CEO Thought for the Week

Hooray the sunshine has arrived! I hope you plan to make the most of it this weekend!

It has been an amazing week across the Trust with so much going on that I simply won't be able to mention it all. I have visited schools six times this week and on each occasion I have been blown away by the determination of our school teams to give the very best to our children and each other. This term is always super busy and tiring but you can see in the smiles on the faces of the children just how much they're enjoying all that you are making happen.

I want to mention three schools specifically this week as I haven't had opportunity previously. The first is to say a huge "well done" to St Nicholas CE Primary Academy on their recent SIAMs inspection which you can read in full on our website here : Ofsted & SIAMS Reports | Infinity Academies Trust For those of you not in Church schools, SIAMS is an additional inspection where a schools Christian character and distinctiveness is inspected and reported on. The inspection looks in detail at all elements of school life including pupil performance, the quality of leadership and teaching as well as the impact on pupils and the wider community. It is as equally rigorous as an Ofsted inspection and can have difficult consequences if schools are found not to be living up to their Christian foundation. Even with all that, I love SIAMs because SIAMs inspectors unlike Ofsted are expected to really capture the essence of a school and are able to portray that in their report. So SIAMs is a real opportunity to have celebrated publicly some of the best bits of what we do. I encourage you to read the report yourselves but here are just a few extracts:

"This is a school where lives are transformed"......"Showing love and compassion is strikingly normal"......"Leaders and academy champions are committed to the school. They are motivated by the vision and go to exceptional lengths to create an inspirational place where all are welcome to thrive, ‘shine’ and learn."......."Collective worship is the heartbeat of the school. It includes everyone and all are invited to participate. It is a joyful and uplifting part of the day"

Now if Ofsted used language like that I might be a little keener on them too! Speaking of Ofsted, I want to pass on my congratulations to Gipsey Bridge Academy who were inspected last week. An amazing team effort that saw lots of the school's strengths recognised. The small team at the school all of whom wear many hats absolutely smashed it and I couldn't be prouder of the school where I had my first headship. When an inspector tells you "pupil behaviour is exemplary" and that the school is simply a "wonderful place" and when "100% of parents would recommend the school" we have to be pretty pleased! Well done everyone!

And up next.. St Thomas CE Primary Academy! Where this week we have seen many of the staff team recognised by the Pearson Teaching Awards. I am aware that staff from across the Trust have received awards and they are richly deserved and we need to see those blowing up on Twitter please. But this week at St Thomas' we had something a little special. It wasn't just the range of staff who received awards that was fantastic but the fact that Nathan Shortland a teacher who started with us an NQT and has worked at both Wyberton and St Thomas' was recognised nationally as a Silver Award winner in the Primary Teacher of the Year category. There are only 102 Silver award winners nationally and I believe only 11 in this category. Nathan now has the opportunity to attend a rather flash awards ceremony and the opportunity to be considered for a Gold award. Well done Nathan and good luck from all at Infinity!

I could go on and on this week with the wonderful news that is flooding out of our schools and apologies if I've missed something. Please do let me know if there is something you would like to share with the Trust and I'll do my best to squeeze it into a Friday message. Can I make a plea that you take the time to fill in your Staff Survey. Our return rate is currently at 35% across the Trust and we would love to see this increase. Your voice matters and last year the outcomes fed directly into activity in school so please share your thoughts.

I have attached a link to a video Infinity Equity Fund Video  that hopefully explains our aims and ambitions for how we intend to use our Trust finances going forwards. The changes needed to enable the management of this fund do have an impact on office and finance staff in schools so I'm sure they would appreciate you taking a few minutes to understand our plans for next year.

Have a fantastic weekend! And thanks for being awesome!

Best Wishes

Gavin