The Leeds 'Be Healthy!' Challenge reaches its' climax this week. Schools across Leeds have been taking part in this years 'Be Healthy!' Challenge and on Friday we will all come together to share what we have learnt. There is still time left to get involved...

They suggest the following physical activity challenges...

• walk around the block a fixed number of times;
• walk with friends during your lunchtime break;
• pace yourself with a pedometer and set a target for the number of steps you do each day;
• take the stairs instead of the lift;
• Teach a friend to dance, or get them to teach you;
• park further away and stride to work.

Great stuff. So what are you going to do? Se you on Friday!
Chris

Today is supposed to be a lucky day since seven is a lucky number wherever you are...

I was awake early and as it passed 7 minutes past 7 on the 7th of the seventh month of 2007, 7.7.7.7.07, I wondered who was going to have a really great day? Let me know what your day was like!
Chris

I went to 'Guys and Dolls' yesterday evening at the Grand Theatre in Leeds. Everyone had told me how fantastic it was but really you should all get out more!

Interestingly, I sat next to an elderly gentleman who told me that he had first seen 'Guys and Dolls' in 1945 as a soldier in France at the end of the Second World War and he was disappointed with this performance because he thought it was too slow and the singers weren't really strong enough or good enough. My son saw it a couple of years ago in London and Ewan McGregor was in it playing Sky Masterson alongside Jane Krakowski in a sell-out revival at London's Piccadilly Theatre and he said that it was fantastic. Honestly, it was OK but when I went to see 'Guys and Dolls' at Allerton Grange High School last year the three young men who sang were just as good if not better.
Chris

I ended the day at the retirement event for Tony Longworth, Principal and Chief Executive of Park Lane College...

Tony started here in Leeds at the same time as I did and we have worked together on many things over the last six years. The 14 - 19 landscape for learning has seen a revolution and Tony has achieved an amazing transformation at Park Lane College over the last six years and he will be missed.
Chris

I stayed at Beecroft Primary School for a meeting to discuss how we take forward a Kirkstall Children's Centre based on the Beecroft site...

The community is very fortunate to havethree great schools, Beecroft Primary School, Sacred Heart RC Primary School and St Stephen's CE Primary School, who are working together to look at how they can deliver Children's Centre services to their community as part of the second phase of the programme here in Leeds. June Turner, Gaby Nieland and Ian Blackburn are going to work together to take this forward as a unique model here in Leeds.
Chris

I went on to Beecroft Primary School to a concert to celebrate there success with a brilliant arts initiative...

The school under June Turner's powerful leadership has developed an initiative which gives every child the opportunity to play a musical instrument and the school has decided to enter the children for awards through the Royal School of Music. This reflects a huge commitment by the learning team at Beecroft but yesterday I was priviledged to see the results.

The choir and orchestra delivered a great little concert; fantastic singing and wonderful playing led by a great team... Helen Nutter, Jane Hurford and Jane Parker. At the end of the concert, I was delighted to present a talented group of flautists, violinists and recorder players with their awards and medals... simply brilliant!
Chris

I went on to have lunch with the Educational Psychologists at the Blenheim Centre...

They are a great group led by Chris Lingard and we talked about some of the big issues facing us all around Children's Services, Trusts, locality management, Extended Services and the universal offer. We all agreed that we need to do some 'blue sky' thinking around the 2020 landscape for learning to look at virtual school, human scale education and coaching and nurturing approaches. It was the sort of opportunity that we all need more of; one that really makes you think and also makes you realise the quality of the colleagues you work with.
Chris

I went on to the Pan-Universities Invitation Seminar at Leeds Met Carnegie...

Professor Lori Beckett had asked me to speak to the group about our work here in Leeds and I followed Associate Professor Martin Mills, a colleague from the University of Queensland, who was talking about 'Productive Pedagogies' and the need for us to maintain a strong focus on the craft of the classroom. You can find out more about 'Productive Pedagogies' at http://education.qld.gov.au/corporate/newbasics/html/pedagogies/pedagog.html.

Chris

I started the day yesterday at our 'Intervention Conference' at Trinity and All Saints College...

Chris Pollard and her colleagues had arranged the event for the wonderful team of coleagues involved across Leeds in intervention work in some of our schools facing the greatest challenges.
These colleagues were headteachers, senior leaders and SENCOs and their work has had a fantastic impact and helped us drive up standards and improve provision.

The session makes you realise that we have an incredible team here in Leeds and that whatever problems we have together we can find a colleague who has been there and done it. Our real challenge is to ensure that we take those little pieces of magic from each and every school across our great city and share it and network it and make our provision consistently brilliant!
Chris

We are coming to the end of the Audit Commission survey period...

In the survey, which I know isn't all that friendly or relevant to the unique Leeds context, schools have the opportunity to provide feedback on what we are doing well and what we need to do better. I hope that every school in Leeds will fill in the survey on-line or on paper to give OfSTED, when they come in December to inspect Children's Services, the most complete picture of our services here in Leeds.

If you have filled it in... THANKS.
Chris