Over the last year, we’ve been running our Ambitious About Inclusion roadshow events across England, in partnership with Mission 44. Each event has been a fantastic opportunity to bring together practitioners, local leaders and elected Mayors, experts, and young people to hear about good existing practice and to develop fresh ideas for delivering an inclusive education that serves all children.

Luke, a member of the Fair Education Alliance Youth Steering Group, attended our recent event in Newcastle and has shared his thoughts on the session with us.

“At the event it was interesting to hear from different perspectives on the issues in the educational system from teachers, policymakers and fellow students to name a few.

This was also a brilliant event and opportunity to develop and consolidate knowledge of issues and experience such as teacher burnout as well as a lack of support for all involved in education from students to teachers and even support staff in schools.

Learning more about the infamous postcode-lottery in group discussions was particularly insightful to me as I had very little prior knowledge of what the term meant both in terms of definition and how that effected students.

The conclusion of most discussions during the day led me to believe that whilst there are things we can change on a local level in the Northeast and other parts of the country, change requires a coherent and national effort to tackle larger inequalities stemming from systemic issues such as the postcode-lottery.

Asa final takeaway from the day, we were asked to think about what we can do as individuals to bring about that much needed change.

I pledged to advocate for stronger support systems for those involved in education and to use what platform I have to push for greater equality between students and their outcomes from education.”

We’d like to thank Luke, and everyone who has taken part in these sessions during2025 and early 2026. Our final two roadshow events will take place in Kent and Birmingham in the next couple of weeks.