News

The coronavirus outbreak is an unprecedented event which is having an enormous impact upon the North East’s schools, school leaders, and teachers; as well as their students, parents and local communities. Schools North East has always worked to provide the greatest support for all of the schools in the region. During this challenging time we aim to increase this support as much as possible to enable our schools to deal with this crisis to the very best of their considerable abilities.

Following the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Education’s announcements yesterday, Schools North East would like to reassure you that we are working as hard as we can to support you in this extremely difficult period.

MAGNIFY YOUR VOICE

As part of these efforts we aim to ensure that the voices of NE schools are heard at the highest levels. We will continue to communicate closely with DfE and RSC to inform them of the detailed issues facing our schools, especially if they are issues they are not receiving advice/ support on currently. We will continue to monitor the situation, including conversations amongst school leaders, to understand the questions and concerns you have. We will work to support you in the most appropriate way possible.

We will continue to monitor the situation, including conversations amongst school leaders, to understand the questions and concerns you have. We will work to support you in the most appropriate way possible. 

Any information about the specific issues you are facing would be greatly welcomed by us and we will ensure that your voice is heard as loudly as possible.

PRACTICAL SUPPORT

In light of the nature of this crisis, we will focus these efforts on online and virtual support, particularly information, so that regardless of whether schools remain open or close partially or fully, they can always access this support. This will concentrate on helping school leaders and other staff members to collaborate, share approaches and resources to support each other. Specifically we will:

• Expand ConnectEd (our newly launched virtual community) to cover all NE schools wanting information during this period of uncertainty. The team will be working to provide updates and schools together to share what they are doing around home working, supporting each other, supporting children and families.
• Create a dedicated MAT CEOs group so that they can talk to each other and support each other across the region.
• Have set up a focussed support group for CFOs/ COOs/ SBMs as they try to hold all of the central functions together behind the scenes.

This platform currently has over 1,000 registered users and will allow North East schools to seek support and communicate with each other outside of crowded email inboxes, to share information, plans, and ideas.

We are also significantly increasing our webinar output to cover:

• The latest government guidance and information updates;
• Targeted support for our schools such as CFO/ COO/ SBM crisis management and business continuity; and
• Updates direct from NE schools as to what they are doing re specific issues, especially those pertaining to the most vulnerable children. Much of this will be delivered by school leaders from the NE. 

Keep an eye on the Schools North East Events page for more webinars.
If you have anything you need to tell us, you can contact us at info@schoolsnortheast.com.

And finally, following the latest government advice, we have taken the decision that all Schools North East staff will now be working from home until further notice. The team will continue to be available to take your calls and emails as normal. As we all get used to a new normal, which may last for several months, we at SNE continue to be committed to supporting you. We are very lucky to have a small but perfectly formed team who rise to any challenge presented and this is no different. Even at this exceptional time for our education system, there is no exception to our intention to support every school in our region to improve the lives of all our children. Please keep in touch as we are ready to support you in any way we can.