Dallam School takes national runner-up spot for Innovation with Impact at Leadership Live 2026
Dallam School is celebrating national recognition after being named runner-up in the ‘Innovation with Impact’ category at the prestigious Leadership Live 2026 Awards, finishing second to University College London (UCL).
The award was announced at the Leadership Live 2026 Conference & Awards on Tuesday 29 September at DoubleTree by Hilton Milton Keynes, at Milton Keynes Dons Football Club.
Organised by The Institute of Leadership, the awards celebrate outstanding leadership and its impact across organisations and sectors in the UK and internationally.
Dallam reached the final of the Innovation with Impact category alongside an impressive field of organisations, ultimately taking the runner-up award behind UCL.
The scale of the event was reflected across the wider Leadership Live 2026 shortlist, with organisations including Network Rail, Deloitte and Currys, as well as universities, public bodies, major employers and international organisations, represented among the nominees.
For a Cumbrian secondary school to be recognised on the same national stage represents a significant achievement for Dallam and its leadership team.
Turning leadership learning into impact
Dallam’s recognition followed its work with Leader Connect and Neil Jurd OBE, who, along with Glyn Potts MBE and Vicki Maguire, designed and delivered the Leadership with Purpose programme for 21 of Dallam’s senior and middle leaders.
The programme provided the learning, challenge and leadership development, but an important part of Dallam’s story has been what happened next.
Leaders took that learning back into school and put it into practice, using it to strengthen leadership at different levels, develop greater clarity and accountability, improve collaboration and help create a more confident and purposeful leadership culture.
The national recognition therefore celebrates not simply participation in a leadership development programme, but the impact created by Dallam’s leaders as they translated their learning into meaningful change across the school.
Dallam School Headteacher Steven Henneberry said:
“To finish runner-up to UCL in a national award of this calibre is an extraordinary achievement for Dallam and something our whole school community can be incredibly proud of.
“When you look at the organisations represented at these awards, major employers, universities, public bodies and international organisations, for Dallam School to be standing alongside them is quite special.
“Neil, Glyn and Vicki gave us an excellent programme through Leader Connect and challenged our thinking about what great leadership looks like. What I’m particularly proud of, though, is what our team did with that learning. Twenty-one of our senior and middle leaders took those ideas and turned them into action across Dallam.
“Our leaders applied what they had learned, challenged one another, worked differently and helped build a stronger and more purposeful culture across the school. That’s why Innovation with Impact feels such an appropriate category. The innovation was important, but the impact came from everyone taking that learning and making it real.
“To have that work recognised nationally, and to come second to an institution of UCL’s standing, is a very proud moment.”
The recognition comes during a period of significant development at Dallam, with the school continuing its focus on raising the bar, strengthening teaching and learning and building an ambitious, joyful and creative community in which everyone belongs, contributes and strives for excellence.
From a school serving its communities in south Cumbria to the national stage at Leadership Live, the runner-up award represents another important milestone in Dallam’s journey, and recognition of what can happen when high-quality professional learning is turned into meaningful action.
