It’s funny, isn’t it, how much of life is filled with the agony of choice.
The eternal scroll of on-demand TV.
Choosing which queue to join at the supermarket check-out.
We can chuckle about these things, because the stakes are low. But they point to a truth: choice can be challenging.
Living with your choices can be hard. And so can living with someone else’s choices.
Not having choice can be unbearable but having too much choice can be challenging too. In The Paradox of Choice Barry Schwartz argues that choice overload can lead to anxiety, paralysis, and dissatisfaction. Schwartz reminds us that choice without purpose can paralyse — but purposeful choice is the mark of leadership
But of course it depends on the thing in question too. The examples I just mentioned are trivial.
Some choices, though, are of profound importance. And those are the choices that bring us together today.
Because at a conference like this, the universe of choices plays out before us, from government to your trusts, to us at CST.
There are big decisions for government to make on the issues of our time.
SEND, funding, child poverty, to name just a few (we heard some of these reflected yesterday by the Secretary of State).
As JFK said, “to govern is to choose.”
And we hope the White Paper will move us forwards on these issues.
But big government choices, White Papers, can have an unintended consequence too – there’s a risk we fall into the trap of thinking that the only important decisions are the ones that Ministers make.
Of course, government’s choices matter – and they matter greatly – but so do yours.
The people leading on the ground often have the best view of problems and challenges, the first view, and quite often the best solutions.
This is the principle that led us here as an academy sector.
Policy makers understood that national and local government lacked the agility and contextual sensitivity to move our education system forward, particularly for those children in greatest need of a high-quality education.
We needed to unlock the leadership capacity in our schools to make the right choices for the pupils and families they serve.
This was what guided the first City Academies established by Labour in the mid 2000s, and it’s what’s underpinned the growth of the sector since: the simple idea that the agency of leaders on the ground is the locus of change.
Much of this isn’t particular to the here and now. Making choices is part of the natural rhythm of leading a school or trust: Where should we invest resource? How can we become more resilient? How can we achieve the goals we hold for all children?
But there is something important about locating ourselves and our leadership in the current moment.
Because here’s the thing:
We don’t always get to choose the circumstances our schools operate in.
We don’t choose economic cycles.
We don’t choose political turbulence.
But we do get to choose how we respond. And we do get to choose how we lead.
So, this morning I want to talk a little about government’s choices, but I want to say a lot more about your choices, and CST’s work in supporting you.
Because want to speak about something very simple, but very important: the future we choose.
False Choices
Education has always been haunted by false choices.
Raphael captured this centuries ago in the painting The School of Athens. At the centre of the painting, Plato points upward to the heavens — to the realm of perfect ideas — while Aristotle gestures down to the earth, to the world of experience and evidence.
For generations, we’ve treated that difference as a choice: theory or practice, ideals or realities. But the truth, of course, is that education lives in both places. The best teachers, the best leaders, hold on to vision and turn it into action. They keep their feet on the ground — and their eyes on the stars.
False choices make for good headlines. They make for neat debates. But they are almost always illusions.
We have been told to choose between knowledge and skills.
As though the child who learns to think deeply does not also need to know deeply.
But we know this is nonsense. Knowledge and skills are companions. One enables the other.
Sometimes the conversation about trusts make it feel like we must choose between local and central.
As though excellence somehow belongs to only one level of the system.
But trusts show that the real answer lies in combining both.
Steve Munby talks about the importance of love and power in leadership. Your organisations can bring both: the affection for community, and the power of the collective.
And more recently, it’s felt like we must choose between being digital and being human.
As though technology must replace teachers, or as though our humanity demands that we reject technology altogether.
These are not real choices. They are false dichotomies. They shrink our vision. They force us into either/or when the real work of education is almost always both/and.
We should reject false choices.
Take that issue of technology I just mentioned - the digital transformation that’s happening in your organisations. We know that many of you are grappling with the opportunity and challenges presented by new technologies like AI. Without innovation we might miss opportunities to do better, to be better.
But innovation is not a de facto virtue. What if innovation adds no value, or worse – what if it causes harm?
A thirst for innovation is not enough. We need principles to guide us too, to act as guardrails, to support our governance of innovation.
So today I’m pleased to announce that CST has published in draft five principles to support trusts in their digital transformation.
We are incredibly grateful to Lauren Thorpe, Chief Transformation Officer at United Learning, who has led on the development of these principles, and to the colleagues who have tested and refined them.
