Step Up International Women's Day 2026 Virtual Celebration

Step Up Network CIC, the award-winning network and social enterprise for educational leaders is pleased to bring another webinar to our community.

This year our virtual events are split into two types: Community Calls, which are more intimate events. Safe spaces, for members of our community to be authentic and vulnerable whilst enabling connections to be built; and Webinars, which are open events, live streamed and recorded. These events are based around a particular theme and hosted in conjunction with a few of our partner organisations.

This webinar is being ran by Step Up Education Social Enterprises and is sponsored by the Institute of Leadership.

Impacting: Why are we running this event?

Two years ago, we hosted a virtual celebration as part of IWD, we want to come back to that this year. We are bringing together a great group of people from a range of organisations and background to celebrate women in (educational) leadership. We still have a huge gender pay gap in education; inequalities relating to workplaces being female friendly and flexible working environments - we must work together to combat this. We are pleased to be hosting this event in partnership with several other organisations:

• Claire Platt Coaching Consultancy.
• Devon Women's Leadership Network.
• EduPulse.
• Menopause in Schools.
• WomenEd.

Empowering: What are we exploring as part of the event? What will I get from this event?

• We will be exploring how to make work environments more female-friendly and flexible for all women.
• To hear from and connect with organisations that are doing great work for women in leadership.

Connecting: Who will be speaking at the event and which organisations are they representing?

Our Co-Hosts:

• Mubina Husein is an assistant headteacher for raising standards and has taught in London secondary schools for 18 years. Mubina is a Putting Staff First associate, and is currently developing assessment at KS3 in her setting. In her spare time Mubina pens spoken word, most recently published in 'Disruptive Women' by WomenEd.
• Claire Platt is a coach, leadership consultant and SIAMS inspector. She has had a career in education of more than thirty years and is a former headteacher, executive head, Director of Education, Local Authority consultant and Diocesan Deputy Director of Education. She is passionate about enabling leaders at all levels in education to thrive professionally and personally.

Our Panels:

Panel 1: Empowering women in (educational) leadership:

• Christalla Jamil: MAT CEO, Primary Executive Headteacher, Trustee and Global Strategic Leader of WomenEd.
• Name (link to LinkedIn profile): Role
• Joanna Tompkins: Secondary Associate Assistant Headteacher, Drama Teacher, Associate & Head of EDI at EduPulse.

Panel 2: Championing women in the workplace:

• Helen Claire: Founder of Menopause in Schools.
• Nadirah Khan: Secondary Assistant Headteacher for Staff and Student Wellbeing, and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead.
• Name (link to LinkedIn profile): Role