interact to create inequitable outcomes for leaders as well as students.

36. Sameena Choudry

Sameena Choudry is the founder of Equitable Education and one of the most active and credible voices on race equity and anti-racist practice in UK schools. Her work with trusts and school leaders on understanding and addressing racial inequality within institutions is gaining significant traction across the MAT sector. She combines academic grounding with practitioner engagement.

Choudry's specific contribution is in making anti-racist practice concrete and actionable rather than theoretical. Her work addresses the gap between schools that have adopted the language of anti-racism and schools that have actually changed their practices, structures, and leadership behaviours.

37. Viv Grant

Viv Grant is the founder of Integrity Coaching and a former headteacher who has built one of the most respected leadership coaching and wellbeing practices in UK education. Her book Staying a Head: The Stress Management Secrets of Successful School Leaders addresses the emotional and psychological dimension of headship with honesty and depth rarely found in mainstream leadership development.

Grant's contribution to UK education leadership is specifically in the wellbeing and coaching space. Her advocacy for restorative, values-grounded leadership development makes her one of the most important voices in the sector on leader wellbeing, and her argument that the conditions inside a headteacher's internal world are as important as the external strategies they deploy has influenced how coaching is used in school leadership.

38. Jules White

Jules White is the founder of the WorthLess campaign and a former headteacher who became a prominent national advocate for fair school funding, challenging inspection, and protection of school leader wellbeing. His grassroots campaign gave headteachers a public platform for legitimate grievances about funding, accountability pressure, and inspection culture. He continues to work as a coach, consultant, and speaker on school leadership, funding, and the systemic conditions that support or undermine effective leadership.

39. Helena Marsh

Helena Marsh is an Executive Principal in Cambridgeshire and a founding member and regional leader of WomenEd, the grassroots network for women in education leadership. She is a regular contributor to the national conversation about gender equity in school and trust leadership, and her work within WomenEd has helped build the infrastructure of mentoring, networking, and advocacy that many women education leaders point to as central to their career development.

Marsh's contribution is specifically in building the network capacity that enables women in education to access the informal support, mentoring, and sponsorship that has historically been more available to their male counterparts.

40. Bennie Kara

Bennie Kara is an author, consultant, and deputy headteacher whose work on diversity in the curriculum, anti-racism, and global perspectives in UK schooling has influenced how schools approach curriculum inclusion. Her book A Little Guide for Teachers: Diversity in Schools, published by Sage, provides a practical framework for teachers and leaders seeking to make their curriculum more representative and their school culture more genuinely welcoming.

Kara's contribution is at the intersection of curriculum leadership and diversity, arguing that the curriculum is itself a leadership decision and that the choice of what to teach, whose voices to include, and how to frame knowledge is always a values choice.

What Are the Most Important Policy and Evidence Voices Shaping UK Education?

These thought leaders are shaping the policy environment in which education leaders operate, building the evidence base that informs professional development, and asking what leadership in UK education needs to look like in the next decade.

41. Sam Freedman

Sam Freedman is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government, author of Failed State, a widely cited analysis of English education policy failure, and a former senior adviser to government on education. His commentary on schools policy, the academisation programme, and the relationship between government and the education sector is among the sharpest and most technically grounded available.

His book Failed State provides a detailed and evidence-grounded account of how successive governments have introduced reforms that failed to deliver on their stated aims, and why the structural features of English education policy make certain kinds of failure almost inevitable. For any trust CEO, policy professional, or senior leader seeking to understand why the education system looks the way it does, Failed State is essential reading.

42. Professor Becky Francis CBE

Professor Becky Francis CBE is Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation and led the government's Curriculum and Assessment Review, which published its final report in November 2025. Her work on educational inequality, attainment gaps, and the evidence base for curriculum reform makes her one of the most consequential figures in UK education. The review's recommendations, including a new core enrichment entitlement, compulsory citizenship in primary, and equal status for arts GCSEs, will reshape school practice for a decade.

As CEO of the EEF, Francis oversees the most significant source of rigorous evidence on what works in schools in England. The EEF's teaching and learning toolkit is used by schools and trusts across the country to inform professional development and curriculum decisions.

43. Dame Alison Peacock

Dame Alison Peacock is Chief Executive of the Chartered College of Teaching, the professional body for teachers and school leaders. Her earlier work as a headteacher, her book Learning Without Limits co-authored with colleagues at the University of Cambridge, and her establishment of the Chartered College have made her one of the most influential figures in teacher and leader professionalisation in England.

In March 2026, Dame Alison confirmed that the Teacher Development Trust will join the Chartered College in Summer 2026, bringing TDT's freely accessible CPD research under the Chartered College's stewardship. This significantly expands the evidence available to school leaders and represents a major development in how effective professional development is supported across English schools.

