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Meet the Team

We have a full team dedicated to helping you.
Remember all phone and email support is free throughout the process.

Our Team

We’d like to introduce you to our CEO and the Senior Team of IQM.
Each of them is available to support you throughout your journey to achieving the Inclusive School Award.

Joe McCann

Chief Executive Officer

Joe McCann has led IQM since its inception in 2004.

In the early days Joe was heavily involved in the development and strategic management of the first phase of the IQM Inclusive School Award. He worked closely with the pilot schools going through the process and developed the type of support which schools required to achieve the Inclusive School Award.

At IQM Joe has built a very strong team of committed professionals who believe passionately in educational inclusion. He also developed the original award into a suite of awards which are more challenging for those schools who wish to push further in their inclusion journey.

Since 2004 Joe has grown the network of schools to the significant numbers which now hold the Inclusive School Award, Centre of Excellence status or Flagship School status.

During his teaching career Joe worked both as a teacher and senior leader. He has been involved with high achieving schools as well as those in Special Measures.  Joe gained the National Professional Qualification for Headteachers (NPQH) in 2004.

Joe has also worked as an educational consultant providing bespoke courses for teachers across the UK. He has delivered training in England, Ireland, Egypt, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Kuala Lumpur on the importance of an inclusive education.

Eilish McCann

Director of Education and Projects

Eilish McCann has been with IQM since 2009. She has been a pivotal part of the growth of the company which has seen sales grow year-on-year.

Eilish has spent time working in all aspects of the business and has been instrumental in ensuring the organisation is as efficient as possible. She continues to work within this remit using and developing bespoke technologies and systems to make things as efficient and as effective as possible.

Eilish manages the considerable team of assessors and ambassadors dotted throughout the UK ensuring where there is a need for additional assessors in a particular phase or geographical area, that new assessors are trained promptly to ensure there is sufficient capacity within the system to meet the expected demand. This has become even more important as more and more Academy Trusts, Federations and Local Authorities have chosen to undertake the Inclusive School Award.

Eilish’s teaching career spanned secondary schools in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Hertfordshire before moving on to a very large college of Further Education in Wiltshire where she led a large team of professionals in the Business, Law, Economics and Accounting Faculty.  She has taught at GCSE level but more extensively at A Level in both academic and vocational subjects.

Eilish has delivered a variety of training courses to teachers across the UK and in the Middle East on a wide range of topics but specialising in inclusive education, helping leaders to properly understand how to audit their current practices and coaching them on how best to move their schools forward – including the steps they need to take in their inclusion journeys using current thinking and best practice, resources etc.

Emily Carr

Executive Lead for School Improvement

Emily Carr started her career as a primary teacher, working in mainstream schools before becoming a leader in a number of Pupil Referral Units, across the North East.

She was quickly recognised for her leadership ability and secured a position as headteacher of a Teesside PRU. For over six years, Emily led the school in successfully achieving several sought after, national accolades including the IQM Flagship award; the Leeds Carnegie Mental Health Award at Gold standard and the SMSC Gold standard award.

Emily’s experience, at both primary and secondary stages, gave her an insight into what is successful at all age groups and a strong understanding of transition between key stages. Her passion and drive has always been to improve the life chances of disengaged and disaffected learners by supporting them to develop academically, socially and emotionally.

Through her success, she has been sought out by other educational establishments to provide school improvement and development, and now enjoys working across a number of settings providing both strategic and operational support. She is passionate about supporting educational provisions and is a secondary school governor and a Chair of Governors of a primary school.

With over 15 years’ experience of working in AP, PRUs, Specialist provisions and mainstream schools, Emily is in the strongest position to be able to offer consultancy and leadership support to schools and settings that have the ambition to be outstanding, and the commitment to make a positive impact on vulnerable children and their families.

Sarah Linari

Executive Lead for School Improvement

Sarah Linari is a dynamic and strategic leader with a wide expertise of inclusion, notably through her different leadership roles. As Deputy Headteacher responsible for Inclusion at a successful Secondary School in Tameside, Sarah has enjoyed many accolades, including more recently being awarded the IQM Flagship School Status.

She graduated from the University of Sheffield with a BA in Hispanic Studies and went on to complete her PGCE in 2006. She speaks Spanish, French, Italian and Catalan and taught English in a Spanish secondary school for one year.

Sarah achieved her first leadership role during her NQT year when she was successfully promoted to Head of Department. During successive leadership roles at Assistant Headteacher level, Sarah gained substantial experience of whole school leadership across all aspects of school improvement (progress and outcomes, inclusion, teaching and learning, safeguarding, behaviour and rewards, CEIAG, disadvantaged students, SEND provision, more able students, staff appraisal and CPD).

She was successfully selected for the Future Leaders Programme in 2012 and went on a study visit to New York to experience the American Charter Schools, with a focus on improving provision and outcomes for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

In 2015, Sarah completed the Serco Ofsted Training which has supported her own school’s evaluating, monitoring and improvement planning, it enabled her to carry out internal and external reviews (across all Ofsted categories) and offer support at other Secondary Schools.

Kevin O'Neill

Executive Lead for School Improvement

Over a 21 year career Kevin O’Neill has worked in schools in Manchester, Dubai, Auckland, Leeds and in Northern Ireland. He is a former Headteacher and has led inclusive schools in the IQM way for over a decade.

Kevin is a former Microsoft Teacher of The Year and schools he has led have twice been the recipient of prestigious TES Awards.

Kevin has worked as an Associate Schools Inspector, is a member Associate of Education Advisors and holds a Masters in Catholic Schools Leadership.

Kevin is an eTwinning Ambassador for the British Council and remains passionate about connecting schools across the world through Global Learning projects.

Kevin thrives on confirming and challenging educators’ thoughts about what’s possible in the world of teaching and learning. More than anything, he is a teacher at heart, with a wealth of experience teaching learners of all ages.

Take the First Step Towards the Inclusive School Award