Although I’ve been in this role nearly 3 years, since the start of 2022, I still feel like I’m learning every day, thinking about what it means to be the CEO of Forward Education Trust.
I get my professional support from a number of different places. I’m part of a multi-academy trustCEO’s group for Birmingham and I also share ideas with a wider network of CEOs across the country. Our Trust is a member of the Confederation of School Trusts and I’m part of their CEO Professional Network, enabling me to share ideas with like-minded people. My membership of Forum Strategy also helps me to attend conferences and hear speakers talk about educational and organisational development across the diversity of education institutions.
There’s no template or single model about how to run and develop a multi-academy trust, so with the support of my co-leaders and Trustees, we’re trying to plough our own furrow, in the pursuit of providing the best education for our children.
As a CEO I build experience every day and the longer I’m in the role, I hope I am better for it. I have developed and grown this Trust in the time I’ve been CEO and my hope is that as we move into our next phase, there may be further growth in pupil numbers and maybe expansion of the number of schools we work with. We don’t want to grow for the sake of it, we must ensure that we’re being impactful and if we can do that for more schools because that’s the best thing to do for the school and the Trust, that will be wonderful.
I used to apologise for being the CEO without a teaching background, but not anymore. It doesn’t make me any less capable, I just need to know who I can rely on, where I can go for expertise and there’s plenty of areas of my responsibility that I excel at because of my background.
I became CEO because I thought I could make a difference – and I still do. I’m trying to build a compelling leadership narrative, I’m a bit of a storyteller and I want my messages to be powerful and compelling. I am striving to build a diverse and inclusive organisation that respects and reflects the variety of our children and workforce.
One of the main parts of my role is to work with Trustees, who support us in developing and articulating our strategy approach. We spend a lot of time thinking about school improvement and outcomes for children and young people. Along with my Executive team and school leaders, I act as a conduit to ensure we maximise the impact of the resources we have – financial, people and physical.
Being able to recruit and retain the right people is key to the success of our organisation. I have an involvement in every leadership appointment and with my HR colleagues, we try to create an inclusive environment where people can excel. Looking after their well-being is critical and we want to do whatever we can to support presenteeism in the workplace – if we have great people standing in front of our children every day, then we have a chance of being successful.
While external factors can present challenges, I firmly believe that leaders have the power to shape their own destiny. As CEO of Forward Education Trust, I hold myself accountable for our organisation’s success. I am committed to making the right decisions and driving positive change.