BlueSky joins Ambitious Leaders at the ASCL Annual Conference

Setting up our stand at the Association of School and College Leaders Annual Conference brought back strange memories from the last time we were at the ICC in Birmingham. The last in-person ASCL conference took place shortly before the first lockdown of 2020, under a cloud of uncertainty and the beginnings of panic – which was evident from the state of our equipment when we finally unpacked our conference kit as we prepared for this event, our first in almost exactly two years.

To say that the education sector has seen extraordinary upheaval over the past two year is a gross understatement. It would be easy to assume that everything has changed, yet some problems have simply been exacerbated by the pandemic. This impact that the conditions of lockdown have had on all children’s mental wellbeing in the long term have yet to be seen, but there can be no doubt that many of the most disadvantaged pupils will have been deeply impacted by time out of school. At the same time, the pressure on teachers, and school leaders in particular, has been completely unprecedented as they attempt to keep up with the switch to online learning, continually changing government strategy and contact restrictions, and managing staff absence, let alone the uncertainty and stress of coping with the disease and its effects.

Nadim Zahawi key note to Association of School and College Leaders conference

In his keynote on the Friday morning, The Secretary of State for Education, Nadim Zahawi, hailed the conference theme of Ambitious Leadership saying that there has “never been a more critical time for leaders to make ambition really count”. Speaking about the forthcoming Schools Whitepaper, Zahawi stated that the paper would outline his plan to ensure that 90% of children achieve expected standards in literacy and numeracy by the time they finish school. He said that the strategy would focus on investing in teachers and school leaders, recognising this “is the single most important way to improve pupil outcomes”.

He spoke about the importance of training and support in improving standards: “I want to empower teachers to focus on delivering the best possible lessons, and support schools by giving them access to resources and approaches that have proved their effectiveness.”

“With the same motivation to use evidence wherever we can, we will permanently put evidence at the heart of the teaching profession by re-endowing the EEF. As independent evidence guardians in the system, they will continue to generate and spread world-leading education evidence. The EEF will lead an ongoing cycle of reviews of the underpinning frameworks for teacher development at all levels to make sure they’re always based on “what works” to improve pupil outcomes.” – Nadim Zahawi, Secretary of State for Education

“It requires a fresh look at what being a teacher in the twenty-first century means, how technology could transform the role, how we attract the best graduates to join and then stay in this greatest of professions, reinvented through technology and flexible working. We’ve talked about this before.

We think we need more than an early career framework. We think for teachers, for leaders, engaged as they are in one of the most important roles in society, we need a whole career framework that welcomes the new recruits, supports and develops them, retains and empowers them, and which takes them on a rewarding journey to expert teacher, expert leader, coach and mentor for the next generation of teachers and leaders.” – Geoff Barton, General Secretary, Association of School and College Leaders