As a new academic year begins with much hope and opportunity ahead, as well as plenty of continuing challenges to address, we thought it would be helpful to share some key articles, resources and a few opportunities of relevance to you as Chief Executive.

National #TrustLeaders CEO Conference

The first thing to highlight is our seventh annual National #TrustLeaders CEO Conference, which takes place in a few weeks’ time and I know so many of you have already signed up for this. This year’s theme is ’Leading with Contextual Wisdom’ and we have some leading and highly respected national and international CEOs and thinkers to help us in horizon scanning and planning for the year ahead. All those attending the event this year will also receive a complimentary copy of Jeppe Hansgaard’s book ‘Connectivity is Broken: Now What?’ – Jeppe will be one of our conference contributors. If you haven’t already booked, here’s the link: National #TrustLeaders CEO Conference 2024 | Forum Strategy

CEOs and the power of time management

We’re also mindful that this time of year means reflecting on how you spend and invest your time as CEOs – ensuring we manage the reactive and the pressing, with the need to be strategic and to plan ahead. This Forum Strategy article on how CEOs approach time management is a useful and timely reflection, and we hope provides some inspiration as you get on the front foot for a new year: Being The CEO – the power of time management | Forum Strategy

CEO performance management process

The start of a new academic year also means that Chairs and CEOs will be thinking about performance management and setting goals for the year ahead. This Forum Strategy article, together with a video briefing from Michael Pain and our commercial partners at Wrigleys Solicitors, is a helpful resource to reflect upon as we begin that process – with plenty of hints and tips to consider: Is it that time of year? CEO performance management; some hints and tips | Forum Strategy

Improvement at Scale: Access our Hub

We know that continuous improvement remains a key priority for you as CEOs and you will be thinking ahead to how this is driven forward across your trusts for this coming academic year and beyond. Our improvement at scale hub, brings together our wide range of resources, developed over a number of years, drawing on education experts as well as cross-sector perspectives: Improvement at Scale Hub I Forum Strategy

Cutting edge thinking for CEOs: thriving trusts and system leadership

Two big areas of development over the last 18 months at Forum Strategy have been the thinking around thriving trusts and system leadership in the trust sector. Both of these pieces of work are receiving a significant amount of engagement from trust leaders as you develop your strategic planning and reflect upon how the role of CEO and the trust can add even great value to schools and their communities. Our collection of Thriving Trusts thinkpieces can be found here: Thriving Trusts Thinkpieces | Forum Strategy  and system leadership thinkpieces, can be found here: System leadership in 2023 and beyond | Forum Strategy with a new paper focused on the role of system leadership in staff retention, to be shared very soon.

Dates for your diary

We have a number of events coming up over the Autumn term you may wish to sign up to (if you haven’t already) and/or save in your diary:

11th September 8.30am-10.30am: Changing the lived experiences of our workforce: How can the trust model help us to retain great staff?

12th September 8.30am-9.30am: Members’ Breakfast Briefing: The Good Childhood Report 2024 with The Children’s Society CEO Mark Russell

19th September: National #TrustLeaders CEO Conference, Trent Vineyard Conference Centre, Nottingham

24th September 8.30am-10.00am: Leadership safe spaces: How trust leaders can act as catalysts to bring diverse and different communities together

Save the date: 14th November 9.30am-12pm: National CEO Network Meeting (chaired by Sir Steve Lancashire) – our theme for this network meeting will be the power of communities, with contributions from the CEOs of Citizens UK and ParentKind respectively.

Remember, you can always keep up to speed with upcoming events through Forum Strategy on this webpage: Events page I Forum Strategy

 

We hope this is helpful and look forward to working with you in the weeks and months ahead

Best wishes
Alice