CEO Thought for the Week

Hi Everyone!

I hope you had a great half term break and a positive start to Term 4.

I often get asked about what the benefits are of being in a Trust and why schools that functioned reasonably well for years and years move under a Trust umbrella. My answer is often (as I’m sure you can imagine) long and detailed. However, whether I’m waffling on about Professional networks, the Core Services support, the Education Team offer or sharing the amazing practice between our schools. The simple and unifying factor of all the reasons is that it’s just better to do things together!

We all need to feel like we’re getting somewhere whether that’s in the car, in our work or in our lives. As human beings we just love momentum and to feel like we’re building or improving something. Now on our own that task can be challenging and sometimes overwhelming despite at times us all thinking I’d get it done faster on my own. Often, it’s doing it alongside others that brings us joy, builds relationships, allows us to achieve things we hadn’t even considered and takes us further on our improvement journey. Now is working with others always easy? No absolutely not. Do we sometimes get frustrated? Yes, we do. But if history tells us anything, it’s that great things are achieved by groups of determined and like-minded people working together to do something phenomenal. I look around at our Trust and that is exactly what I see, groups of amazing people doing wonderful things for the benefit of the whole Infinity family and most importantly achieving things that individually would be so much harder or even impossible on their own. So, thank you! I really do appreciate your willingness and commitment to contributing and making our Trust better by working together.

As we strive to work more closely with each other across the Trust and provide further opportunities for shared professional learning I’m delighted to tell you that we will be making two permanent appointments to increase the Education Team capacity after the Easter holiday. Becky Hopwood, our Interim Education Advisor will take on her role permanently and we welcome Dina Parla to the Education Team as Education Advisor for Safeguarding. I know many of you have met Becky and spoken positively about her impact and support. Dina joins us having spent her entire career in safeguarding ranging from children’s homes to Early help and a previous role as a Trust Safeguarding Lead. I know they’re both determined to support all our schools to continue to flourish.

I hope you have a great end to the week.

Best Wishes

Gavin