Our Goal
ADDRESSING URGENT CHALLENGES IN EDUCATION
WHAT WE OFFER
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT THAT ENABLES LEADERS TO HAVE MEANINGFUL IMPACT
We work to improve student outcomes in three key areas: reducing exclusions, reducing absence, and minimising harmful or abusive behaviour. Our leadership programmes give school leaders the skills they need to support vulnerable pupils and improve inclusion.
Are you:
- Committed to building safety, belonging, and wellbeing in your school or schools?
- Looking to reduce exclusions and improve outcomes for vulnerable learners?
- Optimistic about overcoming adversity to support each child’s potential?
- Ready to build a team that takes a systems approach to transform not just systems, but culture too?
Empowering School Leaders through our Inclusive Leadership Programmes
We deliver our programmes across England. Schools can buy individual places, while multi-academy trusts and local authorities can arrange their own cohorts.
About the Course
The Inclusive Leadership Course provides in-depth, current professional development for senior school leaders, pastoral leaders, and heads of behaviour and inclusion. Join an in-person network of leaders for high-quality training that combines theory, reflection, and practical application. We deliver the Inclusive Leadership Course across England in regional cohorts.
Schools, multi-academy trusts and local authorities can buy places for individual leaders and small groups. You can also buy an entire cohort.
Find out more about the course
We have full details of the course, including locations, how to apply, and the impact of the course on schools across England.
Purpose
For periods of up to five years, we partner with primary, secondary, and alternative provision schools to implement whole-school inclusion.
Headteachers and senior leaders take part in our Inclusive Leadership Course as part of The Difference Schools Partnership. Our experienced programme team works directly in schools as implementation partners, supporting leaders to diagnose problems, design improvements, and bring about changes that create measurable improvements in student outcomes.
This programme evolved from our original flagship: The Difference Leadership Programme. The Difference Schools Partnership broadens our focus to the whole school, and takes place over a longer period to increase the benefits for students.
Research is at the heart of the programme. We develop content based on evidence, then track and analyse how schools implement whole-school inclusion, looking at what works, what doesn’t, and how student outcomes change. These evidence-based insights improve our programmes and make sure they’re intensely practical, and we look forward to sharing this research more widely in the future.
The Difference Schools Partnership is funded by our generous supporters.
Outcomes
The Difference School Partnerships works to improve outcomes for students by:
- Reducing exclusion and absence across the Lost Learning continuum
- Reducing incidents of harmful and abusive behaviour
- Strengthening relationships between schools, students and their families
On the Programme
- The multi year programme includes a place for the headteacher and one school leader each year participate onto joinon our Inclusive Leadership Course
- Get in-school support and delivery every half-term
- Access to our national network of schools networks
- Share and celebrate impacts at our end -of -year symposium
Becoming a DSP school
Difference Schools Partnership is intensive – our team works in schools up to four times every term, supporting inclusive practice design and implementation. Although our current programme is full, please contact us if you’d like more information on joining a future intake.
DSP Case Studies:
- ACE Alternative Provision – Luton
- Percy Main Primary – North Shields
Internal alternative provision (IAP) isn’t new, but it’s becoming an important feature in more schools across England.
This trend creates opportunities and risks. When implemented effectively, internal alternative provision dramatically cuts the amount of lost learning. When implemented poorly, it can create a two-tier system and hidden exclusions.
So what works in internal alternative provision? We’ve gathered insights from over 200 school leaders at our symposium, and analysed findings from our national network of over 400 schools.
Our network has identified key features of successful internal alternative provision, and shares this knowledge with schools across England.
In 2019, The Difference Leadership Programme launched with a cohort of 10 teachers.
In this ground-breaking initiative, aspiring leaders from mainstream schools joined leadership teams in alternative provision (AP) for a two-year professional learning programme. By working with children who had been excluded, Difference Leaders gained understanding, developed their practice, and made positive contributions to their alternative provision schools.
WHAT THE PROGRAMME HAS ACHIEVED
- Supported 80 Difference Leaders across five cohorts, from 2019-2025
- Advanced careers, including five leaders who achieved their first headships
- Gained external validation through The National Foundation for Educational Research
- Attracted diversity, with 38% of participants from BAME backgrounds
These leaders are the foundation of our community, and improve children’s lives in schools across the country.
Today, The Difference Leadership Programme has evolved into the Difference Schools Partnership.
What we do
SINCE THE PANDEMIC, SUSPENSIONS AND PERSISTENT ABSENTEEISM HAVE RISEN DRAMATICALLY. TODAY, ONE IN FIVE CHILDREN MISS MORE THAN 10% OF SCHOOL TIME
Since 2019, we’ve worked with over 600 school leaders and 362 schools. We help them build systems to enhance pupil wellbeing, safety, and belonging.
Children who are excluded or absent often face poverty, additional needs, mental health challenges, or unsafe environments. Certain groups, including Gypsy Roma Traveller and Black Caribbean children, are disproportionately affected.
Beyond our school leader programmes, we connect schools through network events and our annual IncludeEd Conference. Learn more by signing up for 4-Bullet Friday, our fortnightly schools’ bulletin.
Over the past five years, we’ve worked with more than 65 multi-academy trusts through our Inclusive Leadership Course. Multi-academy trusts place their central team members and school leaders in the programme, strengthening understanding and improving outcomes for all students across their networks.
We also deliver bespoke versions of the Inclusive Leadership Course for individual multi-academy trusts. Email Jamie@the-difference.com to find out more about our trust-only programmes.
Follow our work by signing up for 4-Bullet Friday, our fortnightly schools’ bulletin.
We’ve worked with schools in over 32 local authorities. We’ve also developed deep partnerships with more than 10 local authorities who have supported their primary and secondary school leaders to join the Inclusive Leadership Course. This helps them deliver their inclusion priorities and professional development for all schools.
Email Jamie@the-difference.com to find out more about our local authority programmes.
Follow our work by signing up for 4-Bullet Friday, our fortnightly schools’ bulletin.
“The Inclusive Leadership Course has been one of the best ever CPD opportunities. We have requested spaces for two more leaders to join next year!”
Inclusive Leadership Course – 2024
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