🔹Principal’s Update
Welcome to a New Working Week
Good morning colleagues and welcome to a new working week.
Thank you to all staff who were involved in making the Chief Minister’s visit last Thursday such an enjoyable time for him. The Chief Minister was very impressed by all the staff he met, their enthusiasm and their commitment. He also thought we should get an award for operating in the most unusual set of buildings and still making the student experience so good. He asked me to pass on his thanks to everybody for their very warm welcome.
Campus Development Update
I attended a Scrutiny private hearing with our Chief Officer Keith Posner and Kate Hobbs last week on the subject of a new campus. I believe we have lots of support from the Council of Ministers and from the wider States Assembly on achieving a fit for purpose, learning environment for our many students who enrol with us every year and for you, of course my colleagues.
Staff Achievement
This week we have the CYPES Graduation Ceremony where one of our staff, Zoe Mountford, will be graduating with a PGCE SENCO qualification. Congratulations to Zoe!
Performance Review & Inclusion
We will all be busy preparing for our PRA’s and setting new objectives for the academic year. Please remember to include a discussion on your aspirations and also refer very specifically to our work on inclusion. I hope those meetings go well and you come out of them feeling motivated and valued.
Staff Survey Reflections
Last week at SLT we invited a wider range of staff in to look at the staff survey outcomes from last term. There are some themes in there about strained relationships and work life balance, which we want to focus upon. I want to thank those colleagues who joined our meeting for their very thoughtful reflections upon how pinch points in the academic year can create tension and stress because staff always want to do their very best. This striving can be tiring and draining.
There is certainly something to be said about what Tina Hesse calls the culture of kindness and how we can build that into our culture so that the inevitable pressures that come from working in a busy environment do not have a negative impact on relationships. Relationships between staff, and between staff and students here has always been something that visitors to the college, including last week, have consistently commented upon and it certainly something that we don’t want to lose.
SLT Focus This Week
At SLT this week, we will be focusing on:
- our special educational needs update from Desiree,
- a key projects review of milestones and outstanding tasks with Raf,
- and a graduation overview for the upcoming University College Jersey students.
Departmental Self-Assessment Panels
During the upcoming week, department Heads will be presenting your team’s self-assessment reports to our validation panels. Heads will include:
- student feedback beyond QDP,
- employer feedback,
- wider stakeholder evaluation of the work that the department has done.
Of course, student attendance, retention, and achievement, plus observation data and teaching and learning analysis will form part of those review panels. Please ensure you are familiar with your area’s quality plans.
Student Progression Reviews
Also, we have the Right Choice Review and Progression Boards for students. These early checks on how well students are doing and whether any students need or want to be moved to another course or accelerated to a higher level or moved to another subject.
Health & Wellbeing
I was off work on Friday full of cold and we are noticing a trend of absence related to colds and flus, so please make sure that if you’re feeling unwell that you stay at home because a prompt response to it will mean you will feel better, much quicker.
Closing Thought
I hope you enjoy a positive week this week. And as one of my favourite writers, Maya Angelou once said:
“This is a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before.”
Best wishes,
Jo