Hackney Headteachers’ Conference

Programme

8:30 – Arrival and breakfast

9:00 – Welcome from Paul Senior, Interim Director of Hackney Education

9:10 – Introduction for Jacquie Burke, Group Director of Children and Education, Hackney

9:15 – Cultivating Resilient Headship: What this means for school leaders today

Viv Grant, Integrity Coaching

Viv Grant will draw on the lessons she has learnt as an Executive Coach for Headteachers. Viv will share insights into the personal qualities that school leaders need to cultivate in pursuit of leadership behaviours that can be characterised as brave, authentic and courageous.

Her talk will illustrate how a deeper connection with self and one’s sense of vocational purpose can build resilience and help leaders stay connected to what matters most in good school leadership.

Her talk will cover ways in which school leaders can:

• Increase their levels of emotional resilience
• Maintain a deep connection with their core values and ability to make decisions that are more aligned to who they are and who they want to be
• Heighten their levels of self-awareness, self-management and their ability to cope more effectively with the stresses of the role
• Maximise feelings of professional satisfaction and fulfilment
• Find ways for re-discovering their joy and passion for the profession

10:00 – Workshop – Cultivating resilient headship: it’s an inside job!

Viv Grant, Integrity Coaching

11:45 – Break

11:00 – The power of partnerships to develop leadership

Paula Kennedy, Inspiration for All

12:00 – Lunch

13:00 – Storytelling – finding my path

Lemn Sissay OBE

13:30 – Panel – How can schools nurture the development of all children?

Chaired by Jason Marantz, Assistant Director of Hackney Education

14:15 – Break

14:30 – Structured networking – see the networking tab for further information

15:15– RSA talk – The importance of debate and diverse thinking

15:35 – Plenary – Cllr Anntoinette Bramble

15:40 – Goodbye from Paul Senior, Interim Director of Hackney Education

15:45 – End

Workshops

Cultivating Resilient Leadership: It’s an Inside Job!

Led by Viv Grant, this workshop aims to help school leaders to:

• Discern what drives them, how this affects levels of resilience and how to deal with heightened levels of stress
• Identify the core characteristics of typical driver behaviours and how to utilise strengths within each to increase levels of personal effectiveness
• Determine personal action points to facilitate greater authenticity and courage in the leadership role

Speakers

Viv Grant – Director of Integrity Coaching

Viv Grant is an Executive Coach, Author and Public Speaker. She is the Director of Integrity Coaching, London’s leading provider of coaching services for Headteachers and senior school leaders.

Viv has been in the teaching profession for over thirty years. When she was just 31 and expecting her first child, she was appointed as one of the youngest Heads in the country to turn around a failing primary school.

Because of her experiences as a Head, Viv developed a deep interest in approaches for supporting school leaders’ emotional and psychological well being.

As an Executive coach, Viv now works extensively with Headteachers and school leaders, helping them to overcome the challenges of their roles so that they can maintain their humanity, joy, love for the profession and the communities they serve.

Her book “Staying A Head” is considered a seminal work in this area. Recognised as an expert in the field, she has contributed to various books and periodicals on the subject. As an expert commentator, her contributions have also been featured in The Guardian, London Live, Sky News, Radio Four, Woman’s Hour and the World at One.

Viv has also been an inaugural member of the Advisory Board for the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools at the Carnegie School of Education, Leeds University.

Prior to setting up Integrity Coaching, Viv worked as a lead consultant on a range of leadership development programmes for the Institute of Education, the National College, the National Union of Teachers [NUT] and the Department for Education [DfE].

Viv is currently a PhD student researching the relationship between Anti Racism, School Leadership and Wholeness.

Paula Kennedy, Co-Founder, Inspiration For All

Paula has 30 years experience of teaching and leadership in schools across London and the south of England. Formally, Paula was a Deputy head in two challenging schools giving her an insight to the demanding but rewarding role of leadership in school.