The principles encourage trusts to lay strong foundations, including high standards of data security and safeguarding, to build expertise, use evidence, to apply a moral and ethical lens that flows from the trust’s mission, and to put tech in the service of teaching and learning – not the other way round.
These principles are now available in our newly shaped Data and Digital Transformation Community. They are in draft and we hope that you will help us to test, improve and add to these in the coming months.
What they reveal is that you don’t have to choose whether to be a luddite or a frivolous futurist.
We can have innovation and principle.
Opportunity and deep care.
The Power of Choice
Another thing that strikes me when I look back at the history of the trust movement, is that nothing was inevitable.
From the seed sown by those early city academies to where we are now, it was not inevitable that schools would come together into strong groups. That was a choice.
Yes, of course, government’s choices were important along the way. But so were yours.
Leaders could have stayed isolated, concerned only with their own practice. They could have rejected the calling many of you have responded to when a school has been in need: the calling to take on a school in a difficult situation - maybe one where staff confidence is low and children’s education is poor.
But you chose instead to collaborate, to pool capacity, to believe that children benefit when adults work together.
And this sense of collaboration is not only about what happens within your trusts. It’s about what happens between trusts too. And as a whole sector.
As I stand before you today, we have around 80% of all academy schools in CST membership. Just a few weeks ago 1000 of you dialled in for a Zoom call on Ofsted.
We have more than 1500 of you here today.
Yes, you are here for the keynotes and workshops. But you are here for connection too.
And while I’m proud of the role CST has played in facilitating some of this, it is your instinct for collaboration and civic impact that has led us here.
What’s really interesting and exciting is that other countries are starting to notice what you’ve achieved here in England. The Tasmanian government is soon to rollout its first Multi School Organisation, and there are other parts of Australia interested in your work too.
We actually have guests from Australia here with us at this conference – colleagues, we’re delighted to welcome you and we look forward to working with you more in the future.
So what does all this tell us?
Well, I think it tells us we can afford to be more confident as a sector.
Yes, there are uncertainties about what the future holds, internationally, nationally, locally.
But if the history of the school trust has taught us one thing, it is that when we choose to come together we magnify our potential.
We’ve seen this time and again.
You are the leaders who put your arms around your communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
You are the organisations turning the tide on attendance.
You are the also the people who are pitching in and sharing your expertise at every opportunity for the benefit of each other and the wider education community.
Take CST’s School Improvement Hub, for example. Hundreds of trusts have been involved in that project, submitting case studies, attending meetings and conferences, sharing approaches.
This same spirit of collaboration has now flowed into the government’s RISE programme, which is more often than not being led by school improvement experts working in your trusts.
And we’ve seen the same through CST and Ambition Institute‘s Inclusion in Practice project: Trusts coming together to share effective ways of delivering mainstream inclusion.
So, amidst all the talk about what a White Paper might or might not say, let us remember what’s in our own collective statement of intent: to advance education for the public benefit.
We don’t need permission to do good in the world.
Nor do we need the perfect context.
It was supposedly Henry Ford who said “when everything seems to be going against you, remember that airplanes take off against the wind, not with it.”
This is a sector that knows it can lead through headwinds. And I know that we will fly together in the years ahead.
The Responsibility of Choice
But if choice is powerful, it is also weighty. Because choices have consequences.
And the choices we make in education are not just for ourselves. They are choices for children, for families, and for the wider society.
Take trust inspection, for example. We know it’s likely coming.
It was a manifesto commitment by government, and we’re expecting it to land some point in this parliament.
I’ve spoken to many of you about it and I know there are different views. Some of you are advocates, some of you are not.
I have reservations too – not about the principle of public accountability. That’s something CST has always held dear. The reality is that your trusts are already highly accountable. To Regions Group, to your auditors, to Parliament itself – and, of course, every time an Ofsted team goes into one of your schools.
My concern is that I’m yet to hear a clear and consistent articulation of the purpose trust inspection is expected to serve.
I am open to the idea that trust inspection might offer something positive to the system. But delivering this requires a razor-sharp purpose and a thorough understanding of the complexities.
That is why CST recently published a discussion paper on group inspection, to explore the challenges and opportunities. I’m grateful to CST’s Policy Advisory Group and the many CST members who fed back their thoughts and helped us improve it.
