Dirk and I started the day early having breakfast with a small group of headteachers from the Templenewsam Halton Family of Schools...

These headteachers are a great group of colleagues doing some amazing work with children and families. We considered the Key Stage 2 SATs boycott, the new children's services arrangements, 21st Century Schools, special needs and behaviour provision, early years, extended services and talked about the characteristics of brilliant provision.

Headteacher colleagues were concerned about the letter I had sent their chairs. We all recognised that how we handle the Key Stage 2 SATs boycott threatens to undermine the relationships we have struggled so hard to establish over the last nine years. More importantly, we were all concerned about how the boycott will affect the relationships in schools between colleagues, governors, parents and carers and children. Headteachers are struggling with this because while we all understand the impact of the SATs on primary provision and primary schools, we also all recognise that they are statutory and a contractual duty. Sadly, the real outcome of the boycott appears to be that we all lose!

We agreed that we need to maintain our relentless focus on teaching and learning, on the WOW factor, on quality provision and on how we nurture passion, enthusiasm, creativity and imagination. We talked about the importance of improving the quality of what happens in classrooms and invest in workforce development to continue to develop self-critical and reflective children's services workforce who understand how we keep our children and young people happy, helthy, sfe and increasingly successful. We need to work with colleagues from Social Care, Health and the voluntary sector to support families and build healthier and more sustainable communities.

We need to develop brilliant early years practice and to ensure that Every Child is a Reader and Every Child Counts by the time they are seven or eight. And we need to ensure that as far as possible all our children became brilliant little learners by the time they leave primary school and are on a pathway to success by the time they are sixteen. It was a brilliant start to the day with some great colleagues and we need to do more of this; to talk more, to share more, to network more and to celebrate more.
Chris

"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inhabit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists."

Eric Hoffer

I am always struck by the uniqueness of our learning places and the special people who work so hard to release the magic. It has been another week full of meetings, briefings and updates but as always there were little bits of magic that made me smile, made me think and simply inspired me. I attended another meeting of the Leeds children's services improvement board which is overseeing the response to the unannounced and announced inspections carried out by OFSTED, the first meeting of the Transformational Programme Board overseeing the move to the new children's services arrangements we are building for April 2011, and the last meeting of Leeds City Council before the important elections on 6 May. I had breakfast with Eleanor Brazil and David Dickinson and headteacher colleagues from the North East Leeds Schools Learning Partnership, attended a team meeting with the Integrated Children's Services team leaders and attended another Leadership Forum where colleagues were looking at the opportunities and challenge we face as we build the future of Children's Services here in Leeds. I also visited two great primary schools; Kerr Mackie Primary School where Angela Ronicle and her team are doing wonderful things in this rich multi-cultural community and Shadwell Primary School where Sue Pyatt and her team have created an outstanding little village primary school.

As we discussed at breakfast and at all these meetings, we all know that the immense pressure colleagues are under, regarding standards and safeguarding alone, can be simply overwhelming, and that's not to mention the other issues and challenges we are all juggling with, day in day out, on top of the normal day job. That's why it's so important to remember that if we are going to cope with the pressure and stress, and if we are going to release the magic and create brilliant learning for our children and young people, colleagues need to feel cared for and to feel valued. They need to be nurtured and they need to understand that they are making a difference.

As we build the future we all need to recharge, to re-imagine, to refresh, to rethink and to be inspired. And importantly, we need to continue to talk, to share, to network and to learn.
Chris

I finished the day at the Supplementary Schools Celebration at Weetwood Hall...

The event was to recognise the fantastic achievements of the supplementary schools in Leeds who had gained the Quality Framework Awards. We wanted to stress the importance of the journey our supplementary schools have been on as we worked together to build brilliant provision focused on equality, inclusion and excellence. Wesley Wu, our Supplementary Education Coordinator, who has led this important aspect of our work, told us all that we were the most successful area in the Yorkshire and Humber region with over twenty supplementary schools in the Leeds area achieving these important awards.



If we are serious about world class provision for all our young people, we need to connect 21st Century Schools, Think Family and powerful communities together through enriched and extended high quality provision. Provision that ensures that we help more of our children reach their potential through the additional offer we make through our breakfast clubs, study support activities and supplementary schools. These awards recognise and celebrate excellence and our challenge is to ensure that more of our children and young people access supplementary schools that have achieved these important awards.
Chris

I moved on to the Blenheim Centre...

It was really encouraging to see colleagues from so many great teams and talk to them about the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead as we build outstanding children's services here in Leeds.

