Coaching

We are proud to support colleagues from our BAMEed community with coaching opportunities. We have fully trained coaches to support you on your journey as a teacher or educator.

Pro-bono coaching

We offer pro-bono coaching support for new and experienced teachers, and school leaders to support with teaching practice and career progression. If you are in a position to support us to connect, enable and showcase the talent of diverse educators so they may inspire future generations, please consider making a donation.

Who is the coaching for?

We offer pro-bono coaching support for newly qualified teachers, early careers teachers, teachers and school leaders who are in need of support, whether it is with your teaching and learning, your career aspirations, or present or future leadership.

BAMEed coaches offer 3 pro-bono sessions, however, if you would like to continue on your journey, you can make individual arrangements with your coaches after the 3 pro-bono sessions. It is up to each coach’s discretion on how this aspect of your support will move forward.

How can I access pro-bono coaching?

If you would like to be supported by one of our coaches, please get in touch with us: bameed@outlook.com

We’ll connect you with our coaching team and connect you to get started.

If you would like to become a coach and receive training and supervision, please scroll to the bottom of this page where there is further information.

Meet our trained coaches

Albert Adeyemi

Albert is a PE & Maths Teacher currently working in Bedfordshire. Albert founded BAME:WeTeach to promote diversity and inclusion within education for staff and students. In addition to this Albert is working towards an MA Education degree. Albert enjoys engaging in research opportunities related to their interests; behaviour/pastoral, equity in education, mentoring in schools.

Aletha Saunders

Aletha is a Head Teacher with over 12 years in Primary Education and leadership. As part of her Masters in Education Leadership, she has completed the CMI Level 7 Certificate in Leadership, Coaching and Mentoring and CMI Level 7 Certificate in Strategic Management and Leadership.

Aletha has a keen interest in developing future leaders through using coaching and mentoring as a cognitive skill to advance their professional development and careers. She is an advocate for Early Career Teachers currently working with BAME colleagues to support them at the start of their careers in becoming confident and effective teachers. Aletha’s passion for enabling the success of others is what encourages her to continue to enhance her own practice and find new ways of connecting people within a supportive and collegial community.

Aletha Saunders

Amanda works as a headteacher in a primary school in south London and has over 20 years’ worth of experience in education and leadership. Amanda has a particular interest in leadership development and using coaching as a means to develop teachers to become more effective educators.

Catherine Willis

Catherine is passionate about the transformative power of coaching and its profound impact on our relationships with ourselves and others. She believes coaching should be accessible to everyone and should focus on the whole person. For Catherine, coaching is a partnership that empowers individuals and drives personal fulfilment.

Coaching is central to Catherine’s role as a teacher educator for Teach First, where she oversees the training and development of trainee teachers, Early Career Teachers (ECTs), and school-based mentors, helping them thrive in the classroom and beyond.

Previously, Catherine held leadership roles within schools and used coaching in her capacity as a primary phase and math specialist to coach individuals at different stages of their career journey, from novice teachers through to senior leaders. She’s had the privilege of working with individuals in education as well as various other sectors (both commercial and non-commercial) in areas such as career progression, eading change and project management, well-being and self-perception, developing confidence and managing conflict.

Catherine holds an MA in Education and a Level 5 coaching qualification. As an accredited coach with the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) at Practitioner Level, she is committed to her own learning and development.

Donaleen Johnson

Donaleen is an educator with over 30 years of experience, a Quality Assurance Manager, and currently works, as a Lead Mentor at The University of East London while studying for her Masters in Leadership in Education. She is a freelance Youth Operational Manager and a school governor since 2017

Donaleen is the CEO of Upcycle Books which is a non-profitable voluntary initiative, which prides itself on being the first distributor in Europe, to ship donated educational books to developing schools in the Caribbean. She also has an online educational platform #encourageyoungreaders, promoting Reading, Language, and Literacy.

Donaleen is passionate to improve the educational attainment of under-representative children. Her key philosophy is – The power of making sacrifices today, will set the pace for tomorrow.

Elizabeth Olulari

Elizabeth is a passionate coach dedicated to helping educators and leaders across the UK and Africa unlock their full potential and drive meaningful change. With two decades of experience in education, Elizabeth has honed her skills in guiding newly qualified teachers, early career educators, and school leaders to excel in their roles. As the National Education Lead for Racial Justice at the Church of England Education Office and the founder of TECALS – Tehilah Transformative Education Consultant and Learning Solutions, she combines her deep expertise with a commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and justice (EDIJ).

Elizabeth’s journey in education is fueled by a transformative commitment to social justice, ignited by the murder of George Floyd. She works with clients not just to overcome professional challenges but to grow as leaders who embody cultural competence, sensitivity, and humility. Elizabeth’s coaching style is warm, approachable, and deeply rooted in the belief that everyone, especially those from historically marginalized communities, deserves to flourish. She’s particularly passionate about supporting female leaders and empowering working mums to thrive in their careers and beyond.

