Closing residential

And just like that, a year of relationship-building, webinars, school visits and a LOT of reflection is drawing to a close.

With all endings, there is the bittersweet sense of gratitude for the wonderful experiences, sadness that it has come to an end and excitement for what the future holds. With our final visits and conference, we wanted to take all of those feelings and channel them into creating both a meaningful moment and a powerful movement to end educational disadvantage in Yorkshire.

And yes, we are excited about Hamilton coming to Bradford!

For our final visits this year, we stayed put here in Yorkshire. Our aim was to see practice that contrasts with what we’ve seen already (i.e. intensely urban) and (for some) reflects more closely our own settings. 

On Monday, primary colleagues visited two small, rural schools with a shared headteacher across both sites of Riston and Sigglesthorne, part of Ebor Academies Trust. Here, our aspiring leaders were able to see a clear, aligned vision permeating the two schools, strong links with the community, and a commitment to collaboration. They also heard about the challenges and mishaps of leadership; demystifying those nerve-wracking first days and remembering to ask for help if the boiler breaks down on day 1!  We also heard from Dave Barber, Director of Education, sharing his own honest reflections from leadership in school and now at trust level. It is evident that Ebor is providing such thoughtful care and support for its leaders.  

Secondary colleagues were welcomed by one of our own. The inimitable Heather Yates shared her experience of her first year of headship at The Snaith School. Having been in the school for a long time, Heather’s knowledge of her community is extensive and she talked about not wanting (or needing) to lead wholesale change. However, from hanging baskets to pastoral structures, slowly but surely, Heather is making her mark. Students were exceptionally polite, breaktime was beautifully calm and Heather’s staff couldn’t speak more highly of her leadership. Needless to say, we were so proud! In the afternoon, we were able to hear from Scott Ratheram on the Ethical Leadership work happening across TEAL. It is evident that this is a Trust that thinks deeply about both staff wellbeing and maintaining high expectations for all children.

Tuesday saw us united as a cohort once more, this time to visit Springwell Leeds, 1 SEMH special school spread across three sites. With a warm welcome from Mary Ruggles, and expert insights from both Luke Mitchell and Jacob Lawton of Positive Regard, the day was off to a great start. We were keen to visit a specialist setting, not simply because it is such vital work that doesn’t often get the attention it deserves in our sector, but also because Wellspring Academies Trust actively promotes the fact that the specialist settings are the blueprint for their mainstream schools. Intuitively, this feels like a sensible route for a more inclusive schools. Splitting into smaller groups, we were able to explore the facilities, speak to the heads at each site (thanks also to Emma Dodson and Laura Reader for hosting!) and meet some very happy students.

Real strengths were the 10 week induction programme for new staff, the absolute prioritisation of ongoing staff training and wellbeing and the unwavering commitment to the north star of unconditional positive regard, even (especially?) when it’s hard.

We finished the day with a celebration of the achievements of the cohort, joined by members of the Trust Board. In a world of ever-present negativity about the challenges schools face, some pretty lacklustre football and I won’t even mention election debates, hearing from passionate, enthusiastic, articulate, good humoured participants and leaders alike about how this experience has inspired, challenged, provoked, humbled, validated was nothing short of magnificent.

And we have good merch.

Our final day attempted to pull all the threads together. We knew we would need time for looking back and for planning ahead. So Jon delivered an excellent session on Implementation science, drawing heavily on the helpful new EEF guidance. Anna Bosher led us through a final reflection task. Just *some* of the amazing quotes;

Selection day was tough, but I felt it gave the programme gravitas - I had to work for it.

I’d reached a plateau in my career and I didn’t know what to do next - this programme has really supported me.

I feel so much more confident and less lonely

It has lived up to everything I expected and far exceeded it

The listening campaign has made such a big difference to children facing disadvantage; whilst I knew some of the things parents were going to say, some other things really surprised me; the relationships with parents of children with SEND just changed really quickly and for the better

We would not have had 2 new assistant principals in our school had it not been for the recruitment task

And last, but certainly not least, Jenn Plews of Northern Star Academies Trust joined us for a session on application writing and interview practice. There were some tears, some hugs, a lot of laughter and we all left with a renewed, steely resolve; the children and communities of Yorkshire are inherently excellent and our continued shared mission is to remove any barriers in the way of them achieving their full potential, enabling them to enjoy lives of choice and opportunity. 3.30pm on Wednesday 26th June 2024 was a special moment for Cohort 1 of this extraordinary programme.

But we know that this is not just a moment, it’s a movement.

Applications for cohort 2 are now closed. If you are interested in joining cohort 3 in September 2025, subscribe to this substack and complete the following form and we’ll be in touch when recruitment starts again in January 2025.