Sharing Worries and ‘No Need to Exclude’
Head teachers used the Menti app to share their three biggest worries going forward at Head Teacher Forum on 8th July 2019. The 50% of head teachers there also took the opportunity to give their input on Bexley becoming a more inclusive borough. They learned that the local authority aims to become more proactive in supporting Bexley’s education system to become more inclusive; however, although head teachers and they share a purpose, there are constraints around costs, processes and capacity to offer support. Head teachers broke into small groups to discuss and then feed back to the meeting on how they believed the Strategic Education Partnership could work in every sub-group towards the no need to exclude goal. This information will be revisited at sub-group meetings in September to drive forward the work on reducing exclusions.
At the meeting, head teachers were encouraged to sign up to The English Hub, which offers DfE-funded support www.wandleenglishhub.org.uk, #EnglishHubs@WandleEnglish (see presentation below), and they were introduced to the SEN Toolkit, which will be launched to SENCos on 15th July 2019.
Improvements to the Skills Directory, as set out by the Education Performance and Achievement sub-group, were shown and head teachers received updates from Community Safety. The updates were on Bexley’s Serious Knife Crime Strategy and on Operation Encompass, which informs schools which sign up if a child of theirs has witnessed domestic abuse.
Primary and secondary head teachers also took the opportunity to thank Jacky Tiotto, Director of Children’s Services, for her work in making a difference for Bexley children and to wish her every success in her new role as Chief Executive of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service.
