North East School Business Leaders lead the way
What an incredible day we had at our 12th annual Education Business Conference! For the first time under its new name and in a fantastic new venue, the event truly delivered on its promise to recognise, support, and celebrate the vital work of our region’s School Business Leaders.
The energy and dedication in the room were palpable, proving once again why our schools are not just good, but truly amazing.
The unwavering commitment of our School Business Professionals remains constant
Schools North East Director, Chris Zarraga, kicked off the day with an inspiring address, highlighting the crucial role our business professionals play.
Schools are vital national strategic infrastructure, and our business leaders – the CFOs, COOs, HR leads, operations staff, Heads, and more – are the human architecture that holds that infrastructure together.
Despite the immense challenges thrown their way, including budget deficits and crumbling buildings, he praised their ability to “adapt, lead, and innovate” while keeping schools safe, teams supported, and budgets just about standing, despite this week’s disappointing Spending Review.
Chris’s speech underscored that while much has changed in education over the past twelve years, the unwavering commitment of our School Business Professionals remains constant. He championed them as “the beating heart of our schools” and “critical national infrastructure” without whom our schools “would grind to a halt.”
Facing current challenges head-on, Chris emphasised that the North East LEADS, NOT PLEADS. He celebrated the fact that the professionals in the room are already doing the work that policymakers in Westminster only talk about, positioning the conference not just as an event, but as a call to action.
The vision: Future Proofing Education
The overarching theme of the conference revolved around Future Proofing Education, a concept that extends far beyond equipment, brick, and mortar. It’s about creating the conditions in which schools and teams can breathe, plan, and grow.
This means not just fixing what’s broken but actively designing better systems that work.
The conference explored how embracing new tools like AI, data, and automation, coupled with investment in wellbeing, knowledge and capacity, are crucial for future success. The deep dive sessions into finance, risk, tech, and strategy were designed to equip attendees with the tools for intentional design.
Inspiring keynotes
The conference featured two highly engaging keynote speakers who further enriched the day:
Insights Discovery: Communication Strategies for Success was delivered by Claire Knowles, Director, Karen Knowles Training and Development. Her session provided invaluable strategies for effective communication, a cornerstone of successful school operations.
It was a highly engaging keynote that had delegates respond candidly to questions that helped them better understand whether they were more introverted or extroverted, and if they lead with thoughts rather than feelings.
Similarly, Getting the Best out of Yourself in order to Empower Others, presented by Adam Wright, Mentor, Chimp Management, focused on personal effectiveness, enabling leaders to better support and inspire their teams.
It was fascinating to explore the “Chimp Model” and reflect on why and how we sometimes get overwhelmed with emotions, and do things that we regret later. Most notably, it was a fantastic opportunity to reflect on our behaviour and pinpoint areas we can improve.
Empowering our people
A cornerstone of the conference’s theme was Empowering People, recognised as “perhaps the most important piece.”
As Chris highlighted at the beginning of the day, without people… none of this works. The dedicated sessions focused on building resilient, connected, and supported teams. From discussions on wellbeing to recruitment, and from leadership to communication, the emphasis was firmly on human infrastructure, the most precious resource of all.
Together we explored employment law changes, school marketing and artificial intelligence, professional and wellbeing development strategies, and maximising non-teaching position recruitment opportunities.
Building our infrastructure
The Building Infrastructure strand of our theme was driven by the importance of creating sustainable, future-focused environments for our team and students.
Throughout the day, we uncovered how to create a solid climate action plan, how to manage staff reputation legal protection, what a good estates strategy looks like, and how to ensure operational resilience across business continuity planning.
Developing our systems
Across the education landscape, systems are changing faster than we can process, but it’s crucial we understand, adapt, and treat them as the opportunities they are – not threats.
This strand offered expertise and insights across critical topics including data protection and cybersecurity and in the age of artificial intelligence, implementing smarter systems through operational excellence, emerging legal considerations around artificial intelligence, and key budget and planning concepts.
Only the beginning
The day was a powerful reminder of the incredible work being done in North East schools, often against significant odds. It was a chance to connect, share, and collectively strengthen the voice of our region’s education leaders.
A huge thank you to ALL our speakers for their invaluable contributions, our fantastic exhibitors and sponsors for showcasing their services, Education Mutual for being our amazing main sponsors, and most importantly, to every School Business Leader who joined us yesterday. Your dedication is the bedrock of education in the North East, and we are immensely proud to support you.
As we often say, the country has a lot to learn from how you lead in the North East – from the compassion, creativity, and refusal to give up on any child. The joy of making a school community feel like home, of mentoring colleagues, and of unlocking possibilities for children, remains the driving force.
In a moment of immense challenge and change, the leadership of our School Business Professionals has never been more important, and their collective voice more vital.
Yesterday, we used this platform to strengthen that voice, to connect, inspire, equip, and empower each other. We truly led, rather than just pleaded. For every child, for every school, for the future of our region.