As we come to the Easter break, I have now completed exactly one month in post. This week, I had the pleasure of visiting Rugby Secondary head teachers at Avon Valley School, and school leaders at Cubbington Church of England Primary School. It was a great opportunity to speak with school leaders and understand some contextual challenges in different areas, as well as identify some positive ways forward where we can work in partnership. I hope to continue this with further visits around the county and it might be useful to target attending consortia meetings. 

Currently, the Local Authority will be looking to restart the process for engaging with schools to look at the Fair Access Protocol and communications will go out on this after Easter. We also want to have a closer look at effective communications between the Local Authority and schools. Warwickshire is a large county and we have several consortia and multiple meetings, which means that communication can sometimes get lost or be inconsistent. I would welcome any thoughts or ideas on how to improve this (including this weekly round of Heads Up) and how schools feel they can access services more easily. 

A quick ,inspired story to share with you all. Following on from Steve Cunnigham’s ‘fastest blind man’ story at the Headteacher conference, one school reached out to him and he is now supporting a young person at the school. I am sure this will be life changing for that young person and all this was made possible through a chain of events in our partnership approach. 

On that good note, I hope you manage to have a restful Easter break and recharge your batteries, ready for the summer term.