Last September, the co-chairs of the Headteachers’ Roundtable (HTRT), Caroline Barlow and Keziah Featherstone, found themselves asking a big question: “What’s our purpose?”

The root of this self-reflection was the realisation that the approaching school year was the first one in HTRT’s existence that would not take place under a Conservative government.

For the uninitiated, HTRT was formed in 2012 off the back of a roundtable exercise led by The Guardian, in whose offices a group was brought together out of shared “frustration regarding government educational policy and the opposition response to it”.

Realising the voice of frontline leaders needed more airtime, a core group of heads formed HTRT to provide the needed platform. Original members include Stephen Tierney and John Tomsett, as well as those still involved such as Dave Whitaker, Jon Chaloner and Ros McMullen.

The idea was they would interrogate and try to influence policy on behalf (unofficially) of heads like themselves.

Challenges facing schools complex and numerous

As such, over the next 10 years, the group grew in prominence and was a key voice at the back end of the last Conservative government. Then, last July, Labour won the general election.

“We asked ourselves, what is our purpose now? If it’s not going head to head with somebody like Michael Gove over fundamental key issues, what is our purpose and what are we going to do,” asks Barlow, who is headteacher of Heathfield Community College in East Sussex.

It is understood that the group - and some of its members - met with education secretary Bridget Phillipson both before and after the election, and on further reflection, HTRT realised that while the government may have changed, the challenges facing the sector remained complex and numerous, so HTRT still had a role.

“Let’s not imagine that because there’s a change of government, a utopian horizon has just arrived, and all of our problems will be solved,” says Barlow.

In fact, she says it was clear from Labour’s early noises that “funding was not going to be resolved”, and so that would remain a key area for HTRT to focus on.

“I think the real worry is the absence of [increased funding] means there is insufficient resource to deal with the things that are causing the pressures - behaviour, attendance, conflict from the community,” says Featherstone, who is executive headteacher of Q3 Academy Tipton and The Ladder School in the West Midlands.

“If there was any way of doing that to mitigate these pressures - employ more people, provide more resource - there might offer some more hope. But the real worry is that we are, yet again, being asked to do more with less.”

Beyond funding, two more core areas of focus soon presented themselves from Labour as requiring attention: Ofsted reform and curriculum and assessment review, topics on which HTRT members have been actively engaging since they were announced.

A new era

For Featherstone, who became a new co-chair alongside Barlow last year, having these areas of change makes it an exciting time: “We’re in a completely different sphere at the moment,” she says. “Everything is changing, everything’s up in the air.”

Despite the challenges, Barlow says it has been refreshing to see the clear change in tone and approach from the government towards those in schools: “I certainly would say the conversations we’ve had with the Department for Education…absolutely [have] a much more consultative tone than it was before.”

“People are saying, ‘We haven’t got policy to share with you, but this is the emergent thinking [and] we really want to hear your ideas, your case studies.’ The continual line is ‘we want to work with the profession’,” she adds.

For Featherstone, this approach makes it even more important that the frontline reality of headteachers is understood.

“It doesn’t take people very long to forget what headship is like on the frontline. And we are still one of the few organisations where the vast majority of us are still in post, either as heads or as CEOs,” she says.

“When people are saying, ‘What do you think about this?’ [HTRT members] can say, ‘I know how that’s going to feel if I’ve got to deliver it, I know how my staff are going to feel, and I know what my trustees or my governors are going to say.’”

However, while the group may have headteacher in its title, Barlow and Featherstone are keen to show the group recognises that “the structural shape” of the sector has changed a lot since 2012, and its members and their insights reflect that diversity.

“We’ve got everyone from early years to post 16, local authority schools, big trusts, little trusts…a good regional spread and rural and urban - we’ve pretty much got everything that you would want,” says Featherstone.

Finding perspectives

A glance at the membership indeed shows several multi-academy trust (MAT) CEOs listed alongside heads, and locations covered ranging from Manchester and Essex to Devon and Norfolk.

While Barlow says there is no “rainbow checklist” to ensure they have all types of members, they do keep an eye on membership. If they “realise we haven’t really got anyone who speaks to a certain area”, then they will “look to bring someone in with that expertise”.

Featherstone cites Katrina Morley, CEO of Tees Valley Education Trust in the North East, as an example of a new member who has been invited in this year to fill a gap: “That perspective is absolutely critical to influence our thinking.”

HTRT now sits at 20 members - something both Barlow and Featherstone say is about as large as they expect it to become. HTRT is invite-only, and there is no official way it canvasses the opinions of heads or leaders nationally. However, the group sees its size as a benefit and argues that it isn’t claiming to be anything more than a group of leaders giving their views.

“Although there could be something a little bit ‘golf club’ about it in that you have to be invited to join, we can also be more fluid than a union or a membership organisation because we’re not accountable to a board, and can move and shift a bit more dynamically,” says Barlow.

Even so, HTRT does have a quasi-form of oversight with its permanent special advisers, such as: Cat Scutt, deputy CEO of education and research at the Chartered College of Teaching; Professor Sam Twiselton OBE, former Director of Sheffield Institute of Education; and David Monis-Weston, artificial intelligence lead at Purposeful Ventures and founder of Teacher Development Trust.

“When we have a meeting, we get as many of them onboard so we’ve got those voices to stop us from being our own echo chamber and they can say, ‘Hang on a minute, you’re only seeing this from a head’s perspective,’” adds Barlow.

Complementing this, she adds that the group’s ethos is always to speak with consensus rather than a single voice dominating, so it remains true to the “roundtable” ethos and has the best representations possible to the wider sector.

“When we choose to speak, it’s quite thought through. There’ll be several drafts of something and people will add to it and co-edit it and we’ll get input from those who have expertise in that field,” says Barlow.

“They’ll often be a debate and disagreement, and that’s ok, of course - but a big part of our job is corralling the very disparate views and personalities of the group.”

Where will future members come from?

In fact, what concerns Barlow most is not getting its members’ voices speaking together, but the fact that the trials of headships of the past few years mean there may be fewer experienced voices to call on in the coming years.

“There’s a number of us that that gave our all through the pandemic, and the post-Covid era has massively taken its toll on leadership. I think there comes a point where people have got coping fatigue,” she says.

“I’d be amazed if…inquiries into pensions, inquiries into ‘how do I get out?’ haven’t gone through the roof, because people are absolutely on their knees in terms of energy commitment, cost to family, all of those sorts of things.”

Furthermore, Barlow worries that deputies or those close to leadership may not be as willing to step up based on what they have witnessed, too.

“I don’t know what the stream [of new leaders] coming through is like that’s going to replace [current] leaders and that’s the danger. I think we’re in a real tipping point of needing quality heads to navigate this period of time,” she says.

Barlow adds that this why the views of its MAT CEOs are so important, as they are often working to “support new heads” so they can reflect their views on a situation. Meanwhile, she says many current members also mentor new heads, which can again ensure their views are represented.

In the next few months, the HTRT has plenty on its horizons for members to debate - with the first draft of curriculum and assessment review, the review into inclusion ongoing and Ofsted’s consultation coming to a close, there will no doubt be plenty to discuss.

Featherstone says HTRT is not about forcing an opinion on to people on these issues or any others - she’s clear the group is part of a patchwork of opinion. But what she does believe needs to be stressed is that HTRT is a hugely valuable insight into how policy can meet practice that should at least be considered.

“We’ve always strived to influence [people] from our perspective - we are the people paid to do this job so we can say, ‘This is what you need to know.’ People can ignore us - but if we promise anything, it’s to speak with authenticity.”

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