Academies Conference 2027

TBC, Newcastle Upon Tyne

Book your place

Thu 21 January 2027

09:00 - 16:00

TBC, Newcastle Upon Tyne

SAVE THE DATE!

Bringing the region’s trust leaders together to understand what’s changing, tackle shared challenges and lead what comes next.

The Schools North East Academies Conference 2027 brings together more than 200 Trust CEOs, senior leaders, Head Teachers and education professionals from trusts and maintained schools for one of the North East’s leading events exploring the academies and trust landscape.

Trusts are playing an increasingly important role in the future of education, while leaders continue to navigate significant change across accountability, SEND and inclusion, curriculum, funding, workforce and the wider policy landscape. At the same time, our region continues to face the ‘structural divide’ – the long-standing inequalities that mean children and young people in the North East do not have access to the same opportunities as their peers elsewhere in the country.

Trusts and schools have a critical role to play in changing that. Against this backdrop, strong leadership, collaboration and a clear understanding of what comes next have never been more important.

The Schools North East Academies Conference creates the space to step away from the day-to-day and look at the bigger picture: what is changing, what it means for your trust and schools, and how we can respond collectively as a region.

Through keynote speakers, practical workshops and thought-provoking discussion, delegates will hear from leading voices across education, explore the issues shaping the trust landscape and learn from the experiences of colleagues from across the North East and beyond.

Join leaders from across the North East and beyond as we begin Schools North East’s 20th anniversary year – connecting our region, strengthening our collective voice and looking ahead to what comes next for schools and trusts. Book now.

Show more information Book your place

Event Organiser

Event Costs

SNE Partner School£100 +VAT

Non-Partner School£160 +VAT

Commercial/Educational Supporter£250 +VAT

Non School£300 +VAT

Book your place

Chris Zarraga

Director, Schools North East

Chris is the Director of School North East. He has been part of the Schools North East team since its operational inception in 2008 and in 2019 he was appointed Director. Chris works with senior leaders across the North East and nationally in the education and charity sectors, to represent the voice of North East schools. A central part of his work is to lobby politicians, policy makers, and the media to put a strong ‘regional accent’ on the education debate, so that North East schools are not left behind when it comes to education policy.

Under Chris, Schools North East launched the ‘Manifesto for North East Education’. The manifesto sets out the perennial challenges that impact educational opportunities in the North East and the principles needed to inform any educational policy wanting to address them.

Chris works with hundreds of schools across the North East and various organisations including Ofsted, the DfE, the North East’s universities, Local Authorities and various regional/ national businesses. Prior to joining Schools North East, he led a £1.4 million culture change project in education across the North East for the Treasury and DfE and was responsible for setting up a multi-million pound Enterprise Education Network.

Chris sits on various advisory boards including the NHS Integrated Care Boards, various Combined Authority advisory boards, and was a member of the DfE’s Opportunity North East strategic board. He has also sat on various boards for North East Universities. As well as being a Director of two North East multi academy trusts, Chris has been Chair of a 3 school Trust, Vice Chair of a large maintained secondary school and Vice Chair of a primary foundation school.

In a variety of roles from Regional Manager to Chief Executive to Board member, Chris has led large scale change management projects in education and has over 20 years’ experience of strategic management, consultancy, and client development experience at a ‘Big Four’ firm and various financial institutions.

Chris holds an MBA with distinction from Durham University Business School.