About AFIS™

Francesca is an accomplished executive leader with experience driving strategic transformation, innovation, and sustainable growth across the education and business sectors. State-school educated and now Executive Headteacher of the independent school her own four children attend, she is deeply committed to creating dynamic, inclusive environments where pupils and staff flourish. A strong advocate for parental choice, she is passionate about championing every child and ensuring families can access the education that is right for them.

Andrew Hampton has two daughters, a son and four grandchildren. His three children all attended the independent schools where he worked as a Head of Music and then Headteacher.

Andrew stepped away from Headship after 18 years in 2021. He founded the Girls on Board approach in 2017 and the Working with Boys programme in 2023. He is the author of When Girls Fall Out (2021), Working with Boys (2023), and How to Run a School (2025).

His ideas centred around the central importance of mutual respect in the relational cultures of pupils in school and how adults, both teachers and parents, can support those cultures to be consistently dignified, compassionate and empathetic.

Adam D'Souza is a teacher, expert schools advisor and educational entrepreneur. He is the founder of Select:ed, an international school placement consultancy helping families find the right-fit schools for their children; he has a particular specialism in academically selective school entrance at 11+ and 13+. He has taught English, history and philosophy, and held leadership roles in some of London's most distinctive schools. His articles about education have appeared in the Daily Telegraph, TES, Prep School Magazine and Time & Leisure.

Alongside teaching and advisory work with Select:ed, Adam is also a board director of Divergent Schools, a non-profit setting up new, independent SEND schools that seek to bridge the gap between mainstream and special school education. He serves as a governor of a 3-11 co-ed prep school in London, overseeing future schools transition. In previous roles, he was on the founding management team of Chatsworth Schools, a group which acquired and transformed small independent schools. At Hampton Court House, a bilingual all-through school, Adam led the development of a new holistic academic curriculum and diploma programme for students aged 9 to 13.

Mario has seen first-hand how independent schools support families from a wide range of backgrounds, including through bursaries, specialist provision and strong pastoral care.

Professionally, Mario has spent his career at the intersection of public policy, communications, and community engagement. He has worked in Parliament, in 10 Downing Street, and in senior corporate roles advising some of the biggest corporate brands on political strategy, reputation, and long-term planning.

Alongside this, Mario has spent over a decade serving as an elected councillor in Croydon. He is an active mentor for young people through the Social Mobility Foundation, helping students from disadvantaged backgrounds navigate university applications and early career pathways.

Due to the foresight of his parents, Paul, who is now an executor of the Arthur Ransome Literary Estate, was educated at Haberdashers School in Elstree. In the 1970s it was possible for students from families with modest means to benefit from state funding to certain independent grammar schools, A scheme that has sadly disappeared.

Paul joined the Royal Navy as a post-graduate geographer before, 10 years later, working as a manager in the NHS and subsequently as bursar of two independent schools: a girls' day school and then a co-ed day and boarding school in the Lake District. His ex-Army wife taught music and drama in independent and state schools, and their two sons both attended an independent school, studied the IB and are pursuing successful careers.