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and our new (slim-lined) website is at:
https://www.oxfordshireparentingforum.org/
PATRONS
Professor Sir Tim Brighouse
graduated from St Catherine’s College, Oxford, with a degree in history,
followed by two years’ training at
Norham Gardens. He began his career teaching in grammar and secondary modern schools,
becoming a deputy head at the age of 26. He later became Deputy in the ILEA and
was the Chief Education Officer in Oxfordshire for ten years. He went on to
become Professor of Education at Keele University, where he founded the Centre
for Successful Schools. He was Commissioner for London Schools from 2002-2007,
during which time he led the London Challenge. In 1996 he founded the University of the First Age, a Birmingham-based
national charity that enriches and extends learning opportunities for young
people aged 5-25. He was awarded an honorary degree from the Open
University as Doctor of the University in 1997, and an honorary degree from the
Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln as Doctor of the University
College in 2009. He was knighted in the 2009 New Year Honours. He is a Fellow
at Norham Gardens, where he lectures and researches on school improvement,
educational policy (especially affecting schools), teaching and learning. He is
also the author of several books. 
Dr John Coleman is a psychologist recognized for his pioneering work in the field of
adolescence. He graduated from McGill University in Montreal, completed a PhD
at University College, London, in 1966 and trained as a clinical psychologist at
Middlesex Hospital before taking up the post of Lecturer in Clinical Psychology
at the London Hospital Medical College in 1967. In 1983 he launched the
Sussex Youth Trust, which provides
accommodation for disturbed teenagers, and in 1989 he founded the Trust
for the Study of Adolescence (now Young People in Focus), where he was director
until his retirement in 2005. He was Policy Advisor at the Department of Health
from 2005-6, and is currently a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of
Education at Oxford University. He has written widely on the subject of children
and adolescence, his most recent publications being Why Won’t My Teenager
Talk to Me? (Routledge, 2014), which formed the basis for an OPF seminar in 2014.
Rosie Hill’s first step into the parenting world was as a struggling lone parent
with two children at primary school. The parenting class she attended then
changed her life and since then she has been committed to disseminating to the
wider community the valuable things she learned. For several years she ran
classes for parents through Community Education centres in Oxfordshire, then in
2000 she got a job as Parenting Officer for the Youth Offending Team and set up
the Oxfordshire Parent-Talk project to support parents of at-risk teenagers.
She developed and published the Take 3
parenting programme to meet the needs of this project and she now spends her
time training other professionals around the UK to use the Take 3 materials. She also works freelance as a
supervisor and trainer, and on a one-to-one basis with parents of teenagers.
Annette Mountford was the Chief Executive of
Family Links from 1997-2015. Before that she worked as a Health Visitor for
thirteen years, and then combined her experience in health, education and
parenthood to introduce the Nurturing Programme (NP) to the UK in 1992. The NP
promotes emotional literacy, and emotional and mental health. She has
led the Family Links team in adapting the Nurturing Programme (NP) to meet
national curriculum standards and in anglicising the NP for parent groups in
the community, for schools and prisons, with Muslim parents and for parents of
teenagers. She helped create the Parenting Puzzle book for parents.
Annette developed a national training programme for practitioners working with
parents and children in education, health and the community. She has written an
ante-natal NP which is now being rolled out nationally. She received an
MBE for her work in 2002.
TRUSTEES
Malcolm Fearn joined OPF in September 2015 and brings a wide range of experience in general management and as a Chair. He worked in the motor industry, holding senior management positions with Ford Motor Company, Godfrey Davis and the Hartwell Group. Since leaving the motor industry, Malcolm has chaired several organisations in both the voluntary and public sector. These include Oxford City Primary Care Trust, Thames Valley Probation and PACT - Parents and Children Together - a fostering and adoption charity. He has been a Rotarian for 40 years and is currently a member of Oxford Isis Rotary Club.
Tania McCowliff has been working with families
for the last ten years in her capacity as Home School Community Link worker,
and for some of that time as a senior, providing supervision to other works in
the north and west of Oxfordshire. Her input with families frequently involves
coordinating and running parenting programmes like Webster-Stratton, Take 3 and
Strengthening Families. She has also trained facilitators in Strengthening
Families 10-14 and been part of the development of other programmes related to
this. Often working one-to-one within her role, and freelance, she has a
special interest in supervision and is a member of the OPF Quality Task Group.
Kathy Peto began her working life as a
teacher and youth community worker, and has been working in the field of
parenting education and family support for the last 19 years, as a
practitioner, trainer, manager and supervisor within both the statutory and
voluntary sectors. For the past year she has worked as the lead for Parenting
Programmes at Family Links, a national charity which provides training for
professionals who work with families, particularly those most in need of intervention
and support. Believing that vulnerable families deserve support from staff that
are well trained and well supported, her recent focus has been on creating
resources and delivering programmes for professional training and development
within the parenting sector.
Lizzie Troup started working with parents and
families in 1995 for the Oxford- based charity The Family Nurturing Network,
delivering the Carolyn Webster- Stratton and Steven Bavolek’s parenting programmes
in schools and family centres. She then went on to work for Parentline Plus
(now Family Lives), a national charity, running small groups and working
one-to-one with parents. Since then, she has been working freelance in
Oxfordshire, originally with the support of the Oxfordshire Parenting
Development Team (OPDT). With the OPDT she was part of a team training trainers
in group work with parents. At the same time she also did parent group leader
training for Family Links. In recent years she has been facilitating parent
groups and supporting parents with one-to-one sessions. Oxfordshire hubs,
schools and family centres have commissioned this work. 
Lesley Williams was a primary
and middle school teacher and a headteacher until 2001, when she moved into a
dual role: (1) administering a three-year NOF (Lottery) funded project, setting
up out-of-school hours and summer school activities for schools in East Oxford
and Headington, a role which eventually morphed into Extended Services Manager
for Headington Partnership – including setting up a parenting network; and (2)
working with the Parent Education Development Team, focusing on family learning
and particularly coordinating the annual Family Learning Weekend/Festival each
October. That work brought her into TIPS (Teaching Important Parenting Skills)
parent group training and OPF. She maintains an active connection with family
learning through NAPE (National Association for Primary Education) family
activities and Friends of Hill End. She has to admit to not actually being a
parent – just a godmother of four!