Blog

Caludon Castle has always been a diverse school, situated in the north of Coventry. It’s not an easy process for a school to look into itself and see if, and how, racism is a problem. The difficulty comes from the structural and societal racism that impacts all of us (particularly challenging for white people to recognise), but also from the uncomfortable ‘truths’ that might be brought forward. Particularly tough when the school perception previously was that we were doing things well!

SSAT’s Summer Series event in April focused on creating anti-racist school communities. We were honoured to be able to draw on the knowledge, experience and insight of British-Nigerian historian, broadcaster and film maker Professor David Olusoga, who provided a keynote input that was thought provoking, empowering and moving.

Key Stage Two Statutory Testing has taken place this month for Year Six pupils across England. SSAT Senior Education Lead and Head of the Primary Network, Laura Burton, reflects upon the assessments from the perspective as educator and parent, considering the impact our current accountability system has on the whole school community.

Learn how Richard Cloudsey School embedded a culture of coaching throughout the school and the positive impact it made.

Steve Bush, formerly Assistant Headteacher at Sackville School spoke to SSAT Director Angelina Idun about the powerful difference coaching can make and why schools and organisations cannot afford not to coach.

The state opening of parliament on Tuesday included references to reforms to the education will help every child fulfil their potential wherever they live, raising standards and improving the quality of schools and higher education. The purpose of the bill is to: Level up opportunity by delivering a stronger and more highly performing school system that works for every child, regardless of where they live and is part of the governments levelling up agenda.

Waj Mohammed a student at New Bridge Multi Academy Trust was one of a number of students who participated in a visit to Chicago earlier this year to work with American students and Apple to design apps. The work is part of an ongoing project funded via the Turing scheme. Read Waj’s blog and watch the film produced by the group.

Much of Ofsted’s recently published 5-year plan reiterates previous statements. It explains what Ofsted are looking to do rather than how they will do it, but there are a few points that are worthy of note.

The Romsey School share some reflections and practical advice on support for looked after children. After taking on a new role with responsibility for looked after children, Gabrielle Bradbeer undertook research in order to better understand the needs of looked after children and to gauge levels of awareness and knowledge amongst her colleagues. She shares the practical strategies that they have implemented.

Our overarching theme for this year’s summer series is Deep Social Justice in Action: Tackling disadvantage and discrimination. We launched the series last week, by sharing with teachers and leaders who booked places to join the live online events, a
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