
Jonathan Simons
Director of Policy and Advocacy, Varkey Foundation
Jonathan is the newly appointed Director at the not-for-profit organisation established to improve the standards of education for underprivileged children throughout the world. He was formerly Head of the Education Unit at Policy Exchange, where he directed research on all aspects of education including Early Years, schools, skills and HE. Previously Jonathan worked at Serco Group, where he was Director of Strategy in the company’s specialist education practice. Prior to that, he was Head of Open Public Services in the Cabinet Office, and Head of Education in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit in the administrations of both Gordon Brown and David Cameron. Outside of work Jonathan is the Chair of Governors and Co-Founder of Greenwich Free School, and a Trustee of Reach4 Multi Academy Trust. He writes a weekly column for the TES newspaper on politics and education policy.

Related Posts & Publications


Crossing the Line: Improving success rates among students retaking English and maths GCSEs
by Jonathan Simons | Aug 25, 2015
Read Report Secondary schools should cover the costs of some or all their students who fail to get a C in GCSE English or maths and end up transferring from the school to a Further Education (FE) College to take their resits. Crossing the Line reveals that FE Colleges...
A Rising Tide: The Competitive Benefits of Free Schools
by Jonathan Simons | Mar 9, 2015
Read Report Free Schools are raising standards for other pupils across the local community, especially in some of the poorest performing schools, as well for the pupils who attend them. A Rising Tide sets out for the first time detailed analysis on the performance of...
Education Manifesto 2015
by Jonathan Simons | Mar 6, 2015
Read Report Teachers starting in state schools or teacher training from this September should have their student loans paid off by the government while they remain in the profession. The Education Manifesto argues that given the twin risks of already declining teacher...
Primary Focus: The next stage of improvement for primary schools in England
by Jonathan Simons | Sep 23, 2014
Read Publication Over 3,000 primary schools (20%) could fall below the government’s tough new minimum standards in reading and writing and maths in 2016. A “perfect storm” of challenges will see a number of head teachers retire, a continued drop off in local authority...Support Us
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