Relive the Fair Education Summit

Happy New Year! We hope you had a restful, restorative winter break and are feeling energised for another year of working together for a fairer future for children and young people. 

We closed 2025 in the same spirit we’ll carry into 2026 - with collaboration, optimism and a real sense of shared purpose as we gathered with our members at the 2025 Fair Education Summit. From the announcement of our new place-based collaboration partnerships with Mayoral Combined Authorities to the thought-provoking sessions on shifting mental models around inequity, it was inspiring to hear from such a wide range of voices and to feel the collective appetite for bold, practical change. 

If you couldn't join us or want to relive the conversations, you can now watch recordings of the main sessions from the Summit. Here’s a recap of the day with links to the recordings. 

Welcome and opening plenary from Dr Vanessa Ogden CBE 

After a warm welcome from our MCs and Summit partner Bloomberg, we heard from the Chair of the Fair Education Alliance, Dr Vanessa Ogden CBE, whose opening plenary focused on the importance of transformation and collaboration from neighbourhood to national level. 

Shifting mental models to shift the system 

Next, our Co-CEOs, Gina and Sam, recapped the FEA’s new strategy, including the six conditions of systems change that are currently holding educational inequity in place. 

Then they took us on a deep dive into the deepest and most fundamental of these conditions: mental models. These are the mindsets that we - and society more broadly- use to frame education and inequality, shaping our systems and solutions. 

To discuss mental models and what it would take to shift them, we heard from an incredible panel featuring: 

• Anna McShane, Director of The New Britain Project 

• Kiran Mahil, Deputy Headteacher at Central Foundation Girls’ School 

• Kwajo Tweneboa, Housing Campaigner 

• Sophie Pender, Founder & CEO of The 93% Club 

• Natsayi Sithole, Chief Executive of Renaisi-TSIP 

From Neighbourhood to National: place-based change 

The afternoon kicked off with one of the most memorable and moving moments of the day. Youth Steering Group member Subhan shared his stunning poem about growing up in “beautiful, stubborn” Manchester- a city of diversity, community and hope - to huge applause. It was the perfect introduction to a session about the importance of locality and lived experience when addressing educational inequity. 

Next, Sarah Smith, MP for Hyndburn and the Government’s Opportunity Mission Champion, spoke about her experience working on local inequality, first as a youth worker and later as an MP, and looked ahead to the upcoming Schools White Paper. 

Then the FEA’s Director of Place-Based Collaboration, Rachel Parkin, and Youth Steering Group member Aisha were thrilled to announce the Mayoral Combined Authorities that were selected for our Collaboration Partnerships: Liverpool, South Yorkshire and the West Midlands. Representatives from each authority joined Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua onstage to discuss how to drive place-based change. 

Closing words and an emotional finale 

After themed breakout sessions that featured experts alongside members of the FEA’s Youth Steering Group, we reconvened for the closing plenary. Gina invited us to reflect on our aspirations for the year ahead and reiterated the resources and support available from the FEA. 

The closing remarks came from Stephen Twigg, FEA Trustee and former Minister for Schools, who emphasised the importance of place-based work and collaboration. 

The biggest round of applause was for the evening’s final - and perhaps most spectacular - performance. The pupils of Ark Atwood Primary Academy rounded things off with a heartwarming rendition of Lean on Me by Bill Withers and Try Everything by Shakira from the film Zootopia. We can’t share a recording with you, but we’re sure that if you were there, you remember it as vividly as we do. 

Thanks to everyone who came to the Summit and made it such a special event, and we hope you enjoy reliving the day. 

The Fair Education Team