This week has been dominated by our Governor and Trustee meetings.

Our Trustees met on Tuesday to revise a number of policies and procedures that are applicable to the Group. Our Trustees are a group of volunteers, similar to our Governors, who give of their time and expertise freely for the benefit of our children and young people. They often have a thankless task dealing with the administration and back office functions of our Multi Academy Trust. From a personal perspective, I don’t believe we could have enjoyed the success we have done without their continuous encouragement, support and challenge. Thank you – it is very much appreciated.

On Tuesday the Trustees discussed issues from the Personnel, Standards and Finance Committee meetings of both Hollinwood Academy and New Bridge School. They also agreed the budget, the 2016/17 holiday pattern and ensured our website was fit for purpose.

Our Governors continued to debate these themes at our meetings on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. We discussed various issues, both local and national. The liveliest debates took place around the revised curriculum offer, in particular the new assessment measures and how these may affect our children and young people both now and in the future. The organisation is presently working on these areas. Jenny Dunne and Debbie Hall are leading our thinking in developing draft frameworks that we can consult upon. They are doing a brilliant job in a really tricky area.

You may have already heard that we have reluctantly taken the decision to postpone the evening performance of the Winter Showcase. The number of families able to bring their children in the evening was quite low, thereby making the class and year group performances unviable. I am aware that this time of year is incredibly busy and, at times, stressful for families. I think as an organisation we need to rethink these events. So as not to disappoint the children and young people we are going to continue with the morning performances of the Winter Showcase on Tuesday 8th and Thursday 10th. Please contact Wendy Warren on 0161 883 2401 if you had requested tickets for the evening performance and you would like to attend one of the morning performances instead.

Can I personally send Jim McMahon my very best wishes as he enters Parliament as an MP? In his role as council leader Jim has always been a strong advocate for our children and young people. He has ensured that our youngsters were never forgotten in initiatives such as Get Oldham Working and our post 19 projects, and he was instrumental in securing the decision to build Hollinwood Academy on the Roman Road site.

I’m looking forward to the Bury v Rochdale FA cup tie on Sunday – come on you Latics, let’s get a result over in Sheffield.

Have a great weekend,

Graham