22 March 2024 weekly update

Dear Colleagues,

School news

I’m really pleased to start with some school news today. Last week a Kent delegation attended the Unesco global conference on the 30th Anniversary of the Salamanca Statement on inclusive education

Huge congratulations to Cheryl Chalkley of who won global inclusion award for the work she has led as headteacher of Mersham Primary School.

You may be aware of the work that John Wallis Church of England Academy has undertaken on stopping use of mobile phones by pupils during the school day and the subsequent improvement in behaviour. Congratulations to Damian McBeath and his team on this innovative work which he recently shared with the DfE and I’m pleased to say Damian has agreed to write a piece for the Kelsi e-bulletin next term.

Finance briefing

Thank you to the many of you that attended this week’s finance briefing for maintained schools. The recording of the finance briefing and the finance briefing presentation (PDF, 1.2 MB) are now available

SEND

We have finalised the new SEND vision which is ‘Support children and young people to achieve; through living healthy, safe lives in which they feel seen and included’

The way we will measure impact going forward is through the Children and Young People’s Outcomes Framework which I will circulate next term but in the meantime, this is the summary overview (PDF, 98.5 KB) which has been agreed with young people.

Gathering views

As you know we are preparing evidence for the KCC SEND system assessment which takes place on Friday 26 April 2024. It would be helpful is you could support us with two short surveys.

Education questionnaire
We are gathering evidence of school and educational setting perception of improvement over the last 12 months – please complete this short questionnaire

Parent and carer questionnaire
Please distribute this questionnaire to parents and carers

Summer term headteacher briefings

A big thank you to the many that sent in your evaluations and suggestions for future headteacher briefing meetings. It’s really helpful to have your suggestions.

I am really pleased to let you know that Ofsted colleagues will be providing an update similar to last year at the forthcoming briefings which will take place on:

• Tuesday 11 June 2024 from 1pm to 4pm
• Friday 14 June 2024 from 9:30am to 12:30pm (timings venue dependent)
• Thursday 27 June 2024 from 1pm to 4pm
• Friday 28 June 2024 from 9:30am to 12:30pm (timings venue dependent)

Venues TBC in a future bulletin.

This is an opportunity to find out about current developments and how the Kent data compares to national and regional data.

Meetings attended

Cabinet Member Rory Love and I were delighted to have the opportunity to open Parent and Children Together (PACT) (PDF, 152.1 KB) conference ‘Bridging Boundaries: Navigating Overlapping Services’. Many thanks to Bernie Hanlon Chair for her work on developing PACT and for organising the conference.

Over the last week I also attended the Pathways for All post 16 transformation Board, the SEND Transformation Board and the SEND Improvement and Assurance Board.

And finally…

I am writing this on World Down Syndrome Day and the theme is ‘Assume I can’. Our monthly SEND Improvement and Assurance Board now starts with young people’s views, presented in different ways, often in films. We haven’t watched this film at SIAB yet but I thought you might find it interesting.

Enjoy your Easter break and I look forward to seeing you in the summer term.

With best wishes

Christine McInnes
Director of Education and SEN