17 February 2026 – Ben Warren

What are schools for?

Education is the second-largest element of public-service spending in the UK (behind health), accounting for nearly 9% of the government budget. And yet there is no agreed purpose for schools.

Some measures of educational outcomes are used in evaluating school performance, mostly based around academic attainment. But is this a useful measure of purpose and success? Many young people who don't do so well in school exams go on to live happy and fulfilled lives, working in jobs that are vital to society, paying their taxes, and contributing to their communities. Meanwhile other young people who get good exam grades find that their academic success as a child does not guarantee fulfilment as an adult.

Which brings us back to the question: What is it that we actually want schools to achieve?

Ben Warren will draw on his learning and experience to help us explore this question.

Ben Warren

Ben Warren has 35 years’ experience teaching in state secondary schools, 20 years of which was in senior leadership roles. Ben was the headteacher for 11 years at a 1000 pupil comprehensive school in the West Midlands. During this time, Ben has taught children with profound special needs, children with high academic ability who have gone on to Oxford and Cambridge and other Russell Group universities, and many other children all of whom have their unique needs and abilities.

“Because it’s about education,” Ben says, “the chances of everyone agreeing with everything I say are virtually nil. But we need to talk about the purpose of schools — it has consequences for us all.”