Cumbria Education Trust (CET) held its second Shaping Our Future conference, which brought together educational leaders, local authorities and industry experts on Thursday 19th September 2024 to explore the intricacies of the educational landscape as it stands. Held at The Halston, Carlisle, the event featured a series of high-profile keynote speakers and a panel discussion that addressed critical issues we face as an sector, forward thinking ideas and thought-provoking insights into how we can shape tomorrow’s world for our young people.
The conference provided an opportunity for over 170 attendees to collaborate, share knowledge and discuss strategies – an ideal setting to network and make connections across Cumbria.
As the attendees started arriving at the conference, Workington Academy Theatre group entertained the crowd with a 30-minute medley on songs. In an excellent display of confidence, talent and musical prowess, the group started the event with a bang! Thank you to Miss Houghton for her extraordinary talent for nurturing and getting the best out of her students, and Mrs Robertson for accompanying the group.
One of the performers, Millie, Year 9, said “Performing as part of the conference was an amazing opportunity. It developed my confidence performing and it was a brilliant feeling seeing the audiences reaction.”
Lorrayne Hughes OBE, Chief Executive at Cumbria Education Trust, welcomed the attendees, before introducing Yewdale Primary School Choir to the stage. Each pupil impressed the audience with a spirited and entertaining performance, showcasing their musical skills with excellence. Thank you to Mrs Gibson and Miss Ingleton for choreographing this fantastic performance and chaperoning the children.
Lorrayne commented, “I thought the song ‘We’re All In This Together’ was very fitting with the evening, as we truly are all in this together. A big thank you to all the students, for their immaculate behaviour, talented performance and showcasing our values so wonderfully.”
Session 1
The first speaker at Shaping Our Future was Sir Ian Bauckham CBE, Chief Regulator, Ofqual. Ofqual is the independent regulator for qualifications, exams and assessments in England. It maintains standards and public confidence in GCSE, A and AS levels, as well as vocational and technical qualifications. The Chief Regulator’s role is to ensure the delivery of Ofqual’s statutory objectives and duties – including maintaining standards and promoting confidence in qualifications and assessments.
Ian spoke about the landscape of qualifications across both the secondary and primary sectors and what it may look like moving forward. Feedback from this session included, “It was good as a primary head to get an overview of qualifications post-primary. Interesting to see the growing trend of vocational gathering pace – thankfully. Assurance that standards are rigorously monitored at a national level”.
Session 2
Following this, we welcomed Leora Cruddas CBE to the stage. Leora is the founding Chief Executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, a national organisation and sector body for school trusts in England. She has advised successive governments and sits on several Department for Education advisory bodies.
Leora’s engaging and insightful presentation discussed how everyone in the room can work towards building a better future together. She addressed questions such as ‘How do children and young people, and those who educate them in our schools, flourish?’ and ‘How do we address the multiple negative impacts of the pandemic and the current economic challenges we face?’
One attendee commented, “I could listen to Leora all day. Insightful but especially strong on leadership culture, emotional intelligence and community”.
“Shaping Our Future was a great opportunity to hear from first-class speakers and get up-to-date information regarding the educational landscape. Not only are the challenges we all face discussed, but also insights into what the future holds. Spending time networking with colleagues, presenters and meeting new professionals was invaluable.”
– Tayna Peers, Headteacher at Flimby Primary School, part of Changing Lives Trust
Session 3
Next up, Luke Sparkes, Chief Executive at Dixons Academies Trust delivered his talk on Trust Trifecta: smart and healthy for the next-gen workforce. Throughout his career, Luke has been consistently committed to challenging educational disadvantage in complex urban settings in the North.Luke shared his approach to flexible working, which has recently made national headlines.
He discussed in detail how trusts and educational leaders can prepare, plan and proceed with driving values and how people are our greatest strength. One Headteacher said of this session, “Well-presented, thought-provoking, engaging and a little bit challenging (which I like because it made me think and reflect)”.
Session 4
The first half of Shaping Our Future concluded with Jonathan Smart, North West Regional Director at Ofsted. In January 2024, Ofsted announced that they would carry out a ‘Big Listen’, a comprehensive consultation that asked for people’s views on how to improve Ofsted’s approach to inspection and regulation. This public consultation received 16,033 responses, which made it the largest consultation in Ofsted’s history.
Jonathan’s presentation, titled ‘Hearing Feedback and Building a Better Ofsted: The Response to the Big Listen’, delved into the findings of this consultation and what it means for schools and Ofsted inspections moving forward. An attendee reflected, “Very important presence for Cumbria to hear what Ofsted has to say. Important we keep engaging with Ofsted in future conversations”.
A networking break allowed our attendees to converse with each other, building on the foundation that we are all in this together and collaboration can make each of us stronger. It was wonderful to see so many thoughtful conversations started and email addresses exchanged, to allow for future discussions to be had.
Panel Discussion
Next up, we welcomed our panel discussion. Philippa Cordingley, Chief Executive at the Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education (CUREE), led the panel, which included Isobel Booler, Assistant Director for Education & Inclusion at Westmorland and Furness Council, Emma Hamer, Assistant Director – Education, SEND and Inclusion at Cumberland Council, Dr Ruth Harrison-Palmer, Director of the Institute of Education, Arts and Society at the University of Cumbria and Dale Hill, Director at the Well Project. The panel shared their personal priorities in education and the challenges they face. They then discussed how to address those challenges and ways to move forward.
Session 5
The penultimate speaker was Steve Farndon, Instructional coach and Associate Director at Ambition Institute. Steve delivers a range of programmes at Ambition Institute – he leads their Instructional Coaching programme, teaches on their Master’s in Expert Teaching and across their NPQ programmes. He is particularly interested in how educational research can help teachers and school leaders better support the communities that they serve.
His session, titled ‘What is the goal of teacher development?’ looked into the challenges schools faced, and how teacher development can contribute to better pupil outcomes. One Headteacher commented, “Very engaging. It made me want to get stuck into this style of teacher development once I know more about it!”.
Session 6
To conclude Shaping Our Future, Mark Gregory, Regional Director at One World presented his session called Tackling Misalignments: What Global Education Change Efforts Can Teach Us about Implementation’. Mark is an experienced education leader with over 25 years of service in disadvantaged communities. He also leads the development of instructional coaching for large multi-academy trusts in the UK.
His talk included goals and targets, the importance of being adaptive and how important alignment throughout education is. One attendee commented, “This was really informative and the work One World does is inspiring”.
“The range and calibre of speakers and organisations that we heard from at Shaping our Future provided me with invaluable national and sector insights, broadening my understanding and knowledge to help me in my role to support our school leaders to improve outcomes for and life chances of our pupils, and also their wider families and community. The conference will also have given educators encouragement and confidence to rise to challenges and explore creative solutions to help their students and schools to flourish.”
– Kelly Pattison, LAB Chair and Safeguarding LAB Lead at Newtown Primary School
Thank you to our Shaping Our Future key speakers who provided such useful and insightful information. Thank you also to the panellists, who provided us with key information about the landscape of education in Cumbria and thank you to the CET staff who organised the event. We would also like to thank Mike and his team at The Halston for allowing us to use their venue for our conference.
Lorrayne commented, “Seeing leaders and educators from all corners of Cumbria come together for an evening of collaboration, networking and discussions – all with the aim of making the future of our young people better – was fantastic to witness. Thank you to all attendees for making Shaping Our Future a huge success”.
Shaping Our Future is just one way that CET is paving the way for education in Cumbria. The collaborative work CET continues to work on is for the benefit of our young people, and we strongly believe that together, we are stronger.
