Schools Don’t Need More Data with Craig Parkinson

How do you transform school performance when your staff are already working at maximum capacity? In this episode of the World Education Show, host Stephen Cox and guest Craig Parkinson unpack Lucy Powell’s policy dilemma and tackle the third, and often most overlooked, pillar of school improvement: Systems Thinking. With 97% of UK teachers and school leaders working unpaid overtime and 10% leaving the profession every year, relying on staff to simply “work harder” is no longer a viable strategy. As schools transition from tracking 10 core data points to managing 100+ competing metrics, this episode makes the case for cutting through the data noise, focusing on progress over outcomes, and leveraging research from the EEF, John Hattie and Michael Fullan to build a self-improving school system.