Hello everyone,
It has been an incredibly busy first few months in post for me – the extremely complex and ever changing nature of the Educational landscape in Nottingham/nationally is the backdrop to such an important agenda; how to get the best outcomes for our children.
Everyone remembers their best and most inspiring teachers, yet with the media focus on the teacher supply crisis, the big challenge is how we ensure Nottingham is a city of choice for teachers. Unfortunately, there is no ‘silver bullet’ for this issue (wouldn’t it be great if there were?!)
In this context, over the last few months I have been mainly focussing on:
- Meeting the Board and key stakeholders – I do appreciate I haven’t met all of you yet, but please bear with me!
- Talking to lots of other cities around what they are doing to tackle the issue
- Writing a strategic action plan, to deliver a programme of activity over the next few years
- Developing a ‘Teach Nottingham’ brand, including launching a website, promotional materials, press coverage etc. www.teachnottingham.org.uk
- Making a successful bid for funding to run the acclaimed ‘Headspace’ programme for Headteachers (If you are interested in taking part in this please email me fran.cropper@nottinghamcity.gov.uk)
- Producing a CPD map – available to all schools
- Arranging for all Academy Staff to get a great offer to City Leisure Centres:
- Writing a bid to DfE for funding to allow Schools to review their policies to reduce teacher workload (result awaited)
- Planning events to showcase Nottingham and the routes to teaching. I recently met lots of great graduates at an NTU Graduate Fair. There was loads of interest in teaching and the event really highlighted to me the confusion that exists around routes in to teaching, and that teaching attracts a diverse bunch with one thing in common: Moral purpose! We had lots of interest from some of our shortage subject teachers- Maths and Science which is fantastic to hear.
Two huge pieces of work have been around the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy, and what this means for Schools – including the potential new route to QTS though an Apprenticeship route. I will be discussing this at the 24 November School Directors Forum.
And last but not least, the Fair Workload Charter. I have been working through the logistics, fielding press enquiries, consultation, signing schools up, working on branding…and a trip to the Parliamentary Education Select Committee. Parliament was an amazing experience, and it is great to hear that our local solution to a national problem is attracting such attention.
You can watch the full video here.
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