I went to see Opera North's production of Madam Butterfly this evening and it was fantastic...

I have seen Madam Butterfly twice at Covent Garden and this production apart from some silliness at the start and the end is at least as good. The orchestra was brilliant, the music is fabulous anyway. The cast were really good particularly Butterfly who was everything you would want a butterfly to be. If you catch any of this season offer from Opera North catch this one. You can find out more at www.operanorth.co.uk.
Chris

I finished the week at what I think was the highlight of my week...

I had been asked to speak at the Civil Gospel seminar at the 'Sikh Religious Educational and Interfaith Event' at Roundhay Park. This event celebrates cultural diversity and community cohesion and is dedicated to the 300th Anniversary of Guru Granth Sahib's perpetual Guruship.

The event features a wonderful exhibition of The Sikh Faith and Interfaith Scriptures. It also includes materials on the Sikh Gurus and the restoration of the Golden Temple. I hope that many colleagues shared the priviledge of seeing this wonderful celebration of The Sikh Faith.

The sminar attempted to explore our shared values, our rights and our responsibilities and how we are to continue to develop community cohesion and tackle diadvantage wherever we find it.
It was a great honour to be asked to contribute to the seminar with city leaders like Paul Rogerson, Chief Executive of Leeds City Council, Simon Lee, Vice Chancellor of Leeds Metropolitan University and Carole Hassan.

I learned a lot from my brief visit to this hugely impressive event. You can find out more about what you missed by visiting the website at www.gnnsjleeds.com.
Chris

It has been a busy, non-stop and chaotic week with very little space and no time to think, to reflect or to listen...

Friday started in the same way with the Learning Partnership closely followed by the set-up meeting for the Joint Area Review; the inspection of Children's Services here in Leeds. The inspection is being carried out by colleagues from OFSTED and the team were in Leeds to explain the process they would be following and the focus of the inspection.

All Joint Area Reviews are required to focus on Looked-After Children, Children with Disabilities and Safeguarding. In additional the teams look at two or three additional areas chosen to reflect the big agendas and the wicked issues for each authority. The team have selected two additional areas to inspect in Leeds... Childhood and Adolescent Mental Heath Services and 14 - 19 provision.

As I always say, we live in interesting times!
Chris

I ended the day at the "Challenging Racism Together" event that my colleague Rehana Minhas had organised with the Trade Unions...

Colleagues who had attended the day talked about the impact of the sessions and the impact of the workshops they had attended. The real challenge for us all is how we reach the colleagues who didn't attend and how we spread the messages and together eliminate racism from all our classrooms, staffrooms, schools and workplaces. We need to take forward the learning from the Morley experiment where schools worked together to tackle racism, to adopt the Stephen Lawrence Education Standard and to work as a community to build trust, respect, tolerance and understanding.

What are you doing to challenge racism in your classroom, your school or your community?
Chris

Thursday started very early so that I could arrive in Skipton to start a conference for our newly appointed headteachers...

Colleagues had asked me to open the conference this year and it was wonderful to spend time witha group of our most enthusistic and positive colleagues. Their passion, commitment and energy is already changing the learning landscape across Leeds.

I talked to them about the opportunities we face and the power of teamwork. We know what works. We know how to to build brilliant and together I know we can ensure that we end up producing powerful little learners who leave our schools ready to fly!
Chris

I finished the day at the National Railway Museum in York for the Annual Dinner of the Yorkshire and the Humber CBI...

I had been invited by Maxine Room, the new Chief Executive and Principal at Park Lane College. It was a great, and very long, evening with wonderful company which finished with a speech by Giles Brandreth.
Chris

On Wednesday after the Board Meeting I moved on to the Headteachers Forum...

I am always impressed by the colleagues who make up the Headteachers Forum; their readiness to listen and reflect, to guide and advise, to challenge and support. Their willingness to discuss difficult issues and help us find ways forward, and to work with us to improve and develop provision... whatever it takes.

These are not easy times and I look forward to working with colleagues to continue to find ways to move ahead and deliver even better outcomes for all our children and young people.
Chris

I moved on to the away day with the Education Leeds Board...

We had found it almost impossible to find any time so we decided to have an overnight session where we could look at the Strategic Plan and the challenges and opportunities we are facing. The real challenge as always was to clearly identify and focus on what diffference we have made and where we need to continue to work to really make a difference in terms of outcomes for children and young people. These sessions really help us stand back and think about why Education Leeds exists and what we need to do to continue to drive the standards agenda and achieve world class outcomes for all our young people.
Chris

I went on to Hovingham Primary School where Janet Spence and her colleagues continue to do wonderful things...

This is a wonderful little school which serves a hugely complex community. Janet and her team all work so hard to make a difference for these children and their impact is very obvious.
Chris

I went on to talk to the Rotary Club of Headingley...

Professor Cliff Beddows had asked me to go to talk about what we were doing to drive up standards in schools here in Leeds; the challenges we face and the progress we are making.
It was a really great opportunity to talk to a group of very talented and able people who were aware of the history of Leeds and the challenges we face in moving from mediocre to brilliant!.
Chris