Hope in the possible – how Louise leads a Trust with purpose

2003 ambassador Louise discusses her education journey – from her inspirational childhood teachers to her current work as Chief Executive Officer at the Howard Partnership Trust. She shares the value of networks, the challenges and opportunities of running a trust, and advice for those aspiring to the same position.

I hadn’t quite worked out what I was going to do when Teach First came to a careers fair at my university. It was the early days of the charity, and it sounded like an exciting idea. I was lucky because, as a child, I went to a great school and had great teachers. I made a promise to myself to repay the great fortune I’d had by learning with these teachers. Mr Walters, Mr Porter and Mrs McIssac-Hall were my geography teachers and gave me a passion for geography, but also for dreaming big, thinking big and exploring the world.

The school I went to changed my life and I was the first person in my family to go to university. I always thought I’d become a teacher myself at some point in my life but thought I was supposed to go and do something to become ‘wise’ first then become a teacher. But when I heard the Teach First mission at that careers fair - opening children’s eyes to what is possible for them beyond what they’ve been able to experience so far in their own lives - I had to jump at the chance. I left university on the Saturday and joined Teach First on the Sunday.

A Teach First journey into leadership

Apart from university, I’ve never really left school. I started with Teach First and was placed in an amazing school in East London as a geography teacher. Later, I moved to another Teach First school and was able to become their Head of Geography.

Being part of the movement that is Teach First gives you a belief you can change the world through changing what’s going on in your classroom...then in your department and so on.

I think in terms of mindset and network, Teach First does prepare you well for leadership. We were told that there were ways that teaching could become more innovative. I’m not sure teachers in conventional teacher training are told that as much.

So, when I became a headteacher at one of the original Teach First schools then got to be a MAT leader and eventually a CEO, I felt ready to have that impact at scale and to try to influence the education system.

The power of networks

I’ve been CEO for almost three years now. It can be an incredibly isolating job. Headship can be the same. I’m responsible for the lives of nearly 8,000 children but I don’t get to speak to them, test anything out or go and chat in the sixth form common room. The distance and scale are a real challenge.

I’ve never really understood the value of networking until doing this job. The Teach First networks have been a great place to re-engage with the mission but it’s also an important wellbeing tool for me and lots of other people.

This is hard work we do so to have the people to draw on and feel part of a movement is invaluable.

I’m part of the Heads Forward Network and knowing you’re part of a group of like-minded people, who want to share ideas and are very generous with sharing what they’re doing is a massively important ingredient. I wish it had been around when I was a Head but it’s now there for this increasing group of people.

Running a multi-academy trust

In some ways a multi-academy trust is just a massive school. So, I’m now running a school with nearly 8,000 kids in it.

That means on a daily basis, the decisions I make and the levers I pull influences what happens in those children and young people’s lives. It’s a massive opportunity to make change at scale and to try to influence beyond the trust. I work with other trusts to feed into the DfE, Ofsted and white papers.

Trying to do a job where there is no rule book or blueprint and there’s no timetable to tell me when I’m supposed to do things...it’s a pretty big challenge!

The challenge is that MATs are still new and quite rightly, nobody knows yet what they should look like. So, we’re in the wild west where everybody is finding their own way.

Potentially the biggest challenge is trying to work out what society needs schools to do. What do parents and young people need from schools in this rapidly changing world? Things like AI happen and nobody is quite sure how we should respond. So, trying to work all of that out is a big challenge. The power of a network with others trying to work those things out too, is really invaluable.

A Trust transformation story

We’re a Trust that’s improving and growing. We’re seeing improved outcomes, improved attendance and more parents are choosing our schools for their children to go to. That is all really exciting. But change at scale takes longer and is more complex.

Our 2030 vision is that all our schools provide a life changing education.

We’re doing our best by everyone right now but by 2030 we hope children will say their lives will change for the better by being in one of our schools.

We’re going to measure the success of this strategy through how our disadvantaged pupils do. They’re the closest thing we have to a control group. The average child in that group may not have the home support or access to resources that others have. If those children are doing better, then we’ll know we’re doing better. Now there is nobody here who disagrees with that as a measure, getting people to recognise and notice that was the first step along our journey. You can tell a school transformation journey much quicker than a trust transformation and although we’re just getting started, we’re really proud of it.

Hope in the possible

Should you do a job like mine? If you get the opportunity, definitely. Yes, it’s hard but the possibility and the scale is great. My advice is to never give up hope in the possible. You have to believe it in order to get anybody else to believe it. But you can’t try to do it on your own, find your people and get them into your organisation and use those networks to learn what’s working or not working.

There’s a JM Barrie quote from Peter Pan, “The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.” Kids don’t know what they can’t do. Kids don’t know what barriers they face, they’ve just got hopes and dreams. So, the more time you spend with them the better and they will remind you that anything is possible.

The only way we’re going to rewrite the future is if we try to do it together.

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