This week I had the pleasure of celebrating with some of you at the ‘Excellence in Warwickshire Awards’, where I was encouraged to hear the positive stories of commitment to improving educational outcomes for our children and young people. Coming in for a short period, I have been really impressed with how Warwickshire’s education system works effectively to provide our young people with the very best foundation for their future success.  

It is right that we take time out of our busy schedules to recognise these achievements and the hard work of all involved – headteachers, governors, staff and pupils, along with Education and key services – everyone plays a part in the improvement journey. Which is why this year we have combined the awards recognising success in relation to Ofsted, with our long service awards for governors, who have dedicated 20 years to supporting Warwickshire schools. A role which is often overlooked, governors give up their time freely but carry out a critical role in overseeing the direction in which a school is travelling.

We also took the opportunity to acknowledge schools that have recently achieved the Fair Workload Charter, an initiative recognising the work undertaken to manage teacher workload. 

We will have a full write up of the event in next week’s Heads Up – in the meantime, well done to all of you on your achievements.

The Headteachers’ Conference on 21 March promises to be another excellent opportunity to meet many of you, as well as giving you an opportunity to spend time talking to colleagues and sharing experiences. The first half of the morning will focus on the new Ofsted framework with an insight from Warwickshire headteacher Ian Dewes (Dunchurch Infant and Dunchurch Boughton CE Junior) and a keynote and Q&A with Amanda Spielman – thank you to those who have submitted questions in advance. After coffee we have a varied agenda with bite-sized sessions on some key initiatives and changes to be aware of, which we hope will support you in your role as leaders of education. If you haven’t confirmed your attendance yet, please do so here.

As this edition has gone to press, Warwickshire hosted the annual Skills Conference which brought together representatives from schools, colleges, training providers and businesses and looked at how Warwickshire will use partnerships to help make our young people work ready in line with WE4 of our Education Strategy.  More details will follow on this next week.