Year of firsts for SCHOOLS NorthEast
SCHOOLS NorthEast broke fresh ground in a range of new areas in 2016/17 on behalf of the region’s schools.
The UK’s first and only schools-led regional network delivered new activity in leadership, governance and support for mental health in line with the new three-year strategy, Shaping Our Future, which was launched at the SNE Summit in October.
There was a landmark first for the Summit with Education Secretary, Justine Greening, putting in an appearance in her first official speaking engagement post the Conservative Party Conference.
The representative arm of SCHOOLS NorthEast’s work also involved engagement with government at all levels – regional and national – including briefing meetings with Department for Education officials and contributions to All Party Parliamentary Groups on education.
SCHOOLS NorthEast’s policy work on school funding was repeatedly cited in debates on the floor of the House of Commons and via the Education Select Committee.
The work of the UK’s first schools-led mental health commission, Healthy MindED, was recognised in debates in Westminster Hall and at national conferences on pupil wellbeing.
In line with the new strategy, work is underway to support schools in the region looking to collaborate in evidence-based education practice. Shaping Our Future outlines the ambition to support schools to create a culture of evidence-led teaching and this programme will continue to develop in 2017/18.
Considerable effort has been taken to grow capacity in the core SCHOOLS NorthEast team to meet the increasing demand from schools in the region for support. This enabled the highly-valued events programme to be further extended during this current academic year.
More than 2,000 school leaders have engaged with this year’s programme which included a number of new opportunities for schools to enjoy high quality CPD and networking opportunities. These included the Regional Governance Conference which attracted 400 governors and academy non-executive directors to the largest gathering of its kind in the country.
SCHOOLS NorthEast also delivered its first mental health conference with 150 delegates drawn from all corners of the region.
Other key events included two highly popular KS3 literacy conferences and the ever popular SBM Annual Conference.
The fourth strand of the Shaping Our Future strategy – supporting improvement in adult basic skills – saw SCHOOLS NorthEast engage in the North East Literacy Forum which led to the launch of the Read North East campaign which is targeting interventions and support to encourage greater parental engagement in reading with children, particularly in early years.
With a strengthened team, the programme for 2017/18 will be published in time for the new academic year.
We thank you for all your engagement and continued support and wish you all a restful summer break! See you in September!