Fair Education Summit 2025
Date: Monday 8th December 2025
Time: 9am - 6:30pm GMT
Location: Science Museum, London
Our Fair Education Summit is the single biggest gathering of leaders working to make education fairer in England. It is a day of collective discussion, connection, and strength. This year, it also features the launch of our place-based collaborations, including the announcement of the winning Mayoral Combined Authorities selected for our Collaboration Partnerships.
2025 marks a turning point. We have a public sector committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity, a growing appetite for systemic change, and the collective strength of a coalition that has never been more determined to create a fairer future. This Summit, supported by Bloomberg, invites us all to reimagine what is possible — locally, regionally, and nationally — and to work together to make it a reality.
This year, we will come together at the iconic Science Museum, a place that has innovation and learning at its heart, to launch our pioneering new strategy.
The Summit will bring together leaders from across the Alliance to build the capacity to collaborate across our membership, across sectors, and across levels of government so we can shift the conditions holding inequality in place together.
If you are a CEO or Senior Leader at an FEA member organisation, click the button below to book your place. If you would like to join, but have not received an invite, please email fea.events@faireducation.org.uk.
We can’t wait to see you there!
Why now?
At the heart of the Fair Education Alliance is the belief that lasting change comes from cross-sector collaboration, rooted in trusted relationships.
Our new strategy illustrates our commitment to doing together what no single organisation could achieve alone:
📉 Invest in the long-term: we are acting with urgency while building the foundations for long-term change together
🌍Take a systems change approach: the issues driving educational inequity are interconnected and complex. We look at the whole system and work to shift the conditions that keep these problems in place.
📚 Engage in place-based transformation: by breaking down silos, building trust, and sharing understanding, we explore the local drivers of inequity, and map current initiatives, to identify gaps or overlaps
🚸Enable leadership by young people: we believe it is essential to involve and support the leadership of young people with lived experience of the barriers to education we are trying to dismantle
Our focus this year will be on breaking down barriers across our entire community to ensure that, together, we grow our collective voice, deepen our collective action, and strengthen our collective capacity to drive systems change.
Attending the Summit is a core commitment for FEA members - we look forward to seeing every member represented!
Why attend?
Unite behind a collective voice: Unite behind a shared voice alongside key policymakers, businesses, third sector leaders, young people and school and trust leaders so we can shape policy, shift national conversations, and challenge the assumptions that keep educational inequity in place
Ignite collective strength: Impactful, connected member organisations are the foundation of our alliance. Equip your organisation to develop the leadership, connections and skills to collaborate and drive systems change.
Be part of the collection action: Connect the dots across themes, and from Whitehall to the neighbourhoods where delivery happens, so we can build trust and understanding to enable meaningful collaboration and innovation.
Agenda
9:00am: Registration and Arrivals
Arrive early, connect over coffee, and get ready for a day of bold ideas and collaboration.
9:45am: Morning Session
9:45am: Opening Plenary: Systems Change
Hear from inspiring leaders and young performers as we set the tone for an energising and imaginative day. Speakers include Dr Vanessa Ogden CBE (Chair, Fair Education Alliance), Gina Cicerone and Sam Butters (Co-CEOs, Fair Education Alliance).
10:45am: Inside Out: Shifting Mindsets to Shift the System
Explore how real change begins within. Through thought-provoking discussions and interactive sessions, we’ll examine how to challenge assumptions, reimagine education, and take the first steps towards lasting systems change.
Panel and Q&A including Anna McShane (New Britain), Kiran Mahil (Central Foundation Girls’ School), Kwajo Tweneboa (Author and Campaigner), Natsayi Sithole (Renaisi) and Sophie Pender (93% Club).
11:30am: Refreshments
11:50am: Breakouts: Shifting individual and public mindsets
12:50 – 1:50: Lunch and Networking
Refuel, connect and share reflections with fellow changemakers.
1:50pm: Afternoon Session
1:50pm: Power to the People: Driving Place-Based Change
Discover how local leadership can drive national impact. We’ll reveal our new Collaboration Partnerships with Combined Authorities and hear from leaders at the forefront of place-based change.
Featuring a poem by Subhan from our Youth Steering Group, a keynote by Sarah Smith MP, and the launch of our place-based collaborations, including the announcement of the Mayoral Combined Authorities selected as Collaboration Partners.
A panel discussion will follow, with contributions from Sarah Smith MP and representatives from Mayoral Combined Authorities.
3:15pm: Breakouts: From Neighbourhood to National
Join focused sessions bringing together grassroots practitioners, regional leaders and national policy changemakers from across the Alliance to explore the FEA’s three priority themes — Early Childhood, Jobs for Tomorrow and Literacy. The Literacy session will include a special launch for the National Year of Reading 2026.
Panellists include David Hayman (National Year of Reading), Farzana Hussain (Teesville School), Elaine Fulton (Common Outcomes) and Barry Fletcher (Youth Futures Foundation).
4:30pm: Closing Plenary: Taking action together
We reflect on the day’s insights, celebrate collective progress, and look ahead to the action that follows, inspired by a keynote from Stephen Twigg (Commonwealth Parliamentary Association).
5:00pm: Drinks Reception
Wrap up the day in a festive setting and continue the conversations.
Directions
You can find directions to the Science Museum here. The nearest tube station is South Kensington. This is on the District, Circle and Piccadilly lines and is a 5-minute walk from the museum.
Directions:
Once you have exited the ticket barriers at South Kensington station, follow the ‘Subway to Museums’ signs, which are usually blue and white. These signs will direct you into the long, pedestrian subway tunnel.
Walk through the tunnel (approximately 5 minutes) to the final exit, which is for the Science Museum.
At the top of the stairs, turn left onto Exhibition Road, then left onto Imperial College Road.
Walk 200m, and you will find the Courtyard entrance to the Smith Centre on the left, next to the Science Museum Group Entrance.
Watch the video below or click on the map for more details.
Directions to the Fair Education Summit at the Science Museum
