24 February 2023 weekly update

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome back after half term, I hope you had a restful break. I was pleased to have a family visit to Fort Amherst which was great fun. A big shout out to the volunteers in the Restoration Workshop who kindly talked us through their work restoring mainly French cannons, but also one from the American Civil war and let my grandson and nephew pick up cannon balls. Very exciting!

This term’s briefings start next week and we are pleased to welcome colleagues from the DfE who are attending to update on government policy following the withdrawal of the Schools Bill. You can book your place here. I will also take the opportunity to update you on KCC’s work in response to the cessation of the school improvement grant at the end of this financial year and our continued commitment to The Education People. You may be aware that there have been some changes including to staffing and we were sorry to say goodbye to James Roberts who has ably led TEP since it’s inception. A big thank you to James for his work on developing TEP. Please find a statement from John Doherty, the new Divisional CEO of the Commercial Services Group. We are working closely with John and the rest of the TEP team to build on the existing good practice and develop the service in response to education priorities in Kent and the changing policy and finance context.  The briefings will also provide an update on a number of SEND matters. I'm delighted that headteacher Neerasha Singh who chairs the High Needs Funding sub group of the School Funding Forum is going to update us on the work on the group in advising on decisions about changes to the use of High Needs Funding.

My last school visit before half term was to Oakley Special school with Deputy Cabinet Member Sarah Hamilton. Sarah and I were delighted to see a fine performance by one of the classes about their environmental concerns. The students had developed the script from a story and delivered a very powerful message with great professionalism and confidence. A big thank you to the pupils, headteacher Sam Perry and the staff at the school.

This week I had the opportunity to visit Hadlow College, part of the North Kent FE offer, with Cabinet member Cllr Rory Love. It was really informative to see the range of high-quality provision that is being delivered and hear about their exciting development plans. Cllr Love was particularly intrigued by an American second world war tractor which has an engine that runs on both petrol and diesel which students had the opportunity to strip down and re-assemble. The College is keen to work with schools and are happy to facilitate both primary and secondary school visits particularly to their agricultural facilities which include arable, animal and fisheries, so do contact them if this is of interest.

Best wishes

Christine McInnes
Director of Education