The summer term is upon us. As we all ask ourselves where has that time gone? Often the case as we find is the whirlwind of academic years.

This has certainly been the case with Step Up and we have completed a lot of our activity for this academic year. We are always mindful of when we do activity within the summer term. Summer terms are busy and pressured times in schools (not just for staff) but particularly down to examinations and statutory assessments. We are aware of the time constraints and therefore want to point you towards our activities that you can engage in.

Nourished Leaders Programme

We are delighted to be collaborating with Kimberley Evans of Nourish the Workplace, a long time supporter of the Step Up Network. Kimberley has spoken and exhibited at events. We recognise that a lot of training and leadership develop focusses on how to do your job, but not necessarily how to look after yourself. Kimberley has lots of experience and expertise and has designed a programme with educational leaders in mind.

The full package is only £80 which is an absolute bargain in comparison to what you can pay for professional development (you can also purchase each individual session if you wish to dip in and out for £30 at session). The package includes four one-hour sessions with Kimberley covering a range of topics. The first session is on Thursday 8th May. The full details and how you can book are available here.

Webinars

We have some fantastic webinars coming up after the success of our Leadership Development Webinar in November and our Leadership Journeys Webinar in February. You can join us for free at these online events, which are livestreamed onto YouTube:

• Leadership Wellbeing Webinar – Tuesday 10th June at 7pm – hosted by Krissi Carter and joined by Andrew Cowley, Catherine Hulme and Bukky Yusuf.
• Leadership Diversity Webinar – Thursday 3rd July at 7pm – hosted by Louise Jaunbocus-Cooper and joined by Aziza Ajak, Bennie Kara and Gary Pykitt.

June is also a special month for us as it is our birthday and we are celebrating again virtually this year. Our celebration event takes place on Saturday 7th June from 10am until 11.15am. We are joined by a fantastic group of Step Up supporters: Mubina Husein, Nadirah Khan, Sean Reece, Claudio Sisera and Joanna Tompkins. You can join us for free by clicking the link here.

Improving Education, Reducing Inequality

Working in partnership with Teach First and other partners, we are pleased to be supporting an event taking place in London on Saturday 21st June. The event with the working title of the ‘London Educational Leadership Network’ aims to bring educators from across the capital together to connect over the idea of improving education and reducing (or even irradicating) inequality. The tickets are really cheap (and have been heavily subsidised by sponsors). It would be great to see you there, click here for more details.

Looking Ahead

We are also beginning to think about the 2025/26 academic year. We have taken stock of everything we’ve done and also behind-the-scenes it has not been plain sailing for our volunteers, and we have struggled – we have had discussions on closing the organisation as to run a grassroots, voluntary-led, not-for-profit organisation is very hard. We wish to return to our roots as a network rather than an events company and we would love for you to help us shape this.

If you’re able to spend a few moments of your time completing this survey, that would be a great help and aid us in designing an offer for you. We intend on moving towards a membership model for the network and should you wish to find out more sign up for our birthday event, but also to this separate membership information webinar here.

We wish our whole community a very successful summer term and we look forward to engaging with you in every opportunity we have.