Last term, two of our schools, King Edward VI Five Ways School and King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys, received long-awaited Ofsted inspections, while King Edward VI High School for Girls had its ISI inspection outcomes published. In addition, this term King Edward VI Balaam Wood was inspected. All four reports are glowing in praise for the schools and rightly so. There are many quotes that I could pick out, but I have chosen those that refer to the efforts of staff members, as the recipients of this bulletin. At Five Ways, inspectors remarked that “staff … want the very best for each pupil.” At Camp Hill Boys, the team said that “staff contribute to a culture of the highest expectations.” At KEHS, “high expectations from staff ensure that pupils … are eager to engage.” At Balaam Wood, "pupils know that staff have high expectations of them and want them to be successful." These phrases sum up the dedication and efforts of our colleagues, to whom we are very grateful. It is particularly pleasing that Balaam Wood has received an overall "good" rating, meaning that Frankley has a good-rated school for the first time in 18 years. Congratulations to the staff, pupils, governors and families at all four schools, as well as the Foundation Education team and other colleagues involved.
At the end of February, three members of staff at King Edward’s School and King Edward VI High School for Girls made their own significant contributions to pupils’ experiences through organising the first Foundation African and Caribbean Society conference, held at the independent schools. With a range of inspiring speakers, pupils from twelve of our fourteen schools gathered together to discuss and celebrate their identity. Along with Dr Katy Ricks, Headmaster of the Foundation, I was delighted to address some introductory remarks to the audience and reflected on how our Foundation, as with Birmingham itself, has such diversity and a mutual respect which means that celebrating individual identity but being part of a collective are not incompatible.
Such environments are not to be taken for granted, as was clear from the remarks of Chris Lubbe, former bodyguard to Nelson Mandela, who addressed the combined senior leadership teams of our schools at a recent event. Reflecting on growing up under Apartheid, Mr Lubbe brought it home to us how essential, and in some countries how recent, it is to have equality, diversity and inclusion as guiding principles.
The Foundation’s efforts to encourage a diverse intake of pupils was celebrated recently in a feature in The Times newspaper, where our grammar schools’ admissions policy was held up as a model for allowing accessibility. Following a BBC News feature last year, it shows that what we are doing is of great interest on a national scale.
Elsewhere in this bulletin, we have important updates regarding safeguarding, university admissions, the arts and International Women’s Day, showing the breadth of activity across our organisation.
