Dear Colleagues,

We have finally reached the end of the academic year, and I wanted to thank you all for the welcome and support you have offered me as a new Corporate Director. It has been a busy few months and I wanted to reflect on the many strengths and achievements of the last year including:

• Indications from our preliminary data returns that the number of children in Early Years achieving the GLD has once again increased and continues to demonstrate the efficacy of our Early Years delivery in Waltham Forest.
• Our KS2 SATs data has also showed an improvement, demonstrating the consistency of approach and high standards of our primary teachers.
• We have had a significant reduction in Permanent Exclusions, demonstrating that we are continuing to work together to support our most vulnerable children.
• Attendance data which is higher than the national benchmark (and improving) demonstrating that the majority of children in Waltham Forest have a positive experience in school and we work effectively to support the children who struggle to attend.
• Following our SEND/ CQC inspection we have a multi-agency SEND improvement plan and will spend the next academic year delivering this and working even harder to deliver better outcomes for our SEND children.

We look forward to celebrating further successes on the forthcoming results days in August.

Finally, we have some changes ahead within the Local Authority Education Service as we bid farewell to our AD SEND Kashif Nawaz and welcome our new AD SEND Clare Potter in the Autumn. We will also be welcoming Angela McNicholas, who many of you will know as a School Improvement Adviser to support us as part-time AD for Schools. We will also be wishing Bon Voyage to Natalie Kruger our Head of Traded Services who is taking a career break to travel with her family and welcoming Bisi Oyekanmi who will cover this post in her absence.

I hope you all have a wonderful summer and look forward to seeing you back and refreshed in September.

With best wishes

Mary

Mary Jarrett, Corporate Director for Education