On 15 November 2023, we held our first Senior Partner/Hub Manager Meeting of the 2023/24 partnership year at the Museum of London. We were fortunate enough to be joined by Candice Lott, Challenge Partners Trustee and founder of We Are the Digital Type, who has shared her experience of the day:
"It’s all too easy to bash the education system…and if I am honest, I find myself getting caught up in the rhetoric that our education system is ‘broken’ all too often. In fact, it's the reason I used when I left the teaching profession myself. I was worried I couldn't make a difference in such a 'broken' system.
Yesterday I had the privilege of attending the Challenge Partners conference as a Trustee. The conference was hosted for our senior partners and hub managers who are all practitioners in education, and to say I felt inspired was an understatement!
Sitting in a room full of teachers doing incredible things in education reminded me that it’s 'not all bad'. Rather than complaining and listing the things that need improving, these passionate people showed a sense of shared optimism that we can work together to improve the life chances of young people regardless of the system.
Yes, the system needs to adapt and change and we can't ignore that, BUT we can come together to be a force to do what we can in the current system, whilst we work to adapt and change it for the future.
Yesterday, through the work shared by teachers, I regained the hope that when brilliant and passionate people come together, real change can happen.
The truth is, that teaching is tough, and the expectations on our teachers is greater than ever. It's also often a thankless job. So to all of the teachers out there doing their best to support young people on a daily basis, in a challenged system...thank you.
And thank you to everyone I met yesterday who reinstalled my hope that we can work together to improve the education system.
A special thank you to Dr Kate Chhatwal OBE, Laura Lewis-Williams and Dame Sue John who strive for excellence daily for our schools."