The closure | The Phil Lewis Podcast

First broadcast on
Nov 11, 2025

Nobody likes being the bearer of bad news.

When the bad news you have to deliver is about the closure of an entire school AND it’s a decision you don’t agree with… that’s a whole new level.

In this episode, Phil is joined by Liz Robinson, CEO of schools multi-academy trust Big Education. Liz talks through this impossibly difficult time in her career; how she dealt with it, how she led her team through it, and the personal toll it took on her.

After this, Phil and Hasan Khair, CEO of tyllr and Mavericks Unlimited explore what we can learn from Liz’s story – particularly the toll that leadership can often extract, and how we set boundaries.


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