Welcome
Dear colleagues,
Just when you think it is over, it isn’t! As I write this at the end of June we have three Heads off with COVID and a good number of cases again across schools. Nevertheless, things do seem refreshingly normal for a summer term and this newsletter is full of the evidence of that. It has even been good to see pupils at their exam desks once again having the opportunity to show what they have learned. So thank you, in all your roles for your work and enthusiasm in delivering a normal summer.
We continue to work together to tackle some of the biggest challenges that education has faced in decades. We are all very aware of rising numbers of SEND cases, mental health concerns and complex emotional problems that many young people are now facing. We haven’t solved all these problems by any means, but we are certainly releasing more capacity through collaboration. This is one of the dividends of being in a Trust and I hope that we will see much, much more of that as the year ahead unfolds. We now have a Deputy Director of Education (Inclusion and SEND), and in just a couple of months work with us so far, Debbie Coker has already energised our collaboration.
The news is now full of discussions about the cost-of-living crisis and debates about what the nation can or should afford for pay rises for public servants. We don’t know at this point what the STRB will recommend for teachers and the 2022 negotiations for support staff also remain open. You will all be aware of our practice of passing on pay increases immediately and in full and working within the spirit of national bargaining. We also intend to revise our benefits package and will hope to add to the existing offer. We will endeavour to work positively with the unions and trust that these pressures do not become divisive in our own ranks. We have a cross-Trust union liaison committee and I always ask union reps to bring any concerns to us at the earliest possible moment so that we can have a fair chance to resolve issues immediately.
"We are continuing to work to reduce our carbon emissions"
We are continuing to work to reduce our carbon emissions and have gathered a huge amount of data to help us to prioritise our efforts. We have also appointed a Sustainability Officer to help us drive this forward. You will also see later in the newsletter the advert for our new electric car salary sacrifice scheme with Tusker. We hope that will be a significant benefit of employment with the Trust and helps us all hit our environmental targets.
I am delighted to confirm that we have a number of local schools in the process of joining LSP. Wrington, Burrington and Churchill Church of England Primary Schools and Churchill Academy and Sixth Form propose to join us and, along with Blagdon and St Andrews, who are already members, will form a new Churchill Hub. Golden Valley Primary School in Nailsea are planning to join the Backwell Hub. We also have really positive plans for closer working together for our secondaries focussed around our co-curricular (the new word for extra-curricular!) offer.
As we enter the last weeks of term, I know that the tempo increases rather than slows down but, looking forward to the holidays, can I wish you a sunny and enjoyable break. Thanks so much for your work this year.
With best wishes,
Gary
Spring/Summer 2022 
We wish to congratulate and thank the following people for the contributions they have made to our Trust:
