It is sometimes hard to know when to stop saying “Happy New Year”, particularly as February has arrived and the festive break seems a long time ago. However, as this is the first opportunity for me to wish you all well on the return to school, I will take the chance of saying it one more time and hope that you all have a successful and happy year ahead.
It promises to be another busy one due to external factors and also because of the goals that we have set ourselves.
On the first note, we know that the pandemic is far from over and are aware of the huge efforts that you are making in schools to deal with pupil and staff absences, while helping the former to recover lost learning. We also know that this year is likely to see a number of inspections in our schools, in many cases for the first time in a considerable amount of time. On that point, our first Ofsted of the “season” at King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls was a tremendous success, with the final report having now been received. I include one short extract which gives an indication of its impressive nature: “Camp Hill School for Girls is an inspirational place to be. Pupils are happy here. They flourish at this exceptional school.” Many congratulations are due to the pupils, staff, governors and families of the school.
In terms of the goal that we have set ourselves, many of them are a continuation of the developments that I set out in the Foundation News edition which came out before Christmas, centred on school-to-school support, curriculum development, CPD, safeguarding and sustainability. In these areas we will see more work from Foundation Leaders of Education (FLEs) and Subject Network Leads (SNLs), more colleagues undertaking National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) and the establishment of a sustainability group.
We are also seeing the first meetings of the steering and action groups looking at our approach to digital unification, planning to make it easier for us to communicate and collaborate across our schools; the recruitment of an FLE to support our ongoing work around Equality, Diversity and Inclusion; and an important piece of work looking at how we structure the curriculum in our academies led by our Head of Finance for the Academy Trust.
It promises to be a productive year and I look forward to seeing you in schools and seeing how these initiatives develop.
