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Trust Leaders’ Conference 2024: Dr Kate Chhatwal

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On election day, we hosted our seventh annual Challenge Partners Trust Leaders' Conference, Delivering Inclusive Excellence. While voters went to the polls, we crafted the messages we will share with our new political leaders in the days, weeks and months ahead.

Trust leaders were inspired by keynotes from Jon Yates (Youth Endowment Fund) on how we can make schools a safe space for everyone; Leora Cruddas CBE (CST) on emerging insights into inclusive excellence in trusts; and Paralympic medalist and television presenter Ade Adepitan MBE on overcoming obstacles. They collaborated through the day in expert- and peer-led carousels, and vibrant World Cafe discussions.

The event built on last year’s conference where we developed Big Ideas to lead the system to excellence and equity.

First among those ideas was a system with children at its heart, a system where the services and support children need to flourish are aligned and arranged for the ease and convenience of those children, not of service providers.

The idea was to build those services - for physical and mental health, for safety, all aspects of flourishing and wellbeing - around groups of schools, recognising the unique role of schools in children and families’ lives and freeing teachers to do what they do best… to teach.

The second idea was about giving teachers the space to innovate and engage with the changing world, encouraging them to judiciously bring the outside world and children’s lived experiences into the classroom.

One element of this was around the role of technology and AI, which is why we were pleased Thursday's conference was sponsored by Leading AI and included carousels that explored AI and technology from different perspectives, led by Kieron White, Pete F. Atherton PHD, and Cheryl Shirley from LEO Academy Trust.

The other two ideas concerned recognising and supporting the crucial role of school and trust leaders, and a new social contract between the profession, politicians and the public.

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Thursday's conference moved beyond ideas to what it will take to actually deliver truly inclusive excellence.

This has never mattered more. There are too many children and young people for whom our current system doesn’t work well enough. This includes many of the 1.5 million pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, with 74% of parents saying their child’s needs are not fully met.

It includes many others too - whether children in care or children who are carers; those caught up in violence or victims of violence; children living in poverty or destitution, whose hardship creates a multiplicity of barriers to learning and success; children whose race, gender, sexuality, disability, culture or religion means they face the daily challenge of systemic injustice, inhibiting their chance to learn and thrive.

We explored over the course of the day not only what truly inclusive excellence looks like, but the barriers to achieving it and the action we can take at all levels to dismantle these barriers and deliver education and environments that really work for all.

The task is too big for any of us to succeed alone, that is why we must work in partnership - not just within our trusts, not just within Challenge Partners, but far beyond. That was why we were pleased to host the conference in collaboration with Confederation of School Trusts, and to welcome partners from Ambition Institute, ImpactEd Group and Social Business Trust.