15 December 2020 weekly update

Dear Colleagues

In this final e-bulletin of this term and year, I want to once again recognize and celebrate the amazing job that Kent schools and Academies have done since March. We have all been through such a challenging year and are very grateful to you and your staff for the incredible resilience and hard work throughout the pandemic - we have said this so many times and will continue to do so. Your work and that of your staff has been critical in ensuring our pupils and student continue to have good quality education.

I want to share with you a letter which has just been sent to Gavin Williamson (PDF, 118.3 KB) from Roger Gough (Leader KCC) and Richard Long (Cabinet Member for Education). This letter urges the Secretary of State to give further consideration to the arrangements being made for public examinations in the summer of 2021. We have stressed that due to the restrictions Kent has been in and is currently in and with our high rates of Covid amongst our school aged cohort, the disruption to all our students is significant. I hope that will be given the consideration it deserves.

Following consultation with KAH, we deliberately did not schedule a Virtual Headteacher Briefing this term and acted on feedback that video messages about key topics would be more helpful for you. These can be found in the full YouTube playlist and through the links below:

• HT Briefing December 2020 - Matt Dunkley - CYPE Corporate Director
• HT Briefing December 2020 - Michelle Stanley - EEFective Kent Project
• HT Briefing December 2020 - Kelly Hannaghan - School Leader Wellbeing
• HT Briefing December 2020 - Mark Walker - SEND Strategy
• HT Briefing December 2020 - John Dennis - SFF
• HT Briefing December 2020 - Alan Brookes - KAH

And finally, I hope you all manage  to have a restful and peaceful Christmas and we all hope for a much improved New Year.

Matt Dunkley CBE
Corporate Director
Children, Young People and Education