One of the things I noticed almost immediately when I first came to South Yorkshire was that its people don’t really do “showing off”. Despite the fierce Yorkshire pride that is so palpable when it comes to individual accomplishments, they just get on with things in the belief that everything will “be reight”, as they say around here. Yet, there are so many things in education in this region that are really remarkable. So many lights are hidden under bushels and so much that is brilliant is not widely known. This is why this year we’re doing something very “unYorkshire”. We’re shouting from the rooftops (or hilltops in South Yorkshire) about the amazing things happening in education. And we’re shouting loud. Move over Glasto - we’re organising an education festival.

In June 2019, Sheffield Hallam University will host its first Festival of Education. At its heart is a mission to celebrate and showcase the fantastic practice happening in our region. We aim to share the expertise of our educational professionals and stakeholders right across the sector, debate the different perspectives and shine a light on the brilliance of education in South Yorkshire in a way that is both profound and creative.

But this is not, I repeat not, a conference. With music, art, performances, good food and other cultural events throughout the two-day event across our campus, we’ve got the festival feeling well and truly covered. These outdoor/indoor celebrations are another example of something the region does well, but doesn’t brag about. As I’m not from Yorkshire (I’m a “real” northerner from Cumbria!) I can show off for my Yorkshire friends and colleagues, and promise a real treat of an event - wherever you come from.

Partnership building

The idea for the festival stemmed from our social-mobility partnership, South Yorkshire Futures, in which Sheffield Hallam University has taken a leading role in bringing together regional stakeholders to work jointly on educational attainment and raise aspirations for school students across South Yorkshire - particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The region’s teachers, early years professionals, leaders, schools, multi-academy trusts, teaching schools, local authorities, early years settings, colleges and universities, to name but a few, are mobilising their collective resources - convened by Sheffield Hallam - to solve problems that simply can’t be solved individually. This is incredibly powerful, and has been backed and recognised by the Department for Education.

We’ve achieved an extraordinary amount in the first 12 months: a South Yorkshire early years vision document describing what excellent practice looks like; agreement across our four local authorities on what we mean by “school ready”; a joint teacher recruitment, retention and development programme, called Partnerships for Attainment, between market competitors; support from the regionally elected mayor; recognition from the education secretary and other DfE ministers; and now we want to extend and share that collaborative model to a celebratory, impactful event.  

We’re now organising our festival to bring all of the relevant voices together to celebrate, share and debate the many great things that are happening in South Yorkshire. We also want to challenge the north/south narrative by situating this collaboration within the national context, potentially providing blueprints for ways of working for the rest of the country so that our country’s education system as a whole can benefit.

Posing questions

So we’ll be looking at some really critical and current questions for South Yorkshire and the rest of the country, including: is education in reality a right for all? Does it matter to all those it should matter to? What is technology doing for, and to, young people? How do we keep arts and culture within education? What does the school-led system really mean? How do we get the best teacher and early years workforce? And how do we engage education with employment?

Like any good festival, festival-goers can decide what interests them from the line-up and how they want to contribute. From national headliner to fringe event, the festival will suit all tastes with its thought-provoking discussions, roundtables, performances, workshops, panels and many other activities. Over the two days, we’ll be bringing together a fantastic array of more than 100 creative, interesting and stimulating speakers, groups and organisations from the local, regional, national and international education system.

Partners include #WomenEd, the Chartered College of Teaching, Firm Foundations, ResearchSEND, the Teacher Development Trust, Research-led Sheffield, our South Yorkshire early years settings and teaching schools, the Headteachers’ Roundtable, Tes Resources, the Association for Science Education and many others who are all committed to stimulating conversations, new ideas and new thinking that will connect all festival-goers with this truly energising event.

This is all about the regional sector doing it for itself - saying there are lots of great things happening here - so let’s share and celebrate them. As Indian author and poet Siddharth Katragadda once said: “The greatness of a culture can be found in its festivals.” We couldn’t agree more.  

For more information, please visit HallamEdFest.org.uk or follow @HallamEdFest for updates. If you’d like to be involved as a contributor or sponsor, please contact the festival director, Sean Cavan, via s.cavan@shu.ac.uk