Last Friday I went to the Camden Takeover challenge. It was a great event with pupils from seven Camden schools who presented to a panel including the Mayor of Camden. They put forward opinions and challenges on a number of themes including improving air quality and the cost of living crisis. Their confidence in speaking to a large audience and the research that had gone into forming their opinions was striking. They had clearly benefitted from knowledge that was well beyond the scope of the national curriculum including types of air pollutants (I think we were all learning here!) and the impact of poverty on living conditions. Schools are sometimes held as the solution for society’s failings, and whilst this is unfair, they certainly hold a unique place in being able to make young people aware of inequality and the structures and breadth of opinion that underpin our democracy. There is not a school in England that has not spent time developing their curriculum content in the last few years. This has been an enormous task, but it is worth occasionally stopping and looking at how much children know, and the connections they are now making as evidence that this is time well spent.

Our new safeguarding and inclusion lead Chris Roberts joins us on the 5th December. Chris brings with him many years of experience of working with schools to support pupil well being and safety and I look forward to introducing him to you in the coming weeks. Our monthly Primary Headteacher catch up is at 1:30pm next Tuesday 6th December, and he will be joining us there as well as at Heads consultative meetings in early Spring. There are a number of useful reminders and links below, importantly we are asking for emergency school contacts to ensure we are up to date. Thank you for your support in compiling this.

Enjoy the weekend when it comes for you!

Best wishes

Stephen Hall

Chief Executive Officer, Camden Learning