Once again, we were delighted to support AEPA (Area Education Partnerships Association) last Friday 5th December, to put on the second of their new series of no cost, live webinar briefings, designed to bring our school communities together to access key sector leaders directly to discuss research, policy and emerging practice.
This second briefing follows the success of the first event where we were joined by Professor Becky Francis. This time, Dame Christine Gilbert introduced HMCI Sir Martyn Oliver and in her words, gave our school communities, “something that nobody else has had…hearing from Martyn at the end of the first week of the [implementation of the] mainstream inspection framework”.
Sir Martyn stated that he didn’t want the session to be one where he spoke ‘at us’ but that he wanted very much to hear headteachers’ and leaders’ comments and questions on the renewed framework.
During the session and headteachers questions, Sir Martyn outlined that changes to the framework were the results of the Big Listen and the Labour Government’s manifesto pledge to remove the single word judgement.
In the new framework, Sir Martyn also said that the review brought with it the opportunity to review the system to remove the pressure of “outstanding”.
He said that if the starting point was the expected standard, the majority of schools were expected to be of that standard but concluded, “Where they [the inspectors] see some of the best practice in the country, they will identify it as exceptional and worthy of sharing with other schools who might be able to learn from that sense of place-based learning and partnership, that community learning”.
As the session came to an end, Sir Martyn asked, “Can we get into a position collectively, as a profession, where we are describing helping each other? I think that’s at the heart of place-based and area-based education, where we say this isn’t a competition, this is about working together to provide the best needs for all children’.
Sir Martyn, we couldn’t agree more. James Page, Chief Executive of Haringey Education Partnership and a fellow AEPA steering group member summarised this perfectly when he said of the school leaders on the call and the area-based education partnerships who brought them all together,
“I do hope this is a group that feels special…as these are schools who have chosen, made an active choice to work in partnership locally irrespective of their governance structure and to do so in the interests of children’s outcomes…it was great to hear your views that place matters, that context matters.”
If you would like to know more about AEPA, how they work together and how to become a member, visit their website: