OUR NETWORKS

Education Leaders’ Network

A professional development community for education leaders and headteachers working in and across academy trusts

Connect

Join our community of Education Leaders, which shares ideas thoughts and knowledge, contributing to a sector that thrives

Informed

We provide our members with expertise & insights through our leading events and weekly briefings

Independent

As a fully independent organisation we are fully committed to the interests and benefits of our members.

Our Education Leaders’ Network is a vibrant and high quality professional development community for those in senior school and education improvement leadership roles across trusts. The network is for Education Directors, School Improvement Leaders, Headteachers, and Specialists leading improvement across a trust. 
 
Led by Frank Norris MBE, the network ensures that you benefit from a Forum Strategy’s expertise, resources and platforms to help you thrive in your education leadership role all year round. It includes high quality in person and online workshops on timely and strategic topics; study visits to other trusts and schools; access to our regular breakfast briefings, masterclasses, and online resources; and with complimentary individual access to our e-briefing services on education policy, research and funding. There is also the option to commission our executive coaching support in addition to your membership, should you wish.
 

The network is intended to support education leaders to learn from the very best in their field and connect with peers across the country, supported by Forum Strategy’s sector-leading approach. Organisations that have contributed to our workshops and briefing sessions so far have included UNICEF, The Children’s Society, and NHS Horizons as well as CEOs and organisations from within the education sector (such as the Teacher Development Trust, ATT Institute & Schools Partnership Programme).

Invest in your leadership today and benefit from high quality and supportive professional learning and networking in your role. 

The quality of the input during workshops has been fantastic and has given me food for thought…I have also really appreciated the coaching sessions

Being a member has been really supportive during this challenging time. The assumed expectations or a ‘return to normal’ versus the reality has made our role a leadership dichotomy. Having the time and space to share, review and reset has been so important both professional (within the Forum sessions) and personally (within the coaching).

The experience has been wholly positive and offered the space to put my own professional development first. We’ve been challenged to think beyond our own organisations and consider how our work can be fed into the system.

The Education Leaders Network is led by:

Frank Norris MBE

Frank is an education adviser based in Manchester. He is the former CEO of Co-op Academies Trust and former HMI and senior Ofsted manager with an education improvement background spanning several decades. As CEO of the Co-op Academies Trust, he oversaw the number of academies growing to twenty-three with a funding commitment from the Co-op of £3.6m. The Trust is highly regarded and is one of the highest performing for disadvantaged students according to DfE, EPI and Sutton Trust reports.

In September 2019, Frank stood down from the CEO role and became the Co-op’s adviser on education and school matters. He was awarded an MBE in summer 2019 for his services to education. He is currently seconded to the Northern Powerhouse Partnership and is a trustee and chair of finance at the Great Academies and Education Trust. He was appointed the independent chair of the Blackpool Education Improvement Board in August 2020.

Education Leaders' Network Membership

For individual education leaders and headteachers working across multi-academy trusts
£1250.00 (+VAT) /annually
  • Two face to face leadership development network sessions in Nottinghamshire, and two half-day workshops delivered online.
  • A short online introductory session for all new members, reflecting on topics covered over the previous twelve months and with links to some key materials.
  • Access to some of our wider events, including the National #TrustLeaders Symposium each June (the next symposium will be 5th June 2025), and our regular Members’ Masterclasses and Breakfast Briefings covering key areas of trust development and education policy.
  • Regular ‘reflect and connect’ online small group sessions reflecting on specific research, developments or practices of interest – enabling the sharing ideas and resources across the network
  • The opportunity to engage in facilitated study visits to other multi-academy trusts to consider, reflect on and share ideas around school improvement at scale.
  • Access to our complimentary Strategy and Intelligence (weekly during term time) and Funding and Grants Briefings (fortnightly during term time).
  • Access to the Forum Strategy membership website, including many dozens of articles, case studies, briefings and interviews on key topics for trust leaders. The website is updated each month during term time with new materials and resources.
  • The option to commission in addition to your membership, five online coaching sessions each year with an experienced executive coach identified and quality assured by Forum Strategy.
  • This membership will also support those individuals who are in executive education leadership and headship; and may consider becoming CEOs in the future. If you are currently a serving CEO or a COO, alternative membership is available: rebuild.forumstrategy.org/our-networks
  • The fee for an annual (365 days) individual membership is £1250 plus VAT. If you would like to add executive coaching as an additional service, please contact us for more details, including details of our coaches and relevant costs. All of our networks run continuously throughout the year and you can apply at any time to join. Your 12 month membership will begin on confirmation of your successful application
Apply here

As a member of the Education Leaders’ network you can also commission additional support, including executive coaching sessions.

For more on this please visit: Executive Coaching | Forum Strategy