School leaders from across the country gathered at Madingley Hall, Cambridge, to attend The Prince’s Teaching Institute’s annual two day Leadership Residential on Monday 29 January.

The Leadership Residential, which is the tenth event of its kind, was host to school leaders from a range of schools, including headteachers, members of senior leadership teams and system leaders from multi academy trusts.

The event was a mix of illuminating speeches, inspiring lectures, roundtable discussions and networking. Four key themes were drawn out during discussions and speeches, which were teaching and learning, the curriculum, ethos and leadership.

The keynote speech came from Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s new Chief Inspector, who gave delegates an insight into the inspection framework.

Speeches also came from Lord Richard Wilson, former Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service, who discussed the importance of a leader’s role, and their ability to make, or break, a school.

Amy Pearce, Assistant Principal at Ivybridge Community College, said: “Hearing from Ofsted is always useful, and it was uplifting to hear all of the other inspirational speakers as well, particularly from Headteachers who have turned Schools around and lead consistently outstanding schools.”

Attending the Leadership Residential means gives the schools and MATs a year’s free membership of the Schools Leadership Programme – a national network of school leaders across the country.

The programme enables school leaders to share experiences and embark on research projects, as well as helping schools to develop whole-school leadership strategies. Members have access to thousands of teaching resources in the PTI’s online Staffroom, and are invited to annual Schools Leadership Programme days.

Amy continued: “As an aspiring leader, leading a research project on recruitment and retention of teachers is a fantastic opportunity. I can’t wait to get going and look forward to sharing my findings.”

The importance of keeping teaching and learning as ‘the main thing’ was reinforced by students at Launceston College who spoke about their own teachers and how they had inspired their future ambitions.

Students also spoke about the need for a broad and varied curriculum to help them to explore and develop their learning in the most rounded way. Discussions focused particularly on the need to resist shrinking key stage 3 down to two years, as opposed to the usual three.

Alberto Otero, Headteacher at Colton Hills Community School, said: “I really enjoyed enjoyed meeting other school leaders whose schools are successful because they focus on what’s important – a curriculum that engages and inspires students to grow academically and socially.

“It has reinforced that the approach we are taking is correct and has given me confidence in what we are doing.”

Delegates heard from Gavin Alexander who explored the origins of ethos and afterwards discussions focused on how to embed and embody their school’s ethos by empowering and inspiring their staff and students.

Chris Pope, Co-Director of the PTI, said: “We were delighted to welcome school leaders to our annual Leadership Residential to join our national network of schools, made up of more than 10% of secondary schools in the country.

“The PTI’s vision is an unrelenting focus on enriching subject provision in school.It was reassuring to have the residential delegates provide resounding support for keeping schools’ focus on teaching and learning, as well as have their unanimous agreement for the need to keep a broad and varied curriculum, despite perverse incentives that sometimes mitigate against this.

“We look forward to hearing more about the work that schools have chosen to undertake as research projects, which will add to the body of knowledge of what works in schools to enrich teaching and learning.”