17 July 2023 weekly update

Dear Colleagues,

I’m starting this bulletin with hearty congratulations to Five Acre School for being awarded the inaugural Inclusion Quality Mark National Champions Award 2023-24. The award is an exciting opportunity to recognise schools which have the capacity to inspire and support other schools at a local, regional, and national level. There have only been eright winners of this award. Well done to Peggy Murphy and her team and I look forward to finding out more in the next academic year.

On Monday, I visited Laleham Gap School with the Director of Children’s Services Sarah Hammond. Many thanks to headteacher Les Milton and his team for showing us around so close to the end of term. I also met with the headteacher, Scott Jarred chair of governors Helen Norris MBE and governor Angela Iraggi at Nexus school, together with AEO West Kent Nick Abrahams and Principal Education Psychologist Alison Farmer. A big thank you to the team at Nexus. I was also delighted to join EKCG at their event in Broadstairs celebrating their recent Outstanding Ofsted judgement. This week too the Children’s Services management team had our annual conversation with Ofsted to discuss our LA Self Evaluation of all our services.

A range of work continues on our post 16 agenda through the Pathways for All programme. Last month the full board met face-to-face to evaluate the progress we've made in implementing the eight recommendations at the heart of the programme and to consider the way forward. There were robust discussions that led to some exciting proposals, one being for a sector and county-wide meeting to focus on the biggest challenges, such as qualification reform, and the impact these will have on our provision and how we should respond. We are planning to have this meeting on Tuesday 28 November. Invitations will be sent to principals, heads and other provision leaders shortly. Our independent chair, Tony Breslin, has provided a newsletter update (PDF, 205.1 KB). It explores the issues and provides an overview of the board’s direction of travel. If you're part of the post 16 sector, please take a moment to look at it.

A big thank you to all staff and governors in EY, schools and other education provision across the county for a job well done across a demanding year. A big thank you too to staff in KCC and beyond for all you have done to support in your various roles. I wish you all a peaceful summer break.

Best wishes

Christine McInnes
Director of Education