Leadership in Education and the London Challenge

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In 2003 Hanover started its 3 year contract with London Challenge. Even when the project had nominally finished, Hanover continued to work with many of the schools in London Challenge. In July 2014 the UK's Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission stated "London is proving deprivation need not be destiny." The report highlighted that in the capital more than 40% of white pupils on free school meals get 5 good GCSEs. London Challenge was launched to drive up standards and some £80 million was invested in leadership and targeting individual schools. According to Ofsted, about 80% of London schools now have "outstanding" leadership, including 38% of schools in its deprived areas. This contrasts with deprived schools in the Northeast where the figure currently stands at 4%. And leadership does matter - In schools with outstanding leadership, 50% of children on free school meals get 5 good GCSEs, compared to just 25% in inadequate or failing schools.

“The verdict within the school is unanimous. It has given people the confidence to deal with the demands of a challenging environment and to empower others within their team to do the same. Whatever position you hold in a school, you will deliver a higher quality of teaching and learning if you can concentrate properly on the job in hand and the reason we all came into the profession in the first place. Too often, the thing that is most important to a school (i.e. the lessons) gets lost in a haze of doing everything else. Hanover can help us readdress the balance further” Headteacher

“Progress on the areas for improvement identified by the inspection in – leadership and management at all levels – The school has taken advantage of expertise from a variety of sources, including support from Hanover Partnership provided through London Challenge”  Ofsted