After the Power of Change Conference yesterday I received this wonderful message from Joe Brian, headteacher, at Conisbrough Ivanhoe Primary School in Doncaster...

"Hello Chris, I am the head at Conisbrough Ivanhoe Primary School from Doncaster. I was at the 'Power to Change' conference in Leeds yesterday and saw you speak. I was really impressed with the day... and with the Leeds approach to community cohesion.

Conisbrough Ivanhoe is almost entirely white British (99%+) but we need to take community cohesion really seriously - for all the obvious reasons. It struck me that you being a hands on sort of person might be able to find the time to recommend a school in Leeds that I could visit to see some great practice in general and in the area of community cohesion in particular - particularly if they also don't have a huge multicultural intake.

I like to visit good schools just because it's always fascinating to see another school - but I enjoyed myself so much yesterday that I'd like to get a bit more of the Leeds experience. I liked the fact that you felt confident enough to tell your delegates that we all had to work hard to release the magic in kids - and if we didn't want to do that then perhaps we should be thinking about other careers!

So. Thanks for that conference - and I'd be grateful if you could suggest a school I might vist. At Ivanhoe we do plenty of releasing the magic (www.ivanhoeschool.co.uk) but we do it by constantly trying to do better, and I think a visit to a Leeds school might help usalong. Thanks for your time. Joe Brian."

I have visited Joe's school website and it's fantastic and Joe clearly runs a very good school. What's great is Joe's passion, commitment and desire to be better and to do better for the children at Conisbrough Ivanhoe Primary School.
Chris