"On that basis I was very interested but I knew I was coming down with a terrible case of malaria and had to get my application in within a couple of days while I could still function."

"I was told that wasn’t the case, they wanted someone to lead on women’s issues, girls’ empowerment, people’s rights and community mobilisation."

"We looked at them for compliance, attitude, how they kept abreast of what was going on in the market."

"They responded to the criticism and whether we felt they would deal with out supporters in the same way as we would directly."

"We have a very diverse portfolio of income."

"We work a lot with communities, we do a huge amount of advertising to get public support and our database of supporters has increased to about 375,000 people who bring in not only financial support but also wider support."

"We think opt-in should be regular and unambiguous."

"Psychology was my second major – this also wasn’t in my original plan – I had thought I would do Applied Maths, but I enjoyed Psychology in first year and so continued, and then enjoyed work on child development, learning and so on."

"So I was absolutely delighted to be offered the job."

"All the words that are in the European legislation, but we don't want to annoy our supporters by asking them to opt in when they have been supporting us for years and it would seem peculiar."

"It is a good return, but it also gives us a constituency, which means we're not dependent on government funding or grant."

"Water and sanitation might not be a priority for grant makers in a particular year."

"I moved into teaching – rather than set out to teach, or work in education. When I began my working career as a secondary mathematics teacher, I had no intention of becoming an academic and researcher in education. My first post was in a so-called ‘coloured’ school in Cape Town, a school with a strong political identity tied to the Unity Movement."

"We want to keep that unrestricted percentage at about 65 per cent because it gives us a huge amount of strategic flexibility and a greater degree of certainty."

"What I love about WaterAid is that while we are absolutely passionately committed to doing everything we can in terms of poverty eradication."

"If you don't know as a leader what your license to operate is from society, then you've got tunnel vision. So it's understanding the context, what society expects, what the organization needs, and having to adapt yourself and evolve.” Asked about the way forward"

"You have to be vulnerable. You have to recognize you don't know the answers. Good ideas can come from anywhere"

"Interesting as I think about this, Eva Hoffman’s Lost in Translation had an immense effect on me. I happened to read this while I was working on my PhD, and it provided a different gaze on what it meant to learn and live in a language that was not your mother tongue, or as she called it, the language of her heart and emotions. I have since read much of her work, the most powerful of which was After Such Knowledge: Meditations on the Holocaust. The latter, a philosophical and social commentary rather than an academic text, has contributed significantly to my understanding of the social world, as well as some of my own location in history."

"Most influential at the start of my academic career was Lev Vygotsky’s work: Mind in Society and Thought and Language. As a mathematics education researcher I am always working between educational theory and literature in mathematics education. With my early work on teaching mathematics in multilingual classrooms, David Pimm’s book Speaking Mathematically was pivotal in turning my attention to mathematical language more generally. More recently, with my interest in mathematical knowledge in and for teaching and particularly what is produced as mathematics in teacher education practice, influential resources are Basil Bernstein’s Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity, and Anna Sfard’s Thinking as Communicating and then the extensive work done by Deborah Ball in the past decade. I could go on, as I enjoy reading, and spend time relaxing with whodunnit."

"I think our whole field of educational research in South Africa is relatively young. There is so much we need to know more about, and from the empirical base of our schools, classrooms and learners. I think the transition years from primary into secondary mathematics what teachers need to know and do to teach across subjects at that level are very poorly understood. This is critical in mathematics where the move to greater abstraction and working with symbolic forms emerges. It is also a critical point where we need to know more about what it means to learn and teach mathematics in a dominant minority but extremely powerful language (English)."

"Broadly my time is shared between supporting the professional development work we do in schools, and doing and supporting the research that is linked to this work, with a large proportion of time supporting full time doctoral students in the project. I teach less than I did before. I travel internationally a fair amount, to conferences and for other international work I do."

"t’s wonderful to have incredible support from Openreach who sponsor us to help give children the ability to communicate."

"Children up and down the country can take part and improve their own skills while helping thousands of others who are not at their level. We called for this national year of communication back in 2007, and truly believe this is the spotlight we need to raise the roof, and sing the loudest to make the difference that is so badly needed"

"We were immensely lucky to have a great deal of help from our friends at The Makaton Charity, since – with their full permission and active aid – we copied their business model and applied it to I CAN Programmes."

"It was an immensely complex and politically sensitive piece of work. I definitely wanted to do something different. I also had the pious notion that I ought to pitch in and try to make some of the necessary changes happen"

"In our former business model we had 90+ partnerships with Local Authorities running different I CAN programmes, which we were immensely proud of."

"But as austerity bit we could see the writing on the wall: Local Authorities were being hollowed out and budgets were being devolved to schools and early years settings. We had to make a shift which we termed ‘moving from wholesale to retail’."

"Number one, after today, every weekday starts with an 8 a.m. class. Number two, everything costs more when you are the one who has to pay for it. And number three, in life, it’s not who you know; it’s whom you know."

"When I completed the report of the King’s Fund’s first Commission on the future of health services in London I was drained."

"James would get picked up – very occasionally by someone else – and come back to the office and be here with me"

"I was often finished by 6pm and I didn’t have a long train journey. I think it’s really good to work. It was part of the children’s lives – it still is – and they’d come and help."

"They did a lot of modelling. Catherine was on the cover of one of the catalogues, blowing out candles. Later on, she did some styling and set up the First Birthday side of the business. Pippa did the blog. I still value their ideas and opinions."

"We were pretty much the only ones doing this sort of thing when we started. It was really clear almost from the start that this was going to work. I got help from other mums – paperwork and that kind of thing… I think it’s easier to start a business when you’re young. You’re less aware of the pitfalls and maybe you have less of a lifestyle to lose."

"If I come across as normal, that would be great, because that’s what I am"

"Over the years, it’s proved wise not to say anything"

"Well, I thought it was better to know what people thought. But it doesn’t make any difference. I’m not really sure how I’m perceived now. But the thing is… it is really normal – most of the time."

"Make sure whatever you do doesn’t compromise your family, because that becomes untenable. And don’t be afraid to ask questions."

"I couldn’t do it without Mike and my team"

"The women of my class were absolutely amazing. They didn’t think of themselves as pioneers in any way and integrated into the community in a great fashion and really contributed so much."

"Most startups fail. So that's the first thing you need to know. Even when you're a VC, it's almost 50%. So you got to write more than one check."

"Should people remain working at home? How do we manage this when some staff want to come into the office, and some definitely don’t?"

"Developing a central scenario will involve deciding how you’re going to deal with your property, your staff, or your suppliers as the the situation develops. Clarity is key for everyone involved, and a central scenario will help you to achieve it."

"The first and most important point is to stay calm. The world is obviously changing around us all the time, but we need to keep a clear head in order to react and communicate effectively."

"This is a time for bottom-up planning. Don’t be afraid to think radically because that is, in fact, what’s needed at a time of crisis."

"Your people are your key assets, so it’s important to focus on well-being, morale, and listening."

"Well, I guess the digital transformation that has happened, the way the world is, the consumer world is seeing it, in the use of digital technology for communication because of the COVID crisis."

"London is home. A tour of the Houses of Parliament is a must- you have a fascinating hour and a half and get the entire history of Great Britain all under one impressive roof. The John Soane museum too."

"Handmade Rooster footstools -they are exquisitely made at every stage of their production with bronze beaks and feet – you can even have them made to look like your own farmyard flock!"

"It’s personalisation all the way. It doesn’t matter really what the present is, it shows that you have put thought and energy into it and it’s always something to be remembered."