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Simrin Bakshi, Advisory board

SIMRIN BAKSHI

Non-Executive Chairperson

Simrin Bakshi, our founder, wears multiple hats of a learner, businesswoman, award-winning social entrepreneur and a philanthropist. Her passion for art and creative zeal led her to set up her interior design firm, which has been delivering luxurious personalised spaces for exclusive highend clients since 2006. As a learner, she continuously endeavours to create a more inclusive community by empowering people from disadvantaged backgrounds, who are homeless and vulnerable. She leads this vision through various roles as

Patron of Mane Chance, a centre that works with homeless, the vulnerable and those who have experience of being socially isolated.

• Patron of Lost Chord (Sheffield). A charity designed to stimulate responses of people living with dementia through the media of music, song and dance.

• Patron of Rainbow's End (Sheffield). An charity that she gave new lease of life through fundraising.

• Parton of Solace Women's (London). A charity which works with vulnerable women, children and young people.

She has established the Alara Foundation which furthers her philanthropic causes in U.K. and India. At the GG2 Leadership Awards 2012 she was awarded 'Social Entrepreneur of the Year' and was presented with the 'European Diversity Champion’ by David Miliband in 2008. Her learnings from working on the front line with a lot of communities led her to identify education as an enabler to create a more empathetic world. She founded Vedanya to create learning spaces which empowers individuals to become leaders of tomorrow by preserving values of kindness and humility.

Christian Warland

Learning Approaches

Christian embodies the qualities of an enthused learner. An advocate of inclusive education, a joyous atmosphere is what he believes brings the best out of every child. Christian Warland is a committed educator specialising in primary education. He was Headmaster of Garden House School, the foremost independent primary school in London, for fourteen years and is now the Principal of the school.

He believes that happiness and confidence are fundamental to a child’s future success and that a school’s environment should be structured to ensure that these qualities can be nurtured and encouraged. Christian enjoyed a career in law before moving into education as a profession. He was called to the Bar in Middle Temple and practised as a Barrister before moving to the City of London and working at a Magic Circle firm. Christian was educated at Marlborough College and Exeter University. He has also studied as a post-graduate at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, The Inns of Court School of Law, and Imperial College.

At Vedanya he guides our community on creating learning approaches that empower individuals to become continuous learners.

Christian Warland, advisory board
Neel Ghose,  advisory board

Neel Ghose

Sustainability

Neel Ghose is one of the learning co-founders of the Robin Hood Army (RHA), a “disruptive startup that uses food as a medium to bring out the best of humanity at a community level.” RHA is a volunteer-based organization, which collects excess food from restaurants and distributes it to the less fortunate. In a little over two years, the RHA has served over 5 million people through over 12,000+ Robins across 12 countries. RHA has also set up The Robin Hood Academy which empowers 7328+ street children with basic primary education.

Volunteers – Robins, conduct regular weekend classes and excursions with a standardized curriculum to introduce and drive the spirit of learning. The purpose of the Academy is to be a bridge between the street and schools, by giving our children the tools and knowledge to go to school. Prior to starting RHA, Ghose worked in New York-based hedge fund (D.E. Shaw) and Zomato, an Indian unicorn startup. He has been a bit of a nomad and has lived in 5 countries setting up Zomato’s global operations.

At Vedanya he is advising the community on creating learning frameworks and experiences to impart skills for needed to spearhead development which must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.

Dr Alison Buxton

Design Thinking and Making

Alison specialises in makerspaces and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, maths) education in primary schools and the early years. She is currently working with as Educational Developer for Makerspace, School of Education at The University of Sheffield. She has been involved in STEM education and public engagement, including at secondary level since the early 2000s.

She has a particular interest in learning about the under-represented groups in engineering and has produced publications and guidance on equality and diversity for public engagement for the Centre for Science Education and the Royal Air Force. Alison’s main interest is the development of makerspaces and maker education in UK primary schools. She is Programme Manager for Maker {Futures}, which includes Maker {Move}, a mobile makerspace for schools, libraries and museums.

As part of this work, Alison is currently developing a Maker {School} strand, including writing a maker curriculum for primary schools. Alison leads an Ingenious public engagement project funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering. Maker {Move}: Think like an Engineer, trains and supports local engineers from industry and academia to run engineering and maker activities in schools.

At Vedanya she is leading the vision to build makerspace as an integrated multidisciplinary movement for our learners, our educators and our parent community.

Dr. Alison Buxton, advisory board
Nigel Green, advisory board

Nigel Green

Physical Literacy and Wellness

Nigel has over three decades of experience in learning and developing physical education programs for schools and universities and is deeply passionate about promoting physical literacy.

He is currently a physical education consultant having been a Senior Lecturer in Physical Education at Liverpool John Moores University from 2009 - 2018. He taught physical education in four secondary schools for 29 years before this, during this time he led three departments, a faculty (including PE, Art, Music, Dance and Drama) and a networked community. Nigel has been involved in training teachers and providing professional development for over thirty years, in the UK and more recently in India, Brazil and Taiwan. As a previous member of the Physical Education Association UK Executive Committee, a current member of North Western Counties Physical Education Association Executive Committee and Past Chair of the International Physical Literacy Association, Nigel demonstrates a commitment and passion for promoting and supporting the the development of physical education and physical literacy worldwide. Nigel is editor of the Research Matters section of the AfPE journal, Physical Education Matters and was External Examiner for the MA in Physical Education and School Sport at UCLAN.

At Vedanya he is advising us on building a physically active community focused on holistic wellbeing


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