Welcome back to the new school year! I hope that you managed to take a break during the last six weeks and benefitted from a slower pace of life. A special welcome to the headteachers and heads of school who have started in post this term. We are holding a series of meet and greet events for anyone who has taken up Headship in Camden in the last two years to give the opportunity to know key staff at Camden Learning and some from Camden Council. The first one is at the Crowndale Centre, Wednesday 13^th September, 3:30pm.

The term started with an unwelcome media spotlight on the safety of school buildings. We were greatly relieved that no Camden schools were directly affected, however I am sure you will be managing enquiries from anxious parents at a time precisely at a time when there is a drive to get children back into school. Our attendance campaign started last week with posters in various locations around the borough. We have also shared logos with you to keep the message that every school day counts.

During August, it was formally announced that Christine Gilbert our Board Chair has also been appointed as the Chair of the Education Endowment Foundation and will take up that role in January 2024. This is a high profile and prestigious role, many congratulations to Christine. I am pleased to add that Christine remains committed to her role as Chair at Camden Learning.

During the Summer our school results were published showing that GCSE and Post 16 students achieved as well as those in 2019 despite the disruption of the last few years. There were many individual stories that really brought alive the difference and opportunities that have been made possible by the education they have received in Camden. Whilst this headline data is a positive sign of schools providing well for Camden young people, the work that we are doing in tackling poor attendance, ensuring happy, healthy children, developing governance, and reducing inequality continues to be a challenging one that will require our full attention in the coming year. We are pleased to have some additional resource at Camden Learning to support both attendance and SEND provision. But to be successful we need to continue to ensure that we continue to share expertise and seek innovation. Our common purpose is clear, in that we all want Camden young people to have an excellent school experience and lead happy and successful lives. We can only do this by working in collaboration and partnership with each other.

We have many exciting events and continuing priorities in the coming year, and I look forward to sharing these with you at our Headteacher meetings on the 21^st September (Primary), 27^th September (Secondary). We also have a Primary Headteachers online catch up at 1:30pm on the 19^th September (which are now bi-monthly) and our Building Back Stronger conference on 6^th October. I look forward to seeing you there if not before.

Stephen Hall

Chief Executive Officer, Camden Learning