Welcome to the July edition of Heads Up
It was great to see so many of you at the Headteacher Briefing on 28th June. The evaluation forms gave us a resounding message of your appreciation of the pace and content. I am pleased that John Timpson’s moving and inspirational presentation was so well received; a fascinating blend of a refreshing approach to his business and an unremitting focus on children’s wellbeing and education. If you missed it, you missed a treat. By chance I visited a Timpson’s store in Godalming last week and discussion with the staff member absolutely bore out John’s vision of a valued and trusted workforce and ‘bottom up’ strategy.
On that subject, turning to our Education Strategy, our aspiration is for all interactions between yourselves and Warwickshire County Council officers to reflect the ambition to "work in partnership, celebrate success, and aim for excellence". There are over 500 employees in the Education and Learning Business Unit and through July we are delivering a series of briefings on the Council’s current Transformation programme (which will mean changes to the officer structure starting at the Heads of Service level) and more importantly, our Education Strategy. Copies of the Education Strategy leaflet have now been sent out to all schools and education settings so that you can put them on your noticeboards and staff room coffee tables and share with governors and parents. We are receiving really positive feedback from you on the short leaflet. The suite of six draft documents can be seen here at present (item 4). There will be a dedicated webpage in September once the Strategy has been approved by the County Council on 26th July. This will enable us to keep you up to date on progress to the Delivery Plan.
At the recent Briefing, I could not help noticing the sea of tired faces in the room. We acknowledge the considerable challenges facing school leaders at present, and appreciate all the thought, time and determination invested by you and your teams through the academic year that is now coming to a close. As the mother of a class teacher, and with my own end of term memories, I expect that you will be counting off the days to the end of term with eager anticipation, not because you want to escape your chosen profession, but because you desperately need a break! I would like to congratulate The Revel C of E Primary School and The Nuneaton Academy that have, through the pilot assessment, achieved Warwickshire Fair Workload Charter status.
This is the final Heads Up of the year, and we look forward to a more frequent and succinct publication in September. We hope that you have an enjoyable final few days of term and all the best for a good break over the summer from me and my senior team; Hayley Good (Strategic Lead Learning and Performance), John Edwards (Strategic Lead Education Sufficiency and Access), Pat Tate (Strategic Lead SEND and Inclusion) and Heather Blevins (Head of the Adult and Community Learning Service).
Chris Malone
Head of Education and Learning