Hello everyone,
This is the last Whistle before the summer, and although our schools still have a few days to run, it feels like the right moment to pause and look back a little rather than simply reel off the week. Bear with me, this one is slightly more reflective than usual.
When I took up post in January, we set out our five-year plan, WeST 2030. I said at the time I would rather show progress than talk about it, so a short account of where we have got to feels fair. The Key Stage 2 SATs results have now arrived from the DfE, later than any of us would have liked, and they hold up very close to our strong performance in previous years. Not quite last year's all-time record, but not far off, and something the primary teams should feel genuinely proud of. We will publish these properly in due course. At secondary, we are quietly hopeful about August, and this year we have also had three highly positive Ofsted inspections. The staff survey moved significantly in the right direction too, which matters to me more than most things. No organisation gets everything right, but staff who feel better supported do better work for children, and that is the whole point.
The area I think has moved furthest is our connection to community. We have rebuilt local governance through the Community Councils (WCCs) and recruited a large number of local governors, with only a handful of gaps left. They are already asking sharp, useful questions. If local governance is something you have ever wondered about, do get in touch, we would still welcome you in one or two areas.
A book has been on my mind this term, Rita McGrath's Seeing Around Corners, and her line that snow melts from the edges. You only really know how an organisation is doing when you go and look at its edges. I have tried to do that since January, and from September I have blocked out time in the diary to be in schools each week. Reading the metrics matters, but so does standing in a corridor and noticing how it feels.
There has been plenty happening in schools this week too, and it has been a good reminder of what all this is for. Performance seems to have been the theme. Callington staged Matilda, their first full-scale production in some years, and Stowford's Year 6 also took on Matilda across a week of shows that clearly left staff a little emotional and very proud. Manor in Ivybridge put on Aladdin Trouble, and Boringdon's Year 6 marked their leaving with a Backstreet Boys video and, more seriously, raised over £1,175 for Cancer Research UK. That kind of generosity from ten and eleven year olds tells you something about the culture around them.
Enrichment weeks have been in full swing. Sir James Smith's ran Forest School, Cornish baking, sports and a trip to Normandy, alongside Year 10 work experience. Plymstock's Year 7 Community Cohesion and Challenge Week took groups as far as Paris and Barcelona, while others stayed closer to home, and their surf club made the most of the good weather. Coombe Dean began its own Enrichment Week, and at South Dartmoor the range was striking: alpacas visiting, Year 7 STEM students clearing the pond and studying what lived in it, an author visit from Carnegie-nominated Nicola Garrard, and a Summer Gala Concert to close the year's music programme. Their first Aspirations Week for Years 7 to 9 stood out to me, one student saying it made them realise there are many ways to reach where you want to be, which is exactly the point.
There was work experience further afield as well, with Plymstock students spending time in Westminster with Rebecca Smith MP, and Ivybridge sending three dancers to represent England at the Dance World Cup. On the fields and courts, Sir James Smith's rounders teams played well at Launceston. Plympton St Maurice held a colour run that ended, inevitably, with staff being gunged, and the fact that three of them are apparently still scrubbing seems a fair price for a good afternoon.
Two things I have been thinking about for next year are worth flagging. The first is enrichment. We offer a great deal, but we do not yet know enough about the children who never quite reach it, and I want us to understand that properly and act on it. The second is technology. We have done careful groundwork on cybersecurity and infrastructure, and a small, cautious pilot of AI. We are now confident we could roll something out safely, but before we do we will consult properly, with union colleagues and through the Community Councils. Proposal first, then listening, then any decision.
Next week many of us at the centre will take a little time to mark the end of the year and thank the teams who keep everything running. Our schools and their leaders have earned a proper rest, and I hope they get one, though the work quietly continues across the summer.
Thank you to everyone, parents and carers, staff, leaders, and the team around me who have put up with me since January. I will write again early in the new year, hopefully with good news from the summer results. Have a restful break.
Warm regards,
Nat Parnell
CEO
