It has been a week full of meetings: Education Leeds Leadership Team, Children's Services Leadership Team, Corporate Leadership Team, Leader Management Team, Executive Board and meetings with Councillors filled my week...

We also had the Coaching Skills session for members of the Leadership Forum and I did manage to fit in a school visit to Armley Primary School where Kath Andrews and her team are doing great work. However, the highlight of the week was the publication of the secondary performance tables. The percentage of our young people gaining five or more good grades at GCSE including English and maths increased by over 4% over last year from 42.4% to 46.4% and closing the gap with the national figure of 47.6%. The figures also reveal that 62.4% of Leeds students achieved 5 or more good GCSEs, an increase of over 5% over last year and closing the gap with the national figure of 65.3%. We have seen dramatic improvements this year where we celebrated our best ever GCSE results. Overall our GCSE results have improved by over 50% since 2001.

We are making a difference in so many ways and we must continue to make a difference by:
challenging colleagues, building their confidence and coaching them to succeed;

• creating a compelling and shared vision for the future;
• agreeing our shared values, beliefs and behaviours;
• establishing shared goals that stretch and challenge;
• constantly asking ourselves challenging questions;
• recognising colleagues strengths, talents and abilities;
• rewarding and recognising progress and improvement;
• empowering,trusting and supporting colleagues;
• identifying what brilliant performance looks like;
• conducting learning and practice sessions; and
• providing helpful and constructive feedback.

What are you doing to make a difference?
Chris