The new leaders of the Headteachers’ Roundtable want a “solutions-focused conversation” with the new government, rather than “chucking rocks” from the sidelines.
Caroline Barlow, the head of Heathfield Community College in East Sussex, and Keziah Featherstone, executive head of Q3 Academy Tipton and The Ladder School in the West Midlands, were this week named as the group’s new co-chairs.
They replace Caroline Derbyshire, the chief executive of Saffron Academy Trust, and will lead a larger group after four more leaders joined their ranks.
Formed in 2012 out of a “frustration regarding government educational policy”, the think tank aims to provide a “vehicle for people experienced in school leadership to influence national education policymakers”.
‘We’re pissed off’
Its growth has coincided with an increase in school leaders wanting their voices heard on issues such as funding, the impact of Covid and the pressures of school inspection and accountability.
“We’re pissed off,” Featherstone says. “It became really obvious that the sector was disliked, disrespected and marginalised. And what happens to the sector happens to the young people.”
“They get one go at this, and for some of our really under-resourced young people who are extremely vulnerable, it is worth putting your head above the parapet and getting a few shots for them to have a better chance later on.”
Many heads spoke out when schools began to buckle under a growing school funding crisis.
Barlow pays tribute to Jules White, the West Sussex head who spearheaded the WorthLess campaign “at a time that was tricky politically”.
But “probably the biggest argument” for making their voices heard is that “over time, we’ve been proven to be right”.
“It was absolutely categorically shown that schools needed fair and sufficient funding. That argument was won. The argument over accountability would appear to have been persuasive.
“The issue is that right across the board, what is being said is pragmatic, is sensible, is representative, and does attempt to be inclusive.
“There are obviously some that sit on the margins of that, but the majority of voices are about what is best for young people. I struggle to ever hear a head speak that doesn’t put young people at the forefront of what they’re advocating for. That’s hard to disagree with.”
The Roundtable’s campaigns over the years have been prescient.
Nine years ago it warned of the growing recruitment and retention crisis; years before Reading head Ruth Perry’s death it highlighted the negative impact of Ofsted on school leaders, arguing for a pause to inspections. The new government has now scrapped headline judgments.
“We know it’s not the only tragedy,” says Featherstone. “It’s going to take a lot, not just a little pause or the removing of one word or whatever it is. It’s going to take a lot to change the cultural impact of that institution on the sector, because it is horrendous. People think it’s a few isolated cases, and it’s not so.”
Labour is working at pace on Ofsted reform. A consultation on new report cards will launch in the new year, with the new approach coming in next September. Many leaders fear this means their input will only be invited once minds have been made up.
‘Heads must be at the table’
“We have to be part of forming that direction,” Barlow says. “The voice of heads surely has a right to be around that table when you’re deciding how heads and schools are going to be measured.
“It needs to be done with the profession, and it needs to be done with a view of rebuilding trust.”
Barlow’s fear is that “we end up with a new system that appears to try to resolve some of what the perceived issues are without actually understanding [them]”. The “greatest danger” is of unintended consequences.
“I don’t think it’s sufficient to devise a framework and then try and mitigate against what people might do with it.”
Featherstone adds that without serving heads influencing policy, “you’re trying to reform yourself, within an echo chamber, and that doesn’t help anybody. You end up where you started.”
But the Roundtable’s two new leaders don’t just want to be critics, and emphasise their commitment to collaboration.
‘We can influence, but we’re not bothered about the glory’
Barlow is keen for the group to be “part of a solutions-focused conversation”.
“We may well be looking to suggest things that need to be considered, or the pitfalls that might not be obviously avoided.”
Heads needed to be part of “that conversation, nudging things in a more authentic, more successful direction, rather than standing up the sidelines, chucking rocks at people criticising what they are doing.”
The Roundtable’s lobbying organisation has also been beefed-up. Current or former heads Andrew O’Neill, Evelyn Forde, Katrina Morley and Brian Walton have joined, taking its membership to 19.
Dr Kulvarn Atwal, a primary specialist, and Sabrina Hobbs, from the SEND and AP sector, will serve as vice-chairs, balancing out that the co-chairs are secondary leaders.
The group also has five permanent special advisers, including Jon Chaloner, the former chief executive of GLF Schools, Cat Scutt, the deputy chief executive of the Chartered College of Teaching, and Professor Sam Twiselton, a teacher-training expert.
Featherstone says the group’s role is “that we can influence, but we’re not bothered about taking the glory”.
But times when the group has been listened-to are highlights for both the new chairs.
“Sometimes you see the realisation of policy that you’ve tried to influence for a long time, and it comes into being. Or you hear people talking at conference using the language that you’ve used with them. You just think, they’ve listened. They properly listened. And that’s really powerful.”
‘It’s not for everyone’
But that has not always been the case, particularly with a Conservative government that had a more selective group of adviser networks.
Barlow says one of her “greatest disappointments…was in the understandable shelving of the white paper, that we seem to have lost that requirement for collaboration that was kind of buried on the back page”.
The paper stated “we will work with all our partners across the education system, underpinned by the two core principles of using, building, and sharing evidence, and enabling collaboration so that every child is supported to realise their full potential”.
But Barlow added: “Somehow, we need to put that into the system. It’s not a disappointment. It’s a frustration, I suppose, at how politics and education are so intertwined sometimes, and how that affects the impact for young people.”
Do they have any advice for heads who are keen to become campaigners?
“There’s an element of, if it’s not you, don’t do it,” Barlow says. “It’s not a part of the job. They don’t have to. But what is important is that there are people in each locality, in each area, whether that’s through a union or through our networks, or through others where they have access to have their voices heard.”
Featherstone adds: “It could just be that you are completely honest, at a local governing body level, or within your trust, or to someone regional, or to someone in the local authority.
“You don’t necessarily have to take out one of those planes that fly around with a flag over the top. But if you do want to do it … it can sometimes be useful to be part of an amplification rather than a standalone voice.”
Headteachers’ Roundtable members
Caroline Barlow (chair), Heathfield Community College
Keziah Featherstone (chair), Q3 Academy Tipton
Dr Kulvarn Atwal (vice chair), Highlands and Uphall Primary Schools
Sabrina Hobbs (vice chair), St Martins School, Derby and Portland School, Stoke-on-Trent
Patrick Cozier, Highgate Wood School, Haringey
Caroline Derbyshire, Saffron Academy Trust
James Eldon, Manchester Academy
Evelyn Forde MBE, former head and ASCL president
Vic Goddard, Passmores Academy, Harlow
Helena Marsh, Linton Village College
Ros McMullen, consultant and former MAT CEO
Katrina Morley, Tees Valley Education Trust
Dan Morrow, Dartmoor MAT
Binks Neale-Evans, primary consultant
Andrew O’Neill, All Saints Catholic College, North Kensington
Duncan Spalding, Aylsham Learning Federation
Jonny Uttley, The Education Alliance Multi-Academy Trust
Dave Whitaker, Wellspring Academy Trust
Ruth Whymark, AISL Harrow International Schools
Permanent special advisers
Jon Chaloner, former CEO of GLF Schools
Laura McInerney, Teacher Tapp
Fiona Millar, journalist and campaigner
Cat Scutt, Chartered College of Teaching
Professor Sam Twistelton
