Neil Bates has spent 20 years as a history teacher, Subject and Advanced Skills Teacher in Hampshire. In that time he has seen the number of students opting for History growing from a paltry eight to close to 100.

As a History AST he has been a long-standing member of the Hampshire History Steering Group and helped to deliver a series of thriving and well attended networks and CPD courses including successful NQT, second year teacher and history subject leaders training. Neil is a talented textbook author and has worked on the Key Stage 3 texts: Making Sense of History. He also is highly involved in Initial Teacher Education and Training in Basingstoke.

He has held well-received workshops at the Schools History Project Conference and the Historical Association Conference. Whenever Ofsted observe Neil his lessons are rated as outstanding. He is rightly adored by the students in school because he does the business day in day out.