44. David Monis-Weston

David Monis-Weston is the founder of the Teacher Development Trust, the national charity for effective professional development in schools and colleges, and since April 2024 has been AI Lead at Purposeful Ventures, where his work focuses on how artificial intelligence can strengthen rather than route around the teacher-development infrastructure he spent a decade building. He remains a member of the Expert Steering Group for the review of the National Professional Qualifications frameworks.

His specific contribution to UK education leadership thinking remains his evidence base on what makes CPD effective, which consistently shows that the majority of professional development in English schools fails to change practice because it is designed without reference to what the research requires. TDT's research will continue to be freely accessible through the Chartered College of Teaching following the Summer 2026 merger. His co-authorship of a guide on AI for UK school leaders alongside US nonprofit ISTE has extended his reach into one of the most consequential emerging questions for school leadership.

45. Valerie Hannon

Valerie Hannon is co-founder of the Global Education Leaders Partnership (GELP) and the Innovation Unit, and one of the most internationally connected education leadership thinkers in the UK. Her books including Thrive: How Positive Education Can Energise Your School and This is Education call for a fundamental rethinking of what schools are for and what leadership in education demands in the context of global ecological and social transformation. She has worked with education ministries, school systems, and leadership bodies across more than 40 countries.

Hannon's contribution is in keeping the long-view in front of education leaders who are understandably absorbed by immediate pressures. She provides a framework for thinking about education leadership that is simultaneously global in scope and locally applicable.

Jonno White, author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000 copies sold), delivers keynotes and Working Genius facilitation for education leadership teams. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

46. Professor Toby Salt

Professor Toby Salt is Chair of the Trust Board of United Learning, one of England's largest school groups, and a former CEO of Ormiston Academies Trust. His experience across both primary and secondary phases, and at both institutional and system levels, makes him one of the most experienced voices on trust governance and long-term school improvement.

Salt's contribution is specifically in governance, and particularly in arguing that strong school trust governance requires board members who bring both rigour and genuine strategic knowledge of education to their roles. For any trust board seeking to strengthen its governance culture, his experience provides directly relevant insight.

47. Professor Dylan Wiliam

Professor Dylan Wiliam is Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at UCL Institute of Education and one of the most influential education researchers in the world. His 1998 research synthesis on formative assessment, Inside the Black Box, co-authored with Paul Black, established the foundations of assessment for learning as a field and has sold over 100,000 copies. His later solo work Embedded Formative Assessment provided school leaders with a rigorous, evidence-based framework for teacher development starting from what research shows actually changes classroom practice.

Wiliam's frameworks for teacher-led professional development, including his Teacher Learning Communities model, provide school leaders with a structured approach to CPD that is grounded in formative assessment principles. His argument that the most powerful lever for school improvement is the quality of teacher professional learning rather than any curriculum or structural reform is directly relevant for any trust CEO or headteacher making investment decisions about how to develop their staff.

48. Professor Helen Gunter

Professor Helen Gunter is Professor of Educational Policy at the University of Manchester and one of the UK's leading critical education policy scholars. Her work on knowledge production in educational administration and leadership challenges how the field understands its own intellectual foundations. Her book An Intellectual History of School Leadership Practice and Research, co-authored with colleagues from BELMAS, is among the most rigorous explorations of how educational leadership as a discipline has developed in England over the past century.

Gunter's specific contribution is in providing a critical framework for understanding why certain leadership ideas dominate the policy landscape and others do not, and in particular how the relationship between government, consulting organisations, and leadership providers has shaped what good leadership is understood to mean.

49. Kiran Gill

Kiran Gill is founder of The Difference, an organisation that trains school leaders to support the most vulnerable pupils in the school system, and one of the most credible practical voices on educational inclusion and the leadership response to pupil exclusion. The Difference's Inclusion Leaders training programme has worked with hundreds of school leaders to build the specific skills needed to keep vulnerable young people in school and thriving.

Gill's contribution is in making the inclusion leadership conversation concrete and evidence-grounded. She does not simply argue for inclusion as a value but provides specific tools, frameworks, and case studies for leaders navigating the daily trade-offs between inclusion and other institutional pressures.

50. Dr Clare Sealy

Dr Clare Sealy is a former primary headteacher, education consultant, and author whose work on knowledge-rich curriculum in primary schools has been widely influential across England. She is co-editor of The ResearchED Guide to The Curriculum and has written extensively on how cognitive science principles can be applied to primary school curriculum design and leadership.

Sealy's work has influenced how many primary headteachers understand the relationship between curriculum design, knowledge building, and social justice. For any primary school leader reviewing their curriculum or any trust CPD lead seeking to develop teachers' curriculum thinking, her writing is among the most practically grounded and intellectually rigorous available in the UK.

