This afternoon I attended the Leeds Children's Services Improvement Board...

Interestingly during the last week we have had a visit from the DfE to look at our 'Great Schools' and a session where 200 primary colleagues came together and wherever I go at the moment The messages are the same. As we all brace ourselves to face the changes that are coming we have a huge shared commitment to building world class provision, safeguarding, 'Think Family' and making things better for children and their families. Everyone I speak to understands the need for us to develop schools at the heart of comunities with a shared and common geography which enables all partners to work together more powerfully. We all understand that we must embed, develop and resource targeted support within the universal services and build the team around the child and the team around the family as part of the team around the school. I know that colleagues talk about where the universal services are and it is vitally important that we all understand that many partners do make a universal offer but schools are our only universal settings where our children and young peiople are required by law to be every day. We need to continue to develop our workforce, our leadership and our culture to support this new and exciting world. And importantly to build relationship and understanding and understanding across the partnership we need to develop a learning academy within children's services where across all our practice we share and showcase what brilliant looks like... in social care, in early years in youth, in the health service and the police as well as in our schools.
Chris

Mini Olympic Games to showcase our future school sports stars

Seb Coe and the London 2012 Olympic Organising Committee need look no further than Leeds for how to organise a successful Olympic Games...

Children from four Leeds primary schools have helped to set up their own mini Olympics as part of a city-wide programme to link learning and exercise to the 2012 Olympic Games. The Spirit Alive event, which will take place at the John Charles Centre for Sport tomorrow, has been organised by children from Gledhow Primary School, Kerr Mackie Primary School, Moor Allerton Primary School and Talbot Primary School. The children will take to the track and field between 10am and 2pm and the event will have many of the features of the real Olympic Games including an opening and closing ceremony and medal presentation.

Spirit Alive is a brilliant cross-curricular project linked to the Olympic Games for young people of all ages. It started four years ago in Leeds and is designed to give children and young people a chance to lead, manage and deliver a mini Olympics experience for their own schools. This year we hope that around 120 schools across the city will deliver their own mini olympic games and by 2012 every school in Leeds wiil take part in this fantastic initiative.
Chris

It has been an amazing week packed with brilliant activities, stimulating meetings and fantastic school visits in the run up to the end of the summer term...

On Monday, I visited the South SILC at the Broomfield site where Pam Barrett, Katie Cass and their colleagues are releasing a very special magic. The South SILC has been transformed since my last visit. Pam and Katie's passion, commitment, determination and hard work has really made an extraordinary difference as evidenced by the recent Ofsted judgements. These identified the South SILC as a good school with many outstanding features. I moved on to visit Holy Rosary and St Anne's Catholic Primary School to talk to Kathryn Carter, the headteacher at this brilliant little inner city primary school about the development of a ground breaking and unique maintained Cathedral Choir School. After lunch, I met Colin Bell, Principal at the South Leeds Academy to talk about the relationship Academies here in Leeds have with Education Leeds.

On Tuesday, was the Leeds Special Educational Needs marketplace event at the Civic Hall. The event was funded by Children Leeds Aiming Higher for Disabled Children and was co-ordinated by the parent partnership service. The event was a brilliant celebration of our work and of the teams who work so hard to make a real difference for some of our most special children and their parents and carers.

On Wednesday, I attended and spoke at the social enterprise celebration and showcase event 'Flying High!' at the Holiday Inn at Garforth. I moved on again to join a meeting of our performance management and information team; a great team of colleagues whose work lies at the heart of so much of what we do here at Education Leeds in helping to shape our culture which is about coaching, conversations, reflective practice and continuous improvement. I moved on again to see Simon Flowers, headteacher at Carr Manor High School to talk about the challenges and opportunities we face, to walk around the school and to see the total transformation that has happened under Simon's passionate, dynamic and determined leadership. Later in the afternoon, I met with Steve Williamson from Renew to talk about the opportunities and challenges we face as we move into this new world. It was a great session which really helped me to think about the areas we need to explore and manage as we build the team around the child. And finally, at the end of the day I visited Leeds Trinity University College to attend their '4th Annual Education Partnership Schools Concert 2010'. The theme was 'Thank you for the music' and it was a wonderful celebration of music and song featuring the choirs from St Theresa's, St Augustine's, Beeston St Francis, Our Lady's and Rothwell St Mary's Catholic Primary Schools here in Leeds.

