Dear Colleagues, 

I hope everyone enjoyed a restful Half-Term and has returned feeling recharged for the busy and exciting weeks ahead. Term 2 always moves at pace as the advent period approaches.

We began the term with a Secondary Attendance Network session—a timely start that reinforces one of our most important Trust priorities: pupil attendance. The evidence is clear: every day in school matters. Frequent absence, even in small amounts, can quickly translate into lost learning, reduced confidence, and widening gaps. Improving attendance is not simply an operational task, it is a moral commitment to ensuring every child has the chance to succeed. This is why the work we do with families and communities is so crucial. 

This week we also celebrate Trustees’ Week, offering a well-deserved thank you to our Board of Trustees for their steadfast commitment to the children and staff of WeST. Our Trustees shape our strategic direction, hold us to high standards, and champion our vision that every child should attend a great school, every day. Their time, expertise, and dedication underpin the trust’s strength and stability, and we are enormously grateful for their service.

As we step into the new term, it is a good moment to reconnect with the values that define us: Aspiration, Collaboration, Integrity, and Compassion. These values are visible across WeST when staff go the extra mile for a family, when colleagues support one another, or when we make decisions rooted in what is right for children. They shine most brightly when the work is hard, and perhaps never more so than in the ongoing challenge of tackling persistent absence.

Best wishes, 

Rob Haring

CEO 

WeST Football Staff Club – Expressions of Interest

Are you interested in joining a WeST Football Staff Club? We’re exploring the idea of setting up a casual, inclusive football group for staff across the trust to meet, play, and enjoy the game together. If this sounds like something you’d be keen to be part of, please send in your expression of interest to admin@westst.org.uk. 

Important Data Protection information - Action needed by all staff

Our email storage policy is changing. From January 2026, no email will be stored in Microsoft Outlook for longer than 2 years. This means that:

• All emails of 2 years old or more will be automatically deleted from Outlook on 6 January 2026.

• From then onwards, all emails will be automatically deleted from Outlook 2 years after you receive them.

All staff using Microsoft email need to back up essential emails and/or attachments that are needed long-term to an appropriate storage area (like OneDrive).

The deadline to complete this before the Christmas holiday is 18 December 2025. 

Any emails not backed-up outside of Outlook by then will be lost permanently.

Please click here to see our detailed guidance.

(For now, Callington and Chaddlewood staff using Google Mail rather than Microsoft are exempt, but this will apply when your email is transferred to Microsoft in the future. Separate Google Mail guidance will follow, but consider proactively backing up any important emails from now on.)

Please start thinking and acting on this as soon as possible! Once you have read the guidance linked above, if you are concerned or confused please book onto a support session using the form at the bottom of the guidance page.