MIDDLETON RAILWAY!

This morning I attended the launch of the Primary School Art Exhibition at Middleton Railway...

I had been asked to open the exhibition by Carole Holdsworth who is Chair of the Education Team at Middleton Railway. During the Summer term the railway had visits from schools in the Middleton area and Mrs. Taylor, the Head Teacher of St. Phillip's Catholic Primary School, arranged for the railway to host a display of artwork produced by the schools involved. The schools were involved an a curriculum innovation project which involved years 5 and 6 at the schools working on a number of exciting arts projects. The exhibition showcasing their work was opened today at Middleton Railway and when it is taken down the items will be shared and displayed back in the schools.

This was a wonderful project involving Middleton Primary School, Middleton St Mary's CE Primary School, Middleton St Phillip's Catholic Primary School and Westwood Primary School supported by colleagues from Cockburn Arts College. It was great to see the childrens work on display and to visit this little bit of railway history. The railway is hoping to become part of the Children's University network of accredited centres and I hope that this is the first of many collaborative projects between Middleton Railway and these fantastic schools.
Chris

A NIGHT FOR EXTRAORDINARY COLLEAGUES!

Last night we held a special evening for some of our extraordinary colleagues at the Banqueting Suite at the Civic Hall...


It was a wonderful evening attended by around 150 colleagues most of whom had been nominated for one of our Spirit Awards. The winners of the 2010 Spirit Awards were:

• Bernadette Robinson - Personal Development;
• Til Wright - Health and Well-being;
• Hannah Oldfield and Jayne Conway - Putting Customers First;
• Margaret Dalby - Treating People Fairly;
• Gareth Wilce - Looking After Leeds;
• Jane Robinson - Leader of the Year;
• Angela Bernard-Ferguson - Colleague of the Year;
• Wendy Winterburn and the EOTAS Team - Team of the Year.

David Dickinson and Dirk Gilleard then presented me with a Spirit Award as Leader of the Decade!


The evening had been organised by Stephanie Rayford and Danielle Brearley who had done a brilliant job to create such a successful and memorable evening for everyone.
Chris

THANK YOU!

As I face my last half-term here in Leeds I wanted to write to thank you for everything you have done over the last half-term, the last year and the last ten years...



We have once achieved so much together and you have made such a difference…

THANK YOU!

We have been part of an extraordinary team and experienced so much together. Over the last ten years we have shared so much and developed a common memory, common insights and a common understanding of what it takes to build brilliant. And while the vision has been great we have also delivered... and how... brilliant learning in brilliant learning places. We all need to continue to recognise and celebrate what we have achieved together; to talk about our successes and tell everyone who will listen about our unique and wonderful story.

Whatever the future holds remember...

"Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. So love the people who treat you right, forget about the ones who don’t and believe that everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said that it’d be easy, they just promised it would be worth it."

People keep telling me how tired I look and to be honest I am really tired so I am going to take a short break now before I start the last chapter of my Leeds story; the last seven weeks of an incredible 500 weeks here in this great city serving its children and young poeple, their families and communities. Again thank you…it’s been fun… it’s been a tremendous “hands on experience”… and it has certainly been worth it!

Chris

BEECROFT PRIMARY SCHOOL

I started the day today at another one of my favourite schools...

I attended Beecroft Primary School's Harvest Assembly and Music Awards. 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 enters the children for awards through the Royal School of Music. This reflects a huge commitment by the learning team at Beecroft and again this morning I was priviledged to see the results.


The whole school and orchestra delivered a great harvest assembly which included some of my favourite songs. We were treated to strong and important messages about why we should help others, some powerful poetry, lots of fantastic singing and some really wonderful playing led by a great team. At the end of the assembly, I was delighted to present a talented group of young musicians with their awards and medals... simply brilliant!

This is a great school with an amazing team doing a wonderful job.
Chris

CARDINAL HEENAN CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL

Last night I went to the Year 11 Reunion and Presentation of Certificates Evening at Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School to present the certificates and awards to some fantastic young people...

It was a real honour to be asked by Liz Cox, headteacher at this great school, to be part of this very special evening. Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School had a fantastic OFSTED inspection this year and these young people achieved the school's best ever GCSE results. Dianne Ward, the students Head of Year, introduced the evening which also included their glorious Madrigal Group directed by Mrs Barnes and Mrs Armitage. We were also entertained by Luke Kay, head boy and Ruth DiClemente, head girl, who like many of the other young people are now studying at Notre Dame Sixth Form College. The Class of 2010 were very clearly everything you could want from a group of young people... talented, gorgeous, brilliant and wonderful!

It was wonderful to share in this very special evening for the team at Cardinal Heenan and I was delighted that the school very generously made a donation of £50 to my favourite charity, Martin House.
Chris

NEW BUILDINGS AT THE WEST SILC

I moved on to attend the Official Opening of the wonderful new buildings at the West SILC...

