The next EVENTS issue has landed with a featured article, highlighted programmes, courses and events from our delivery partners to support your professional development and enhance the work of your school. 

Coaching for Leaders
The Coaching for Leaders workshop is designed to equip leaders and coaches with the confidence and skills to make a real impact. Participants will gain practical coaching tools, receive feedback on their style, and learn how to engage teams, align goals, and navigate challenging conversations with ease.
Find out more and book here.
 
Highlighted Courses/Support:

• SWIFT Secondary Leadership Professional Community
• Adaptive Teaching: primary staff meeting series
• SWIFT Sixth Form Professional Community
• The Maternity Teacher Paternity Teacher (MTPT) Project
• Professional Communities

• Primary and Secondary Subject Briefing
• EYFS & Primary Courses
• Secondary & Sixth Form Courses
• Other events for your diary

A New Chapter for the South West
 
Your Future Story is supported by a powerful coalition of delivery partners, including the Universities of Cambridge, Bristol and Exeter, national social mobility charity The Sutton Trust, Leading Schools South West (LSSW), Multi Academy Trusts across the region and of course, SWIFT.
 
The Programme is built on a long-term, cohort-based model that includes academic mentoring, supra-curricular enrichment, personal development, and regular visits to universities and regional employers.
 
At the centre of the approach is the Teacher Champion - a trained in-school Mentor in every participating school, supporting pupils to sustain high attainment and ambition throughout their secondary education. Alongside them, Senior Leaders are supported through the Leading High Attainment strand of the programme to embed whole-school strategies and maintain a sustained focus on the needs of high-potential, under-resourced pupils.
 
Together, these roles are central to the programme’s ambition to deliver systemic change. Not only improving outcomes for individual students, but also transforming the wider structures and expectations that currently limit opportunity across the region.

Insight to Action | National Voices Share Experience
 
A keynote panel discussion explored how lived experience, long-term partnerships and regional strategy can drive real progress for high-attaining disadvantaged pupils.
 
Mohamed Abdallah, South West Regional Director at the Reach Foundation opened the session by emphasising the importance of connection:
“These children need to hear how significant they are—and how their contribution matters” and described how mentoring rooted in listening and belief can be transformational.
 
Jon Datta, Head of University Access & Digital at The Sutton Trust, highlighted the strengths underserved young people bring:
“These students have experiences that give them resilience, insight and voice. They need the chance to show it.”
 
Drawing on his own educational journey, Matt Cordwent, Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys and University of Exeter alumnus, emphasised the pivotal role of teachers:
“So often it is a single teacher who opens a door. We need to empower more of those teachers to step forward.”
 
Alex Crossman, Executive Headteacher at the London Academy of Excellence Stratford, challenged the sector to move beyond narrow metrics:
“We must avoid transactional narratives. Celebrate the joy and value of subject knowledge itself.”
 
Offering a system-wide perspective, Moira Marder, Chief Executive of the Ted Wragg Trust, warned against fragmentation:
“We can’t continue working in silos. Collaboration across schools, colleges and Local Authorities is the only way to make a real difference.”

Laying Foundations: Training for School Leaders and Mentors

In the afternoon, delegates took part in two professional learning streams designed to equip schools for long-term delivery:
 

• Teacher Champions began induction training focused on building mentoring relationships, engaging families, and sustaining aspiration across key transition points.
• Senior Leaders began the Leading High Attainment programme, which provides strategic tools and frameworks to drive change at school level.

 
Both sessions were co-delivered by Colyton Foundation staff and programme partners and will continue throughout the year as part of a structured professional development offer.

Looking Ahead
 
This Autumn Term, the first cohort of 100 pupils will begin the programme.
New cohorts will join annually until the programme reaches 1,000 pupils across the region.
 
“There was a wonderful energy in the room,” said Nick Wakeling, Director of the Colyton Foundation.
​“A shared sense of belief and commitment to ensuring that young people in the South West have equitable access to opportunity. That’s how lasting change happens. Now the real work begins.”