Dame Julia Cleverdon: “North East such an entrepreneurial place for education”
“The North East is one of the most special places in Britain,” said Dame Julia Cleverdon at the SCHOOLS NorthEast Patron’s Dinner.
Addressing the 300-strong attendees at the dinner, held at the Biscuit Factory, Newcastle, Dame Julia focused her speech on the importance of the North East on education, how instrumental SCHOOLS NorthEast was in bringing a spotlight to the region, and how instilling career ambition and leadership goals in children is important for us all.
The Vice President of Business in the Community said: “SCHOOLS NorthEast was so ahead of the curve 10 years ago with putting children first. Other parts of the UK has found this so difficult, but the North East was, and is, such an entrepreneurial place.”
Dame Julia Cleverdon, the key note speaker for Patron’s Dinner 2018, was the former Special Adviser to The Prince’s Charities and promotes collaboration among leaders from business, government, education and community organisations to build a more robust society.
Dame Julia told guests at the Patron’s Dinner about her experience of visiting a school in Newcastle some years ago with Sir Mike Darrington from Greggs and how meeting the children and the Head Teacher showed her how much pressure schools were under beyond teaching.
She was keen to stress with attendees the importance of helping disadvantaged children, in all aspect of education.
She said: “We met the Head Teacher, who no doubt could have done without us all there, and he was trying to convince the children to eat their breakfast.
“Mike Darrington of Greggs said to the Head, ‘why don’t we focus on the breakfast so you can focus on the school’, and that was the first time I saw a Breakfast Club be established in a school.
“One of the most important things to do is give poor children breakfast.”
Dame Julia’s speech then moved on to addressing instilling career ambition in children, and how the 16 North East schools secondary schools were instrumental in making the Gatsby Benchmarks work.
She said: “The pilot in North East is now the basis on which the Government’s new statutory Careers Strategy is based on – this region is an innovative place.
“You’ve done a great job in instilling ambition, but everybody must embrace this innovation. We need to engage young people in leadership.
“Teacher by teacher, school by school, we must build ambition leadership ambition in our children.”
Speaking of Teach First, of which she was Chair of from 2006 to 2014, Dame Julia said that 29% of ‘Teach Firsters’ were Free School Meal children themselves.
She concluded: “In the end, the only answer is to inspire and enthuse others to come into education. Put education into the hands of the long-term thinkers, rather than it be used as a political football.
“Ultimately, we must be inspired ourselves.”