My life is brilliant and it has been a week of visits and meetings...

I had meetings with Cllr Harker, Dirk Gilleard, the council's Corporate Leadership Team, NAHT colleagues and Education Leeds Leadership Team. I had breakfast with the Inner East Family of Schools headteachers. I managed visits to Ralph Thoresby High School, Garforth Community College and Leeds Grammar School. I attended the Civic Reception for the 'Connecting Classrooms: Africa' project and another Education Leeds induction session. I also visited Crossley Street Primary School, Bramhope Primary School, Hollybush Primary School and I opened the new Harehills Children's Centre Cabin at Hovingham Primary School. And finally, I went to the exhibition of schools entries for this year's Stan Kenyon Schools Challenge at the Civic Hall.

We are all working hard to create brilliant schools, brilliant teams or brilliant organisations. After nearly eight years here in Leeds I realise, more and more, that to build brilliant we must...

• Treat others in a way we would wish to be treated ourselves.
• Understand what is important, be open, honest and keep our promises.
• Be caring and supportive and make sure we treat colleagues with respect.
• Nurture growth and challenge, and recognise that colleagues just want to do well and enjoy the roles they have, and do a great job.
• Acknowledge good performance and recognise it every and any way we can... thank yous, hugs, letters, stickers, flowers and chocolate all help.
• Be truly interested in what colleagues have to say and ensure that they are appreciated, information is openly shared and everyone contributes fully.
• Help colleagues do what they are best at. We must all let go of the things we don't need to do and use delegation to develop colleagues skills and abilities.
• Develop great relationships where colleagues care, share and connect their ideas, successes and concerns.
• Understand that every colleague can contribute their particular and unique skills and abilities to build real success.
• Ensure that every Friday, if not every day, we smile, laugh and eat chocolate.

Keep the faith.
Chris

I went to see West Side Story this evening at the Leeds Grand Theatre...

It's the 50th Anniversary production and it still has that magic and relevance today. With groundbreaking choreography by the legendary Jerome Robbins, an unforgettable score by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, it was a great evening. Tony's voice was brilliant and the rest of the cast and the orchestra made it an evening to remember.
Chris

My colleague Ros vahey sent me this after attending the Guardian BSF Conference in London...

"Chris, Jackie, Scott & Richard have done a great job here. Richard ran a workshop, Jackie and Scott did a keynote speech. All on ICT. Richard & Jackie have spent 2 days networking and promoting Leeds and BSF. Richard was a real gem! Elaine Silson was simply superb. Very focused, very illuminating, grounded and the voice of experience. We showed our DVD which went down really well too. All in all very successful and very good ambassadorial work for Leeds. We are definitely light years ahead of the game nationally and we got good feedback. PfS were impressed & grateful. Ros"

It is great to hear about our work being showcased on a national stage. The work we are doing on BSF is fantastic thanks to a great team.
Chris

My colleague Shelagh Dixon, our Active Schools Development Officer, sent me this...

"Hi Chris, In your daily life of high level meeting and serious matters I suspect you value some moments of light relief. I know you enjoy watching / joining in with Wake Up and Shake Up, but to maintain interest, things have to move on.............. so, here are a couple of 'new' focus activities I am introducing in our primary schools. Through Leeds Time to Play and other input, some primary schools now have a Boogie Box; a portable music centre, and prompt cards for Hand Jiving and Cheer Leading. Also, to support 'Be Healthy Stay Safe Challenges' in the summer term, the focus training for staff this year is Circus Skills. These 4 twilight sessions will be run in April by Peanut the Clown, who I think you met very recently in a school and promise to be fun. Hopefully, you will see more of these creative and skilful activities engaging our pupils out in the playground . So, be prepared to re-live your youth and join in with hand jiving and maybe impress pupils and staff with long forgotten juggling skills ! The challenge is out there !! Kind regards, Shelagh."

It's great to hear about the developments Shelagh and her colleagues are bringing to schools. I can 'Wake Up and Shake Up', failed miserably with the hoola hooping but look forward to hand jiving and juggling.

Chris

I also managed to get to the Civic Hall to see the entries for this year's Stan Kenyon Annual School Challenge...

This year's theme is 'Too Hot to Handle' and there were brilliant entries from eight schools:

• Ashfield Primary School;
• Meanwood CE Primary School;
• Moor Allerton Hall Primary School;
• Pudsey Primrose Hill Primary School;
• Raynville Primary School;
• Whitecote Primary School;
• David Young Community Academy;
• East SILC.

