Dan Moynihan - getting qualifications in kids' hands

"You can have a lovely building but if the teaching's no good, the thing's not going to work."In this episode, we speak to Sir Dan Moynihan, CEO of the Harris Federation. Beginning as an economics teacher in Tower Hamlets in the 1980s, he became a head teacher in 1999, and the principal of what was then the Harris City Technology College in 2005. The Harris Federation was founded the following year, and now runs 55 schools. He has spent twenty years overseeing its growth.We discussed:London schools in the '80s: " Nobody could imagine that it was as bad as it was back then."The difference the Education Reform Act made to leading schoolsHow he turned around his first school: "Sounds obvious now."Why he moved to Harris City Technology College and how he began building a trustHow Harris balances prescription and autonomy in school improvementThe role of the the headteacher: "You can have a hero head - the problem is that's not sustainable."How he keeps improving, and what he's working towards nowDan's career encapsulates the dramatic improvements in English schools, and the underlying changes which have made them possible. The authority with which he can speak about turning around one school - and leading fifty - made this a particularly interesting interview.