Week 4

Dear Parent/ Carer,

I had the pleasure of observing lessons at Haseltine on Monday this week alongside Ms Brumby and Ms Bernard.  I spent some quality time with Liz Stone at Kilmorie on Monday and Tuesday that included sitting in on pupil target setting meetings with Liz and the teaching team.  I was very impressed with the rigour of this work and the determination of all staff to help our children to succeed.  I met with Governors and colleagues from Lewisham at Fairlawn during Tuesday and visited the DfE building in Westminster to discuss the next stage of development of the Teaching School, based at Fairlawn.  Wednesday was spent between Haseltine and Kilmorie, followed by a trip North to Nottingham for training with ofsted on Thursday and Friday at the National College for School Leadership.  A busy week, and another week spent deepening my understanding of the workings of the schools and identifying the opportunities for us to work more closely together for the benefit of our children.

I am looking forward to the week ahead and to shifting my focus slightly, after spending these first weeks establishing our ‘baseline’ across the partnership, onto the development opportunities ahead.  Key amongst these are developing outstanding communication with parents and developing a really strong and influential ‘pupil voice’ in our schools.  These aspects are really important to me and are, of course, an important measure of really successful schools.  Educating your child is a partnership… and every good partnership is based on good communication.

Finally, congratulations to Eva Lee (parent), our gardening clubs and parent volunteers, for winning 1st prize in the school's category in Lewisham in Bloom Awards for Kilmorie. Our first prize of the year with, I am sure, many more to come...

Have a lovely week,

Mark Wilson