13 June 2025 weekly update

Dear Colleagues,

Schools Funding Forum 

I am really pleased that this week's bulletin includes a note from Ben Cooper, headteacher of Swalecliffe Community Primary who is Chair of the Forum. We are really grateful to every member of the Forum for their ongoing work to represent your views, but particularly to Ben as chair and vice chair Kate Le Page, headteacher of Wells Free School as well as Neerasha Singh of Northfleet Nursery School who chairs the High Needs Funding sub group and Stephen Beale Chair of governors of Callis Grange Nursery and Infant School and chair of the Delegated Formula Funding sub-group. The full membership is available and other information on the schools funding forum page.

The last meeting of the academic year will take place in July.

School attendance 

When I started in Kent, school attendance was one of the top topics headteachers raised with me. They were concerned that they did not feel supported in taking action and that there were inconsistencies in the advice and support they were given. In addition, social workers tended to view poor child attendance through a very different professional lens, pushing for protracted amounts of time for reintegration when a child was returning to school. The headteachers were right to be worried - collectively Kent schools had amongst the lowest attendance in the country. Three years later and we are about in-line with the national average and we want to continue that trajectory of improvement. Simon Smith, Head of Kent PRU and Attendance Service (KPAS) and his team have done a fantastic job of transforming the support and challenge available which has enabled school colleagues to tackle attendance more effectively. If you are not aware of the wealth of support available have a look at the KPAS resources for schools page on Kelsi.

This work is supported by Jessie Reiss from Fair Access who, amongst other work, manages the Elective Home Education team.

The government is now recognising the multi-agency dimensions of attendance in the Schools and Wellbeing Bill and through the Families First programme and so this week, Ingrid Chrisan, Director of Operational Integrated Children’s Services, organised a conference predominantly for staff to share knowledge across the system, raise awareness of the variety of support available and to forge new professional relationships between the services. I was delighted to have the opportunity to open the conference with Ingrid and to hear the key-note by HMI Aimee Floyd (who drove for six hours to participate) on how Ofsted inspects attendance (PDF, 4.4 MB).

The agenda was packed and included case studies from The Marsh Academy presented by Assistant Principle Stephen Cartwright and Richmond Primary School presented by headteacher Lesley Conway.

The event was a big step forward in a more consistent and unified approach across all the various Children’s Services to this really important issue. The initial evaluation showed 92% of respondents saying they had learnt new skills and knowledge they can use in their current role. I am really looking forward to better join up and the impact.

Communities of schools

In response to discussions with the KALE executive and a number of you, we have developed materials to communicate changes with parents and bespoke FAQs.

Hopefully these are in a format that you can easily add to you existing parental comms.

And finally…

I mentioned the National Gallery last week. It reminded me that the first time I ever visited the National Gallery (and also Tate Britain) was on a school trip when I was 12, organised by my art teacher Mrs McLelland. I was enthralled and remember it quite clearly. I bought a post card of The Painters Daughters by Gainsborough. It’s the often unrecognised work of schools in opening new doors and broadening horizons that can lead to lifelong interests as it did in my own case. A very belated thank you to Mrs McLelland and thank you to all of you who value and invest in broadening children’s experiences through trips and clubs.

With all best wishes

Christine McInnes
Director of Education and SEN