Hackney Governors’ Conference 2022

Programme

Wednesday 22 June, 5.00 – 6.00pm 

Hashi Mohamed, People Like Us 

Drawing on his own lived experience, Hashi will explain why his story of success is far from typical and challenge us to use our power to influence system change. How can we address what Hashi describes as the ‘deep divisions that block children from deprived backgrounds from accessing the advantages that are handed to others from birth’ ?

5.00pm – Opening of conference series – Maggie Kalnins (Leader of Governance Services)
5.05pm – Keynote: Hashi Mohamed
5.30pm – Hashi Mohamed in conversation with Deborah Barnett (Diversity and Inclusion Lead for Children and Education Services – Hackney)
5.45pm – Q&A with young Hackney governors, Young Futures representatives and wider audience
5.55pm – Closing remarks

Focus of the session

• What do we know about social mobility in Britain today?
• What are the divisions that block children from deprived backgrounds from accessing the advantages that are handed to others from birth?
• What are the lived experiences of children?
• How can we change our systems to address these inequalities?

Thursday 30 June, 5.00 – 6.00pm

Loic Menzies, Young People on the Margins

Loic will get under the skin of the issues that lead young people to become marginalised in the education system, and in turn, society. Loic will focus on the actions that can be taken at practitioner and national policy level to address these issues, and to ensure that young people on the margins are supported, rather than further marginalised.

5.00pm – Introduction by Maggie Kalnins (Leader of Governance Services)
5.05pm – Keynote: Loic Menzies
5.30pm – Panel discussion and Q&A from virtual audience

• Panel Chair: Stephen Hall (Assistant Director for School Standards and Improvement at Hackney Education)
• Loic Menzies
• Debra Robinson (System Leader for Parental/Carer Engagement at Hackney Education)
• Neela Moorghen (Headteacher at Grasmere Primary School)
• Yasmin Hussein (Young Hackney Governor)
• Young Futures representative

5.55pm Closing remarks

Focus of the session

• What are the cross-cutting common issues that lead to young people becoming marginalised in the education system?
• What actions will make a difference at practitioner and national policy level?
• What are our biggest challenges across our Hackney system?
• How are we doing now and what more must we do to address the challenges?

Wednesday 6 July, 5.00 – 6.30pm 

Panel of Hackney partners and a closing keynote with Raymond Antrobus

A panel of Hackney partners share their insights about how we are (and will continue) changing our systems to address inequalities. They will also examine how our collective pursuits can ensure every child (regardless of their race or class) achieves an equal share of success in adult life.

Raymond Atrobus will share his reflections on growing up in Hackney. He will inspire us through his poetry to reconsider how we change systems in the adult-hearing world and its denial of access to all.

5.00pm Introduction by Maggie Kalnins (Leader of Governance Services)

5.05pm Panel discussion with Hackney partners

• Panel Chair: Eleanor Schooling (Chair of the Hackney Schools Group Board)
• Annie Gammon (Director of Education, Hackney Education)
• Diane Benjamin (Director of Children’s Social Care)
• Kristofer McGhee (Chair of governors and member of Hackney Schools Group Board)

• KT Khan – Executive Headteacher, The Garden School, Hackney

• Mohsen Ojja – Deputy CEO, The Mossbourne Federation, Hackney

• Lisa Clarke -Head Teacher, Comet Nursery School & Children’s Centre

• Reece Lukeman – Manager of Hackney Young Futures Commission and Young Governor

Q&A: Young Governors / Young Futures Commission and audience 

6.05pm Raymond Antrobus to share reflections and read a chosen poem

Focus of the session

• How we are (and will continue) changing our systems to address inequalities that arise from the intersection of multiple, complex and enduring discrimination and disadvantage
• How can our collective pursuits ensure every child (regardless of their race or class) achieves an equal share of success in adult life

Keynote speakers

Hashi Mohamed

Hashi Mohamed came to Britain aged nine, as an unaccompanied child refugee. He attended some of Britain’s worst schools and was raised exclusively on state benefits. Yet today he is a successful barrister, with an Oxford degree and a CV that includes numerous appearances on the BBC.

People Like Us explores what his own experience can tell us about social mobility in Britain today. Far from showing that anything is possible, he concludes his story is far from typical: our country is still riven with deep divisions that block children from deprived backgrounds from accessing the advantages that are handed to others from birth.

View Hashi’s broadcasting portfolio and read Telling children ‘hard work gets you to the top’ is simply a lie Hashi Mohamed.

Loic Menzies  

Our society leaves too many young people behind. More often than not, these are the most vulnerable young people, and it is through no fault of their own. In the twelve years since The Centre for Education and Youth was set up, our research has focused on getting under the skin of the issues that lead young people to become marginalised in the education system, and in turn, society.

Young People on the Margins begins with former CfEY Chief Executive Loic Menzies’ experiences of teaching in North West London, where part of his job involved working with young people on the edge of exclusion. Loic explains the frustration of seeing a pupil who has real potential, but is also showing “completely unacceptable behaviour”, beginning to slide “inexorably” away from the mainstream.

Young people can be on the margins for all manner of reasons and many struggle to achieve the qualifications they need in later life, often finding their opportunities in life dramatically curtailed.
A number of cross-cutting common threads link many of these groups’ experiences. Loic’s keynote will focus on the actions that can be taken at practitioner and national policy level to address these issues, and to ensure that young people on the margins are supported, rather than further marginalised.

Raymond Antrobus 

Raymond Antrobus MBE is a British poet, educator and writer born in Hackney who has been performing poetry for 15 years.

In March 2019, he won the Ted Hughes Award for new work in poetry.

Raymond will close the conference with reflections on growing up in Hackney, his ‘wish-list’ of systemic changes, and a poetry reading.