Trust CEO Alan Hardie asks: will ‘levelling up’ create better opportunities for our children?

This week Schools North East received the thoughts below from Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust CEO Alan Hardy following the Government’s ‘Levelling Up’ White Paper released last week and covered in the Schools North East Weekly Newsletter. You can read his thoughts below. In a break from the focus on possibly illegal parties which …

Talking Heads – School funding battle isn’t over

This week's Talking Head comes from Andy Ramanandi, Head Teacher at St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Blaydon. Andy's blog post follows on from Monday's debate in Parliament, launched after the Gateshead Head Teacher Association's funding e-petition attracted over 100,000 signatures. Head Teachers across Gateshead were delighted that the debate took place as a consequence …

Enough Of Not Enough

This week's Talking Head comes from Andy Ramanandi, Head Teacher at St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Blaydon. Andy's blog post follows on from his Talking Head in November, which detailed the plans for the Gateshead funding campaign.    I love working in a school at this time of year. Christmas is nearly upon us, …

Black Holes Not Potholes

This week’s Talking Head comes from Andrew Ramanandi, Head Teacher at St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Blaydon.  Whilst the conversations in Whitehall seem inevitably centred around ‘Backdoors’ and ‘Brexit’, the discussions in many Gateshead schools keep turning from ‘Interim Assessment Frameworks’ and ‘EBACC Buckets’ to ‘Insufficient School Funding’ and I’m sure this is echoed around …

Inclusion

This week’s Talking Head comes from Sarah Holmes-Carne, Principal at Kenton School in Newcastle.  Leading a school serving a disadvantaged community is an immensely tough role. It’s not a role taken for money and certainly not for ease. But one undertaken to make life-changing differences the students we serve, to all of the community and …

The Journey from RI to Good

This week’s Talking Head comes from Joanne Williams, Head Teacher at East Stanley School, County Durham.  East Stanley School is a medium-sized primary school, situated just outside of Stanley in County Durham. There are currently 230 pupils on roll. All schools live in fear of the dreaded Ofsted call, but few schools have experienced waiting …

Are you an ethical leader?

This week's Talking Head comes from Peter Eyre, Executive Head Teacher at Saltburn Learning Campus, Cleveland.  The understanding of moral and ethical decision making is one of the simplest, and most fundamental learning experiences for any child. We begin this earnestly from birth based around the ideas of what is considered to be right and …

Multi Academy Trusts, who’s being ideological?

This week's Talking Head comes from Martin Clephane, Head Teacher at St James' RC Voluntary Aided Primary School in Hebburn, South Tyneside Sometimes those opposing multi academy trusts (MATs) have been said to do so on ideological grounds. The truth is that ideology is at the heart of this issue as it so often is …

Bronze Rusty Bullets in the Battlegrounds of our North East Schools

Jon Tait, Director of Acklam Grange Teaching School Twitter: @TeamTait You’d be forgiven for thinking this article was about gun crime in school. Thankfully, even with a recent Donald Trump visit to the UK and his efforts to try and persuade everyone to believe the American dream, it’s not. What it is though, is a …

Homelife or Homework?

Jon Tait Deputy Headteacher and Director of Acklam Grange Teaching School @TeamTait Of all the things we do as teachers, homework continues to baffle me the most. It baffles me because as a profession we’ve been setting it for decades, yet we’ve never really been able to crack it. Ask any teacher in any school …