WORKSHOP APPLICATIONS

The Inspiring Leadership workshop programme is designed to equip school leaders with actionable strategies and fresh perspectives to tackle the challenges of leadership in education. They provide an invaluable opportunity to learn from experienced practitioners, collaborate with peers, and take back ideas to implement in school.

Inspiring Leadership will feature 15-20 workshop sessions led by educators from across the UK. Each workshop will run for approximately 45 minutes and take place on the opening day of the conference, Thursday 4 June 2026.

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Inspiring Leadership offers two types of workshops, designed to support senior leaders and their schools:

Leadership Professional Development

These workshops focus on encouraging attendees to grow as leaders by developing their skills, mindset and leadership voice.

Workshops in this category should provide practical tools and insights that help individuals improve their personal leadership effectiveness.

Education and School Development

These workshops address key challenges and topics affecting day-to-day life in schools, aiming to generate ideas and strategies that have a direct positive impact on the wider school community.

What you'll need to apply

When submitting your workshop application, please ensure you have the following information ready:

  • Title & Description

    Provide a title for your session, along with a brief description. This will be displayed in the conference programme if your application is successful.

  • Speaker Information

    Including name, organisation, job title, email, contact number and a bio and photo for each speaker involved in the session (up to a maximum of five speakers).
    If you are applying on behalf of others, ensure you have their permission to use and share their details.

  • Category

    Select the appropriate category for your session:

    1. Leadership Professional Development

    2. Education and School Development

    Please also note that commercial applications will be rejected.

  • Target Audience

    Please list the target audience and select the maximum number of attendees for your session.

Application Process & Next steps

How to Apply 

In order to submit your workshop application, please complete the following form by Saturday 31 January 2026. Any submissions after this date will not be accepted.

Due to the limited number of workshop sessions available, we ask that each applicant submits only one application.

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Please note you will need to create an account on cvent to submit your application. 

If you need any support completing this application or need to submit in an alternative format, please contact us at conference@inspiringleadership.org

Next Steps

If your proposed session is accepted, we will contact you in early March to confirm the time of your session.  By April your session will be announced on our website, and you will be able to start promoting it to your network.

As we strive to keep the conference affordable for all, we are pleased to offer a £200 speaker fee and £100 per person travel contribution if required, and we appreciate your understanding in this matter.

All successful speakers will receive free two-day access to the Inspiring Leadership Conference, where you’ll be able to attend keynotes, networking refreshment breaks and the drinks reception. 

At the conference, all speakers will have access to refreshments throughout the day, including lunch.

FAQs

We welcome applications from individuals and organisations eager to share their knowledge, insights, and innovative ideas at the Inspiring Leadership 2026. We typically receive applications from teachers, leaders, researchers, policy experts, consultants, and more.

In order to provide content that is relevant and useful for all those working in schools, colleges and early years settings, and across the wider world of education, we encourage workshops on the following themes:

Accountability, AI & Ed Tech, Alternative & Specialist Provision, Assessment, Attendance, Audit, Behaviour & Culture, Careers, Coaching, Cognitive Science, Creative Subjects, Curriculum, Disadvantage, Early years, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Estates, Finance, Further Education, Governance, HR, Inclusion & Belonging, Initial Teacher Education, International Education, IT, Leadership, Literacy, Mental Health, Networking, Oracy, Policy & Research, Professional Development, PSHE, Recruitment & Retention, Safeguarding, STEM, SEND, Social mobility, Student Voice, Sustainability, Teaching & Learning, Wellbeing, Workplace Learning

Please also note that commercial applications will be rejected and we ask that all submissions prioritise sharing valuable knowledge and actionable strategies rather than sales or promotional content.

The workshops are designed for CEO's, headteachers, heads of school /department and senior team members in leadership positions. There will also be some workshops for aspiring leaders and what we call unexpected leaders (accidental leaders). The sessions are also suitable for key staff from primary and secondary schools and other education institutions who are looking to enhance their professional development and gain relevant skills for their current roles.

The sessions are 45 minutes long, with at least 15 minutes between sessions for people to move between rooms. 

You can deliver a traditional presentation, or a more interactive session. For example, you could ask the audience to participate in polls, split into groups, or turn and talk. You can leave time for a Q&A, and our staff can support with roving microphones. You might even want to propose something that is majority audience-driven, such as a structured networking session.

It might help to think about the audience experience, such as their prior knowledge, potential for engagement, and learning objectives, as you might when preparing a session for students.

Titles should be clear and concise; we recommend a length of 3-12 words. Remember that delegates will be selecting the workshop session they wish to attend; you will want your title to be enticing, and easy to understand at a glance.