Back at it

17th April 2026

Welcome back to school, college or work. I hope that you had a great break.

The wonderful thing about an Easter break is that everybody gets an extended period of time away from work. Even if we only look forward to Good Friday through to the following bank holiday Tuesday, everybody gets a period of time when they don’t need to think about work and can enjoy time with their family and friends. And the weather held up too, in the main. Absolutely lovely days to counterbalance the cold wet periods. As we progress this term, in the coming weeks, it will become that little bit warmer. It is great to be able to arrive and leave, even when we’ve got to a parents’ evening, in the light.

We’re at the point in the year when we start thinking about the future. For us who work in education we operate on a different calendar to the rest of the world. We don’t necessarily think January through to December, we plan September through to August. And our planning for September starts now. Some of that we will see through the recruitment processes; be that the recruitment and induction of pupils and students, or of new staff members.

As always, we would want to be well ahead of the game and have everything settled as early as possible. This allows for the children and young people to be reassured, and equally, it allows for our staff body to be comfortable and reassured. We know who we are working with, what we are doing and when we’re likely to do it. All that makes an enormous difference. It’s that concept of proper planning. Getting ahead of the game and being ready for whatever the future might bring. That’s a message that we’ve been sharing with our children and young people. As they prepare for their SATs, GCSEs, BTECs and A-levels, our pupils and students should be now preparing for and working through those hard yards as they head towards the final finishing line.

I also know that, and want to recognise that we, the adults, carry the weight and responsibility of that too. We want to be there to support and do the very best by our children and new people. That’s absolutely right – and I thank you all for that. However, it’s important that we continue to communicate clearly with our children and young people that it is their responsibility to make sure that they are ready for whatever challenges the future might bring.

Maybe it’s worth remembering the 6 Ps (not the Rs): Proper Planning Prevents a Particularly Poor Performance. As we do at an institutional level we get ahead of the game, prepare properly and when those things that we haven’t for seen hit us they make only a minor dent, as opposed to shattering our plans. Our children and young people will want to do the same; prepare properly and then put themselves in the very best position to be able to manage the challenges that the SATs and the exam season will bring.

‘No matter how good you are at planning, the pressure never goes away. So I don’t fight it. I feed off it. I turn pressure into motivation to do my best’ Ben Carson