Outside of coaching, Elizabeth’s impact extends further—she’s a Director of a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT), a board member of a leading publishing company, and an accomplished author and editor of science textbooks. Her work is all about building bridges—across cultures, communities, and continents—to create a more inclusive and equitable world.

Geraldine Douglas

Geraldine is a Uni Connect Outreach Hub Coordinator, which involves collaborating with schools, higher education institutions, local authorities and other organisations to create opportunities to widen participation to higher education. Formerly working with mature learners as an Access to Higher Education Diploma Programme Coordinator, Geraldine has experience supporting disadvantaged learners but also supporting staff and trainee teachers in further education.

Driven by her own understanding of the impact that academia has, and continues to have on her life, she has a passion for improving leadership capacity in underrepresented groups. Subsequently as a sessional lecturer in higher education, she has been able to combine her experiences and lecture on coaching and mentoring in education and research.

Joe Withey

Joe is a Curriculum Manager within the Further Education Sector, with multiple years of experience prior to this role as a teaching and learning coach.

Joe’s drive for facilitating the success of individuals within their environment is what encourages him to continually strive to enhance his own practice, and more importantly educate other practitioners on the principles of coaching and mentoring to promote its potential for positive change. Alongside his professional responsibilities, he is currently completing a doctorate researching the impacts of coaching on workplace wellbeing and lecturing coaching and mentoring on the masters in education programme within the higher education sector.

Joylene Cole-Davis

Joylene is a primary teacher with over twenty years in the education sector. She is a former secondary teacher and has completed her Master’s degree in International Law as well her Master’s in Education Leadership. In addition, Joylene has completed leadership training as part of the Excellence Leadership Programme organised by the Department of Education’s Equality and Diversity in Leadership Scheme and the National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) which focuses upon developing BAME teachers with the potential to becoming exceptional school leaders. She is a certified Chartered Management Institute (CMI) coach and have completed Stage 3 coach training with BAMEed. Joylene shows keen interest in current education initiative and research and is a member of the British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society (BELMAS) and the British Education and Research Association (BERA).

Joylene is a very experienced mentor and coach and enjoys using her skills to provide the tools and strategies needed to support others in progressing in their career as well as creating meaningful change in their lives. She uses her expertise to coach individuals and teams as well as conduct coach training within her organisation. Joylene is passionate about personal development and human transformation and she shares this passion with others as she believes that good leadership involves encouraging others to grow into leaders themselves. She encourages others to grow as people and enjoys working alongside and guiding others to provide outstanding coaching results.

Julia Skinner

Julia is a retired primary headteacher based in Bristol. Since leaving headship she has founded the 100 Word Challenge which is an online writing project for young people under 16. It is hugely popular across the world with around 400 entries each week.

Alongside this, Julia is very involved in school governance becoming a Leader of Governance and a consultant for the National Governors Association. She has supported schools across all phases and worked with maintained schools as well as academy trusts.

Her interest in coaching and mentoring stems from both her headships and work with school leaders as she has found that the opportunity for self-reflection, as well as time to review options, provides an often needed safe space for leadership to flourish. Her Listening Ear sessions offered during the pandemic were taken up by over 70 educationalists some of whom have continued to work regularly with her.

Krupa Patel

Krupa is currently an Acting Headteacher in a secondary SEND setting. Prior to this she was an Assistant Head. She spent 10 years teaching Science in mainstream along with being Head of Year. She has completed her Masters in Restorative Practice, and loves a discussion on autonomy, meaningful learning for life and employability. Krupa has an interest in emotional intelligence and intrinsic motivation.

Layo Ogunlabi

Layo is an exemplary senior teacher with a wide-ranging experience at all levels of school management. She is passionate about science education and inclusion and is an outstanding role model for the children in her care and the colleagues in her team. With over 26 years’ experience working in London schools, Layo is proud of her track record in achieving remarkable results for primary age children of all abilities.

She is also a celebrated community volunteer, with over 10 years experience. In this role, Layo leads the work of solution-focused teams who consistently who achieve very good outcomes for young people and their parents. She fully embraces the power of volunteering as a tool that can be used to strategically enhance both the personal and professional skills of the individual.

As a coach, Layo has been thrilled to have the opportunity to use her skills for enabling others with their personal and professional development journeys, as well as embracing her own passion for lifelong learning. She is always searching for opportunities to expand her comfort zones and welcomes the chance to support fellow professionals in doing the same.

Lilian Martin

Lilian is a Teacher trainer at The University of Wales Trinity Saint David and a Post Doctorate researcher. She specialises in the Science and Technology Area of Learning with extensive experience teaching Chemistry at secondary school. Lilian is a core member of BAMEed Network Wales and a Diversity and Anti-Racist Professional Learning partner. Welsh Government funds her to research the implementation of Anti-racist practices in schools to fulfil the Welsh ambition to be anti-racist by 2030. Beyond work, Lilian is very self-actualised and constantly challenges herself, from physical multi-sport challenges to intellectual ones such as the post-doctorate. She looks forward to coaching you to reach your goals and dissolve your barriers.

