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In some of our urban areas, we have the concentrations of the most need both in terms of social need, but then that in turn is reflected in educational need. We need really powerful leaders who not only can uh motivate the teaching workforce but are also able to reach out into the parent body into the community. All the evidence that I've read in education literature in at least the last 35 years has pointed to the importance of the headteer to give the school a sense of direction to create the ethos of the school and all of that is especially the case for schools in challenging circumstances. Trafford is actually quite a diverse community and the actual catchment area for the school uh is perhaps some of the most uh deprived areas in the country. There's a lot of antisocial behavior, groups of youth just hanging around on street corners because they feel as though they don't really have much to do. We've also seen um an increase in robberies and snatches by young people especially around like tube stations. In my area is the same problem but uh with little kids they are messing around and they throwing stones at the windows. They're swinging at older people. If they like this when they kids what would they be like when they going to be older? Future Leaders is about finding and developing the next generation of headteers for urban schools. We want to make every child in every urban school successful and we won't rest until we achieve that. We put a lot of effort into our selection process. We need to find the right people who are going to be excellent urban headteers in time. And that means looking for people with the right mission and values, but also the interpersonal skills, the ability to lead and manage change and to bring people along with them and the strategic thinking to see what really needs to be done and how you improve a school. People who apply to future leads are generally very proactive um self-motivated people and people with an ambition and a desire to make a real difference and that brings with it all sorts of things about aspiration and what's possible. I absolutely believe that every child has a right to a good education. Um, they only have one chance at it. Everybody has And I feel that it shouldn't be about luck. I don't think that your post code should determine what your status in life is going to be. I've always believed that as teachers, we're here to maximize life chances of every student. The students are with us for 5 years only. There's just no time to waste. The future leaders program as soon as I saw it on the web page just ticked all the boxes for me. The children that are behind by birth, by family, by where they come from, it it's so important for them to get the access to people that are going to help them achieve. I think that's what school's all about really. Jim quite clearly demonstrates leadership potential in terms of uh his standards, his high standards that he sets for himself and obviously what he expects from other people. uh he has an air of leadership about him but he's also got a very strong way of working with people and certainly his emotional leadership skills are quite apparent and I think those are key for anybody uh working towards headship. So having found those people, we give them a very rigorous intensive summer training program and then we put them for a year in a residency school alongside an existing successful headteer really to learn on the job and this is something that's unique to the future leaders program. The foundation's training was brilliant because it was all about the core values. Every child no excuses. It doesn't matter necessarily what socioeconomic issues you are dealing with. students can still succeed if they're given the right kinds of support. For some of us and for some coaches, it sort of stripped you down, took away what you thought teaching and learning and leadership was about and then step by step, day by day reconstructed you surprisingly as someone better than perhaps you were before you arrived. It certainly did that for me. One of the excellent things about the future leaders program is that you have a coach who comes in. In my case, it happens to be Sir Keith Jebbo and he comes in every few weeks. So, it's nice to have that person that you can call up who's nothing to do with any politics in the school or anything that's going on with you personally to get their view. The US study tour is one of the best things I've ever done in my life. Um, it

really was inspirational because we went into places like New York and the Bronx which had have severe soioeconomic problems and yet inside these schools in these charter schools the children are absolutely focused on their work and they were confident orally. They were confident with their literacy. They listened to one another. They were polite. They were always focused on the future on focused on which college they were going to. when I know that we're going to have a participant working with us, um I will think about within the strategy what pieces of work that would span the course of a year could be done by that person. So they get a sense of whole school strategic leadership but it must fit in with their needs and with the needs of the school so that they make an active really valuable contribution that they can feel satisfied with at the end of it because the results are measurable really. I was very keen when Jim uh entered the school not to give a specific responsibility uh mainly because I wanted him to have a look at the school uh as the placement has progressed so two 3 four weeks down the road uh a role has been clearly identified and that's focused around bidding for second specialism it's focused around having an impact on the new strategy in school and improving the math department and um it's also focused around helping to develop staff get And I think that was important that has been negotiated and that has been uh a joint process because I feel now the impact will be greater for both of us. Jim has made quite a big impact since he's been at the school. He's been on the school gates. He's been around the school. He's been talking to students, engaging with staff. I think I can safely say I've shaking every student's hand in the school. that gives me the bond straight away with the students that I need to engage with them and help them attain. What does it describe? Joe's been a fantastic addition. She's very uh she's focused, extremely focused. She's very good at listening. She's got excellent listen listening skills and I think she's demonstrated to the other members of staff who've been here um for quite a while that all things are doable. She's brought that sense of achievement. I was predicted a C in English, but with Miss Dumpy like and her teaching style, I really think I can boost my grade to like a B or an A. She's I think she's a really good lady. Like she everyone's got a lot of respect for her. Oh, I would like to go to college, study um medicine, and hopefully become a doctor. I would like to become an accountant. I would like to be a doctor, an accountant or a lawyer, as a manager in a business. Clearly, what we're trying to do is to develop a greater capacity in the education system to develop new ways of reaching the young people we're not reaching at the moment. So clearly what we need within schools in an atmosphere which encourages that. And so leadership, dynamic leadership is absolutely central to it. It seems to me that the future leaders is a stimulus to new thinking about leadership that can actually benefit everybody involved. We've got an absolute priority now in narrowing the gaps between the more advantaged and the less advantaged areas. The government is 100% behind uh future leaders because it's delivering on all of our priorities.