For related insights on building high-performing school leadership teams, see our guide to Working Genius facilitation for education teams.

A Comparison of UK Education Leadership Thought Leader Categories

Category	Focus	Most Useful For
Educational Research and Academia	Evidence, theory, and frameworks	CPD designers, trust leaders, policy professionals
School and System Practitioners	School culture, coaching, leadership identity	Headteachers, aspiring leaders, deputies
MAT and Trust Leadership	Governance, scale, accountability, civic mission	CEOs, trust boards, system leaders
Further Education and Skills	FE policy, college leadership, skills reform	Principals, governors, 16-19 leaders
Higher Education Leadership	Financial sustainability, regulation, governance	VCs, registrars, HE governors
Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity	Race, gender, disability, LGBTQ+ representation	All leaders committed to equitable practice
Policy, Evidence, and Futures	Accountability, CPD reform, AI, curriculum	All leaders engaging with the policy environment

Notable Voices We Almost Included

Several voices were seriously considered but did not make the final 50. Tom Sherrington, Mary Myatt, Tom Bennett OBE, and other state school curriculum and pedagogy voices are profiled in depth in the companion post 50 Essential UK State School Thought Leaders (2026). Readers interested specifically in the school sector would benefit from reading both posts together.

Professor Tony Bush, whose international comparative work on educational leadership has produced some of the most cited research in the field, and Adam Riches, whose coaching work with headteachers is gaining considerable recognition, were also close contenders. Several of the most prominent global education leadership voices were deliberately set aside to surface fresher and more sector-specific UK voices.

What Are the Common Mistakes Education Leaders Make When Choosing Whose Thinking to Follow?

The first mistake is treating all thought leaders as equally relevant regardless of context. A professor of higher education policy and a primary school headteacher are both education thought leaders, but they are addressing fundamentally different contexts, challenges, and audiences. The most useful professional learning happens when leaders are deliberate about matching the voice they follow to the challenge they are navigating.

The second mistake is following voices who confirm existing beliefs rather than challenging them. The thought leaders who produce the most professional growth are typically those who make you uncomfortable, who name the assumptions you have been making without realising it, or who apply evidence to questions you thought you already understood.

The third mistake is looking for certainty in a context where the evidence is genuinely contested. UK education leadership research does not produce consensus the way that medical research does. Thoughtful people with access to the same evidence reach genuinely different conclusions about what good leadership requires.

The fourth mistake is ignoring the research base entirely. The practitioner voices who are most credible, including many on this list, are those who have engaged seriously with what research says rather than relying solely on personal experience.

The fifth mistake is consuming thought leadership passively. The leaders who derive the most value from the people on this list are those who engage: who comment on posts, who ask questions at conferences, who bring ideas back to their leadership teams and test them, and who eventually develop and share their own thinking.

How Do Education Leaders Build a Practical Learning Practice?

Building a deliberate professional reading and learning practice as an education leader is one of the highest-return investments you can make in your own effectiveness. Start by identifying the three categories on this list most relevant to your current role and challenges. If you are a secondary headteacher in an MAT, the MAT and Trust Leadership category and the Policy, Evidence and Future category are likely to be most immediately relevant. If you are a further education principal, the FE and Skills Leadership category provides the most sector-specific voices.

Second, build a simple following system on LinkedIn. Follow each of the people you identify as most relevant, and adjust your LinkedIn feed settings to show more content from those accounts. Most of the voices on this list are active on LinkedIn, and a deliberately curated professional feed will surface their thinking automatically.

Third, identify one book from this list to read in the next two months. Not a shelf of books: one book, read actively with a notebook open, that connects directly to a current leadership challenge you are navigating. Munby's Imperfect Leadership, Freedman's Failed State, and Buck's Leadership Matters 3.0 are all accessible starting points, each addressing a different dimension of education leadership with rigour and practical relevance.

Fourth, attend one sector event where voices from this list are speaking. Whether that is the ASCL Annual Conference, the CST CEO Summit, the AoC Annual Conference, the Festival of Education, or a researchED event, in-person engagement with these voices creates a different quality of learning than passive reading.

If you lead a school, trust, or education organisation and want structured support turning the ideas in this directory into leadership culture and practice, Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator and author of Step Up or Step Out with over 10,000 copies sold, works with education leadership teams globally. Email jonno@consultclarity.org to discuss your team's needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between education leadership thought leaders and education influencers?

Education influencers are typically defined by their social media reach and engagement. Education leadership thought leaders, as defined in this directory, are distinguished by the depth and originality of their contribution to how leadership in education is understood and practised. Many of the people on this list have significant social media followings, but their inclusion here is based on their substantive contribution to leadership thinking, not on follower counts alone. Some of the most important voices have modest social media presences but have produced the foundational work on which the entire field rests.