Lizana Oberholzer

Lizana is a senior lecturer in teacher education and programme lead for the leadership in education MA at the Cass School of Education and Communities at the University of East London. She is passionate about teacher development and is the BERA special interest group convenor for teacher education in England, BELMAS research interest group convenor for governing and governance, BAMEed steer group member, WomenEd regional lead for London, CMI Women in Management steer group member, CMI fellow, Chartered College of Teaching Founding Fellow, principal fellow of the Higher Education Academy, CollectiveEd fellow, vice chair of the UCET CPD Forum, and MAT director. Lizana is the Chartered College of Teaching network lead at the University of East London, and led on the joint WomenEd and Chartered College of Teaching Early Career Teacher Annual Unconference. Lizana supports the IPDA annual conference as a co-chair of the conference committee and is a member of the IPDA England Committee.

Mohammed Saleem

Mohammed is currently a trainee teacher with a great ambition to nurture and improve the lives of young people by doing something that he loves.

Prior to teaching, Mohammed Saleem volunteered as a football coach and also as an assistant youth worker where he mentored vulnerable children and teenagers. These roles inspired him to join the Education sector.

Nazya Ghalib

Nazya is an experienced Senior Leader currently working as an Assistant Headteacher, responsible for Quality of Education. Nazya has extensive experience working in SEN schools and through their work, they have coached and mentored newly qualified teachers and middle leaders. Nazya’s passions lie in: supporting the work being done to change the narrative for those with SEN; staff development; and collaborative practice. They believe in empowering others and building communities to address social equity and inclusion.

Ray Lau

Ray is an experienced Educator and author with over 20 years of experience. Most recently, he completed being a Secondary Principal in Birmingham. Currently, Ray is studying for a PhD in Sports Coaching and Pedagogy at Loughborough University. He also works in a secondary school in Performing Arts (Music). Ray is an academic, holding Masters degrees, including an MBA in Leadership and Management, MTeach in Mentoring and Coaching and an MSc in Learning and Teaching from the University of Oxford, specialising in Swimming Teachers and Coaches training. For ten years, Ray acted as an accredited Ofsted Inspector in leading inspections, team member and mentor. He currently assesses, tutor, mentor/coach for the NPQ programmes. His expertise includes being accredited for MBTI and NLP Master Coach/Master Practitioner. Ray currently is a member of the BAME staff working party within the current university to help eradicate inequality and improve institutional awareness

Rebena Sanghera

Rebena is a Leadership and Management Facilitator and an education professional with over 20 years of experience. She is an Early Careers Advocate for the BCSWomen – Chartered Institute of IT and an Education Liaison. As a member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council, she is a dedicated coach, working with coachees to uncover their strengths and channel them towards their aspirations.

Tahra Nadeem

Tahra is an experienced educator who has gained expertise working in national and international settings. Tahra has insight into how education is constructed on a global scale which has been conducive to master the skills necessary to work within management and teaching teams. Leading inspections, evaluating schools have been an insightful part of the journey which have led to many avenues of interest in schools. Coaching and mentoring being one that has always formed an integral part of the pathway that has been one of the most rewarding in making a difference.

The journey has allowed Tahra to produce learning environments that are fun and high achieving, extending beyond the walls of the classroom. Focus being to produce learners that have 21st century skills that are a necessary for the challenges faced by the next generation. The holistic child to emerge who is open minded, ready to provide solutions.

Yvonne Davis

Yvonne FCCT (Fellow of Chartered College of Teaching) an Educationalist with over forty years’ experience in education. Her journey has been in the role of Early Years Leader, Headteacher in two different Primary Schools, Primary School Adviser and Ofsted Inspector. Yvonne wants to use her experience in mentoring and coaching to enable educators fulfill their potential. She is presently mentoring Brunel University students and local teachers.

Become a BAMEed Coach

What's involved in becoming a coach?

If you would like to join the BAMEed coaching team, please get in touch with us: bameed@outlook.com

You will be provided with training as follows. We require that you have some experience as a coach or mentor in education before joining our coaching programme. This experience is referred to as Stage 1 of your journey to join our team. We offer Stage 2 and 3 training, which normally takes place between 10.00 – 13.00 on a Saturday. Dates are published termly on our website and social media.

What does the training entail?

We outline the key principles of coaching, the range of models you can draw on, and how to engage with your mentee or coachee. We provide you with a detailed toolkit to ensure that you can fully support your mentee or coachee on their journey.

What support will be available to me?

Monthly BAMEed Coaching supervision sessions are provided to support BAMEed coaches with their practice. Colleagues are able to share practice, and also develop further on their journey.

As a coach, you are provided with the most up to date coaching practices, which are fully research informed, to enable you to continue to grow and develop to support others well.

We are a warm and welcoming group, and we are looking forward to working with you.

Future training dates for new coaches

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Future supervision dates for trained coaches

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