Management committee

Biographies

Jim Dunbar
Chair, IDES Management Committee; Principal Teacher of Chemistry, Monifieth High School

Jim has been teaching for 15 years and is currently Principal Teacher of Chemistry at Monifieth High School. He was formerly APT Science at Morgan Academy in Dundee after a five-year spell as a chemistry teacher at Montrose Academy. Prior to entering the profession, he was a biochemist with the NHS. He has always had a keen professional interest in the relevance of education to a changing world. This was the main thrust of his research thesis during his studies for a Master of Education Degree at Dundee University. He spent a two-year secondment from 2000 - 2002 as an education development officer with Angus Council, having responsibility for Education for Work and Enterprise.

Yvonne Dewhurst
Lecturer in Home Economics and Health Education, University of Aberdeen

Yvonne has been working in initial teacher education for 12 years delivering to Post Graduate Secondary, Post Graduate Primary and BEd Hons students. She works regularly with local authorities in Scotland on staff development, most recently the 5-14 initiative. Particular interests include assessment, differentiation, nutrition and dietetics. She is currently Director of the Scotland Branch of the Institute of Consumer Sciences.

Lesley O'Brien
Teacher, Denbeath Primary School, Fife

Lesley has been teaching for 6 years at Denbeath Primary School. Since graduating, Lesley has developed a strong sense of the importance of teachers’ continuing professional development and its role in encouraging innovation and creativity in the profession. She has had many opportunities to undertake action research in class through completing her PGCE at Dundee University. This research led to a real enthusiasm for teaching for thinking and learning and in particular the area of Formative Assessment and its role in enabling children to become Successful Learners. Lesley is currently seconded one day a week as a Personal Learning Planning development officer in Fife.

Iain Lilly

Iain has significant business to business experience gained with large multi-nationals as well as international consulting experience where he was responsible for managing companywide change programmes involving re-structuring, strategic development and implementation of business systems. Moreover, Iain has set up and successfully run 2 of his own businesses, has won a national business award and is currently in the process of completing a Doctorate in Business Administration which has focused upon examining the constraints to implementing Creativity in Primary and Secondary schools. Iain is also an Affiliate with DestinationImagiNation, an international charity with 20 years experience designing creative learning opportunities for school children ranging from 5 - 21 years.

Moreen Smith
Fellow in Enterprising Education, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow

Moreen is currently Fellow in Enterprise Education with the University of Strathclyde where she is developing a document on 'The Enterprising School – which will aim to encourage development of skills and attitudes that will ensue a 'can do' attitude in well-rounded young people, who are motivated to be responsible citizens, employers / employees / and entrepreneurs and lifelong learners, to ensure the future success of our society locally, nationally and globally. She is seconded from Careers Scotland where she developed and supported Enterprise Education initiatives within the secondary school sector through the Schools Enterprise Programme. She is an experienced secondary teacher, having taught for several years in both Scotland (Head of Department) and Canada. She has also spend 8 years running her own training company which involved designing and co-ordinating training programme and staff development within the tourism industry. 

Colin McAndrew
Treasurer, the IDES Network;Professional Adviser, Learning and Teaching Scotland

Colin entered primary school teaching and worked in various schools in Ross & Cromarty from 1972-90, including 15 years as Headteacher, Plockton Primary School in SW Ross. He was seconded to HMI in 1988-90 as National Primary Development Officer and then joined the staff of Scottish CCC and subsequently LT Scotland. He has worked on a wide range of national educational developments and initiatives and for six years 1994-2000 acted as Programme Director for the SCCC-held Secretariat of the Consortium of Institutions for Development and Research in Education in Europe (CIDREE). He led the review of ICT to develop 5-14 National Guidelines and worked with colleagues to produce Education for Citizenship in Scotland. He is currently secretary of the Advisory Council of LTS and is involved in a number of national policy initiatives. He works with Alan Armstrong, Director of Education Improvement at Learning and Teaching Scotland.

Fiona Ormiston
Coordinator, the IDES Network; consultant

Fiona works for a number of organisations, coordinating networks and managing events and seminars. Previously she was Programme Coordinator for the Higher Still Development Programme (1994-2001), where she was a member of the management team and amongst other areas was responsible for the organisation of staff development seminars across Scotland. She has also worked for BP (1986-1994) and supported activities in education and community affairs including the BP Schools Link scheme. Her early links with IDES go back to 1990, when she was briefly seconded from BP to organise one of the first IDES international conferences in Edinburgh. She is a home economist.