Written by

Step Up Network

The grassroots network turned community interest company and social enterprise empowering educators to make the step up they wish to make.

On Saturday 15th March, three members of our team: Ben, Adam and Elaine travelled down to London to attend the Heads Forward School Leadership summit. 

Heads Forward is a network founded in 2018 for headteachers and executive leaders who trained through the Teach First programme. As well as the activity the network provides for its members, its annual summit is an open event to those who are not part of the network also. It was great to see how many people we recognised and knew, some who came to the event last year in Leicester and many who are connections we’ve made because of building up this community. 

The event was being held in Waterloo just a short walk from the Thames, with the London Eye in the background, many gathered at Oasis Academy South Bank. It was great to see so many familiar faces but also make new connections. As co-chair Dennis Simms shared at the start of the day, Heads Forward is a network and an event where connection is at the heart – the opening talk encouraged attendees to say hello and introduce themselves to others to make these connections. After the opening presentation led by Dennis and his fellow co-chair, Tilly Browne; we heard from the inspirational, Anna Richardson, principal of the academy who were hosting us and who shared the journey of South Bank and opened the eyes of many in terms of the community and demographic the team are serving in Central London. It really did spark the start of the theme of the day: Leading Through Limitation.

Then, a series of workshops started where the key topics of: Developing Leaders, Leading Schools and Impacting Communities. The presenters were school leaders across the country and shared their own experiences, tips and tricks of leading through limitation; the workshops included:

• Flexibility and Transparency: How to retain great people;
• Cognitive Science: Motivating staff and students;
• Developing expert teachers;
• What separates the great schools from the good?;
• Change Management: How to put people first;
• Setting the direction with clarity;
• What we’ve learnt about leadership;
• Community transformation through partnerships;
• AI in education: What are the opportunities?;
• Impacting our community;
• Becoming a headteacher: Where to begin?
• Leadership and Empathy.

The final part of the day involved a question-and-answer session with a panel of headteachers and executive leaders in which accountability, system leadership, breaking down barriers and leadership journeys amongst other topics were explored.

Throughout the day, particularly at lunch, there were multiple opportunities for collaboration, discussion and the building of our own personal learning networks. The day enabled us each to reflect on our own leadership journeys, how we lead through limitation and our next steps. As Tilly said, we want to be able to go into school on Monday morning and take action, which is what we did. We look forward to joining the next summit in 2026 and you can see a summary of the day on our YouTube channel.