I talked to colleagues from the Parent Partnership Service who wonderfully and sensitively support and empower parents and carers of children with special educational needs. The Parent Partnership service offers impartial advice, information and guidance on Special Educational Needs and exclusion policy and procedure to parents, carers, schools and professionals both statutory and voluntary. The team includes a Choice Adviser who offers advice, information and guidance on schools, how to preference a school and the admissions appeals process, and a Parent Champion who works with schools who have had notice to improve or are in an ofsted catagory in order to support communication and consultation with parents and carers. This service is one of the jewels of Education Leeds reaching those parents and carers it can often be hard to reach and who often feel let down by the system.

I talked to colleagues from our Pupil Planning Team who have done brilliant work with children and young people on the edge of exclusion The Pupil Planning Team works in partnership with schools, governors, pupils, parents/carers, Education Leeds colleagues, Area Management Boards (AMBs), other agencies - statutory and voluntary and all other stakeholders. The team works to reduce or eliminate exclusions, supporting and challenging all stakeholders regarding exclusion matters. The team endeavours to ensure that vulnerable and challenging pupils are re-included into full time, appropriate education provision, whether that be within their local Community School or as part of individualised programmes & pathways, via agreed re-inclusion plans. This team is another of the real successes of Eduication Leeds reaching and supporting some of our most challenging and vulnerable young people and their parents and carers.

I also talked to colleagues from our Educational Psychology Team which provides outstanding support for children and young people in schools. They identify issues and work to support children and young people to ensure that they succeed in their learning, inclusion and education. The team have enriched and enhanced our school improvement and inclusion strategies through the development of the Inclusion Chartermark, their work in the early years, on behaviour and social and emotional aspects of learning.

It was wonderful to spend some time with these talented colleagues who are making such a difference here in Leeds and will provide some of the fundamental building blocks for the new children's services arrangements we are building together.
Chris

I started the day with Chris Halsall and her colleagues at our Primary School Improvement Partners Professional Development Day at Weetwood Hall...

It was great to be able to talk to these colleagues about the opportunities and the challenges we face with building outstanding Children's Services here in Leeds. We need to powerfully connect the team around the family, the team around the child and the team around the school to ensure that every child in Leeds is happy, healthy, safe and successful... whatever it takes!

We need to focus our energy and efforts on the things that really make a difference and eradicate the irrelevant, the obsolete an dthe things that simply get in the way. We need to think local, think city and think about how we streamline the processes to create beautiful systems around 21st Century Schools. Beautiful systems that reinforce and support a culture based on trust, respect, equality, inclusion and excellence.

These wonderful colleagues are helping us share, network, learn and consistently build brilliant learning in brilliant learning places. Every school must be a great school so that wherever a child goes to school in Leeds they experience the best teaching and learning alongside the WOW factor. We all need to recognise and celebrate the wonderful work going on in schools across the city and simply make it consistent. Together, we can release the potential and magic in all our children, all our colleagues and all our communities.
Chris

Award for Education Business Excellence!

Mike Cooper, our Education Business Partnership Manager, sent us this bit of good news...

"Chris, We have gained the Award for Education Business Excellence and the assessors moved us up from our self-assessment against the criteria of 10 green and 10 yellow to 13 green and 7 yellow. They were particularly impressed with our evaluation process and noted the enthusiastic comments provided by education and business partners. Mike"

This is brilliant news and recognises the work Mike and his colleagues have been doing in this important area. It also is a fantastic celebration of the partnership we have established with business partners and the Chamber of Commerce to promote enterprise, vocational pathways and opportunities and the world of work.
Chris

This afternoon I visited Shadwell Primary School...

It was wonderful to visit the school again and talk to Sue Pyatt, the headteacher, and Ruth Drew, the chair of governors, about the opportunities and challenges the school is facing with the proposal to federate with Bramham Primary School. It was also great to have the opportunity to look around the school and see the quality of provision in this wonderful little primary school where excellence and inclusion go hand in hand. Sue is an outstanding headteacher whose leadership has created brilliant provision which they hope will be further developed through the federation.
Chris

This morning I visited Kerr Mackie Primary School...

It was great to meet Angela Ronicle, the headteacher, and Gillian Hayward, the chair of governors, and talk about the opportunities and challenges we are facing. We also looked around the school to see the real progress the school is making under Angela's skilful leadership. The quality of the work in the Foundation Stage, the quality of teaching and learning and the culture and ethos around the school is really impressive. Angela and her team are building brilliant provision by establishing the systems and procedures needed to secure consistency.

