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18 June 2026

Author: Jessica Hill

Who’s supporting school leaders to stop them hitting crisis point?

Executive head Sara-Jane Baker has had a rough week. After a gruelling three-hour child protection review the day before we speak, she was straight into other meetings while also dealing with parent complaints and providing emotional support to her staff, without getting a chance to catch her breath. The myriad of responsibilities in leading a […]

Reuben Moore, executive director, National Institute of Teaching

How do you skill up the next generation of teachers without overloading them? And then keep them motivated enough to stay in the profession? That’s the big question that Reuben Moore, the executive director of programmes at the National Institute of Teaching (NiOT), is weighing up. The NiOT is the government’s £121 million flagship teacher […]

Munira Wilson, Lib Dem education spokesperson

Munira Wilson, the MP for Twickenham and since 2021 the Lib Dems’ spokesperson for education, proudly describes the party as the “party of education”. But does this hold up? The “latest news” section of its website features 97 stories – all the way back to the 2019 election review. Not one relates to education, with […]

Wesley Davies, CEO, The Two Counties Trust

Most MAT chiefs are lucky if they get to open one free school in their lifetime. Wesley Davies has opened three, all of which are now rated ‘outstanding’. Davies spent the first 20 years of his career at Dixons Academies Trust, where he got first-hand experience of the emergence of the modern MAT system. As […]

Ellie Costello, director, Square Peg

Ellie Costello is at the front of a growing movement against the “one-size-fits-all” education system that creates, she says, kids who cannot cope in school. Square Peg, the parent support organisation she leads, is particularly concerned by the top-down pressures schools are facing to bolster attendance. This forces “square pegs” to fit round holes that […]

Christine Stansfield, chief executive, Mowbray Education Trust

Christine Stansfield tells me she was on the verge of pulling out of this interview because she feared she might “say something stupid”. It is symbolic of her leadership style that she is upfront about it, and about how important it is for her school leaders to “let go” of their egos and embrace “heartfelt […]

Inside a north London PRU

Thirteen-year-old Maria* used to turn up at her pupil referral unit in the mornings already drunk on vodka. She had slipped through the cracks in the support system. Her mum had learning difficulties, and her stepdad, who had fathered her sister’s baby, was molesting her. Niki Panayiodou, a SENCO at Orchardside School in Enfield, north […]