People at MFMC

Hugh Thomas - Director,  Consultant, Trainer and Workshop Leader

He is the co- creator of multidisciplinary educational programmes working with MFMC associates. All these education programmes boost confidence; inspire young people to think about their future and enable them to form loose ties to people and places they may not normally access.

Polly Barnes - Director of Education

Polly specialises in Primary School education, with a national profile for 'Futures' and 'Financial Education'. Having spent her teaching career working in low–income communities, she has a passion for brokering and managing relationships between education sectors, museums, cultural venues and businesses, driven by the positive impact that such experiences can have on the social mobility of the young people. Experienced as a teacher in schools and a lecturer in educator at Universities, Polly is a consultant for Healthy Schools and the Personal Financial Education Group. She has managed a diversity of projects including the designing and manufacturing of education resources. With a highly successful background in the arts and PSHE she is now on a mission to encourage teachers and young people to leave their comfort zones to discover the fun and excitement of the possible futures in science and engineering.

Warwick Moreton - Shipwright and Workshop Leader

He was one of the shipwrights to the Matthew, a replica of John Cabot's ship of 1497 and worked on many other maritime restorations and replicas. He was appointed Conservator of Wooden Boats at the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside before returning to Bristol.

Warwick delivers workshops to schools about Tudor Shipbuilding, Explorers and Navigation through his Cabot's Shipwright Workshops. Engaging the children by simple non-literal and pragmatic techniques used by early craftsmen, tradesmen and sailors to explain complicated concepts of building and ocean voyaging. Warwick has used his knowledge of boat building to design the cardboard boats used by MFMC for the Young Shipwrights Workshops.

Steve Smith - Aviation Specialist and workshop leader 

Steve has worked in mainstream education and as a trainer for teachers, business and industry.

Steve designed his first successful model aircraft in 1971 when he was 14 years old. Since then he has produced literally hundreds of designs representing all forms of aviation with several being featured in national publications and on the Web.
He has recently focused on designs that are quick to build with just the right degree of challenge to engage participants of most ages and levels of ability and enable them to enjoy successful flying in every situation.
A UK Private Pilot, Steve uses his knowledge of full size aviation to help participants make connections with the forces acting on their machines and the flight conditions of a full size aircraft such as an Airbus airliner and so understand how an aircraft actually flies.
This all matters because at any time around the world there are one million people in the sky and they fly on the safest form of transport through the application of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Glyn Griffiths - Science and Engineering Consultant and Workshop Leader

Glyn Griffiths MEng(Hons) Mechanical Engineering, is presently finishing his academic studies with a PhD in the field of Environmental Engineering, specifically evaluating novel nanotechnologies in CO2 utilisation applications. In addition to academia, Glyn also has two years working in Engineering Consultancy roles.

Glyn has a strong background in engineering, design, and sustainability and has had much involvement with MFMC over the past year. Primarily in the development of the 'Lifting Aspirations' learning resource. Lifting Aspirations is supplementary to the national curriculum, a team-building and leadership project, demonstrating a range of engineering principles such as the force amplification,  hydraulic circuits, and actuation. The project has proved successful in bridging the gap between aspiring school children and professional Engineers, and has been showcased at a range of engineering festivals, and school events.
 
After completing his PhD, Glyn hopes to develop more targeted Engineering, Environmental and Social projects for young people to engage with.

Henrik G Dahle - Creative solutions and new concepts for learning

Henrik is a creative practitioner who works across many art forms. Now focusing his attention on writing and directing narrative fiction features, developing inspirational interactive web based projects and creating books for adults and children. Social and ecological consciousness is threaded through all his work.
He has a background in documentary film and radio, community arts, theatre, web development, music, set design and carpentry. 
 
He has managed creative education programmes, events and performances.

Henrik is one of our workshop leaders and a consultant on our learning resources.

To find out more about why we work with Henrik follow this link

Nathan Hughes - Film and Broadcast Media Specialist

Award winning Writer / Director with a distinctive, off-beat vision and broad multi-platform experience, from generative software development to spectacular, site-specific events. Nathan was selected for Future Encounters (2012) - a showcase of 10 filmmakers whose work demonstrates a distinctive cinematic and/or artistic vision. His film-work has been invited onto the British Council's Shorts Support Scheme and he has mentored creatives on their Cultureshift Kenya Programme (2013) designed to stimulate Nairobi's burgeoning digital economy. Nathan consolidated his narrative and screenwriting skills with an MA from Newport Film School and currently leads the Post Production & Soundtrack Development module (Bsc Games Technology & Digital Media) at the University of the West of England. f.f.i. - http://www.behance.net/nathanlloydhughes

Nathan leads on creative ideas for generating audience, broadcasts and debate for the Secondary School Learning Ships Programme.