It was wonderful to see so many leaders joining us online at our very first twilight National Network Conference, with my special thanks to the students at Mounts Bay Academy who provided us with their musical talents as we welcomed individuals from around the country.
Our last National Network Conference of the academic year was divided into two parts, firstly, Matthew Syed inspired us with his talk entitled Creating a High Performing Culture in Education. After some robust discussion, we heard from Kate Chhatwal, who led a session on the new government’s manifesto, and the key messages we want to give to ministers. If you are partner, then you can read a summary of all that was discussed may be found here.
As you can imagine, it has been a very busy year for us at Challenge Partners with our in-person events, alongside our online opportunities, as we continue to live, not laminate the Challenge Partners Values across our organisation. We have also been paying tribute to the late great Sir Tim Brighouse at many of our events throughout the year.
As we enter into a new dawn and a new government where we are already seeing a new narrative around working within the profession, there are of course some existential factors that we can‘t control but there is much that we can control and influence, if we act together collectively - as we know the power of the collective brings many gifts.
So to Tim and his timeless advice. For us as leaders it’s still very relevant today –
Good leaders:
- Have unwarranted optimism - We definitely need to heed this first point when we consider the challenges and opportunities facing the sector. At our recent Trust Leaders conference it was fascinating to hear from the Para-Olympian and broadcaster Ade Adepitan in what was a truly inspirational session. His message was clear – never fear failure – this is how you learn and never give up, whilst also recognising the power of enablers and working together as a team.
This leadership trait aligns with our value of courageous leadership and our belief that all children should be able to thrive, especially the most vulnerable and those from disadvantaged and under-resourced backgrounds. What part can we play in creating a fairer society? To strive for both excellence and equity.
- Regard crisis as the norm and complexity as fun - When I was a Headteacher, this quote was always firmly stuck on my office wall. To deal with this reality we know that having diverse teams, also representing a diversity of thought, is essential when dealing with the challenges and opportunities of living in a globally diverse and complex world. It was wonderful to hear from Michael Stevenson from the OECD at one of our recent events talking about human flourishing in a world of AI – Human flourishing for all being our theme for this year.
- Have a bottomless well of intellectual curiosity - I think we have this in abundance across our partnership – schools and trusts and the people in them are outward looking. As an organisation we benefit enormously from the support of our corporate partners, through the social business trust, some of whom joined us at the National Network Conference. We heard from Katherine Savage from Ernst & Young at one of our programme finales, and her challenge was - In the pursuit of change and transformation have we forgotten the human? The better the question, the better the answer.
- Have a complete absence of paranoia and self pity - You may have the feeling that they are out to get you. They probably are but this saps energy! It is all-consuming as opposed to energy-creating. If we work collaboratively to challenge and support each other we can all benefit from the collective wisdom in our system.
- Find those gaps in hedges - Tim built this famous idea around the life and influence of Harry Ree, a teacher who was a Special Operations Officer during World War 2. Renowned for his bravery, he later became Head of Watford Grammar School but was in fact committed to comprehensive education in later life. Tim would say that Harry had to literally be good at finding gaps in hedges when working alongside the French Resistance.
For us in the education sector and our gaps in hedges – the key question is - are we brave enough as school and trust leaders or as an organisation to identify, try out, pursue and then share new and different ways of thinking?
At Challenge Partners we focus on disciplined innovation and this year we have been really pleased to try something different in relation to support for SEND pupils which continues to be a pressing issue for mainstream primary and secondary schools. 37 schools volunteered to be part of our pilot SEND review programme and it is now fully established as part of our School Improvement Offer. It is an immersive and experiential programme. Additionally, a number of hubs have also organised and delivered the Middle Leadership QAR.
So how has Challenge Partners supported excellence, innovation, collaboration and challenge this year?
We delivered our highest ever number of Quality Assurance Reviews (426), receiving an average 4.8/5 satisfaction score.
Feedback has also been excellent for our tailored school improvement programmes, Growing the Top and Extending Leading Practice (also at 4.8/5), while an impressive 98% of participants on our aforementioned pioneering SEND Developmental Peer Review programme said they had learned something that would improve their SEND provision.
Our trust programmes of Peer Reviews and Trust Leaders’ Network visits also received excellent feedback scores with the recent seventh annual Trust Leaders’ Conference on the theme of Delivering Inclusive Excellence scoring a whopping 4.9/5!
So thank you to all of you for collaborating with each other to offer a high level of support and challenge across our programmes throughout the past year – and also a huge thank you to the Challenge Partners central team, our Education Advisory Group, and Board of trustees. With the end of term but days away for many of you, I wish you a peaceful and well earned summer break.