WE3 Family of schools
The Education Challenge Board
The Education Challenge Board is completing its first round of meetings for the new academic year. As discussed in earlier articles, our focus is very much upon overall strategy and trying to bring all parts of the education landscape together in order to develop agreed strategies to help pupils in Warwickshire schools.
Amongst early topics under discussion have been some of the key performance indicators for Warwickshire schools. I would emphasise that we do not discuss individual schools, focusing instead upon broad trends and the way in which we can address the objectives identified in Warwickshire’s education strategy, particularly those in the WE3 section of the document. All of us agreed that there was much to celebrate in the performance indicators for all key stages and Warwickshire could be very encouraged by the way its performance compared with similar authorities elsewhere.
We spent some time discussing the important links between education achievement and pastoral provision, before also considering the important role that Special Educational Needs funding played in school improvement.
A particular theme of our discussion was the important role that funding played in school improvement and the need to allocate resources in a fair and equitable manner. Whilst some of these decisions relate to national policy, we will still try to offer constructive advice on local decisions about the allocation of funds to Warwickshire Schools.
The Education Challenge Board continues to be a great example of how school leaders across the county can work together to make sure our pupils get the best possible deal.
Opportunity to shape Warwickshire Education App
In 2019 a new App will be developed to promote the success of Warwickshire schools in relation to WE1, 2, 3 and 4, the four key priorities set out in the education strategy. The Business Improvement team for Education are currently working on this and will be meeting with WCC ICT Services in November to discuss the feasibility of the different options for the App.
To ensure that all aspects of the education strategy continue to be co-produced we want to invite Headteachers and/or Senior Leaders to a focus group next month. This is a good opportunity to be involved in the development of a product, designed to celebrate the work you're doing and your input is invaluable for ensuring maximum impact.
The focus group will look at the accreditations within the App for which we will be celebrating and ensure that the App delivers the outcomes we all desire.
At this stage we do not have a date for the focus group as this will be dictated by availability of those who have an interest in being involved but will likely be at the start of December for a couple of hours.
Please can you indicate if this is something you may be interested in or would like more information about by 7 November 2018. We can then contact you with updates.
Many of you have already contributed to the attached list of accreditations that you would like to see your schools recognised for. Even if you are unable to attend a focus group please do feel free to add to this list by sending an email.
Contact for both registering interest for the App focus group and for accreditation suggestions: Hannah Heath el-businessimprovement@warwickshire.gov.uk
Link to accreditations
DfE: Provisional 2017-18 GCSE results
Provisional data for GCSE and equivalent results: 2017 to 2018 was released last week and shows an increase in pupils achieving grade 5 or above in English and Maths GCSE.
Provisional GCSE and equivalent results in England, 2017 to 2018