Norrie puts it down to knowing “what makes kids tick” in the areas where the trust works. He “slipped through the net” and left primary school without being able to read or write. Instead, he enabled his schools to roll out curriculums “built out from the needs of their community. To prevent off-rolling, Norrie believes schools should be made to “carry a proportion” of excluded pupils’ eventual grades. He commits to spending three days a week in GAT’s schools, arguing it is “very easy as a CEO to get detached from those children you serve”.