Missing pieces that need addressing...
...to make education great again.
As the days get longer and warmer, it’s hard not to feel a sense of optimism and hope. But the reality is things aren’t easy right now.
On one hand, it’s a great reassurance that school staff are such great problem solvers.
But on the other, you have to wonder at what cost? How long can they withstand the status quo?
In this week’s highlight from the We Are In Beta community, Manny Botwe (Headteacher and ASCL President) captures the mood perfectly in his latest post.
We - schools - Are In Beta - always learning (when we call out what’s missing so we can make education great again).
This week
🎤 Missing pieces to make education great again.
🛡️Pastoral Champions Week 2025 Conference now closed.
💼 Jobs with members of the We Are In Beta Community.
🎤 Missing pieces to make education great again.
Manny Botwe is one of We Are In Beta’s longest standing community members and podcast guests.
In case you missed it, he’s posted his excellent ASCL President’s Keynote from the ASCL conference earlier in the month.
You can read the whole piece here where he pulls no punches about the harm of social media, outlines his hope for the future and the reveals the new slogan he offered the DfE (free of charge).
But to give you a flavour of the speech now, here are his thoughts on the…
The missing pieces across the system
…it’s not enough to know what the government wants to achieve. The missing piece is how. We need more than just a destination – we need a roadmap. What does “high and rising standards” actually look like in practice? And what’s the strategy to get there?
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is a significant piece of legislation, covering a wide range of issues. But right now, it feels fragmented. A bit on breakfast clubs, a bit on school uniforms, some tweaks to admissions and pay processes – a smorgasbord of policies of varying degrees of usefulness which lacks a clear, overarching vision.
We’re not expecting another Education Act on the scale of 1944 or 1988. But we do need to see how these individual policies fit into a wider plan to create real, lasting change – the kind that is essential to breaking down the barriers to opportunity.
And speaking of those breakfast clubs – a daily funding rate of 60p per child is absurd. You can’t promise parents a nutritious meal and 30 minutes of childcare, then expect schools to deliver it for less than half the price of a Greggs sausage roll.
Meanwhile, the immense resource challenges we faced under the previous government have not disappeared. Funding shortages, staff recruitment and retention struggles, and an overstretched education system – these issues persist, and tackling them must be a shared priority.
This week, just before leaving for the conference, I took a snapshot of my inbox – a typical day in the life of a school leader.
Among the urgent issues waiting for me: staff absence, a presentation on budget cuts, an EHCP consultation, a job vacancy advert, a phone call to a mum, an independent review panel decision, parking complaints, a CPOMs alert, restructuring papers, flooding in J Block, a complaint on Facebook, and Year 11 attendance concerns.
This is the daily reality for senior leaders. Some days, it feels like we are the nation’s unofficial fourth emergency service – always on call, always responding, always firefighting the next crisis.
Amidst all of this, the proposed changes to the Ofsted framework feel like a kick in the teeth. We are already under enormous pressure, balancing the needs of our students with increasingly limited resources. More accountability, more high-stakes scrutiny – this won’t solve the recruitment and retention crisis. It will make it worse.
What we need is an inspection framework that supports and strengthens schools and colleges, not one that piles on stress and anxiety.
Despite all the challenges, school and college leaders remain, by nature, optimists and problem solvers. But we cannot solve those challenges alone. The government must act. While we can offer advice, expertise, and collaboration, only the government holds the levers to drive real change.
First, it is simply appalling that in the United Kingdom, 4.3 million children live in poverty. This is not just a statistic – it’s a crisis. Children cannot learn, grow, or thrive if they are cold, hungry, and living in inadequate housing. No child should have to endure such hardship. This is why ending child poverty must become a national priority.
We cannot stand by and watch as young lives are ruined by circumstances beyond their control. As an immediate step, we must ensure that all families in receipt of Universal Credit are entitled to free school meals. And to make sure no child misses out, we must implement automatic enrolment for all those who are eligible.
The future of our children is at stake, and we must act – now.
Our children with special educational needs and disabilities are being let down. They are missing out on vital support because of delays in education, health, and care plans. Schools are struggling to afford the costs of SEND provision, and we are facing a shortage of places in special schools to meet growing demand. The whole system is on the brink of collapse, and we cannot allow this to continue. We must act now to ensure that every child with SEND gets the support they need to thrive and succeed.
The funding crisis in our schools and colleges cannot be ignored any longer. Across the country, schools are being forced to set deficit budgets and plan for further cuts. This is simply unsustainable. Education is not a cost, it is an investment – in our children, in our future, and in our country. If we are serious about building a society that values and supports its young people, we must prioritise education funding and ensure our schools and colleges have the resources they need to deliver the best possible education to every student.
Education is only as strong as the teachers who deliver it. Yet, we face a growing crisis – a shortage of teachers driven by years of uncompetitive pay, relentless workloads driven by system-wide pressures, and an accountability system that too often punishes rather than supports.
Curious about what Manny thinks the solutions are?
🛡️Pastoral Champions Week 2025 - Conference now closed.
As you head into your final week of term, we close out a five month project to deliver Pastoral Champions Week 2025.
30 talks, 100 new resources, 350 school leaders shaping it and 200+ new members joining us via Pastoral Champions Week.
If you:
didn’t get a chance to register in time or access the conference last week and want to keep learning beyond next week > get more access here.
registered before Pastoral Champions Week opened (and you are not a paying member) talks and resources will only be available until Monday (31/03) midday > access them here.
are a paying member and/or a speaker, you should now have unlimited access to all sessions and resources on demand > keep learning here.
💼 Jobs with We Are In Beta community members.
If you want to get your vacancies seen by the 23k school leaders and teachers who receive We Are In Beta newsletters across curriculum, pastoral and more, let us know here and we’ll send more info.
Senior Leadership
Assistant Headteacher – Literacy and Inclusion Thornden School HISP MAT Hampshire) - Apply here.
Middle Leadership
Lead Practitioner Maths Gloucester Academy - Greenshaw Learning Trust Gloucestershire) - Apply here.
Head of History - Gloucester Academy - Greenshaw Learning Trust Gloucestershire) - Apply here.
Teaching
Maths -Gloucester Academy - Greenshaw Learning Trust (Gloucestershire) - Apply here.
English - Gloucester Academy - Greenshaw Learning Trust - (Gloucestershire) - Apply here.
Maths - Five Acres High School - Greenshaw Learning Trust (Gloucestershire) - Apply here
On a personal note
Two reflections instead of one from me today.
One…
Manny Botwe was one of the first group of people to join the We Are In Beta community in 2019.
I am so proud that someone, who the entire sectors looks up to and respects, believes in us - thank you, Manny.
If you don’t know him, or have not met him, I urge you to find a way to add him to your network. He is purpose driven and unbelievably kind.
Listen to his story and his thoughts about how to build community and connection here.
Two…
Every time we run an online conference, we are blown away by how supportive and generous members of the We Are In Beta community are.
So I want to use this space to say thank you to:
Everyone who attended Pastoral Champions Week.
Everyone who commented under talks and fed back on sessions - the speakers really appreciate it.
All the senior leaders in schools who nominated and supported speakers and fed into the map of pastoral needs here.
All brilliant the speakers.
The We Are In Beta team for their work over the last 5 months to make it happen: Fran and Kasia.
None of it would be possible without your belief in collaboration and sharing with (and for) the community.
Thank you!
Thanks for reading.
@NiallAlcock and the We Are In Beta team
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