A global practice, in maps and numbers

PART OF THE FOUNDERS STORY, 2021–2025

Matthew began working with GEMS Founders School, Dubai, in 2021, invited to focus on wellbeing data at a school of 450 Teachers and Teaching Assistants, and more than 6,000 students. Over four years the work took every form it takes elsewhere – coaching and workshops, presentations and listening circles, with leaders, staff, parents and students – and involvement grew into something closer to standing membership of the school's leadership thinking.

Ian Plant, Founders Strategy Leader, locates the impact "in the significant shift in how leaders thought about success." Wellbeing "moved from being viewed as a supporting initiative to becoming a fundamental driver of achievement, engagement and long-term flourishing" – a change that "influenced decision making at every level" and made wellbeing and belonging "central to the school's vision and daily practice." As Ian puts it: "Matthew's drive and determination to share his passion for data and its use to personalise learning is infectious. Sometimes in life you meet people who can help you understand things through completely different lenses. Matthew is one of those people."

The shift reached staff as directly as strategy. Teachers came to see belonging "not as something individuals had to find for themselves, but as something the whole community had a responsibility to create together." The result, Ian says, was a culture in which "kindness became more intentional, inclusion became more visible and wellbeing became everyone's responsibility."

FROM RIYADH TO JEDDAH, 2024–2029

Helen Olds first invited Matthew to British International School Riyadh, where she was then Director of Schools, for a one-week residency in January 2024 and a two-week return in January 2025. "I couldn't recommend working with Matthew highly enough," she says of that time. "He didn’t give us the answers but challenged us to find our own pathway within the individual contexts of our different campuses, acting as a critical friend. His work is research-informed and grounded in strong evidence."

When she moved to become Director of British International School Jeddah – around 1,300 students and 250 staff – she commissioned a three-year partnership, from 2026 to 2029, to review and rebuild data and assessment policy and practice across the school. The rhythm is one Matthew's partnerships share: virtual conversations, coaching and content through the year, and a week's residency each year working in small and large groups with different members of the school community, from coaching to workshops, presentations to listening circles.

"Working with Matthew has made us think about things differently," Helen says, "and in doing so we are then doing things differently. We are using a range of lenses to ensure that we know our students and can best meet their needs. Our journey with Matthew has illuminated our thinking and aligned how we work across the school."

TWO RESIDENCIES IN GURGAON, 2025–2026

Matthew met the HIXS team at a conference in Udaipur in 2023. Daisy Rana, then Head of School of the 1,500-student, 300-staff school in Gurgaon, invited him for a residency in January 2025, working with staff, students and parents on the warm why of data for wellbeing and belonging. "His expertise and experiences, both personal and professional," she says, "inspired, touched, challenged and empowered our team to place wellbeing at the centre of all we do."

The school invited him back in January 2026, after Daisy had moved on. Ruchi Mainali, Head of Teaching, Learning and Assessments, says it "felt less like bringing in an external consultant and more like continuing a conversation that had become part of our own thinking." The second visit took the whole faculty through "A Fellowship of Champions," on the role of the form tutor – "what does it really mean to know a child well, and what are the different layers of that responsibility?" – and extended the work to HIXS' sister schools in Gurgaon and Noida.

"Perhaps the biggest shift," Ruchi says, "was in the way we began to look at the child before looking at the data," asking of any dataset, "What else might this data be telling us, depending on the question we ask?" Matthew's language – every child needing to "be seen, be heard, be known and belong" – stayed with them. "Every child deserves to be known deeply enough for us to understand their unique 'soil' for growth."

FROM BANGKOK TO THE ALPS, 2024–PRESENT

Lana Kulas first encountered Matthew's work at a workshop in Bangkok in 2024, while Second Master at Hiba Academy Shanghai. He "doesn't just present data," she says; "he weaves it into compelling narratives that connect to real lives, making you reflect deeply on how we see, hear, and know our students. His work is a masterclass in rethinking education with empathy, equity, and impact at the core." When she moved to Aiglon College – around 500 students and 250 staff – as Deputy Director, she brought the work with her. The school wanted "to seek out new ways to capture our students' full stories" and "to look at data through a fundamentally human lens."

Year One, from late 2025, centred on provocations, staff and student voice labs, and an Action Research project asking what the school's ways of knowing its students reveal and conceal. Participation was entirely voluntary: early adopters working alongside key members of middle and senior leadership. Matthew continues to coach Jack George, Head of Middle School, as Aiglon develops a more holistic model of reporting – work the two have written about together for TIE Online – and the next phase of the wider partnership is now under discussion.

The effect so far, Lana says, is "heightened awareness across our team" – staff "openly grappling with really hard questions and learning to embrace uncertainty." The aim was never modest: "a cultural shift where everyone on campus feels truly seen."

A DATA CADRE IN THE DESERT, 2025–2028

In 2025, Matthew was invited alongside fellow consultant Kristine Mizzone, a wellbeing and SEL specialist and Head of Professional Learning for ISCA, to support two of the strategic goals of ACS Abu Dhabi, a school of around 1,400 students and 300 staff: developing the whole child, and fostering wellbeing and belonging. Bobbi Donison, Director of Learning, describes the pairing as working "like a braid: distinct strands strengthening one another" – "Matthew helps data tell the human story, while Kristine puts that understanding into action." An initial visit was given over to listening with leadership, students and parents; in Bobbi's words, the two "pulled back the curtain, amplified voices, and surfaced beliefs, excitement, and doubt – prompting us to ask whether what receives attention reflects our values."

A planned return visit was postponed due to regional instability and folded into a longer engagement from autumn 2026: an array of half-day virtual sessions for a voluntary cadre of data enthusiasts, culminating in a week's residency in March 2027. Year Three will draw together what both consultants and the faculty have learned, consolidating what remains and investing in the protocols and habits to keep it going. The aim, Bobbi says, is "lasting internal capacity: skills to analyze and tools to evaluate data, shared language and understanding, and sustainable routines that keep evidence, wellbeing, and student voice at the center of our journey."

One moment has stayed with her: a student who said they felt "listened to, not simply surveyed."