John Townsend grew up in South London and was a day scholar at Dulwich College. He started working with children in the sixth form: a Brixton vicar organised a ‘holiday by days’ for local children who would not otherwise get a holiday and he was a leader there for three years. As a student he was a Voluntary Probation Officer, working with young offenders, and member of staff at Forest School Camps. As a teacher, he played a major role in developing computing as a school subject and was elected a Fellow of the College of Preceptors (which became the College of Teachers then reformed into the College of Teaching) for this. He had a personal invitation from the government to be a member of the National Standing Conference on Gifted and Talented Education; he was nominated for this by the National Association for Gifted Children, where he was Chair of the Hertfordshire Branch. He has headed two schools: an 11-18 mixed comprehensive and a part-boarding special school for boys with emotional or behavioural difficulties.