What next for the Strategic Education Partnership?
Members of the Strategic Board reflected on the successes of the Strategic Education Partnership to date before going on to consider how the partnership might adapt in light of the Education White Paper, at their meeting of 21st June 2022.
Members believed that the board should agree a longer term plan and use their meetings to tackle particular issues, acting as critical friend to offer challenge. Occasional insight from an external professional to offer new perspective would be welcome, but this was seen as an opportunity to incorporate enjoyment and happiness, equality and diversity of thought and voice, and the green agenda into the Partnership ambitions. And, although the majority of members thought that the current array of sub-groups addressed the needs of Bexley, some needed to be more accurately defined with some core priorities needing an update.
Current successes included better relationships between stakeholders, which underpin everything that the partnership has achieved, allowing meaningful, professional dialogue, transparency, strong communication and meaningful workstreams to support children and young people in Bexley. Specific pieces of work were also highlighted by members, such as work around exclusions, the revival of the Head Teacher Induction booklet and termly event for head teachers new to post, the SEND Pupil Voice and the Closing the Word Gap toolkits and the work around creating new special free schools, which offer high-quality provision in our community.
