Cat Davison

Founder / CEO

Cat’s primary interest is in the development of educational systems, resources and curriculums that enable learners of all ages and identities to create the worlds that they want to see, with reflection on power embedded into the processes of change.

Since 2015, whilst teaching full-time and with limited resources, Cat has worked with over 500 local Catalysts to create EduSpots, developing an innovative system promoting community-led education alongside all the systems, programmes and team needed to achieve the organisation’s emerging aims. The 50 community-owned and led ‘Spots’ support 10,000+ learners annually, raising over £750,000, and launching an app to strengthen programme delivery and advance monitoring, evaluation and learning systems. In 2024, she was formally appointed as EduSpots’ first Chief Executive Officer.

Her actions are fuelled by a long-term commitment to practical ethics and educational equity that led her to study philosophy at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, ahead of further degrees in Management Studies at Cambridge’s Judge Business School, Education (PGCE with QTS) at Buckingham University, and Education and International Development at University College London (with distinction). She’s been selected for courses in social entrepreneurship at Cambridge Social Ventures and Ashoka Changemakers Academy, also actively volunteering with a significant number of social impact organisations in London, Accra, Brighton and Sevenoaks.

Her passion for learning first her into classroom teaching, where she taught philosophy and ethics alongside gaining experience through leadership roles including as a Housemistress at Brighton College, and as the first Director of the Institute of Service and Social Entrepreneurship at Sevenoaks School, which later became the Institute of Service and Partnerships as her role took a wider scope. Here, she worked with 1500 staff and students and 100 schools and partner organisations to drive local social innovation and impact, sharing ideas widely with the Schools Partnerships Alliance, and Schools Community Action network, which she chaired.  She worked with the EduSpots team to develop 4 EduSpots’ online courses which were taken by thousands of students during Covid with an idea to advance the critical reflection in social change education in schools, leading to selection as a Big Change Big Education Challenge 2023 semi-finalist.

In 2021, she was selected from over 8000 applications as a Finalist for the $1 Million UNESCO-backed Global Teacher Prize in recognition of her role in advancing the teaching profession across the UK and beyond. Hidden from view, she suffers from M.E., and looks for ways to promote well-being and understanding for people with invisible disabilities and chronic illness.