Last week I shared the news that Ian Budd will be joining Warwickshire from Powys County Council after being successfully appointed as Assistant Director for Education Services. Ian’s start date with us will be 1 April. Ian and I will be working together during April, to ensure a smooth handover of duties and responsibilities for business continuity purposes.

I wanted to take this opportunity to update you all as a number of highly regarded members of the senior Education and Learning team will be moving on in the coming months.  We will be saying goodbye to Pat Tate, Strategic Lead for SEND and Inclusion at the end of this half term. Pat will be starting a new journey as an independent consultant, having made such a significant contribution to the work of the Warwickshire Education System during her 24+ years at WCC, particularly in the SEND and Inclusion policy area.

Pat has had a long and impressive career in Warwickshire and will be hugely missed by everyone.

At the end of last term, we also said farewell to Dr Helen Kendall, the local authority’s Principal Education Psychologist and SENDAR manager, who is now enjoying retirement. Arrangements are in place to ensure a smooth transition in the management of these services and further details about the changes within the SEND and Inclusion team can be found here.

This month also sees the departure of Heather Blevins, Strategic Lead for Adult and Community Learning, at the end of February. Heather will be greatly missed and we wish her well for the future. Heather's replacement, Judy Hallam, will be joining us on 28 February, taking on the role across both Warwickshire and Coventry, as Heather did during her time in post.

A gentle reminder about our upcoming headteachers conference on the 21 March, when we will be joined by Ofsted’s Amanda Spielman for a Q&A session, as part of the wider schedule of planned events. The primary focus for this session will be the new inspection framework and where possible, we will be looking to share some early learning from schools who have been subject to a pilot inspection within the new framework. Please remember to confirm your attendance - details of how to book are here.

I look forward to seeing many of you on 21 March.

Best wishes,

Paul Senior

Interim Assistant Director Education Services