Weekly Blog

25th September 2026

I hope you’ve had a good week. There’s been loads in our schools and the college this week. So much of that ‘extra’ stuff. When I look at what we’ve all been up to I see that the overwhelming ‘extra’ is just really positive and is centred on how we project into our communities; be that the Macmillan Coffee mornings (something that is very close the hearts of many parents carers and staff), parents’ meetings, parents’ evenings and the Open Evenings (at Oakwood and Winterhill).

There can be some debate about how we reach out and how, or why, we ‘paint our face’. Let’s not under-estimate the value of projecting out into our communities, in the right way. I know that people might suggest it’s the substance over the style that really does count. Yes, absolutely! but it’s not either/or. It’s one of those times when it is, and should be, both.

The substance is the foundation upon which we build the success of our institutions. If the curriculum, if the teaching, if the learning environment isn’t as strong as it should be, isn’t the focus of our attentions daily, week in and week out, we are building our provision on sand. Our edifice will tumble at the first gust of wind; be that a challenge to our way of working through a challenge/complaint, be that an Oftsed inspection, be that poor examination results, the list could go on. We are nothing without a relentless focus on standards. Reputations are hard won and easily lost. We have earned the reputation that we have, that our schools and college have, we won’t take that for granted, we will work day in and day out to build, to improve, to grow.

Equally, let’s do that in some style. We should be happy to open up our schools and the college. We should be proud of, not only what we do, but how we do it. And opening our doors to our community and allowing all to peer in is important. We dress our schools and college as well as we can. That’s not for show, it exemplifies a pride in our school/college, a pride in our children/young people, a pride in ourselves. Of equal importance is our understanding that we are often the beacons of hope. Our environments are designed to exhibit and encourage a pride. Our environments are designed to lift expectations. Our environments should be designed to inspire our families, our communities. I was chatting to some parents at Winterhill, just this Thursday, and they were explaining how they had been students at the school, how strange it was to be back in the building, yet how inspiring the environment was, how well kept the building was – after all those years.

Thank you all for your positivity, your generosity, your willingness to engage and your willingness to support. Stick with it. Stick with us. Together we will lift the educational provision for our communities and we’ll do that with and in style.

Google tells me that it originated as a 1930’s jazz classic but for me it’s Bananrama and the Fun Boy Three…

‘It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it and that’s what gets results.’