Our Team
Gareth Collier
Executive Director
Gareth is the Executive Director at High Performance Learning. As a passionate exponent of education in the UK and internationally, he is proud to be associated with High Performance Learning, the ground-breaking leader in helping schools attain excellence for all and now builds on the founding expertise of Deborah Eyre to lead the organisation into the next phase of its development.
Prof. Deborah Eyre
Founder
Deborah is the Founder of High Performance Learning. Her career has focused on helping students reach high levels of cognitive performance. She created the High Performance Learning organisation to engineer a system-change in educational thinking so that we start to accept that most people could be high performers and structure schools accordingly.
Lorraine Hunter
Chief Operating Officer
Lorraine is our Chief Operating Officer at High Performance Learning. Her main tasks focus on ensuring every element of HPL runs smoothly, and works with a number of our schools. She comes from a varied background having worked in differing industries with a wide knowledge of global business.
Melanie Saunders
Chief Education Advisor
Melanie joined HPL during its inception and worked alongside the first cohort of World Class School Award (WCSA) schools, beginning their HPL journey in 2016. She has been key in the evolution of the WCSA programme and coached several of the pioneer schools through to successful accreditation.
Amy Lilley-Stewart
Director of Professional Learning
Amy is the Director of Professional Learning at High Performance Learning where she works with the FGC schools and the FGC program. Amy has previously worked within universities and comes from a varied background working with multiple stakeholders.
Cassey Benito
Head of Programmes & Partnerships
Cassey is the Head of Programmes and Partnerships at High Performance Learning, where she works alongside our paid and supporting partner companies. Alongside this, Cassey works with our schools to deliver a strong and robust programme structure.
Brynn Cooper
International Director
Brynn is the International Director at High Performance Learning and is based in the Middle East, working with schools in region. Brynn used to teach and was the HPL Lead when he worked at GEMS Metropole.
Nishani Nanayakkara
Finance Manager
As a qualified accountant, Nishani has worked in various industries before transitioning into education and joining HPL, inspired by its vision. She now leads the finance department at HPL.
Stephanie Graham
Executive Assistant and Office Manager
Stephanie is the Executive Assistant to the CEO, and Office Manager at High Performance Learning. She comes from a varied background of industries and is passionate about supporting schools globally.
Rachel Coles
Marketing Manager
Rachel is our Marketing Manager at High Performance Learning. Having worked in marketing teams in international schools, and then moving to heading up marketing teams at educational companies, Rachel brings an immense passion to education.
Duncan Gowen
Associate Director
Duncan has recently retired from the position of principal of Day Waterman College, Ogun State, Nigeria. Duncan guided DWC through its two-year journey towards becoming an accredited HPL World Class School. Duncan is an HPL World Class School accreditor.
Jamie Lawler
Associate Director
Jamie specialises in schools in challenging circumstances and works with schools adopting HPL through the World Class School Award (WCSA) and the High Performing School Award (HPSA).
David Muir
Associate Director
David has worked as a school improvement consultant, focusing on inclusion, interim leadership roles, leadership and management reviews, mock inspections, and themed reviews. He has previously been contracted by The World Bank to develop national special needs standards for a Gulf state and held various school improvement and advisory roles in the Gulf region and UK. Currently he is working with High Performance Learning (UK) and several groups of schools to support their school improvement.
David Rowsell
Associate Director
David works primarily with international schools adopting HPL through the World Class School Award (WCSA). David adopted HPL in two of the schools where he was the principal. He is passionate about HPL because it foregrounds the idea that high performance is achievable by all, that education is about developing young people who are totally ready for change, college, career and citizenship and because it is based on a belief that we can trust our self-improving schools to be at the forefront of transformational change in outcomes for learners.
Become a World Class School
Start your journey if:
- You believe that #EveryoneCan
- We can systematically teach students how to be ‘intelligent’ and succeed in school and life
- You can develop the cognitive competencies associated with cognitive success and make them the DNA of our teaching
- You do not follow a one-size fits all approach