Welcome back everyone.

In a normal year, this is the week that many of our Year 8s would have been at Disneyland Paris.  As you know, it’s been a tradition since we opened that all of our children and young people, in all our schools, have access to residential experiences.

I’ve often blogged that the Year 8 Disney residential is one of the highlights of my school year.

This will be the second group that have missed out.  Can I assure you all that our teams are working really hard to ensure not one child misses out in the long run.  We don’t quite know how we’ll sort it – but we will.

We need to add Disney to the long list that includes other residentials, Proms, celebration events and visits out.

We’ve had some great news that affects our Tameside schools.  I think we’ve arranged a feedback meeting on Monday morning at 10.00am.

On Thursday and Friday I’ve been supporting some schools in Northamptonshire.  It’s great to work with other school leaders and share ideas.  The train journey also gives me a little time to reflect on our schools and organisations.  It’s going to be a busy few weeks sorting out staffing for the new academic year.

We’ve also had a few meetings this week to try and get some further capital investment into our schools and post 19 organisations.  More news to follow.

We got first sight of the draft Future Finders Ofsted report yesterday.  It makes really positive reading.

We’ve noticed a slight increase in Covid cases over the last week.  Please make sure you adhere to the guidance – testing, tracking and ensuring you follow the protocols.

Please take care.  Have a great weekend,

Graham

You can find all Graham’s previous updates and blog entries here