Welcome to the This Is The North Podcast, your source of transformative conversations. An intentional challenge to the systems holding back the North of England. Hosted by Alison Dunn, an award-winning charity chief executive and former solicitor. This podcast is supported by the Society Matters Foundation and is dedicated to curating and sharing knowledge, powering the change we need for a more equal and inclusive society.
In this episode, Alison sits down with Katrina Morley, CEO of Tees Valley Education, and Sean Harris, the trust's Director of Place. Together they have co-authored Tackling Poverty and Disadvantage in Schools, a book that refuses the comfortable myth that low income equals low aspiration and asks educators to be furiously curious about why that lie has held for so long.
Katrina was born in Middlesbrough. She trained as a chemical engineer before swapping careers, much to the consternation of family and friends and she has never looked back. Sean is a Lancaster lad who came to Durham first generation, started youth work in the East and West End of the city, and stayed. The first time a child told him they were going to the toon at the weekend, he had no idea what they meant.
Their argument is simple and uncomfortable. You cannot teach a child out of poverty. Educational inequality cannot be tackled by educational tools alone. Child poverty costs this country an estimated 39 billion pounds a year. We can find the money to pay for the consequences. We have not found the money to prevent them. World Book Day, packed lunch standards, school trips with souvenir shops, ballet classes that require tutus nobody told you to buy. These are not minor inconveniences but the daily architecture of exclusion.
Timestamps:
00:00 The DNA of a Trust
06:42 Five Academies, One Ecosystem
07:32 What Poverty Actually Does to a Child
23:07 Beyond the Crisis Narrative
29:27 Pay It Forward
31:48 People, Place, Policy
34:59 Expanded Free School Meals and Dignity
37:10 What Gives Them Hope
The question we're left with is what does it actually take to give a child in the North East dignity, opportunity, and agency, and who is doing it already. A child cannot wait for policy to catch up.
Host: Alison Dunn
Guests: Katrina Morley + Sean Harris
This podcast is produced by Purpose Made.
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