The Headteachers’ Roundtable school and trust leaders group has announced new co-chairs as previous chair Caroline Derbyshire steps down.
Ms Derbyshire, who ran the group for four years, has confirmed she will be handing over leadership to Caroline Barlow and Keziah Featherstone, who will lead as co-chairs.
Former chair Ms Derbyshire is CEO of Saffron Academy Trust, a multi-academy trust of nine schools in Uttlesford and Braintree, which she has run since 2016.
She announced that she will also be stepping down as CEO of the trust at the end of August 2025.
The Headteachers’ Roundtable was established in 2012 and is a non-party political group of UK headteachers who work to influence education policy.
Education needs ‘energy and optimism’
Ms Barlow is the headteacher of Heathfield Community College in East Sussex and Ms Featherstone is the executive headteacher of Q3 Academy Tipton and The Ladder School in the West Midlands.
Commenting on their priorities as co-chairs, Ms Barlow and Ms Featherstone said that they are “acutely aware” of the need for some “energy and optimism in the education sector”, and expressed an interest in promoting cross-sector collaboration.
The co-chairs also called on education secretary Bridget Phillipson to create a 10-year plan for education that provides a “framework enabling the profession to thrive”.
Ms Derbyshire, who will remain part of the group, called her time in the role a “great privilege” and said that she leaves hoping that listening to the profession is now an “accepted practice” under the new Labour government.
She commended the new co-chairs as “bright and principled leaders” who will continue representing the views of school leaders and ensure that “the lived experience of those who work and learn in education is not forgotten when policy is formulated”.
Writing for Tes earlier this month, Ms Derbyshire called the scrapping of overall effectiveness grades for Ofsted inspections a “beacon of hope”.
However, she also warned that the inspectorate, which is due to restart inspections next week, still needs to ”clean up its culture”.
In a manifesto released earlier this year, the Headtachers’ Roundtable called for an end to the “annual circus” of teacher pay settlements and urged for a revamp of performance data.
Sabrina Hobbs, principal of St Martins School in Derby, remains as vice-chair, joined by Dr Kulvarn Atwal, executive head of Highlands and Uplands Primary School in London.
In addition to the change of leadership, the group has been joined by Andrew O’Neill, headteacher of All Saints Catholic College in West London.
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