Professor Mick Waters

A former teacher and head teacher, he worked at a senior level in local authorities in Birmingham and Manchester as well as nationally as Director of Curriculum at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. He has worked in countries across the globe, either with national governments or directly with schools, to develop revised policy and practice. In particular, he has also worked closely with the Welsh Government, offering advice and support to the education reform agenda, including chairing the Independent Review of School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions for Welsh teachers, helping to produce new Professional Standards for Teaching and Leadership and for Assisting Teaching, and chairing a panel to produce recommendations about the way the system needs to amend habits, routines and traditions to enable more family friendly approaches for the modern age: ‘Schooling re-imagined’.

Mick believes that learning should be treasured and valued and that it needs to be shaped to fit with children’s lives as well as structured to help society meet the promise of the future. People in schools need to set understandings of their children alongside the learning they should meet to create learning that is irresistible and sets them well for their futures.

Mick believes in being close to teachers, children and schools, and is often to be found in the classroom working with children. He has written and contributed to many books on the curriculum, teaching and learning, and leadership, as well as making presentations at numerous national and international conferences. He is passionate about the role of education in improving life chances for pupils. As well as his patronage of Thoughtful, he is a Patron of Values-Based Education, which encourages schools to consider values in all they do, and of the Curriculum Foundation, which seeks to promote a voice for the power and potential of the whole curriculum. Mick supports the National Association for Environmental Education as a vice president and is also chair of CoEd which promotes compassionate education.