5 Big Questions: KIT MESSENGER

Is quitting on principle the right thing to do?

Is the UK education system fit for purpose? 

How fast is change?

In this week's 5 Big Questions interview we talk to social entrepreneur, trainer and former head teacher KIT MESSENGER

Known for:

• Co-director - Changing Chances
• Former Headteacher - Manor Field Primary School
• Teaching Fellow - University of Sussex (UK)

The Big 5 Questions:

1. How do you measure the impact of what you do?
2. How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
3. How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
4. How do you use creativity to solve problems?
5. How do you collaborate?

Key quotes:

"A person can shift their thinking and then they can shift in terms of their skills and behaviour. Then they can start operating differently with a child, speaking to them differently, supporting them differently. But the impact for the child won't be straight away, because they've got to embed. Neural pathways take time to build and strengthen."

"Some people can work outside their principles for a long time and seem to survive, and some people can't."

"I had this naive belief that it could create this momentum and things might change."

"When they know that you're doing something because you really, truly love it and you've got their children's best interests truly at heart, you get a different value system going through a community, going through an organisation." 

"What kind of society, neighbourhoods, workplaces, do we really want in the end? If you look at it in terms of what you're trying to shift, change and create in the end, it helps you to think through a much longer-term thought process on what the right skills would be and knowledge would be." 

Useful links:

Kit Messenger LinkedIn // https://www.linkedin.com/in/kit-messenger-186a8579/?originalSubdomain=uk

Changing Chances // https://www.changingchances.co.uk/

'Headteacher quits…' — Evening Standard // https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/headteacher-quits-amid-claims-schools-are-factory-farming-children-in-heartfelt-letter-a3229066.html

'Kit Messenger Quits Manor Field Primary' — Brighton Argus // https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/14438811.kit-messenger-quits-manor-field-primary-school-over-academy-plans/

Kit Messenger profile in The Mirror // https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/headteacher-who-resigned-over-academy-7913854

This episode was recorded in May 2022

Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible

Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts