Date: Wednesday 7th May
Time: 9.00am – 11.00am (8.30am – Registration & light breakfast)
Location: HAYS, 3rd Floor, 1 Colmore Square, Birmingham B4 6AJ
Join Katrina Morley OBE and Sean Harris, co-authors of Tackling Disadvantage in Schools (Bloomsbury, 2025), for a powerful and thought-provoking conversation on poverty, education, and the systems that shape both.
Together, these influential leaders bring deep frontline experience, evidence-informed strategy, and a fierce commitment to equity. Sean and Katrina serve areas of significant hardship and support other schools across the UK in navigating complexities in their own contexts. Together, Katrina and Sean will explore:
- What schools and leaders can do to further understand and tackle inequalities
- How to shift school culture to disrupt cycles of poverty
- The role of people, place, and policy in driving change
- Why partnerships matter more than ever — and what real collaboration looks like
- Opportunities to further influence system change in the sector
Whether you’re an educator, policymaker, community advocate, or someone who believes in the power of schools to shape society, this event will challenge assumptions, spark new thinking, and offer practical takeaways.
No egos. No silos
Just real honest dialogue about what matters — and how we move forward, together.
Speakers:
Sean Harris FCCT is an internationally recognised education leader committed to tackling social disadvantage. With a background across the charity and public sectors, he focuses on reducing educational inequality, advancing teacher education, and embedding research in practice.
A doctoral researcher at Teesside University, Sean explores how co-production can inform place-based approaches in schools. He co-authored Tackling Poverty and Disadvantage in Schools and has conducted a systematic review of pupil premium policy.
A regular contributor to SecEd, TES, and Headteacher Update, Sean is a published author, speaker, and Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching. He supports system leadership, partnership development, and talent mapping across multi-academy trusts.
In 2024, Sean won the Fair Education Alliance and Bloomberg Innovation Award for his work with Tees Valley Education PLACE, driving collaborative, place-based change. He also received Let Teachers SHINE funding for poverty-informed curriculum design, with findings featured in national publications.
Sean contributes to research with Child of the North, the N8 Research Partnership, and the Centre for Young Lives, and was appointed to the Department for Education’s Edtech Evidence Board Advisory Group.
His Substack, followed by over 11,000 readers, explores child poverty, policy, and systemic reform to improve outcomes for low-income communities.
Katrina Morley OBE, CEO, Tees Valley Education Multi Academy Trust. Katrina is a dynamic system leader. She staunchly advocates for educational equality. She achieves this by shaping policy, practice, and opportunities for children and young people at local, regional, and national levels. She collaborates with a wide range of strategic stakeholders and partners to drive meaningful change in education and communities.
Katrina has recently co-authored Tackling Poverty & Disadvantage in Schools, a book reflecting her deep commitment to addressing educational inequalities. In recognition of her outstanding contributions to education and the Tees Valley region, she was awarded an OBE for services to education in the King’s New Year Honours 2025.
Hays Education and The Foundation for Education Development (FED) work in partnership offering a series of breakfast leadership seminars on a range of topics impacting the system and requiring long-term, systemic solutions. Please contact [email protected] for more details on upcoming seminars in Kent (on ethical leadership) and London (on AI).