Today we are publishing that paper as a policy paper – an articulation of CST’s thinking on group inspection. It doesn’t define the intricate details of a framework or methodology – it’s too early for that. But it does, we hope, give policy makers a good sense of the issues that will need to be grappled with if they are to pursue this policy,
If all that sounds a little defensive, let me reassure you. It’s not about working against government or Ofsted, it’s quite the opposite. It’s about choosing to ask hard questions, choosing to expose complexities, choosing to offer challenge, so that we can find better solutions together.
Another example of this is the work we did earlier in the year to bring about important changes to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. Some of the coverage implied one had to either agree to all the provisions in the Bill or in some way you were opposing government – another false choice.
This tribalism serves nobody well. It is possible to be a partner of government, Ofsted and the like, and to call out problematic ideas.
Indeed, as you know from your own organisations, constructive disagreement is the basis of effective partnership.
Patrick Lencioni argues that healthy conflict is a crucial component of good decision making.
So, as we look ahead to the arrival of the White Paper, I can’t tell you what’s in it or when we’re going to see it, but I can tell you that we will continue to play that critical partner role with government, on behalf of you, your staff and the children you serve.
And we will be making the case to you that whatever the strengths and limitations of the White Paper, legislation, the Curriculum and Assessment review, trust inspection and so on… your agency – individual and collective – remains the crucial ingredient in the flourishing of our school system.
Your choices are the difference maker.
It is what academies and trusts were established to do.
This means we don’t always have to wait for government.
We don’t need to wait for a White Paper before we can begin to improve mainstream inclusion in our schools.
We don’t need to wait for government to tell us how to make working in schools more attractive and more sustainable for our workforce.
We can choose to do these things now – as many of you already have.
That is the responsibility we hold.
It’s the responsibility of choice.
And leadership is not about avoiding responsibility.
It’s about carrying it with courage.
The Hope of Choice
But here is the heart of it: choice is not just power, not just responsibility. Choice is hope.
Hope is not a vague feeling. It’s not passive.
Hope is a choice.
In her keynote yesterday Leora talked about hope and how it is rooted in action.
Every time you choose collaboration over competition, that is hope.
Every time you share what works in your trust with others, that is hope.
Every time a leader takes on a struggling school, that is hope.
Hope is the quiet conviction that tomorrow can be better, and the daily act of choosing to make it so.
And we see it in abundance in your schools.
Take some of big educational issues of our time, such as the achievement of white working class pupils.
You will know that an inquiry has been set up to look at this issue, chaired by our own Sir Hamid Patel.
Well, if we look within our sector we can see there are trusts that are bucking the national trend. A number of trusts, including several in the North East and North West, with high proportions of White British and Free School Meals pupils are performing notably above national averages for both combined Reading, Writing and Maths and Progress 8.
We can see the same on transition from primary to secondary. We know the pandemic has left a long tail of disengagement in some communities and some households, but there are trusts where the data suggests they are doing something that’s making a significant and trust-wide difference to maintaining levels of engagement as pupils move from primary into secondary.
For example, there’s a medium-sized trust in Yorkshire where Year 7 pupils are achieving an engagement score 15.8% above the national average, based on pupil surveys.
And we can see the same in reading too. Trusts of varying sizes and locations feature in the top rankings for pupils achieving the expected and high levels of reading at KS2.
Rich data sets point to things happening across our trusts that are systematic, not just the isolated effect of one or two schools within the group.
This reminds us of the power and potential of schools working together in strong groups: the ability to share and systematise things that make life better for children and staff.
So, I’m pleased to share with you today that we’re launching a new project, with our colleagues at ImpactEd, that seeks to identify examples of trusts that have made systemic inroads on those three areas: the achievement of white working class children, transition, and reading.
It’s not about finding the ‘best’ trusts – we recognise that all trusts will have things they do well and things they want to improve.
But we think that by surfacing the strategies that seem to have made a difference on key issues, we can provide insights that will help schools and policy makers to make good choices, and better bets, about how we can help all children to flourish.
Seen this way, hope is not sentimental. It is practical.
It’s visible in data.
It’s felt in culture.
It’s lived in classrooms.
And we can choose it.
The Future We Choose
So, to close I’m going to circle back to where we began.
This conference is about flourishing – how we build trusts and a whole system in which all children can flourish.
I want to end with a provocation – or perhaps a prediction:
In the next 12 months – until we meet here again next Autumn- the choices you make will matter as much to human flourishing, maybe even more, than those choices made by policy makers.
You are the architects. The designers. The builders of the future we choose.
It is our privilege to stand beside you.
Thank you.
