There are seven more weekly editions of Heads Up before December and I am focusing on one 'WE' each week. This week I am concentrating on WE2b through which we commit to narrow the gaps between the achievements of learners eligible for pupil premium: and those of their peers, particularly at age 11 and 16 (the 2017 greatest gaps). In 2018 the provisional early years gap has started to widen again, so back to our focus on WE1!

In our strategy we say that we will celebrate the achievement of pupils eligible for pupil premium funding and we will give those who need it, extra support to catch up. We will commit to check on this every November from 2019 to 2023. The Closing the Gap Board met on 3 October and is focusing on preparation for the Closing the Gap conference on November 15. Places can still be booked using the online booking form until November 5.

We will hear from Warwickshire participants in our Strategic School Improvement Fund (SSIF) 1 project. I have also invited Sir John Dunford (National Pupil Premium Champion 2013-15) to speak to us because I thoroughly enjoyed his thoughtful and action-provoking speech when I was in Oxfordshire.

You can read more about the education strategy and who attends the various partnership boards here: www.warwickshire.gov.uk/educationstrategy

When I arrived in Warwickshire last autumn I asked for a Venn diagram of some of the multiple vulnerabilities of school-age children and young people (pupil premium, SEND, English as an additional language etc).

We repeated the exercise this summer. Last year there were 34 pupils in the centre of the diagram, and this year there are 51 (out of nearly 75,000). We are able to find out which schools they attend. It is interesting that some mainstream schools, both primary and secondary, are confidently including and supporting several of these 51 learners, sometimes successfully supported by our special schools. I have deliberately visited schools where inclusion is being championed, and I have been so impressed by what I have seen. As requested by Councillors, we are presenting case studies of high achieving vulnerable learners for the Children's Overview and Scrutiny Committee in 2019.