Schools North East holds its sixth Annual Academies Conference to highest turn out ever

Schools North East holds its sixth Annual Academies Conference to highest turn out ever

On the 26th January 2023 senior leaders from academies and multi academy trusts from across the region and beyond gathered at St. James’ Park for the sixth annual Schools North East Academies Conference. Speakers included Shadow Secretary for Education Bridget Phillipson, Leora Cruddas CBE, and Sir David Carter. 

The day provided a chance for delegates to network and explore the unique challenges they face, allowing them to stay up to date with how policies, practices and procedures impact their trusts or academies. This year, Schools North East also reached out to maintained schools offering them an ideal opportunity to learn about the ins and outs of academisation to help them better understand the implications of last year’s White Paper. 

The Academies Conference has already received glowing feedback from those in attendance and the sessions have made national news headlines. 

Bridget Phillipson MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary for Education

Born in Gateshead, educated in Washington and currently serving as MP for Houghton and Sunderland South, it is no surprise that the Shadow Secretary Bridget Phillipson was able to relate and connect to the delegates at the Schools North East event.

Bridget Phillipson MP presented her Keynote ‘Raising Standards for Every Child’. Her speech gave a clear message of Labour’s Education priorities, which she then gave further context on in her Q and A session.

Delegates tweeted about the Keynote calling Bridget ‘so refreshing’ and that ‘her words suggest she has an insight and understanding to our sector’. Another tweet read:

‘I have observed so many Under-secretaries of State give speeches prior to a potential change in government. They are often deliberately vague or focus on very narrow areas. @bphillipsonMP speech to @SCHOOLSNE #SNEAcademies23 conference was clear, detailed and well structured.’

To read our full write up of her session, click here.

Leora Cruddas CBE

Chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts Leora Cruddas opened the conference with a moving session expressing her concerns about education ministers’ silence in the Schools White Paper. 

In her session, ‘A View from the Bridge Leora offered an analysis of the current policy landscape and the status of the Schools White Paper. The paper set out for all state schools in England to be in or moving towards academisation by 2030. Since it was published in March 2022, there have been five secretaries of state.

Current Education Secretary Gillian Keegan recently told MPs that the Schools Bill that followed the White Paper will be scrapped, with very little guidance on what it means for schools. 

In Leora’s session, she emphasised the need to put children first, stating that we shouldn’t make our priority a ‘high quality and inclusive education’ and instead acknowledge there is no such thing as a high quality education that does not include inclusive education. Leora also tried to change perspectives on the term ‘social mobility’. She stated that while social mobility is a force to elevate a few, social justice elevates all and therefore education should be a force to mobilise social justice.

For further reading, Leora recommended reading A Good Life: towards greater dignity for people with learning disability, a Confederation of School Trusts paper that was written not from the perspective of policy reform but of that of a parent, shifting the mental model to put the dignity of the child first. She also pointed delegates towards reading their pamphlet  Starting with Why: Why join a trust – and why a trust-based system? to help schools understand the power of joining a trust.

Sir David Carter

Sir David Carter, Former National Schools Commissioner and Executive Director of System Leadership at Ambition Institute delivered two sessions at the Academies Conference including “The questions I should be asking before I agree to join a Multi Academy Trust” and his Keynote “What is a strong trust? How do I know if this is our organisation? What does it mean to merge?”.

Break out sessions 

As well as the three Keynotes delivered at the Academies Conference, delegates also listened to a variety of sessions covering many different aspects of being in a trust, including finance, cyber security, growth and disadvantage.

Katherine Cowell, Regional Director for North East from the Department of Education delivered a popular session called ‘Where next – the Schools White Paper in the North East’, providing an update on governmental priorities and implementation for the region.

Julie Deville, CEO and Elliot Stirk, CFO, Extol Academy Trust ran a session on the marriage of education and business explaining how they work in partnership with each other to create successful and sustainable leadership within their trust. Lee Elliot Major OBE, Professor of Social Mobility, University of Exeter, delivered a session ‘Improving outcomes for poorer pupils in the post pandemic era‘.

Julie Collins, Commercial Director Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education Trust and David Shields, Director of Bishop Wilkinson Commercial Services explained how they utilised local suppliers to support their local community whilst also saving them over five million in the process. Emma Harrison, COO of Bishop Chadwick Catholic Education Trust and Sarah Burns, Co-Founder & Director of Data2Action, delivered a joint session about tailored insight into school strategic planning and improvement for trusts. 

Education Sector leadership consultant Julie Sheppard once again emphasised the importance of due diligence in her session ‘The People implications of forming or joining a Multi Academy Trust’. Sharon Garrett, Cybersecurity Advisor for the Department for Education looked at common types of Cyber attacks and the damage they can cause, including the costs of recovery. Hugh Hegarty, CEO of Nicholas Postgate Catholic Academy Trust explored the range of issues associated with small MATS merging into one new single entity and the challenges that can arise when growing a trust.

Thank you from the Schools North East Team

The Schools North East Team offer their gratitude to everyone involved in our biggest ever Academies Conference. Chris Zarraga, Director of Schools North East said:

“I hope that this year’s conference helped our delegates return to school refreshed and hopeful for the future. I look forward to continuing to work with them all as we move forward and turn their thoughts from our Academies Conference into a loud, reasoned, and effective Voice to ensure that education policy reflects the needs and hopes of them and their school communities.   Schools North East is The Voice of North East schools – putting a strong regional accent on the education debate. Having a Voice becomes more and more vital if we want policy that is fit for purpose, effective, and worthy of our schools and young people.”

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