Dr Daniel Talbot

My journey into education and academic research is rooted in 15 years working and leading inside large, complex comprehensive schools. I am currently Deputy Headteacher: Curriculum and Achievement (Acting) at Thomas Tallis School, in South-East London, a school of over 2000 students. I have held a number of leadership roles, including Assistant Headteacher for teaching and learning, the co-curriculum and pupil premium lead. Throughout my career have operated at the sharp end of the educational machine, experiencing firsthand what it takes to run a school day while keeping equity at the heart of our culture.

Alongside my school leadership practice, I have maintained a deep commitment to rigorous academic research. I recently completed my PhD in Education and Social Justice at Lancaster University, where my research focused on the complex relationship between school knowledge, the arts and socioeconomic inequality. This work has culminated in a forthcoming monograph with Routledge, which explores how the mechanics of curriculum and 'powerful knowledge' can either entrench structural barriers or dismantle them.

For me, the mission of the School Inclusion Group is where the abstract and the operational meet. In a large secondary school, you quickly realise that high-level educational theory often fails because it ignores the messy reality of a school building. Conversely, pure school management often becomes mechanical, losing its philosophical and conceptual grounding.

My work with the School Inclusion Group aims to act as the bridge between these two worlds. By combining the group’s psychological datasets with my experience in whole-school systems and curriculum design, my goal is to translate elite research into scalable, pragmatic frameworks. I want to ensure that evidence-based inclusion policies ensure every young person receives equitable foundation they deserve.