I’ll start this first briefing of the new academic year with a great big WELCOME BACK to all of our children and staff and great big WELCOME to Crags Community School, which has become an “Associate” school of our Trust as we await its conversion to an academy in the coming weeks. I’ve been working closely with the new Headteacher Liz Normington and Chair of Governors Donna Sutton over the past few months and we’re all thrilled to be starting this new academic year with Crags a part of our family of schools.

Lots happened over the summer whilst many of our children and staff were off. Our Extended Services offer ran successfully for the second consecutive summer and we continued to extend the reach of our offer so that more of Rotherham’s children and young people could access activities. A big thank you to all the staff who worked hard to make our summer school activities such a success.

There have been a few changes in Trust governance since my last briefing. After two years of service, Alan Meloy and Catherine Hall both stepped down from the Board of Directors at the end of the academic year and Julianne Duffy has taken the decision to step down as Chair of the Pennine View LGB. I’m incredibly grateful for their personal, selfless contributions to our Trust and I’m really pleased that Catherine Hall will continue on as a Member of the MAT, taking the place of John Coleman (who will continue as a Director himself). We also wish Alan and Julianne all the best for the future.

Given these losses, we have appointed a new Director to the Trust Board: Ray Palmer. Ray is a health and safety consultant and also a Justice of the Peace. He brings a whole new skills set to the Trust Board and we’re delighted to welcome him as part of the team. We’re making a targeted effort to fill our remaining Director vacancies so I’ll be sharing more news in the coming months as we secure more volunteers to take on the heavy (unpaid!) responsibilities of governing our Multi Academy Trust.

We have a few new governors joining our local governing bodies too, with Carol Davison joining Kelford in the summer term and a host of other new governors in the process of visiting our schools with a view to joining us. I’d also like to thank Christine Brodhurst-Brown for putting herself forward to be the new chair of Kelford LGB. Chris brings great experience and enthusiasm to the role.

More capital works are planned for the coming academic year and we’re adding four new classrooms to the Abbey site as demand for places in or schools continues to grow. I’ve spent a lot of time over the summer talking to our local authority partners about how we can develop an exciting new offer for children and young people with additional needs and vulnerabilities. It’s early days, but we have some exciting possibilities we’re exploring!

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