Our final #FinnemoreFireside of this academic year is with Chris Kirk of CJK Associates. Chris’ work is varied and he and his team support the mission of education by providing strategy, business planning, organisation design, operations, procurement and shared service advice to education organisations.

Chris works extensively with multi-academy trusts on vision, strategy, operating models and governance/finance reviews, so our Q&A session focuses on MATs and their needs, and what this means for suppliers – both now and in the future.

It’s a really insightful discussion and we cover topics including:

• Fostering social responsibility in schools and achieving aspirations through clarity
• How schools can contribute to society
• Finding your mission: understanding and showcasing your unique capabilities
• Unlocking the power of professional networks: how Trusts can make a difference
• The challenge of ensuring adequate support for high-need pupils
• Establishing a culture of consistency: How do you ensure a similar mission statement in new schools/academies?
• The future of school groupings and the natural drift towards ten
• When MATs stand firm and refuse to uphold the Regional Commissioner’s agenda
• What is Collaborative Alignment? Achieving aspirations through group collaboration
• The challenges facing schools as the educational environments change

We’d love to hear your feedback and comments below. Enjoy!

Next in our #FinnemoreFireside series is this Q&A session from before half term with Matt Woodruff, Vice President of Analytics and AI at Community Brands UK.

A data professional and PhD candidate in the field of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in Education, Matt has a prior background of 25 years in technology applications and consulting in Europe and the US.  He’s founded companies specifically addressing how technology can support more effective decision-making at all levels to improve outcomes and identify ways to be able to ‘do more, with less’ – more important than ever in today’s economic climate.

Matt and I had an insightful conversation about data and machine learning, including:

• What is AI? The acronym is bandied about a lot, and here Matt gives a very strong definition of AI and more importantly Machine Learning
• We talk a lot about the benefits of using contextual data with machine learning
• What is the future of the use of data and how expansive can it support Teachers, Students and Parents
• What needs to change? How ‘open’ should data be?
• How is Community Brands supporting schools, and what’s next for the company?

It’s an interesting listen – especially for those of you like me who are interested in data and where the next innovations in analytics will be. Enjoy!

Next in the #FinnemoreFireside series is this brilliant chat I had last month with Mike Donoghue, CEO of John Taylor Multi-Academy Trust (JTMAT). It was a great conversation providing lots of insight into how MATs work and what is important to directors, leaders, governors, staff and learners.

To provide some background on Mike, he was appointed Headteacher at John Taylor High School in January 2010 and oversaw the first change to ‘converter’ academy status of an ‘outstanding’ school in Staffordshire in November 2010. That school plus 14 others now lie at the heart of John Taylor Multi-Academy Trust where Mike is CEO.

In September 2014 he became an elected member of the Regional School Commissioner’s (West Midlands) Headteachers Board, was re-elected in 2017 and elected to the newly-constituted Advisory Board in 2022. Mike has also been appointed to the DfE’s Secondary Headteacher Reference Group, an advisory panel assisting with policy and strategy decision-making.

It’s an insightful conversation which includes, amongst other things:

• What it means to be a teaching school, and how fulfilling and valuable it can be
• The challenges and opportunities that come with working outside your organisation
• Growing into a successful MAT, and how do you define the perfect size
• Equality of entitlement when it comes to professional development
• The sliding scale between autonomy and regulation/structure, and how to create that balance as a MAT: compliance-driven vs excellence-driven
• Co-construction and why this is so important across the Trust
• How the Trust is very similar to a cycling peloton!
• Using evidence in staff appraisals and the concept of quid pro quo and ownership
• What Mike would like to see more of from software suppliers, and how major investment in one area can actually stymie innovation in others
• Where Mike takes his influence from on which solutions to introduce to the Trust and why