My Work
Charity
In 2007 I joined a small charity called London Youth Rowing. I immediately recognised it as an opportunity to work in the sport which had given me so much, but in a part of London where the social and economic challenges were profoundly motivating. I took on a club in a part of Hackney known as ‘murder mile’. We partnered with local schools and, within a year, my squad had grown to over a hundred young people. We were soon winning medals at the national championships, often beating the private schools which normally dominated the field.
I replicated the culture of high-challenge-high-support I'd discovered in the independent sector, and applied it in communities riven with poverty and neglect. Nearly all of the young people I coached went on to study at university. Some are now lawyers, doctors, teachers and vets. We worked with the Met Police to tackle violent crime. This was, at times, a sobering experience. I was made Programme Director. We established mentoring programmes with PWC, Morgan Stanley and others. The charity grew and we ended up working with over 10,000 young people a year. But it was clear to me that charity could only do so much. If transformative change was to be achieved, it would need to be delivered through our schools.
Education
My first years in teaching were at an independent school. Until then, I'd never been near one. It was an eye-opening experience. After four years, I moved to LYR which meant working with a wide range of state schools, including two years of secondment in Labour's new flagship academy, Mossbourne. In 2016, I returned to Leeds to build a city-wide partnership of schools, colleges, universities and community clubs. This helped me to better understand the way regional inequalities compound the social, economic and racial disparities I’d seen in the capital.
I learnt a great deal along the way about the link between poverty and educational underachievement. Through personal and professional experience, I discovered what is needed to break that link. The long-term solution requires policy-makers to ask the right people the right questions. That is not happening anywhere near as much as it should.
Over the last 20 years, I have been fortunate to work with some of the most successful educators in the UK. The award-winning programmes we built are now recognised as models for other schools to follow.
Top down reform rarely works. When it comes to enduring social change, government policy is more often the effect than the cause. Our education system can be the bedrock of the social and economic changes we need. We can do it quick or we can do it right.
Policy and Research
One of my motivations for joining Labour was the opportunity to contribute to internal policy discussions around education, wellbeing and youth development. I soon found myself attending think tanks, All Parliamentary Party Groups and giving evidence to the Education Select Committee. I was introduced to senior policy advisors and shadow ministers. Such was the benefit of living in London at the time.
Anecdotally, I knew the methods we employed in London had real impact, but I needed proof. When I started working with the University of Leeds, I set up several research projects, including one exploring the impact of co-curricular education. We established a pilot with the School of Psychiatry, looking into the effects of high-dose sport on physical confidence, mental toughness and social dexterity. In turn, we wanted to understand how wellbeing impacts attendance, academic attainment and progression to further and higher education. I remain convinced that levelling up this aspect of education will bring significant social and economic returns for our country.
I am a board member of the recently-formed Society for Total Education. We curate research into education policy as well as conducting online lectures and debates. I am also a member of the Educational Policy Institute and a contributor to various online sector magazines.