Chris

I moved on to another fantastic learning place...

I visited Hollybush Primary School where Danny Kenny, headteacher, Kathleen Alderson, deputy headteacher and their team are doing an incredible job. The building is now five years old but it is still fantastic and contains not just the primary school but a Children's Centre and a SILC partnership base.

Danny has brought a real energy and passion to Hollybush. He, Kathleen and Dave Foxton, Chair of Governors, talked to me about the opportunities, the challenges and the sheer magic at Hollybush. We also walked around the school which is a calm, purposeful and simply wonderful learning environment brought alive by a talented, brilliant, gorgeous and wonderful team of colleagues. They are also using Nintendo DS consoles to develop the childrens mental maths and are evaluating the impact on motivation and outcomes.

Chris

I moved on to a brilliant learning place...

I visited Bramhope Primary School to see Pauline Lawson, headteacher, and her great team. I arrived to see a group of Year 6 children rehearsing their 'Wake Up and Shake Up' session which had a Bollywood twist. It was wonderful later to see the children going through their fantastic routine with a large group of children who were very obviously loving it!

This is a great little school. I discussed their 'Academy' which over the last few years has focused on football, rugby and dance and provides groups of older children with the opportunity to coach and support younger children. I talked to a group of boys who had set up a mini-enterprise selling bookmarks and stickers. I watched a small group of children using Nintendo DS consoles to improve their mental maths. I also visited Year 6 where I met some incredible children being inspired by a fantastic teacher.

Bramhope Primary School is a very special learning place and Pauline and her team have done a brilliant job over the last few years and are releasing an incredible magic.
Chris

I started the day early having breakfast with headteacher colleagues at Oakwood Primary School...

The Inner East Family of Schools headteachers are an amazing group doing brilliant work with children and families against a background of poverty, disadvantage and ill-health in these highly mobile and complex communities. We talked about the many challenges we all face but what was deeply encouraging was that, alongside their passionate commitment to their children, there was a total focus on ensuring that their children were exposed to rigorous, pacey and brilliant teaching to ensure that as far as possible they all became literate, numerate and had the necessary social and emotional skills to succeed. These are great colleagues leading great schools where all this is wrapped in a stimulating, creative and imaginative curriculum offer that aims to turn out happy, healthy, safe and successful little learners, whatever it takes!
Chris

I was re-reading the Cabinet Office Report ' Aspirations and Attainment in Deprived Communities'...

‘Aspirations and attainment in deprived communities’ is a joint project between the Social Exclusion Task Force, DCSF and CLG. It explores the potential to raise the attainment of young people in deprived communities, by raising aspirations and changing attitudes within these communities.

Key findings:

• Young people in certain types of neighbourhood are less likely to develop high aspirations. These neighbourhoods tend to have high levels of deprivation.
• However, not all deprived communities are the same. Our analysis has shown that in some very deprived communities – often ethnically diverse, mobile, urban neighbourhoods – young people tend to have high aspirations for the future. In other areas – often traditional working class communities in ex-industrial areas – low aspirations may be preventing young people from achieving their potential.
• Certain community characteristics are associated with low aspirations – such as insular social networks, low population mobility and a sense of decline. These may be close knit, strong and cohesive communities. However, people may lack more diverse connections with people and places outside their immediate neighbourhood.
• Young people’s aspirations have a significant influence on their educational attainment and future outcomes. 11-14 is a key age range, when young people move from idealistic to more realistic ambitions.
• Aspirations vary by gender, ethnicity, social class and area deprivation. White boys have the lowest aspirations. The educational attainment of white boys is also failing to improve at the rates of most other ethnic groups.
• Parents are the most important influence on children. But young people and their parents are also influenced by the people and places where they live.

This is a significant report which everyone should read and understand if we are serious about building world class schools here in Leeds.
Chris

I finished the day with colleagues from the NAHT...

It was great to be able to talk about the brilliant work that is going on in schools across Leeds and to discuss some of the challenges headteacher colleagues are facing. We must constantly strive for more and continue our relentless and uncompromising focus on standards and outcomes. We need to work together to celebrate the real excellence of what we do and to develop more intelligent accountability systems. We need to continue to develop strong, trusting relationships where it is acceptable to ask for help. We need to adopt the same approach to headteachers and colleagues in schools as we do for our children; seeing potential and possibilities and providing strong, creative and effective support alongside the challenge.
Chris