Blog

Chorlton High is a large, truly comprehensive school in South Manchester. Our school is extremely diverse in terms of the socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds of our learners; a diversity that continues to expand as we routinely welcome new communities. Given the significant differences amongst our learners and their families in terms of their culture, experience and material wealth, the degree of positive interaction, inclusivity and harmony is a salient characteristic of the school, and one we are very proud of.

Here we reflect on the impact of Covid on our students, the impact of the recovery curriculum and the importance of supporting our young learners. We hear Barry’s reflections on how and what we can teach our young people to support their personal and academic wellbeing as we continue to move forward.

Pauline Holbrook, Head of SEND, SSAT reflects upon the key issues raised during the webinar on 14 September 2022. Funding or rather the lack of it was clearly the major concern for those on the webinar. All agreed that teaching
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Sue Williamson and Prof. John Howson have a message for the new Secretary of State, Kit Malthouse. His most important job is to ensure that there are enough teachers. There are three issues that affect recruitment and retention; pay, morale, workload.

Schools are facing the worse teacher recruitment crisis since the Second World War, but there is little recognition of this in the mainstream media and little comment by the DfE. Sue Williamson, CEO at SSAT spoke to Professor John Howson, a renowned expert on teacher recruitment.

The death of Queen Elizabeth II last week has caused many of us to stop and reflect, as we tend to do at the end of an era. She was not only the only monarch that we have known, but for many of us the only monarch our parents remember. As several commentators put it, she was not just a queen, she was the Queen.

In this blog Pauline Holbrook, our Head of SEND reflects on how we might support our learners with SEND understand death and their grief and that of others.

Sue Williamson, Chief Executive, SSAT, pays tribute to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II following the announcement of her death.

The DfE published its technical guide to primary school accountability on 5th September. SSAT Senior Education Lead, Colin Logan, considers the key headlines.

“Data-driven school improvement” was all the rage in the 2010s. School leaders, advisers and inspectors all used RAISEonline, Fischer Family Trust and the Ofsted data dashboard as the touchstone for their work. Fortunately, we gradually became savvier and more looked more at “data-informed school improvement”. And then came the pandemic.