I started the day battling through snow and ice to attend the EOTAS Full Service Development Day at Elland Road...

EOTAS, for those who are thinking what is that, is our 'Education Other Than At School' team and the theme of the day appropriately was Putting Children and Families First! The day was aimed at improving communication, integrating our work with other services and agencies and ensuring that the team contributed to the developing 'Inclusive Learning Strategy', the '14 - 19 Strategy' and our relentless and uncompramising drive to improve standards and outcomes for all our children and young people... whatever it takes!

I spoke to EOTAS colleagues about the opportunities, the challenges and our shared commitment to our most vulnerable young people; the disadvantaged, the looked-after and those with special educational needs. I stressed the need to develop and articulate our promises to all young people in Leeds... how do we ensure that they are all happy, healthy, safe and increasingly successful.

These are some very special colleagues who are tackling some of the really hard bits of what we do... we must continue to work hard to re-engineer the learning landscape, to build a brilliant offer, to reduce exclusions, to improve attendance and to work with parents and carers and the young people to improve their life chances.
Chris