October Challenge Board report

Please read below the October Challenge Board report, written by Peter Kent - Lawrence Sheriff School 

Our most recent meeting of the Challenge Board had a typically full agenda. In different times we would have spent most of our October meeting reviewing performance data for public examinations and discussing the issues that emerged from the picture across Warwickshire. However, since Covid 19 prevented public examinations from taking place and as a result there will be no national accountability data produced this year, there seemed little point in doing this in 2020. However, this was a positive rather than a negative development, since it gave us more time to discuss a broader range of strategic issues that the Board had looked at or commented on over the past 12 months.

For this reason we were able to spend considerable time discussing future plans for SEND strategy across Warwickshire. Since this issue will form a significant part of this term’s headteacher’s conference I won’t go into any further detail, other than to say that the board welcomed both the breadth and the ambition of the plans that are being developed.

We also received a very reassuring briefing from Acting Regional Director James McNeillie on Ofsted’s programme of visits during the Autumn of 2020. James was at great pains to point out that these were not inspections and that the fundamental purpose was to capture the views and experiences of school leaders. The feedback from James closely aligned with all I have heard from colleagues who have received these visits, one of whom described the experience as ‘cathartic’ (not one of the words I have normally heard linked to Ofsted).

We also explored the very constructive programme of activities taking place to close gaps across the county, including projects focusing upon specific areas of need within Warwickshire.

Inevitably all of our agenda was framed by our day to day experience as school leaders, where the biggest challenge many of us face is continuing to keep our schools open in the face of all that is happening. I recently attended an online conference with Steve Munby, former CEO of the National College for School Leadership. His advice to leaders was to focus upon the challenges presented by the here and now, but to also leave a small amount of dedicated time for the strategic. In this way we can all play a part in creating a ‘better normal’ as we emerge from the impact of the pandemic. That is what the Challenge Board is seeking to do over the coming months- to help with the immediate issues facing schools across Warwickshire whilst also seeking to play our part in creating that ‘better normal’ for the years to come.