Paula’s experience supports her belief that young people from all backgrounds and of all abilities deserve excellent teaching which comes from well-led schools. Becoming involved in the City of London has opened her eyes to the great work that businesses undertake in support of education. This led to the idea of using these links or partnerships to support leaders in schools to deliver great outcomes for students.

Along with Sarah Caton, Paula set up Inspiration For All a not-for-profit social enterprise which connects senior leaders from schools with senior leaders from business in partnership through a unique programme designed to develop leadership skills, and ultimately outcomes for young people.

Paula leads on relationships with schools, supporting the school leaders, and on developing and implementing the programme.

Lemn Sissay OBE

Photo credit: Hamish Brown

Lemn Sissay OBE is a poet, playwright, memoirist, performer and broadcaster, among many other valued roles.

Lemn has read on stage throughout the world, from The Library of Congress in The United States to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, from the Opera House of Dubai to London Palladium and finally to the heady heights of Wigan library in… Wigan. Lemn was awarded The Pen Pinter Prize in 2019, when his memoir ‘My name Is Why’ reached number one in The Sunday Times bestseller list. In 2021, it won the Indie Book Awards nonfiction prize.

You might have also seen his television documentaries and radio broadcasts, exploring his life and his poetry in more detail. Since then, his work as the Chancellor of Manchester University and trustee of the Foundling Museum and The Christmas Dinners highlight his key role in providing extensive support to children in care and care leavers, the support he struggled to receive as a “child of the state”.

Lemn will draw on his story during his speech, looking at the challenges he faced growing up, the experiences he had from school as well as what inspired him to be a poet. He will then join a panel to discuss how schools can nurture and develop all students.

A number of organisations will be joining us during the structured networking session. They will showcase their work with schools and highlight any upcoming projects they would like you and your students to be involved in.

The organisations’ stands will be set up in the Benjamin Franklin Room of RSA House and members of their team will be available to talk to in the afternoon from 14.30 to 15.15.

The Royal Opera House: National Schools Programme

The programme offers an award- winning range of opportunities for Primary schools, powered by the artistry and creative excellence of the Royal Opera House. This includes:

• High quality CPD training
• Detailed but flexible teaching resources for the PE, Music or D&T curriculums
• Exciting participation events – connecting pupils to ROH artists, and bringing school communities together

Their programmes build teacher confidence to facilitate learning through the arts – developing pupils’ creativity, resilience, communication and other transferable skills. Designed to be implemented by non-specialist teachers, with no familiarity with opera or ballet, it is inclusive and accessible for all school settings.

Your Collection: V&A East in Schools

In preparation for the opening of the new V&A East in Stratford and the arrival of a collection of more than 250,000 objects, the V&A East community engagement programme was born, initiated by their director, Gus Casely-Hayford. As part of their ambition to open pathways into the creative industries and revolutionise access to their new collection, they bring objects from the museum, out to schools in east London in new and unprecedented ways.

The team are working with East London’s communities to address inequity and create change by holding space to engage with objects, creative practice and making. There is a desire to activate the collection as a sourcebook that sparks change, innovation, and creativity for the future. Find out more

Apprenticeship Levy

Hackney’s Apprenticeships Network Manager will be on hand to discuss how your school can benefit from the Apprenticeship Levy.

Learn about the Council’s apprenticeship programme, which can support you to recruit a new apprentice or upskill an existing member of staff with a new qualification.

Hackney Libraries

It is clear that Hackney residents value their local library and see the libraries as safe and trusted spaces. There is a strong commitment to diversity and equality seen within the workforce and library users as well as opportunities to inspire, innovate and encourage more local people to take up broader services as part of a more inclusive way of working. This includes its vast selection of local schools.

Some of the team at Hackney Libraries will be joining us to showcase some of the work they already do with schools as well as some of the upcoming projects they have in store.

How to book

Book your place online

View Hackney Education’s Terms and Conditions for Delegates at Conferences.