About the Authors
Michael Feely
Michael trained to teach in 2006 on the Graduate Teacher Programme. During his career, Michael has taught in six different schools in a number of leadership roles: Head of Year, Head of House, Head of Department, Assistant Principal and Deputy Headteacher.
In 2014, Michael joined the Future Leaders Programme and was part of the inaugural leadership team of Ark Elvin Academy leading on behaviour and routines. In 2016, he joined Our Lady’s Catholic High School in London as Deputy Headteacher responsible for teaching and learning.
Michael was appointed as Principal of Dixons City Academy in September 2018, and in November 2018 Michael led DCA to be graded as Outstanding in all areas by Ofsted for the first time in the school’s history.
As a former youth England international at football and basketball, Michael continues to have a keen interest in all sports.
Michael has a large extended family and currently lives in Leeds with his wife Chloe.
Ben Karlin
Ben Karlin is currently a Fellow in Learning Design at Ambition Institute, where he designs programmes to support teachers and school leaders to keep getting better.
Ben trained as a secondary English teacher on the Teach First programme in 2010 and taught in Sheffield for two years. He moved away from education to work in strategy for a major supermarket, before re-entering the classroom in 2015, this time in Bradford.
In 2016 he started work at Dixons City Academy and worked there for six years, including a three as a senior leader moving between teaching and learning responsibilities and pastoral leadership. He joined Ambition in 2022.
Ben has always worked in schools in areas of high socio-economic disadvantage. He is passionate about a society in which every child can succeed regardless of their background. He believes that great teaching is at the heart of this future, and that all teachers can (and should want to) improve.
When he’s not working to help them do so, Ben loves reading a balanced diet of classic literature and trashy crime fiction, running, playing and watching sport, and most of all spending time with his wife, Bethan, and their two-year old son, Ezra. He lives in West Yorkshire.