Emma is an Education Partner in our Public Sector team at Ward Hadaway.
Emma has over 20 years of experience advising maintained schools, academies, independent schools and FE Colleges on the following matters:
- Academy conversions and transfers (advised on the expansions of hundreds of MATs)
- Acted for Church of England Diocesan Boards of Education on the some of the earlier sponsor academies
- Instructed on the establishment of Diocesan MATs
- Providing Governance advice, including external Governance Audits and making significant changes
- Advising independent schools on Mergers and Acquisitions
- School Policy Audits (including admissions, educational visits, parental complaints and safeguarding)
- Supporting schools to challenge unsuitable placements for children with Education and Health Care Plans (to the Secretary of State and First Tier Tribunal)
- Lead on commercial law support for schools (commercial contracts/collaboration agreements)
- Advise on complex exclusions and safeguarding matters
- Acting for schools on challenging stage 3 parental complaints to Independent Review Panels
Experience
Emma’s experience as a leading national Education partner in the sector includes;-
- Acting for home school settings to successfully challenge Ofsted investigations into unregistered independent schools
- Supporting the establishment of new free schools
- Defending disability discrimination claims before the First Tier Tribunal
- Providing legal advice to Admissions and Exclusion Appeal Panels
- Advising independent schools on parent contracts and fees in advance schemes
- Representing schools and local authorities defending judicial review proceedings. A key case included successfully defending a challenge to the opening of a new Sixth Form and securing a substantial costs award for the MAT as an interested party.
- Emma has a first class reputation for providing informative podcasts, webinars and bespoke training sessions. She regularly speaks at National and Regional sector events on issues of the day, including the opportunities and challenges of the use of AI in schools. Emma has also been asked to provide commentary on hot topics in the TES.
