First, why does Yorks100 exist?

Yorkshire is a big county.

And it has a big, widely prevalent problem: poverty.

Two years ago, the DfE deemed that 1 in 5 children across Yorkshire and The Humber were experiencing economic disadvantage.

That’s more than 420,000 children—not far off the entire population of Leeds—waking up every single day facing significant barriers to them exploring, engaging, and thriving in our schools.

And it hasn’t been plain sailing since 2021, either. An ongoing global health pandemic and ensuing macroeconomic crisis have combined to increase both the intensity and complexity of the issues faced by these children and their families, while significantly reducing the capacity of already overstretched and disjointed public services.

But Yorkshire is a proud county.

Yorkshire’s not shy and seldom backs down from a challenge.

And a group of thirteen school trusts from right across the county are stepping up to lead the effort in identifying and nurturing 100 future school leaders to come together to eradicate endemic educational inequality in Yorkshire.

That’s the mission.

Together, we’re going to establish an internationally-informed, regionally-led, and community-focused school leadership development programme; supporting 100 high-impact school leaders into their first headships in Yorkshire over the next five years.

A bit like the SW100—but different. Because place matters.

What’s unique about it?

The Yorks100 is part school leadership programme; part collective impact project.

Endemic educational inequality isn’t complicated—it’s complex. Framing and accepting the issue as such gives shape to how we approach it. As with all complex problems, we know there’s no magic bullet that’ll solve it and no one person or organisation has all the answers. It’s a shared challenge impervious to lone interventions.

That means the programme isn’t about sharing tips, tricks and toolkits with a bunch of individuals but, rather, establishing a powerful network of leaders, organisations and institutions to integrate actions and achieve systems-level change. Nobody is as smart as everybody.

For this to work, we know what matters:

Getting the right individuals involved matters—both on the programme and in the movement. We’re looking for people who share our commitment and are determined to initiate change with the humility to listen, learn and adapt as they do so.

Building strong, trusting relationships between those people matters. This is fundamental. The Relationships Project reckons that when relationships are “nurtured, valued and prioritised, people are happier and healthier, communities are stronger and more resilient, and businesses are more successful and efficient”. We agree and are committed to relationship-centred practice.

Belonging matters. And to foster it, we need to develop a literacy of scales because we recognise that different-sized groups are good at different things. Small and mighty teams can do things that larger groups can’t—and vice versa. The community-building practice, Microsolidarity, talks about ‘crews’ and ‘congregations’. A crew being a small but mighty team—“active, dynamic, practical and engaged”. Crews are highly-efficient, highly-impactful units. A congregation is larger: small enough for members to know a bit about one another but big enough to support crews to coalesce. This is a good way to think about the five, distinct, 20(ish)-person-strong cohorts that will make up the core Yorks100 programme, and the movement we’re building around it.

So that’s what this page is all about

We’ll be using this page to share some key reflections, provocations, insights and challenges we’re uncovering with you—to build momentum towards our shared vision of all children in Yorkshire enjoying lives of choice and opportunity.

There’ll be more questions than answers!

If you share our commitment and want to join us on the journey, subscribe to our monthly blast below.

Find out more about what the programme actually entails here.