In a week which was dominated by ‘Changing rooms’ and ‘Try before your buy’ it was refreshing to join a forum at the UCL Centre for Leadership on Tuesday, where our own Christine Gilbert presented her think piece ‘Coming Back Stronger-Leadership Matters’. Christine was joined by Sir Kevan Collins and Professor Qing Gu who both responded and contributed to a rich and thought provoking presentation. Christine talked about an education system where childrens’ success depends on the whole education system; with schools, the council, the diocesan boards, the voluntary sector, academy trusts, local employers and local communities working together. A child’s education begins at birth and carries on into adulthood so the child’s journey through the system needs to have smooth transitions, accessing extra support when they and their family need it. The system is built on the 2 pillars of equity and excellence, although only two words, they are quite profound and very powerful.

Following last week’s information and update on the Early Career Framework, please see below for some key dates and actions, which we will reinforce at the ECF briefing sessions. Please do attend one of the sessions along with your mentor(s):

1. From 26th April Individual schools will be asked to register on the new DFE portal if you wish to follow the Fully Induction Programme or the Core Induction Programme.
   
2. This information is for the DFE to collect engagement and retention data.
3. Schools will be asked to name their Induction Coordinator (person in charge of the ECT programme in their setting)
   
4. School will be asked to register probable numbers of ECTs.
   
5. This information will be passed to the Lead Provider.
   
6. In June schools will be asked to register their ECTs and their mentors on the portal. This information will then be sent to the Lead Provider and Delivery Partner if you are opting for the FIP. If CIP the DFE is your Lead Provider.

This week, I met with the strategic GCSE/A levels group, led by Simon McBride for an update. The fourteen local secondary subject groups have all met and are in various stages of implementing their locally agreed principles for standardisation, clearly considerable time and effort has gone into organising these networks, but it has been impressive to note the action, energy and scrutiny that these groups have applied to ensure there is integrity and fairness in the process. My thanks to you all, as I recognise that this period is hugely busy, especially with the additional technical advice appearing in your inboxes, what seems like daily.

We look forward to welcoming you to our Head teachers conference next Friday 7 May, 10am-1pm which will be dedicated to the Education Strategy, it will be an opportunity to explore a number of emerging themes and the direction of travel. In a year where partnerships and collaboration have been stronger than ever, it is disappointing that the government have not thought more laterally or creatively about alliances. As part of the Education Strategy thinking, we will need to consider how Camden Learning can mature further to provide that compromise for all that dismisses the ideology and rhetoric that ‘academies are good and alternative partnerships / approaches less so’.

Jon Abbey

Managing Director of Camden Learning