11 November 2022 weekly update

Dear Colleagues,

It was good to see those of you that attended this week’s briefings, with the next two taking place later this term. You will see from the Headteacher Briefing presentation (PDF, 4.8 MB), that we had a full agenda including school budgets and the recently published Ofsted and CQC SEND revisit letter together with KCC’s communications on the matter.

Whilst the judgement was insufficient progress in all areas, I was really pleased to see the very positive practice in some schools and strong system leadership clearly acknowledged. We, as an education community, have a hard journey ahead of us to get the system where it needs to be, but we are building on strong foundations and a big thank you for the messages of support and offers of help. You will start seeing some tangible improvements in the near future, the first of which is a significant change to the primary-secondary phase transfer process that we will communicate today.

For primary and early years colleagues, I want to draw your attention to some sector engagement work we are currently undertaking to help us scope a new Early Years Education and Sufficiency strategy for the future. Information on how to get involved is now available and it would be really helpful if you could disseminate this to your parents and carers.

I am sure you will join me in warmly welcoming our new Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and SEND, Cllr. Rory Love, as he gets to grips with an extensive and complex brief. A huge thank you to Shellina Prendergast, who has led on the Education and Skills portfolio since May 2021 with much commitment and passion, taking the time to visit many education settings while in post. All the best Shellina with your new responsibilities.

And finally, I was taken to task by one of your number for not talking about sport anymore. Having the headspace to comment on wider issues in this bulletin has, alas, become rather a luxury. But, in response to my reader, I will mark (rather late in the day) the end of a tennis era with the retirement of Roger Federer following the doubles game with Rafael Nadal at the 2022 Laver Cup. Federer has been at the top of his game and such an integral part of sporting life for such a long time, tennis won’t be the same without him. Apart from missing the amazing, elegant tennis we have been privileged to witness over the years, it was fascinating and touching to see Federer and Nadal, so often rivals, sharing their grief at that point of change. In a context of managing what feels like never ending waves of change, it was a timely reminder of what a healthy reaction can look like.

Best wishes

Christine McInnes
Director of Education