My colleague Michelle Wilman, the principal at the West SILC, had invited me to the opening by the Lord Mayor, Cllr Jim McKenna and the Lady Mayoress, Cllr Andrea McKenna. I arrived in time for the Harvest Assembly which was great with the children singing 'The Whole World' and the 'Cauliflower and Cabbages' Song. The new modular build facilities are fantastic and really extend and enhance the facilities available on the Milestone site. It was great to walk around the new areas and to have toast and talk to some of these very special young people.
Chris

I started the day having coffee with my colleague and friend Mark Barnett...

Mark is helping us with some really important work at the PRUs and the BESD SILC and it was great to catch up with Mark about the progress he thinks we are making and the challenges that we still need to be working on if we want to build brilliant provision consistently across the city for all our young people.
Chris

QUARRY MOUNT PRIMARY SCHOOL

I moved on to visit Quarry Mount Primary School...

I love this school and it was great that my colleague Jackie Twaites had invited me to visit the school again during their open afternoon for parents and carers as part of their Focus Week on Black artists for Black History Month. There were art workshops in all the classes for parents and carers to join in with and it was great to walk around the school with Jackie and see some of Jackie's brilliant colleagues and some of Jackie's amazing children weaving, drawing, painting and creating some brilliant art work.
Chris

STEPHEN LAWRENCE EDUCATION STANDARD AWARD CEREMONY 2010!

I moved on to the Stephen Lawrence Education Standard Award Ceremony 2010 at Space@Hillcrest...

The programme provided an opportunity to celebrate ten years of activities promoting race equality and community cohesion with the Stephen Lawrence Education Standard Partnership working with Education Leeds to change the landscape and build trust, respect, tolerance and understanding. The morning started with a performance by the 'New World Symphony Steel Orchestra' and was followed by the Official Opening by the Deputy Lord Mayor. The children from Little London Primary School then sang brilliantly for everyone and their passion, enthusiasm and sheer joy was wonderful. This was followed by Louise Crumbie who Chairs the Stephen Lawrence Education Standard Partnership who talked about the history of the award ceremony. Students from Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School then delivered a powerful performance which they had prepared as part of their work for Black History Month highlighting the contributions of significant black leaders and champions. My colleague Rehana Minhas then reviewed the last ten years and what we have achieved together before introducing our guest speaker His Excellency Dr James Williams, the High Commissioner for St Kitts and Nevis. We were then treated to a fantastic poetry performance by students from Ralph Thoresby High School, whose passion, delivery and energy was incredible.We also had an incredible performance by children from Wigton Moor Primary School. And finally before lunch we had an amazing performance by children from  Hillcrest  Primary School whose fabulous singing made everyone in the audience smile. It was wonderful that the Stephen Lawrence Education Standard Partnership had decided to award me one of their community awards for my leadership and championing of the work we have been doing on equality, diversity and community cohesion. I was in great company because the other award winners were Louise Crombie, Sheila Howarth and Rehana Minhas.


After lunch the programme included performances by students from the Otley Prince Henry's Grammar School, Broomfield SILC, St Mary's Catholic Primary School in Horsforth, Benton Park High School, Rawdon St Peter's CE Primary School and Pudsey Southroyd Primary School. 

Together we have achieved so much over the last ten great years. We have transformed the culture and the expectations we all have of our children and young people. Where in the past people simply saw problems and challenges now so many more of us see potential and magic. Thanks to everyone for all the hard work that made this event such a brilliant success.
Chris

ANOTHER HEADTEACHER BREAKFAST!

David Dickinson and I started the day really early having breakfast at Roundhay School with a group of headteacher colleagues from the Meanwood and Moortown Family of Schools and the North East Leeds Schools Learning Partnership...



These are some amazing group of colleagues and we talked about the future children's services arrangements, increasing numbers, special needs and behaviour provision, extended services, and how schools could maintain their focus on standards with the budget challenges we are facing.
 We all agreed about the importance of developing confident, self-critical and reflective schools at the heart of our Children's Services arrangements. We all understand that we need to focus on meeting the needs of every child, working closely with colleagues from Social Care, Health and the voluntary sector to support families and build healthier and more sustainable communities through our community hubs; the primary schools. We talked about the 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 as early as possible children became literate, numerate and had the necessary social and emotional skills to succeed.

We talked about the challenges that lie ahead and the need to be more creative and more collaborative and to stop doing things that made no difference to children and families and focus on those we know do. Everyone understaood the need to 'Think Team' and work together; talking, sharing, networking and learning together. 

It was a brilliant start to the day with some great colleagues and we need to do more of this.
Chris