Webinar: Leading the Way Back: Empowering School Leaders for a New Year by GESS Education

Leading the Way Back: Empowering School Leaders for a New Year

About

As school leaders gear up for the start of a new academic year, many are navigating new roles, welcoming fresh team members, and launching staff induction programmes—all while balancing the excitement of a new beginning with the pressures that come with it. This discussion will explore the realities school leaders face at this pivotal time of year: the pros and cons of stepping into leadership roles, the challenges of building effective teams, and the strategies used to support new staff. We’ll also delve into the pressing questions that keep leaders awake at night—from school culture to staffing and student outcomes. Join us for an honest, practical conversation about what it really means to lead at the start of the school year.

When

Wednesday, September 24, 2025 · 13:00 London (GMT +1:00)

Presenters

GESS Education

Dr Helen Wright

Director of Global Thought Leadership

Dr Helen Wright is a highly regarded global leader with an energetic career spanning 3 decades in UK and international education. She led schools and held national and international roles in education in the UK and Australia for over 13 years until 2014, before embarking on an independent portfolio career in leadership recruitment, executive coaching and governance advisory.

As a highly regarded International Education Advisor, with a warm yet determinedly incisive style, she challenges and coaches educational and other leaders globally to think and act ambitiously. She holds several Board Director roles, and she recruits international school leaders as an Associate of LSC Education. She currently works with schools, leaders and companies in countries including the UAE, China, India, Europe and the UK.

Gwen Byrom

Director of Education Strategy, North London Collegiate School International

Gwen has wealth of educational experience after almost 30 years of teaching and leading in boarding and day, single sex and co-educational, maintained and independent schools in the UK. She has led teams in some of the UK’s most prestigious schools, including Roedean School and The Cheltenham Ladies’ College. From 2011-2018, Gwen led Loughborough High School, a girls’ school in the UK East Midlands. She was President of the Girls’ Schools Association in 2018, representing some of the UK’s best single-sex schools nationally and internationally. Since September 2019 has been the Director of Education Strategy for North London Collegiate School International, responsible for supporting the development of new projects and all aspects of education in the NLCS international group of schools.

Claire Evans

Chief Learning Officer, School of Humanity

Claire’s work helps to build a global community of young changemakers by combining creativity, collaboration and cultural competence to enhance youth innovation around the world.

Seeing learners and educators thrive, driven by a love of learning and the desire to better the world - this is Claire’s goal. Fascinated by innovations in education around the world, Claire is an active player in the international, progressive pedagogy movement. She seeks to provide the conditions in which both learners and educators can perform at their best. With experience working in the UK, Belgium, Chile and globally online, in many educational contexts, she aims to help learners and educators develop their talents and interests, while channelling their creativity, inspiring them to search for solutions to real-world problems, overcoming failure and frustration, to design, build and innovate, which, in turn, helps them to become agents of change in their communities and the world.

As part of the School of Humanity leadership team, Claire is involved in the design and implementation of new, innovative and interdisciplinary high school learning methodologies and approaches. As Chief Learning Officer she oversees learning implementation and the accreditation process.

As President of the Board of Directors for Invent Future Global, Claire is committed to supporting innovative educators from around the world, creating a community of practice and providing global challenges for their learners to participate in.

Edward Pearce

Director, Fairgreen International School

Mr Edward Pearce joined Fairgreen as a School Director in August 2022. Mr Pearce has held various leadership positions within a diverse portfolio of high performing international schools over a period of 20 years. These spanned over six countries in four continents including Australia, United Kingdom, UAE, Malaysia, China and with the most recent position being Head of School at Nord Anglia’s The British International School Chicago, Lincoln Park in the United States.

Mr Pearce is originally from Australia and is currently completing a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with the University of Cumbria (UK), in conjunction with Robert Kennedy College, Switzerland. He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Education and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Environmental Management from University of Western Sydney. He is also a fully accredited lead school inspector and trainer under the British Schools Overseas inspection framework. Mr Pearce works to actively build teams committed to delivering outstanding learning experiences for students. He strongly believes in the powerful and productive relationship between schools and the families they serve. He has a strong track record in fostering community among families in the schools he has led.

Mr. Pearce enjoys spending time with his wife and children in the great outdoors, as well as exploring different cultures across the globe. In his spare time, Mr. Pearce is a keen sportsman, with a particular fondness for golf and rugby.

Kamil Majeed

CEO & Executive Principal, Nordic International School

Kamil Majeed is an award-winning global education leader and a high-performance coach, with diverse experience in school leadership, education policy, international development, and corporate training. He is the CEO and Principal of Nordic International School, Lahore - Pakistan’s first Swedish school, recently shortlisted among the Top 10 schools globally for the World’s Best School Prize 2025 in Community Collaboration. Kamil is also the Co-founder and High-Performance Coach at The Life Clan, where he designs and delivers transformative training programs on emotional intelligence and a culture of high performance.
Kamil holds a place on the Dean’s Honour List as an Accounting and Finance graduate from LUMS. He earned his MBA with Honours from Sabancı University, Turkey, and went on to complete a Master’s in Education and International Development from the UCL Institute of Education, London, as a Commonwealth Scholar. He is further certified in Leadership and Policymaking from the Møller Institute at Churchill College, University of Cambridge.
Kamil is one of the 50 Future Leaders from 11 countries who were selected for the British Council Future Leaders Connect Program in 2017. He was named Best Educator of the Year at the GESS Awards Dubai 2022, and won the Positive Change in Education Award in 2024. He previously served as the UN Global Compact Coordinator for Lahore, advancing the SDGs in Pakistan.

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