On Thursday, I visited Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School for the start of their Stephen Lawrence Education Standard Faith Cluster launch event which was brilliant and had an extraordinary magic. It was inspiring to see these great schools coming together to share, to network and to learn about the power of teamwork as we wrestle with the biggest challenges we have ever faced. I moved on again to Highfield Primary School to see Julie Colley, the new headteacher, who with her talented team is building on the achievements of her predecessor to create an outstanding school that caters for the needs of an increasingly diverse community. Over lunch I met candidates for the director of children's services post before moving on again to St Matthew's CE Primary School. Heather Lacey, the new headteacher, is doing a great job building on some strong foundations to create a great school to serve this rich multicultural community. And finally, I attended the official opening of the Farsley/Calverley Children's Centre by Cllr Andrew Carter. The new Children's Centre is a wonderful addition to Farsley Farfield Primary School which is a great school with a fantastic team of colleagues doing great things in this little bit of Leeds.

I have been in Leeds now for 475 weeks and each one has been part of an amazing adventure where we have rewritten the Leeds story and created somewhere where the extraordinary, the wonderful and the simply brilliant is common place. I know that some people talk about a lack of consistency across the city but what they fail to understand is the journey schools, communities and localities have been on over the last five years together with the development of Children's Services.

The challenges we are currently facing are actually an opportunity to re-imagine, to re-engineer and to create new slim and highly focused local authority models that build and support our extraordinary provision.

If we want to build brilliant and if we are serious about trust, empowerment, freedom, flexibility and responsibility sitting at the heart of our work we must all take a deep breath and continue to encourage schools at the heart of their communities, to 'Think Family' and all work together to develop powerful communities through social enterprise, volunteering and public companies.

The Education Leeds story has shown us what is possible and we must now build a new set of Children's Services arrangements that can write the next chapters in the Leeds story and continue to build brilliant provision for all our children, young people, families and communities. Chris

And finally, at the end of my 475th week in Leeds, I attended the Official Opening of the Farsley/Calverley Children's Centre by Cllr Andrew Carter...

I had been invited to the official opening by Peter Harris, the headteacher at Farsley Farfield Primary School, and Sue Warwick, the Children's Centre Manager. The new Children's Centre is a wonderful addition to Farsley Farfield Primary School which is a great school with a fantastic team of colleagues doing great things in this little bit of Leeds. The opening provided free fun for all the family including a magical grotto, magic shows, jewellery making, face painting, craft activities and the farm shop.


It's two years since I last visited the school and as I had arrived slightly early I had the opportunity to look around the school with Peter who also showed me the developments at the school's brilliant Farsley Farfield Farm. The school farm has been transformed since my last visit to the school by their job share gardening team who have taken career changes and now are releasing a little bit of green magic with the children, and it is simply brilliant. They now have two poly tunnels, an inclusion garden and other elements that make this a unique feature and a real centre of environmental excellence. Peter talked to me about the work the team have been doing with the building, the grounds, the farm and his ambitious plans for the future.
Chris

At the end of May I met Greg White who is the principal at St Mary's Catholic Primary School a multicultural community in Dandenong in Melbourne, Australia...

Greg sent me this great photo yesterday...

Chris

This afternoon I visited another primary school...

I visited St Matthew's CE Primary School where Heather Lacey, the new headteacher, is doing a great job building on some strong foundations to create a great school to serve this rich multicultural community. Heather and I walked around the school and it was really encouraging to meet Heather's talented colleagues and some of her great children. It was also good to see colleagues from Artforms working in the school on the 'Music Passport' initiative. Youth Music developed its Passport to Music as a major new pledge to the last Government's Music Manifesto aimed at improving in music education in schools and communities. The scheme combines a physical passport which children are given, with an interactive website which children and young people can use to identify music making opportunities available to them in their local area.

Heather and her talented colleagues are doing a great job and together they are building something really special at St Matthew's CE Primary School.
Chris

I moved on to visit Highfield Primary School...

