Dear Head Teachers,

My name is Cllr Kam Kaur. I am Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Education and I am delighted to be able to bring to you the final edition of Heads Up before the Autumn half-term begins.

This week, I was honoured to have been invited to the incredibly well attended, Head Teachers’ Conference and the opportunity that it afforded me to meet so many of you in person and enjoy a packed and thought-provoking agenda.

Of particular importance for me at the Conference was the emphasis on levelling up and the key roles that our schools play in supporting those who are most disadvantaged within our communities. Now, more than ever, this role cannot be understated. We know that, as a county, we have some great achievements, but our data shows significant gaps in all areas in terms of how our least advantaged children fall behind their peers.

I enjoyed the video shared by Abi Huggins, that many of you will have seen before, which is shared at the start of every year with her staff at St Andrew’s Benn.  This serves as a reminder to us all that many of those children we support start far behind their peers, so to achieve parity, while difficult, is so important. Watch Abi’s video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K5fbQ1-zps

Trevor Sutcliffe from Challenging Education’s session was a great reminder to us of the strategies we can adopt to help provide our most disadvantaged children with the equity that they deserve. His personal insights into the actions that we could all consider to make a real difference to these children’s lives was fascinating.

Many of our disadvantaged children will be in receipt of free school meals.  Please can I draw your attention to the link in this week’s issue which gives details of the financial support available through the Government’s Household Support Fund, which continues to be distributed via Warwickshire's Local Welfare Scheme.

Thanks to everyone who attended and made the conference such a useful and engaging experience. I really hope that I will get the chance to see more of you on an individual basis.

Finally, all that is left for me to do is wish you all a safe and happy Autumn half-term break and thank you for the incredible work that you do providing outstanding education to Warwickshire’s Children and Young People. I would greatly appreciate it if these thanks could be passed on to all your staff within your setting.

Kam Kaur