10 take-aways from the SNE Summit 2022

The Schools North East Summit 2022 was a triumph. I left St. James' Park with more energy than when I arrived, and with a renewed sense of hope, which can't be said for many visiting teams this year.

Here are my ten take-aways:

1. The region's children are very lucky to have Schools North East in their corner.

As visiting speakers commented time and again, no other region of the country can boast anything like Schools North East, covering as it does over 1000 schools and working directly with over 4000 school leaders in the past year alone. It is an organisation that advocates for and works tirelessly on behalf of the region's schools, and ultimately, the region's children. Director Chris Zarraga opened the conference with an excellent summary of the work of SNE, describing the organisation as 'The Voice, The Glue, The Bridge'. It was through the relentless campaigning and evidence base of SNE that the narrative around the North-South results gap was rightly framed around the effects of deprivation rather than a gap in the skill levels of teachers this summer.

2. 'Now more than ever, businesses and education need to work together to steady the ship'.

These were the words of Liam Roberts, CEO of The Edwin Group, main sponsor of this year's event. 

As school leaders emerge from the pandemic with a new set of crises to navigate, not least a recruitment emergency in the profession, there was a focus on retention via aspirational pathways for teachers. This was a theme that emerged later in the panel discussion, where Flexible Working was suggested as a possible part of the retention and recruitment question (as schools wait for news on pay and conditions in the meantime).

3. School Leaders are the last to come out of COVID.

John Hardy OBE gave an impassioned speech, taking an historic perspective on the 3 themes of the conference: Reflect, Re-Frame, Reach-Out. He called for a 're-framing' of the narrative around the word resilience: '...if we give [children] the sense they are loved, that they can change the world, this is how we give them resilience'. Furthermore, 'teachers should remember that they are doing an impossible job and they are doing it well'. How do we keep going?: it is with friends and networks, together. This was a theme that would be touched on again in the Keynote.

4. We still haven't processed what happened to us during the pandemic

The KeyNote speech was delivered by educational journalist and co-founder of Teacher Tapp, Laura McInerney. Teacher Tapp surveys 8000 teachers a day and we learned of the trends in responses over the period of the pandemic, particularly around the question of work-related anxiety. As we were taken back through the period from Spring 2020 to the summer of 2021, I wasn't the only one in the room feeling the emotions of those months all over again. 

As leaders, have we given staff the space and opportunity to reflect on what we came through, and recognised that we have emerged from the pandemic in a very different profession? 

We reflected on the darkest moments and also that feeling of joy when the children came back after the second lockdown. The call for community and solidarity between schools and colleagues emerged again, '...the opposite of uncertainty...is community'.

On National Poetry Day, we reflected on The Circle by Edwin Markham:

5. Relationships and Trust are key in cross-school partnerships.

In the first break-out session, we heard of the success and the learnings from the Opportunity North East scheme from a panel led by Professor Rob Coe. It was clear that the leaders on the ground appreciated the flexibility and space that came from a 3-year funded period to work collaboratively to improve in the areas they had identified. As a result of the interventions and collaborative work between partner schools, the proportion of Good and Outstanding Schools had risen from 58% to 72%, with a further rise expected after upcoming inspections. The joint planning and 'relationships-first' approach is something to strive for in my own outreach work with schools.

6. 'Much of the gap between disadvantaged students and their peers happens at home'.

In Lee Elliot Major's talk, we learned of the stark disparities between disadvantaged children and their peers. The nuance of each child's situation is not always reflected in FSM or PP figures. It is possible that classroom teaching can exacerbate existing inequities (The Matthew Effect), as can badly delivered homework tasks and even 1-1 tutoring if not structured well. We were given practical ideas to reach out to families and were encouraged to engage in 'deep listening' and regular communication. The evidence suggests that Art and Sport can be a good way to develop skills that these students need more than perhaps some of the more academic skills.

7. 'If the government is serious about levelling up, it must address social determinants of educational inequality'.

Natalie Perera is CEO of the Education Policy Institute , she took us through figures that chimed with the earlier data from Laura McInerney and Lee Elliot Major. In particular that there has been no real change in the disadvantage gap between 2015 and 2020, with the gap widening for those described as 'persistently disadvantaged' (FSM for 80%+ of their schooling). Moreover, the proportion of persistently disadvantaged students is growing. While the NE does well in EYFS, it drops down the regional charts by Secondary level. There was a call for a cross-government department Child Poverty Strategy to acknowledge the multiple factors at play beyond the school gates.

8. 'Schools can't be thought of as the 4th Emergency Service'

John Roberts (TES) chaired a superb panel discussion, in which school leaders joined Natalie Perera to give their views on a range of topical questions. There was a consensus that the government should prioritise poverty, teacher recruitment , SEND and AP. Funding emerged as an issue in relation to most questions, with a real concern that unfunded pay rises will mean cuts in staffing.

9. There is no tangible education policy agenda from the new government.

Sam Freedman took the final slot of the day with an overview of the current political situation with regards to Education Policy (or lack of). There were some rays of hope around the SEND Green paper, and reviews on social care and family policy. Otherwise the picture was pretty bleak...it was a case of 'watch this space'.

10. Schools North East know how to put on an event. 

Chapeau to Anna O'Neill and the team for a fantastic day and top hospitality.

Lots of learnings for our upcoming Vision, Values and Character Conference on Wednesday 16 November.