I wanted to start this week’s blog by thanking you for your kind emails and messages, following the announcement of my appointment as Director of Children Services in Islington. I have been absolutely overwhelmed by your well wishes and support, whilst also recognising that it does mean inevitable change. I am hugely proud of the Camden Learning school led partnership which has established itself over the last four and half years, it is a contemporary and alternative approach to the many traditional local authority models that remain out there. I am incredibly fortunate to have worked with such a talented and committed group of head teachers and school staff, governors, social care staff, Camden Learning Board and colleagues; I know that Camden is the envy of many observers who look and at we are doing. I am also very proud of the work that Camden Learning have done with schools over the last 22 months, supporting and working with schools and partners to manage what has been the most challenging situation most of us have ever encountered personally and professionally. There is much to look forward to and the ambition outlined in the Education Strategy provides the approach going forward for the next few years, as I always say, it is a bold plan to manage up and into the future, rather than a deficit approach to just managing. There is much to be done over the next few weeks and I look forward to seeing you in person in the near future too.

Interestingly, the Department for Education (DfE) commissioned Ipsos MORI, in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) to carry out research among primary and secondary schools to understand how they have responded to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and what further support they believe they need looking forwards.

The interim findings are somewhat predictable but the full report is useful to refer to and includes;

• The most common challenge among primary schools was the large differences in progress between pupils. For secondary schools it was pupils’ emotional and mental health. COVID-19 restrictions and staff and pupil absences were also key challenges for both phases.
• As the academic year progressed, primary and secondary school leaders reported that disparities in pupils’ social, emotional and academic progress increased, with pupils having increasingly complex and variable needs.
• Pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds who did not attend school and/or engage well online during home-schooling seem to have been most profoundly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• In the Spring and Summer 2021 terms, academic interventions seemed to become more honed and extensive, with more in-class, individual and small group interventions used across all year groups and subjects depending on identified needs and resources.

The full report can be downloaded here.

Jon Abbey

Managing Director of Camden Learning