Principal’s Update

Welcome back to a new half term. For those colleagues who were in over half term, thank you for looking after the college in my absence. I was lucky to take the opportunity to get some rest and invest in my overall well-being, I hope you did too.

I look forward to seeing all of you at the all-staff meeting on Friday in the Great Hall. I’m planning to give you an update on college business with the main part of the meeting focusing on sustainability led by Beth Lloyd and Rob Moy.

I will also be providing the QR code to sign up for the Christmas party: I hope we have great attendance at the party like last year and  I look forward to seeing you on the dance floor.

This week, the Senior Leadership Team is focusing efforts on staff. I’m looking forward to a report from Mike Watkins on the progress we have made with our well-being strategy as we are now moving into Phase 2.

We will be examining data on recruitment and retention, staff absences including long term and short-term illness and looking for patterns or themes. Illness was done year-on-year last term.

We are also checking on DBS compliance as emails from the external provider weren’t getting through to us.

As part of the focus on staffing, I am going to look at succession planning across the college. As an organisation we invest time and energy into staff development activities which are motivational and enable people to grow and develop. We have staff studying at all levels up to, and including, master’s and all middle leaders have had external mentorship during the last two years.

Succession planning and workforce development was to be central to government planning about two years ago, but with numerous changes in leadership right up to CEO level there has been a hiatus. It is vital that all staff have an opportunity to develop their careers to meet their own personal needs and those of the college and the students we serve. It is one of our college priorities.

This week we have the November GCSE retake papers for both Maths and English Language. If you are free, please help Exams and Learning Support by being available to encourage students into their correct examination location and hopefully calm some nerves 😊. If students do not use their examination access requirements at this time or during the mocks, we will not be setting them up again for the summer series as this is a timely and vital process which should not be wasted.

Sarah Le-Good is in college this week, our “Inclusionist Warrior”. She will be taking part in Learning Walks and meeting with staff, students, parents, and carers. I very much look forward to her assessment of what progress we are making as an inclusive learning organisation. Please contact either Stuart Philip or Desiree Madelin for further details.

Next week I will be attending the National Association of Colleges conference in Birmingham. I will only be attending for one day, of the two-day programme, because the content is much better on the first day. Kate, Paul and I will be looking at lecturer recruitment, workplace cultures, world class skills and embedding technology. We will share our learning when we get back.

I hope you have a very enjoyable week and look forward to seeing you on Friday.

With best wishes, Jo