6 July 2021 weekly update

Dear Colleagues,

Well, I’m on the edge of my seat with the football as I could be in a win-win position by tomorrow evening if both England and Italy make it through to the finals. And for tennis fans, Wimbledon got off to an exciting start with all eyes on Bromley student Emma Raducanu’s stunning run which sadly came to an end on Court One on Monday night as the teenager was forced to withdraw from her match against Ajla Tomljanovic. In cycling, Mark Cavendish continues to hold his own at this Stage in the Tour de France.

Following on from last weeks’ update on IT issues, I can confirm that to date, there continues to be no evidence that staff, pupil, parent or guardian data has been taken or published.

The recovery activity continues for all affected schools and the Cantium team continue to work around the clock to fully restore services. SIMS and FMS is now restored for all schools, enabling completion of end year returns. Recovery of historic emails is progressing and is estimate to complete 1 August. The recovery of shared drives is scheduled to complete by 12 July and the recovery of Sharepoint sites by 19 July - schools will have already been contacted to schedule a walk-through of the access arrangements. In addition, the Wonde application (facilitating free-school meals) has been configured for all schools.

Cantium Senior Management team want to reassure you that the recovery activity remains their number one priority and that every effort is being expended to fully recover services as expediently and securely as possible.

Last week I saw a lot of the beautiful Kent countryside, inadvertently taking a very long and scenic route to Folkestone to visit Brockhill Secondary School. Many thanks to Principal Sonnette Schwartz and Senior Vice Principal Charles Joseph for the invitation. I really welcomed the opportunity to find out more about the school and particularly their approach to supporting learning during lockdown. I also visited Wyvern Special School for children with severe, profound and complex needs aged 3 to 19. I was particularly interested in the multi-agency SMILE Centre which includes an observation and assessment facility for early years children, some of whom, following intervention, progress into mainstream school. Many thanks to Headteacher John Somers and his team for their time and also for lunch.

From there onto Goldwyn School which specialises in secondary students that have social, emotional and mental health difficulties (SEMH) and ASC (Autism). We met with a group of pupils who talked about their experiences in school, the subjects they particularly enjoyed and the progress they had made since arriving at the school. Thank you to Principal Charlotte Lewis and her team for the invitation.

My final school visit of the week was to Broomhill Bank school Swanley a provision for young people with ASC. I was shown round the education and residential provision by students who talked with enthusiasm about their work in school and future plans. A big thank you to Steve Ackerley, Executive headteacher and his team for a very warm welcome.

With best wishes

Christine McInnes
Director of Education