Welcome to the October issue of Heads Up.
I am pleased to be able to confirm the programme for Warwickshire’s Autumn Term Headteachers’ Conference on 7th November at Stoneleigh Abbey. 
The event will focus on ‘mental health and wellbeing’, with a keynote from Professor Des Hewitt, University of Warwick on ‘mindfulness’ and breakout sessions focused on developing and building resilience and emotional wellbeing across the whole school community. Further information about the day is in our ‘Save the Date’ section along with details of how to book.
I am also pleased to report that Kenilworth School has recently been designated a Teaching School which brings the total number of Teaching Schools in Warwickshire up to 10. We have included more information about the Kenilworth Teaching School and a link to the full list of Warwickshire Teaching Schools in this issue.
The Council’s Joint Managing Directors have been in discussion with colleagues in the Education and Learning team to agree the current direction of travel in terms of the Local Authority Multi Academy Trust. An update is shared in this issue which I hope will help to clarify the current position.
We have responded to requests from headteachers for an up-to-date picture of the different teams in the Local Authority working to support schools by including the most current structure charts for each of the three areas in Education and Learning. We also have a number of new colleagues who have joined the team, who are introduced in our ‘Essential reading’ section. I do hope you find these useful, and please do let us know if we can provide any further information that would support you in your role.
At a recent meeting with headteachers, it was suggested that ‘Heads Up’ could be a forum for sharing more of the good practice happening within our schools. I would like to encourage as many of you as possible to send in your success stories so that these can be celebrated and shared more widely. Our November issue will have a focus on ‘SEND’, so if you have any particular achievements you think we could highlight in this area please do send them to schoolpartnerships@warwickshire.gov.uk by the submission deadline 3rd November.
Please don’t forget to take part in our e-Communications Survey so that we can respond to your needs and work on improving our communications to make them as effective as they can be.
I look forward to meeting many of you in person on the 7th November at the Headteachers’ Conference.
Best wishes,
Chris Malone
Head of Education and Learning