It's true, for every school in Leeds, that consistency is our biggest challenge and securing it will ensure that outcomes continue to improve, that teaching and learning further develops and that every classroom releases the WOW factor and the magic and potential in our wonderful children.
Chris

Eleanor Brazil, David Dickinson and I started the day early having breakfast with some of the North East Leeds Learning Partnership Family of Schools headteachers...

At the heart of our work here in Leeds lies a 21st Century School supported by the 'Think Family' approach and engaged within a powerful community. We talked about the brilliant work going on in these schools, the successes we have had over the last nine years, the outcome of the Children's Services Review and the opportunities within the new world of Trusts, Federations and Academies. Colleagues talked passionately about the changing nature of headship and the things that distract us all from our relentless and uncompromising focus on teaching and learning. We agreed that, over the next few months, we must continue to ensure that all our children are happy, healthy, safe and successful and to maintain our focus on teaching and learning. We must continue to build brilliant provision consistently across Leeds and share and network the extra-ordinary practice in our schools, our children's centres and our clusters.

We talked about the challenges we are facing and the opportunities that lie ahead. We must continue to focus on quality, standards and outcomes while we use the opportunities that we have with the new curriculum and the new children's services directorate to build a brilliant children's services landscape. We discussed the importance of confident, self-critical and reflective practitioners who understand the learning process and are working creatively, imaginatively and positively with colleagues from Social Care, Health and the voluntary sector to create the team around the child, the team around the family and the team around the school. to nurture passion, enthusiasm, determination, persistence and patience across the children's services workforce. We also talked about the importance of leaders of learning who had a clear view of what was needed to drive change and achieve that step change in outcomes we all want to see so that eevry child is a reader, every child can count and every child is a brilliant little learner by the time they leave primary school and on a pathway to success by the time they leave secondary school.

It was a wonderful start to the day with some great colleagues and we need to do more of this; to talk more, to share more, to network more, to celebrate more and to learn more as we build the future together.
Chris

I hope colleagues have had a great break, that you are all hopefully fighting fit and ready for anything that comes our way...

I have spent the Easter break reading, learning and watching some more great ballet and just for a brief moment I managed to forget about attendance, admissions, behaviour, Building Schools for the Future, the National Challenge, safeguarding, SATs, special educational needs, standards, targets and World Class Primary Schools. What my Easter break and my reading has reminded me is that it is discipline, focus and action that will help us continue to deliver outstanding schools, great outcomes and brilliant results for our children, our young people, their families and communities. With elections, public spending cuts and change looming we need to be brave enough to challenge every aspect of our work so that we can focus our energy and efforts on the things that really, really matter. We must continue to carefully evaluate everything we do and ask whether it is really adding value and making a difference.

I don't think it's rocket science. We need early years programmes where we release the magic; support every childs' personal and social development and ensure that every child reads and counts. We need to nurture great primary schools as they develop a rich, stimulating and rewarding curriculum where children read and write and count and study and sing and dance and create. We need all our wonderful primary schools to deliver the WOW factor and work even harder to create brilliant little learners. We also need extraordinary secondary schools where small is beautiful in terms of organisation, where coaching is supporting teaching and learning, where every young person is on a pathway to success and where more and more of our young people achieve good qualifications as the passport to adult life and work. We need every school to become a healthy school, a green school, a Stephen Lawrence school and an inclusive school where we develop and nurture the values and behaviours that will help us ensure that every child and young person is happy, healthy, safe and increasingly successful... whatever it takes!

We also need to develop self-reliance, self-esteem and self-discipline through behavioural change programmes that understand and build on the critical importance of mothers, families and communities and to make a real difference we need to start earlier and stay longer with those children and those communities that need us most. We need to be uncompromising and relentless in rooting out the inefficient, the ineffective and the obsolete wherever it is and focus on developing real excellence in every aspect of everything we do!

Colleagues in Education Leeds and children's services needs to understand the need to be totally focused, totally committed and totally disciplined over the next year as we build the new children's services world here in Leeds. A world built around and supporting 'Twenty First Century Schools', 'Think Family' and powerful communities... whatever it takes!

And when the going gets tough always remember...
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena... who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings... and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly."
Theodore Roosevelt

And as we face volcanoes, ash and flight restrictions I am incredibly impressed by colleagues responses to these latest challenges. Whilst some of our colleagues are stuck abroad unable to return home, as ever it is business as usual in Leeds. I would like to thank everyone for their passion, detetrmination, persistence, dedication and commitment to ensuring our children continue to be happy, healthy, safe and increasingly successful... whatever it takes!

Keep the faith!
Chris