Happy New Year!

Welcome back to school and a belated happy new year!

This term began with a teacher training day around development of vocabulary. This was a really good session, led by a fabulous member of the local authority’s school improvement team. The staff seemed to be enthused by the suggestions and it is good to be able to see the impact of the training straight away as I walk around school.

Did you see the news before Christmas that Leeds Children’s Services has been rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted? This is fabulous news and the result of brilliant leadership, hard work and focus throughout the council over the past eight years following a damning report in 2010. To put this report and grading in context, no other comparable large city has even achieved a ‘good’ rating for children’s services previously. Schools weren’t directly involved in this inspection, but we do clearly contribute strongly to safeguarding of children across the city, not least in our unique £4.5 million collective investment in ‘cluster’ arrangements that deliver ‘early help’ services to children and families. This was recognised in the report which stated:  “Children and families benefit from a well-established and well-resourced ‘cluster’ model of early help which appropriately meets many children’s needs at the lowest formal level of intervention.”

Our school is an active partner in the Pudsey Cluster: click here to see what they offer.

I sometimes hear the phrase ‘Lucky to be in Leeds’ used by teachers and heads. It’s not luck; it’s strong leadership, a shared vision and a collective commitment to working with families to tackle problems at  a local level at the earliest possible moment.