Who are the most influential education leadership voices in the UK right now?

The answer depends significantly on which sector you are asking about and what kind of influence you mean. In school and MAT leadership, Leora Cruddas CBE, Sam Freedman, Professor Becky Francis CBE, Tom Rees, and Dame Alison Peacock are among the most frequently cited voices in 2026. In further education, David Hughes CBE is the most prominent advocacy voice. In higher education, Nick Hillman OBE and Professor Edward Peck CBE are among the most consequential. In educational leadership research, Professor Toby Greany and Professor Dylan Wiliam have produced the work most frequently cited by practitioners and policymakers alike.

How was this list compiled?

Every person on this list was selected on three criteria: documented contribution to education leadership through published research, practice, or policy influence; current activity in 2025 or 2026; and deliberate representation of the full range of UK education contexts. The list was built to represent school, MAT, further education, higher education, research, policy, and leadership equity perspectives. It does not claim to be exhaustive. There are many more excellent voices in UK education leadership than can fit in 50 entries.

Can I hire someone to help my education leadership team work better together?

Yes. Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator and author of Step Up or Step Out, delivers team facilitation sessions using Working Genius, DISC, and StrengthsFinder for school, trust, further education, and higher education leadership teams globally. Jonno works with education leadership teams around the world. To discuss your team's needs, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

What are the best conferences for UK education leaders in 2026?

The most important conferences for cross-sector education leadership include the Festival of Education at Wellington College (July 2026), the ASCL Annual Conference, the CST Annual Conference and CEO Summit, the AoC Annual Conference for further education, the Inspiring Leadership Conference for school leaders, researchED events for evidence-informed practice, and Advance HE's Teaching and Learning Conference for higher education leaders.

What are the biggest challenges facing UK education leadership in 2026?

Across all sectors, the dominant challenges are workforce sustainability, financial pressure, and the implementation of significant structural reform simultaneously. In schools, implementing the Curriculum and Assessment Review recommendations, navigating the Ofsted report card transition, and managing SEND demand under severe resource constraint are the most immediate pressures. In further education, the split of skills policy across two government departments, the transition from BTECs to V Levels, and college financial sustainability are defining challenges. In higher education, the financial model of many institutions has come under existential pressure, and the governance and leadership challenges associated with managing decline or transformation at scale are unlike anything the sector has previously faced.

Final Thoughts

The 50 people profiled in this directory represent a genuine cross-section of UK education leadership thinking in 2026. From researchers at UCL and Nottingham who are building the evidence base that should inform practice, to FE principals navigating a sector that rarely gets the national attention it deserves, to higher education leaders dealing with the most significant financial stress in a generation, these are the voices that will help you think more clearly, act more confidently, and lead more effectively.

No single directory can capture every important voice in a system as large and complex as UK education. But if you work through this list deliberately, selecting the voices most relevant to your current role and challenges, you will find more than enough to sustain a rigorous professional learning practice for years.

For education leaders who want structured support turning ideas into team culture and leadership practice, Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator, author of Step Up or Step Out with over 10,000 copies sold, and host of The Leadership Conversations Podcast reaching listeners in over 150 countries, works with education leadership teams globally. Whether your team needs a keynote, a Working Genius workshop, or an executive team offsite, reach out to jonno@consultclarity.org to start a conversation. International travel is often far more affordable than organisations expect.

To learn more about other areas of educational leadership, see our post 35 Essential Thought Leaders in University Leadership.

About the Author

Jonno White is a leadership consultant, keynote speaker, and Certified Working Genius Facilitator, and the author of Step Up or Step Out. Through Consult Clarity he works with corporates, nonprofits and schools around the world. His book Step Up or Step Out has sold over 10,000 copies, and his podcast The Leadership Conversations has featured 230 episodes reaching listeners in over 150 countries. Learn more at consultclarity.org/about or connect on LinkedIn.

Next Read: 50 Essential UK State School Thought Leaders (2026)

The United Kingdom's state school system educates roughly 93 per cent of all children in England, yet the thought leaders shaping its future remain surprisingly difficult to identify in one place. If you are a headteacher, deputy head, MAT CEO, or school governor searching for the voices that will genuinely sharpen your thinking in 2026, our companion directory is for you.

Keep reading: consultclarity.org/post/uk-state-school-thought-leaders

Sources

Education Policy Institute, "The Influence of Headteachers on Their Schools," October 2023: epi.org.uk/publications-and-research/the-influence-of-headteachers-on-their-schools/

UCL Institute of Education, "UCL Institute of Education is world-leading for Education for 13th year," March 2026: ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2026/mar/ucl-institute-education-world-leading-education-13th-year