Highfield Primary School is a very good school and Julie Colley, the new headteacher, is building on the achievements of her predecessor to create an outstanding school that caters for the needs of an increasingly diverse community. It was great to walk around this expanding school with Julie and meet some of her colleagues and see the quality of provision and the wonderful learning environment these talented colleagues have developed for their fantastic children. We all know that the key to building and maintaining a great school is to ensure that everyone is happy, healthy, safe and increasingly successful and it is very obvious that Julie and her colleagues are releasing a very special kind of magic at Highfield Primary School.

Visits like this always make me think about the ingredients of such a brilliant learning place? The answers...

• strong, focused and passionate leadership;
• a talented, energetic and enthusiastic team;
• clear values and beliefs driving the work of the school;
• a focus on standards, behaviour and discipline;
• great teaching within an attractive and stimulating learning environment;
• high expectations and hard work!

This is a wonderful team doing a brilliant job and together they are building something really special at Highfield Primary School.

Chris

I attended the Stephen Lawrence Education Standard Faith Cluster Launch this morning at Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School...


The launch brought together children and colleagues from eighteen schools who wanted to work together and support each other to promote and champion race equality in their schools, parishes and the communities they serve. They all aim to prepare their young people, families, colleagues and communities to become successful, engaged and responsible global citizens and achieve the Stehen Lawrence Education Standard. Central to the values of these great schools is the belief that the uniqueness of each individual is recognised, respected and celebrated.

The event at Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School was brilliant and had an extraordinary magic and it is inspiring to see these great schools coming together to share, to network and to learn. Freedom, flexibility and responsibility lie at the heart of everything we are doing here in Leeds to build brilliant learning in brilliant learning places. However, they are not about isolation and separation and standing alone they are about trust, empowerment and understanding the relationships, the connections and the bigger picture and most of all understanding the power of teamwork as we wrestle with the biggest challenges we face. It is wonderful to see these schools working together to develop respect, tolerance and understanding and working together to tackle racism, prejudice and intolerance. This is so important as they work with our young people who are after all the future of Leeds.
Chris

This evening I attended the 4th 'Education Partnership Schools Concert 2010' at the Chapel at Leeds Trinity University College...

I had been invited by Professor Freda Bridge, Principal at Leeds Trinity University College, and the theme was 'Thank you for the Music'. It was a wonderful celebration of music and song featuring the choirs from St Theresa's, St Augustine's, Beeston St Francis, Our Lady's and Rothwell St Mary's Catholic Primary Schools here in Leeds and Hollingwood Primary School from Bradford. It was brilliant listening to hear these fantastic children sing with such passion, enthusiasm and energy. There’s a huge amount of evidence now from all over the world that singing improves the intelligence and wellbeing of children; it actually helps your brain work better. A lot of research shows that music and singing helps your brain work better, helps your memory work better and simply makes you feel good by releasing endorphins. We all know that in the best schools, the best learning places; places where brilliant learning thrives and children do best at literacy, numeracy and develop wonderful personal learning skills are very often places where there is lots of singing going on and lots of music and arts activity. There's no question about it, and it's what I've known for many years, the arts are one of the keys to releasing the magic in our little learners. So it's 'every child a singer' now!
Chris

This afternoon I met with Steve Williamson from Renew...

It was great to meet Steve and talk about the opportunities and challenges we face as we move into this new world. It was a great session which really helped me think about the areas we need to explore and manage as we build the team around the child, the team around the family and most importantly the team around the school as we reinvent, re-imagine and renew what a local authority does here in Leeds. We all know that nothing we do exists in isolation, and to release the magic during our 15% of a child's time, we must powerfully connect with the child's family and the community where the child lives. We need to trust, train, develop and empower communities to take responsibility and work with those communities who we all serve to create a new set of arrangements where real power lies where it belongs. We all know that in localities, where it really matters, our primary schools are at the front line of what we are doing. They reach out into every community across the city, touching and shaping young lives and are already making a real difference. We agreed that we must work together to build a powerful and compelling picture of the future we want where working with the third sector, social enterprise, public companies and voluntering fill the gaps left by local authorities. We agreed that we must continue to focus on developing our primary schools at the heart of these localities where multi-agency teams work and connect with families, the elderly and those who need us most and building on the workforce in our schools to connect with partner agencies to build self-esteem and efficacy, to narrow the gap and to really make a difference where it matters.
Chris