A big welcome back to all of you after the Easter break! Here we are at the start of the summer term and as I write this briefing I can see snow falling outside of the window! How bizarre! As with every briefing, there is lots of news to share with everyone, as there have been yet more exciting developments for Nexus MAT.

Pennine View converted to become a Nexus academy on 1st April 2017, which provides long term certainty and security for the school. I will continue to work closely with the Intervention Board and the senior leadership team to oversee the progress of the school and ensure we have consistently good provision in place. The staff have worked so hard to respond to the Ofsted inspection findings and I feel really fortunate that we have had the opportunity to bring Pennine View into the Nexus family.

I received written confirmation yesterday from the Regional Schools Commissioner that my business case for opening Key Stage 1 and 5 at Abbey School has been agreed. This means that—from September 2017—Abbey will have both key stage 1 and sixth form provision, which was a key aspiration of the school workforce when I met with them in September. This is a huge step forward for Abbey, Nexus and the Rotherham local offer and I’m so proud that we’ve made this big step forward!

March saw a change at the Board of Directors of Nexus MAT, as John Irwin has stepped down as a Director and also as chair of Abbey’s local governing body. John was a core member of the Interim Executive Board which oversaw the monumental turnaround of Abbey school. John committed to be a Director to help manage the transition of Abbey into Nexus MAT and he stayed on as a Director of the Trust far longer than originally agreed. I am very grateful for John’s efforts on our collective behalf, and wish him all the best for the future. Steve Booth has kindly agreed to replace John as chair of the Abbey local governing body (as well as being Hilltop chair).

Catherine Hall has recently been appointed as Designated Director for Safeguarding, and will work with the Headteachers and school Designated Safeguarding Leads to provide assurance that all of our children and young people are effectively safeguarded from harm at all times. We have some excellent practice in our schools and Catherine will bring great strength and rigor to our quality assurance processes.

A big welcome to Mary Smith who has joined the Abbey School local governing body! Mary is yet another special person willing to offer time voluntary to support one of our schools!

We are in the process of advertising for permanent Deputy and Assistant Headteachers at Hilltop School and also appointing a permanent Head of School Improvement.

That’s all for this briefing. I’ll write again soon!

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