It is a privilege to be here, standing with all of you — leaders, educators, and innovators — who share a vision of something profound.
We gather not just as colleagues but as architects of the future of education in this country.
That's not some pseudo-science future-gazing sentiment. It's unfiltered reality: the people in this room are important not only because of what is happening in your schools today, but because of what you will make happen tomorrow.
It's about the legacy we leave behind. It's about what we build.
We are the system builders, united in our dedication to create something larger than ourselves, something lasting — not from bricks and mortar, but from something even more enduring:
shared knowledge, collective wisdom, and the commitment to improving lives.
At CST, we hold a vision of school trusts as engines of improvement, as places where knowledge doesn't just accumulate but multiplies.
You see this in the work of the School Improvement Hub that we launched back in April. Just a few days ago we were proud to publish the latest of our case studies into school improvement at scale, courtesy of the SHARE multi-academy trust. Thank you John.
We believe that every trust, every leader, every teacher and member of staff has a role to play in this powerful act of building knowledge.
And I want us to think deeply about what that really means.
Knowledge building isn't simply about gathering data or adopting so-called ‘best practices'.
It's about creating a living, breathing field of practice — an evolving canon of professional approaches where each trust contributes its unique insights, its tested solutions, its hard-earned wisdom. Together we build the bookshelf of how to be better.
This field grows and strengthens not because of any one institution's achievement, but because we all contribute to it.
This is the promise and potential of the trust sector.
As Margaret Fuller, herself a teacher, wrote, "if you have knowledge, let others light their candle in it."
Our mission to build knowledge about effective trust practices is not an abstract or academic end in itself — it is a practical responsibility we carry on behalf of our schools, our pupils, and our communities, so that can ensure an excellent education for all children.
It means building not just for our immediate needs, but for a future where every school in England is part of a strong and sustainable trust.
Now, you might question what I've just said. You might wonder if the new government's structural agnosticism means we can no longer talk about a future where all schools are part of a trust.
But we must hold on to that vision. Not because of ideology. Not because of politics.
But because of pragmatism.
Pragmatism of the best sort.
A pragmatism that is about getting things done – for children.
It's always seemed to me that joining a trust is a profoundly pragmatic undertaking enacted on behalf of children – children who stand to benefit when their teachers and leaders are part of a group, developing and flourishing together.
This is not the language of dogma.
It's the product of our experience and our historical conscience.
Christopher Pollitt, writing in the year 2000, argued that a big risk in public policy was the growth of what he called ‘institutional amnesia' – the almost deliberate act of forgetting the lessons of the past.
This feels particularly poignant at the current moment.
Earlier in the week the Department for Education shared with the sector its thinking around its new RISE teams' – Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence.
It's early days for this policy, and I hope it proves to be effective for children's sake.
But in order to be so government must leverage the transformative capacity of trusts, not constrain it.
If we look to the past, we remember that in some parts of the country schools hadn't known success for generations. It was trusts like yours that turned them around.
It is trusts like yours that forged new standards of governance and professionalism in our system.
It is trusts like yours that have led system wide improvements in professional development.
It is trusts like yours that put their hand up to take on - and have improved - education in the most challenging contexts - from the post-industrial North East to the coastal deprivation of the South West.
Analysis by Dave Thomson at FFT Education Datalab tracks what happened to the 142 schools that were the lowest performing in the early 2000s. Dave shows that the vast majority have seen upturns in achievement and Ofsted outcomes as a result of being sponsored into trusts.
And it's not only school turnaround. There are signs of broader system improvement too.
England's climb up the PISA tables, for example, has coincided with the growth of trusts. Some will say this is just coincidence. But perhaps it's because the school system now has a means of scaling effective practices – a theory of change enacted.
It is school trusts that have been building our school system together.
So, let's hold on to that vision – and, as we wrote recently at CST, let's help government to remember and not forget - that we are not newcomers to a mission of opportunity for all children.
Government must not allow policy amnesia to creep into its policy making.
But we must be humble too.
Because, while we do have excellence in our sector. It is not yet universal.
And the gaps already in our system have widened since the pandemic.
We know there is more to do. And we know it's not easy.
Professor Rob Coe reminded me during one of our school improvement inquiry discussions that every nation on the planet is grappling with how to improve education. And nobody yet has come up with the universal recipe.
It's hard work. It's complex.
But it's what we must continue to do.
So, let's turn our attention to what this requires of us.
Our work here today—and every day—is about committing and recommitting to a new kind of leadership.
This is a leadership that sees beyond the boundaries of individual schools,
reaching into the collective potential of our entire trust community.
Consider the Policy Advisory Group, which we were pleased to announce earlier this week. We have 36 incredible leaders selected to feed their views into CST's policy discussions.
But what strikes me most isn't the 36. It's the more-than-one-hundred trust leaders – many of you in this room - who put their hand up for that election. And the hundreds more who cast their votes. This is system leadership.
This is a sector that sees itself as a community - interdependent.
But for too long, others have described the work of trusts through narrow definitions of success, shaped by discourses of New Public Management, that view the sector only through a transactional economic lens.
I've spent a long time in the academic literature written about trusts and time and again I encounter the same theoretical framing:
- Marketisation
- Corporatisation
- Fragmentation
- The language of New Public Management
But these are not your words. This is not how you describe your work.
Trusts are civic structures. Trusts are communities of improvement, repositories of professional expertise, and crucibles of innovation.
But more than this, trusts are schools. And schools are places of human flourishing – for children and adults.
We must continue to reframe the narrative. And we should demand better from those who work with us to research and write about our sector.
So let us be clear: the future of school improvement is collaborative.
The work of each trust is not isolated; it's interconnected with the work of every other trust in this room.
Each one of you is not just a leader of your own schools but a steward of knowledge for the sector as a whole.
Let us recognize that this work of knowledge building is a moral responsibility.
It's about human lives.
It's about shaping a system that stands the test of time because it is rooted in principle.
As leaders in this room, we are the custodians of that legacy.
Our task is not only to elevate standards but to uplift people.
To create an environment where teachers, staff, and students alike can flourish, where we draw on the best of what each trust has learned and make it available to all.
This is not just a call to action; it is a call to conscience.
We are building the system that will define the future for our children — and we must do it with integrity, with foresight, and with the courage to lead - Especially when leading requires us to stride into headwinds.
As we look ahead, I ask you to imagine the power of a trust-led system that is resilient in the face of any challenge.
A system where no school stands alone, where every trust is part of a community committed to shared knowledge and shared growth.
This is the vision we are building — one where trusts stand as pillars of a society that values education, that invests in its young people, and that holds itself to the highest standards.
Together, let us be the builders of this legacy.
Let us do this with conviction, and inspire those around us to do the same.
Let us continue to work together to create a trust sector that sets the standard for collaboration, all in the service of children and families.
Our legacy will be measured not by what we achieve alone, but by what we build together.
Thank you.
