Steve Cram on the lessons education can take from sporting transformation
North East sporting legend Steve Cram will join 500 school and trust leaders at the Schools North East Summit 2026 in less than two weeks, as the region comes together at a pivotal moment for education and the government’s Mission North East agenda.
The Summit, now in its eighteenth year, is the largest regional gathering of Trust CEOs, Head Teachers and senior school leaders in the UK. This year’s event will focus on the role education can play in transforming the North East’s future, at a time when national attention is increasingly focused on regional growth and tackling the barriers that have held communities back. View the full Summit programme and book your place.
Lessons from the world of sport
Cram’s keynote will offer a perspective from beyond education on what successful, long-term transformation looks like, drawing on the experience of someone whose own story is firmly rooted in the North East.
Born in Gateshead and raised in Jarrow, Cram went from running in the North East to competing on the world stage, becoming a World and European Champion and Olympic medallist. Along the way, he experienced first-hand the transformation of British athletics from a struggling system into one capable of sustained international success.
Cram argues that central to this change was a move away from one-size-fits-all, top-down approaches. Instead, those closest to the challenges were trusted to identify problems and develop solutions, with government providing the funding and support to make them possible.
It’s a message with clear parallels for education in the North East. As we’ve explored in our recent analysis of place-based policy, evidence from previous government programmes points to the importance of long-term investment, genuine local influence and giving those closest to the challenges the scope to shape solutions.
What this could mean for Mission North East
Those lessons have clear relevance to the debate around Mission North East.
As we’ve consistently argued, tackling the region’s structural disadvantage requires policy rooted in an understanding of place. Children and young people in the North East continue to face challenges created by the ‘structural divide’, with inequalities in access to opportunity that cannot be addressed through education policy alone, or through approaches designed without the experience of the communities they are intended to support.
Cram’s story raises an important question for the region: what could be achieved if the same scope for long-term, locally led change was applied to the North East?
His keynote will explore how transformation can happen when those closest to the challenges are given the freedom to develop solutions and think for the long term, backed with the resources to deliver them and held accountable for results, without being constrained by short-term interventions set from above.
Shaping what comes next for North East education
That conversation will sit within a wider Summit programme bringing together voices from education and beyond to examine the challenges facing North East schools and the opportunities ahead.
With major national policy developments continuing to reshape education, and the government putting the region at the heart of its Mission North East programme, the Summit will give school and trust leaders an opportunity not simply to respond to change, but to contribute to shaping it.
For Schools North East, that means ensuring the knowledge and experience within the region’s schools informs the decisions that will determine its future.
Don’t miss out on the big ideas and conversations set to help shape the future of education in the North East. Book your place now and bring colleagues from your school or trust to join leaders from across the region.