One of the great joys in my professional life has been the variety of challenges that have come my way, some planned and expected, but many of the most exciting, unplanned, unexpected and often daunting.
After 20 years as a junior school headteacher in Guildford, at the height of the workforce reform agenda in 2004, I was offered the opportunity to become a workforce development consultant, joining a team at VT4S (later Babcock4S). The offer, coming out of the blue, was certainly unplanned and definitely daunting. Change management was very much the order of the day, but there seemed to be no clear structure or guidelines, leaving us to develop programmes and strategies for delivery as we went along.
Over the next six years I learnt to work with sceptical and initially reluctant school leaders in Surrey, developing workforce reform systems and approaches, providing learning opportunities for support staff and growing Babcock’s HLTA programme nationally. At the time I was only aware in passing of the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP) being run in Surrey by a small team within the organisation, but all this altered dramatically in 2011, a change that was to dominate the rest of my working career and beyond. I was asked by the senior management at Babcock to take over and grow what was at the time a small programme training about 30 primary teachers each year in around 20 Surrey schools.
With little teacher training experience behind me this was a challenging, but exciting opportunity that quickly brought me into contact with new colleagues in other ITT organisations, the Teaching Agency and NASBTT. Having been introduced to Martin Thompson, the Executive Director of NASBTT, I was encouraged to join the Management Team in 2013 at around the same time as our GTP was morphing into one of the first fully accredited SCITTs.
Very quickly, the already significant role of NASBTT grew with the new or developing ITT providers needing support and guidance, which Martin and his Executive Officer, Alison Hobson, provided to great effect. In 2015 I took on the Chair of NASBTT from Ian Williams, a position I was proud to hold for seven years until 2022. It was a time that saw considerable change and growth in the organisation as the importance and impact of school-based ITT increased year on year. In 2017 Martin retired and the NASBTT Management Team appointed Emma Hollis to the role of Executive Director, a position she holds to this day (now CEO). The belief we had that Emma was the right person to lead us into developing and growing what we offer to our stakeholders has been rewarded fully. Having been able to achieve charitable status, it was a fulfilling experience to work with Emma, her growing team of colleagues and a dedicated Board of Trustees over the exciting growth years 2017-20.
During those years of chairing NASBTT’s Management Team and then Board of Trustees, I was proud that Martin and then Emma always kept support for stakeholders at the heart of their work. Being available to answer queries, guide providers through challenges, get answers from the DfE and endlessly share good practice remained the core purpose throughout my time. However, as the sector expanded and expectations were raised it became apparent that we would need to grow our offering, leading to the development of new initiatives including the Teacher Educator Programmes, NASBTT Learn, Subject Development Resources, Essential Guides for Early Career Teachers book series with Critical Publishing, Mentor Development Modules, Administrator Training Programmes and a range of NASBTT events. Not only did these offerings provide training and development opportunities for our membership, they also helped significantly to raise revenue and keep membership fees down.
There were many highlights in my time as Chair of Trustees, significant among those being the well-attended and highly thought of NASBTT Annual Conferences. These enabled Emma and her team along with the Trustees to network with Members and other stakeholders as well as providing a high standard of keynote speakers and other contributors. I always valued being a part of them.
Perhaps the biggest highlight of my time as Chair was being able to host the inaugural Annual Awards Evening held in London in July 2019. Being a part of a celebration of success for so many deserving individuals and teams from school-based providers all over the country was an honour and is a memory that will stay with me forever.
During my seven years working closely with Martin and Emma, I came into contact with many colleagues and stakeholders whose support and guidance I relied upon. There are too many to mention all by name, but a few stand out particularly. From my earliest association with NASBTT right through to when I finally left, Alison was always there when I needed help, answers to questions or just a sounding board. She remains an important cog in the NASBTT wheel and a valued friend. Claire Harnden, now the Deputy CEO at South Farnham Educational Trust and still a NASBTT Trustee, was always there to keep me right up-to-date with accurate information coming out of the DfE and to explain the incomprehensible. Kim Francis, my Vice Chair for several years, was another on whose knowledge and experience I leant on heavily. Kim spoke his mind, sometimes with fervour, but was always willing to listen to counter arguments. But of all the outstanding colleagues I encountered, from the very beginning Emma stood out as exceptional. Through her deep knowledge of the sector, her understanding of the operation within the DfE and her drive to improve and grow the organisation, she made being Chair one of the most rewarding roles in the whole of my working life.
My final two years as Chair were more challenging on the back of the pandemic, but, if anything, NASBTT’s importance and value to the sector grew during that time. As the country emerged from those challenging Covid years, with a government determined to bring significant change to the structure and organisation of ITT, it became apparent to me that the time had come to retire from the Chair. So, during 2022 I was pleased to work with Emma to induct Anna Richards as the new Chair of NASBTT. From my view as a bystander only, it seems to me that it was another decision well made! With two such talented operators at the helm, at the end of 25 years of serving the school-based sector, NASBTT remains well placed to continue its vital work.
Ian Hollingsworth was Chair of NASBTT from 2015-22.