CEO Thought for the Week

Hi All,

Hope your week is going well despite the grey and drizzly weather!

I have a question for you…..do you stand by your values? I hope the answer to that is YES! But I have another question….. Do you stand by your values even when you’re busy, tired, under pressure and meeting yourself coming backwards? Now that’s a completely different thing. Values in isolation we can all agree upon and on a good day we can all live up to them, but what really makes the difference is our ability to live out our values and those of our school and Trust even on the most difficult of days.

The reason I bang on about values so much is because I sincerely believe that living out our values in our actions and interactions is the only way in which we can collectively navigate the challenging circumstances we find ourselves in every day. We know working in education and supporting children and families is hard work. It is our values that help us find our way through the fog and the choppy seas. It’s what enables us in tricky circumstances to know we’ve done the right thing or acted appropriately. Because, let’s be honest, the world is a confusing place and everyone has an opinion and perspective on what should be done, said, or not said! If, however, at the end of the day, we can say we acted with Integrity, Love, Unity, Hope or Curiosity  (or any other positive value), then we can reassure ourselves we acted and spoke in the best interests of children and families.

This is why we have previously invested time in creating our Values in Action booklet (attached) to describe the behaviours we “love to see” that bring our values to life and why we have commissioned our own Leadership Programme for Heads and Senior Leaders that will run through this year based upon bringing our values to life in all of our schools not just on the good days but every day! We can’t always get everything “right” or always say the “right” thing, but if we’ve been led by our values, then our intention will have always come from the “right” place.

I hope you have a great end to the week, and I thank you for all you do to support children, their families and each other!

Best Wishes

Gavin