As the director of New Schools Network, Sophie Harrison-Byrne champions the creation of free schools and she tells Tes that, whether they deliver a traditional curriculum or lessons through project learning, the schools that have the biggest impact all have something in common: “They are laser-focused on their culture and they sweat the small stuff.”

Harrison-Byrne explains how, if she were to create her perfect staffroom, she would harness this diversity of approaches, and why she thinks technology could play a big role in the future of teaching.

1. Who was your most memorable teacher?

My favourite teacher was Mr Wilson. He was a secondary RE teacher. He was very eccentric. There was a lot of standing on tables to teach and making us learn via ridiculous chants and songs, but he was also - particularly at sixth form - really good at treating us like adults and facilitating amazing debates about topics like euthanasia or abortion or environmental justice.

I absolutely loved all of that stuff and it definitely encouraged me to go on and study sociology and politics at university.

2. What were the best and worst things about your time at school?

The best thing was that I lived and grew up abroad until I was 15. Every three years, my family and I would move to a completely different country, and I got the opportunity to go to a totally different school and make a whole load of new friends. I thought that was completely normal at the time and now I understand that it’s not - but I loved it.

The worst part was being a teenager. I went to an all-girls schools and obviously teenage girls can be pretty unpleasant at times, so I think it was probably that. I am eternally grateful that social media wasn’t a thing then. I think it’s so depressing and worrying that children can’t escape social media.

3. Why do you work in education now?

It is almost impossible to answer this question without falling into clichés, but I had an excellent education and was very fortunate. And then I had the experience of working in a failing school.

Once you become painfully aware that not everybody has access to a good education then it’s quite hard not to feel like you need to do something about that.

4. What are you most proud of in your career and what do you most regret?

I am most proud of the work I am doing leading the team at New Schools Network. I absolutely love our culture. I think we really embody our values of continuous improvement, innovation and accelerating diversity. I work with such a dynamic and fabulous group of people. I am also really proud, particularly since the start of the pandemic, that we’ve done a lot of work in terms of staff wellbeing and mental health, including flexible working arrangements.

As a mum of two children under the age of 3, I know that is pretty important.

In terms of regrets, don’t get me wrong, I have made loads of mistakes in every job I have had and I am sure I will continue to do so, but generally when I get a bit of distance from something I don’t tend to regret things too much.

5. Who would be in your perfect school staffroom and why?

I had a pretty perfect school staffroom in a school in Hackney where I taught. I worked in an outstanding English department, which - apart from the headteacher - was staffed by really strong female teachers and they were, without exception, amazing teachers; all really different, strong women and really supportive colleagues, and I found that a really energising place to work.

But if I were to start from scratch, I would definitely staff it with some of the amazing free school leaders that I have worked with.

This is not an exhaustive list but it would be a very big, inclusive staffroom: I would have Gwyn ap Harri [chief executive of XP School Trust] and Luke Sparkes [deputy chief executive of Dixons Academies Trust] sitting in one corner, talking about different curriculum culture models. I’d have Ed Vainker [CEO of the Reach Foundation] and Rebecca Cramer [executive headteacher at Reach Academy] thinking about how the school was going to work with its community “from cradle to career”, as they would say.

I’d have Linda Thompson, director of Star Institute, leading on training and professional development, and I’d have all the special free school heads in there so that all of that specialist expertise was right in the middle of the school and not on the periphery.

6. What are the best and worst aspects of our schools system today?

I think that it’s useful to step back and acknowledge that actually we have a really good schools system. It’s not perfect, but it is by no means bad. I think that, now the majority of children are educated in academies, it’s a really good time to change the narrative and to celebrate the successes of academies and free schools.

Some of the most successful schools and trusts have come through that system because of the autonomy that they have. The high-impact trusts such as Dixons and Inspiration and Star have some really amazing free schools, but they also remain committed to sponsoring academies that are improving outcomes for the most disadvantaged students, and they are also incredibly outward looking and contribute disproportionately to the system.

The worst is that where a child lives still plays far too big a role in whether they can access a good education. So, in terms of children with special educational needs and disabilities, there are far too many children who can’t get a place in a special school near their home. And the same is the case for alternative provision. That’s absolutely shocking because they are either languishing in their local school or they are falling out of the system altogether.

Similarly, on the mainstream side, a secondary child who lives in the North of England is five times as likely to attend an underperforming school than their peers in London. That needs to change fast and we know that free schools are one of the most effective ways to bring good schools to local areas - whether that is a good special school within easy travelling distance of a family or, indeed, a secondary school that is really tackling underperformance in the local area.

7. Your own teachers aside, who in education has influenced you the most?

No one person - but, again, all the free school leaders whom I’ve had the privilege of learning from. Regardless of the particular education model, I’ve learned so much about how to set up a successful school from scratch. We know that high-impact free schools have certain things in common. For example, they have a really clear sense of mission and moral purpose and a laser focus on culture. They really sweat the small stuff to make sure they get it all right. They also like to be visible and to make sure they are spreading their good work with others.

8. If you became education secretary tomorrow, what is the first thing you’d do?

There are far too many parents who have no choice other than to send their child to a failing school. There are 200,000 primary-aged children who live in areas with no “good” provision and so, unsurprisingly, I would allow more free schools and trusts to move into those areas to offer those families and children what they deserve and something better.

Again unsurprisingly, I would launch a wave of free schools of all types to make sure that good schools were taken to where they are needed. Also I would ensure that all trusts, and particularly underperforming trusts, have access to high-quality trustees.

Through our Academies Ambassadors programme, since 2013, we have been placing top non-executive directors from organisations such as KPMG, PwC and Santander on the boards of multi-academy trusts. We know that weak governance is often a root cause of underperformance and, as we’ve seen through the success of this programme, we know how impactful it can be to bring that expertise from other industries and sectors.

9. What do you think schools will look like in 30 years’ time?

If free schools have taught us one thing, it’s that you can’t predict what is going to be coming. Who would have thought that an XP [School] or a King’s Maths School were going to be the next thing 10 or so years ago? And I think that is really exciting.

It is exciting not to know who is going to be the next big innovator or disrupter in education. But what I do know is that we are getting quite a lot of interest in the role of technology and digital.

So, we are working with a group who are really interested in exploring AI systems to support great teaching in schools. Another group wants to set up a free school that has a really robust digital skills curriculum, and we also have interest from proposer groups that want to set up schools that are fully online, which is quite exciting and is definitely pushing the boundaries. It has a lot of potential - particularly in alternative provision, where it can be a really good tool for children to engage with.

10. Who has had the biggest influence in education in the past 12 months?

I think it would be really silly to say anything other than teachers in schools and including governors, trustees, classroom teachers, support staff, headteachers and everybody. They have just been doing the most amazing work over the past year in the most extreme and unusual circumstances.

Sophie Harrison-Byrne was speaking to John Roberts, senior reporter at Tes

This article originally appeared in the 3 December 2021 issue