Opportunity-Dignity-Agency: take-aways from the ‘Place-Based Change’ Roundtable

 

“…a commitment to protecting children from poverty is the hallmark of a civilised society”

[UNICEF, 2012]

I was delighted to be invited to a recent RoundTable event at Teeside University, delivered by Tees-Valley Education in partnership with the Chartered College of Teaching. The small, but perfectly formed group comprised some of the key players in the North East Education landscape: with Schools North East rubbing shoulders with North of Tyne Authority, University representation sitting side-by-side with CEOs of MATs and all brought together by the indefatigable Sean Harris. The guest of honour was DameAlison Peacock, who led an impassioned call-to-arms, urging local educators to take agency on behalf of children, teachers and communities.

Here are my key take-aways:

1. The national-level policy agenda can often miss the local context.

We discussed the  need for ‘place-based change’ , based on where ‘pain points’ might differ between our communities across the region.

“It is about doing the right thing for the children in your context” [Dame Alison Peacock]

There was a consensus that we should ‘start with context’– i.e. what are the problems flagged by hyper-local, granular-level data?: we can then build the solutions from there. In other words, as Adrian Dougherty [North of Tyne Combined Authority] put it, "...the solution is more likely to be bottom up than top down".

2. The Education space needs more ‘Gracious Disruptors’.

The phrase Gracious Disruptors came up more than once, and struck a chord with many in the room. Listening to Katrina Morley, CEO of TVED, I was ready to run through a brick wall to begin the gracious disruption! 

"… what is the Art of the Possible?... big issues need big solutions…"

3. We are more than the sum of our parts.

"Partnership is going to be one of the key levers of change for our region’"[Sean Harris]

There was a call to move away from local-level rivalry driven by league table pressures and 'bums on seats'. While there needs to be a level of pragmatism around this issue, surely there are common threads where shared endeavour can benefit all?

4. Where is poverty proofing covered in ITT?

With the Cost of Living crisis exacerbating the existing poverty crisis, we discussed whether and when a grounding in poverty-proofing will appear on the ITT curriculum as a core thread of knowledge.

5. We don’t need to look outside our region for solutions...

"... we have the experts in the room!’ [Prof Dr Stuart Kime, Evidence-Based-Education]

Identifying the emerging leaders, experts and disruptors in our contexts must be a priority as we build on proven levers for local change. How do we shine a light on best practice and new, innovative approaches? 

6. Transforming Learning Capacity is Possible

Dame Alison shared the superb Transforming Learning Capacity framework. As a discussion prompt, it provided a rich example of an approach that has worked elsewhere and could be adapted for our particular contexts. 

7. Learning is Lifelong

How do we make it the norm that 80 year olds can learn alongside 8 year olds? A community doesn't begin and end at school, it goes far wider...

8. Key Strands that we can affect locally can be tackled while waiting for centralised change 

Where we can affect change locally – e.g. oracy in the early years, we need to take a pro-active approach on behalf of our young people. Waiting for centralised policy change is going to miss their childhoods. The problems are very real and they exist today.  

Next steps:

As Katrina Morley put it, ‘This is the beginning of what a new way might look like: a collective will” 

Watch this space...