Next Friday’s Training Day
20th November 2023I hope that you’ve had a good week. We are very much in the depths of autumn now. It’s getting darker, it’s getting windy, it’s been wet for a long time, and it’s getting colder.
Maybe Children in Need will bring a bit of warmth this weekend. I’ll be giving to Pudsey (and maybe shedding an emotional tear at some of the stories we’ll listen to).
We have a shortened week next week. We are having our third annual trust INSET Day. This means that all of our community children and young people will be having a four day week.
We’ll all be working together, as staff, as professionals, at Winterhill School, next Friday. This event will be an opportunity for all of our professionals to work on collaboration, which will underpin all of our endeavours. We’ll be discussing how working together can lift our practice, policy and expectations; that is expectations of our children and young people and of ourselves.
At the Professional Learning Day, we will take some time to think about what it means to be part of our (this) multi-academy trust. Whichever institution we are attached to or associated with, will understand that we are rooted by some very clear values.
The job that we do is incredibly difficult. It is terrifically difficult to maintain a sense of purpose whilst you face the challenges day in and day out, which pupils and students might bring. We know that when we leap out of bed in the morning we do so because we are committed to the children and young people, with whom we work, and we believe in our collective endeavours. Working in education, working in schools or in colleges, is not a 9-to-5 job, with a pay packet at the end of the week – some of you may well be old enough to remember the brown envelope you picked up on a Friday with a few pound notes in. It’s much more challenging and important than that.
‘Unity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved’. Mattie Stepanek