"Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into a flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light."
Albert Schweitzer

It is strange how colleagues in Leeds have time and again helped me through the dark days and the troubled times and inspired me with their outstanding practice. Together, we have achieved so much over the last six years but we are all constantly being called to account and asked to do more... get all our schools above the floor targets, remove all our schools from Special Measures and Notices to Improve, radically improve standards and outcomes for target groups of young people, tackle ineffective and inefficient sixth forms, improve NEET outcomes, achieve better and better outcomes for everyone... the list goes on and on and every time you achieve something and feel great , someone raises the bar, changes the rules of the game and off we go again!

Tomorrow, Cllr Richard Harker and I are off to London at the crack of dawn to see Tony Blair and Alan Johnson. We were invited at the last moment by Lord Adonis to outline our approach to driving up secondary standards and how we see Academies contributing to the developing strategy. The other authorities at the meeting are Birmingham and Sheffield so it will be interesting to see their approach.

Wish me luck.
Chris