CEO Thought for the Week

Morning All,

Well as the dust begins to settle on another year of performance data across our Trust, I wanted to share some reflections.

I think my view on SATs etc is well established- useful in some ways but not as a stick to beat schools with or to create ridiculous competition! All assessments in their many forms are an opportunity to reflect and analyse the quality of our curriculum offer, our teaching and how we’re meeting the needs of our children. Unfortunately, some of those assessments are now available for public consumption and often by people who do not understand them and don’t know what it’s like to do the job!

All of that aside, I wanted to share my thanks with you all for your hard work and dedication to support children through all assessments this year but especially those external measures. EYFS, Phonics, Multiplication Checks and Y6 SATS are all out there on display. I know some of you are disappointed and some of you are elated and as a Trust we come out somewhere in the middle. When we bring all our data together, we can see that we have made positive strides forward this year probably more so than in any year previously and that in virtually all measures as a Trust we are either on or above the national comparisons. Where we fall slightly short it is by the equivalent in percentage terms of between 3-6 children across the entire trust. That’s a great achievement!

As the inevitable deep dive (excuse the phrase) begins into your school’s data and performance I want you to reflect on the journey not just the destination. Don’t focus solely on the final percentage figure but instead think about the distant travelled by your children and the school in the last year. I spoke to one Head yesterday whose results were really positive and yet they were most proud of a child who didn’t reach the expected standard but had still made huge amounts of progress since joining the school. What we must do is use this performance information to improve our offer, to hold on to what has worked well and to think again where we’ve not quite achieved as we feel we should. What we can’t do is shrug our shoulders, ignore it or even worse revert to “well what do you expect with that group of children”. It is our job to learn, to reflect and to meet the need of all children all the time! Because that is absolutely what we would want for our own children. School and Trust outcomes are a team game and are not the responsibility of one year group or one teacher- every single person including those in the central team, administration or site staff play a part in setting the conditions and supporting our children to thrive.

We must continue to raise our expectations and set our sights high because that is what our children, our teams and our communities need and expect of us. Let’s reflect and absorb but more importantly let’s get ready to go again and use whatever outcomes your school has achieved as a launchpad for further improvements and success. We keep aiming high… “To Infinity and Beyond!” It’s literally in our name!!

Thanks again and have an awesome end to the week!

Gavin