I hope that anti bullying week has been a chance to highlight the hurt that bullying can cause and explore with young people how they can stay safe and happy whilst navigating peer relationships. Sadly, every school is at risk of some form of bullying but those where it is least prevalent are always the ones where pupils feel they are listened to. This is another reason why creating meaningful spaces for them to speak up is so important. This is not always easy in a busy school but can also be one of the more enjoyable and insightful parts of understanding children’s experiences of schooling. There are a number of linked case studies and content relating to developing pupil voice published by the British Council that might be of interest that can be found here.
It seems a long time (and several Prime Ministers) ago since our Building Back Stronger Conference in September where we spoke about educational partnerships. This has not been forgotten and work has been undertaken to explore cluster and partnership working further. Making this kind of work meaningful on a borough wide scale does take a little time, and the recent White Paper did not set out statutory changes that would force a rapid change to a new system. However, we are stronger for young people together, and it is important that locality based, collaborative work continues regardless. Camden schools are already finding many ways to collaborate through hubs and more informal, as well as formal links and this is a great base to work from. The school options steering group will be meeting again at the start of December and following earlier discussions when some of you requested this, an outline of potential school clusters as a starting point for conversations will be shared with schools before the end of term.
Much of the collaborative work we do comes through being able to speak and meet regularly, I hope that you are able to join us on the 23rd and 24th February for our Camden Learning conference in Brighton. Please hold the date, more information on speakers to follow and details below. I also wanted to being to you attention that we are advertising for a Director of Learning. You can see more details here.
Enjoy the weekend!
Best wishes
Stephen Hall
Chief Executive Officer, Camden Learning
