WHMAT and System Leadership

WHMAT colleagues have been heavily involved in shaping provision as part of our outward-facing ethos. One important example is Developing Local Practice (DLP), the Local Authority’s project to promote more inclusive practice and improve the provision for SEND young people. Pete White, the Head of Saltley Academy, has led a highly innovative project, using the expertise of the secondary resource bases in the east of the city to support transition. Such is the success of the project, Pete has been asked to present on it at BEP’s conference in October. The CEO has been a member of the Reference Group for DLP, while also initiating a project supporting speech and language provision across 5 schools, based on a pilot carried out within the Trust.

WHMAT takes its responsibilities to the wider system seriously and believes it has much to offer. The CEO was elected to the Board of BEP. Pete White will chair the East Birmingham Network of secondary schools from September; Paul Marano Head at Tile Cross will represent the network at the Birmingham Secondary Heads’ Forum, which the CEO formerly chaired. Lynn Petrie, Head of Washwood Heath, is joining the city’s Post 16 forum.

The CEO has liaised with Richard Brooks, the Director of Strategy, Equality and Partnerships at BCC, in discussing how best to use data for multi-agency work, proposing to Richard that inclusion, and the reduction of exclusions, would be one key focus for this. As a result, a small group has been formed to work with Richard on the development of the city’s ‘Data Observatory’, of which the CEO will be a part: this also will be a feature at the BEP Conference. The CEO has also played a key role in developing the activities of the CEO group brought together by BEP and is joining a small task group to move this forward.

The Trust is also reaching out. Our attendance work was praised by a DfE consultant and now we are sharing best practice with other schools and trusts. As well as the BEP conference, our work on equality, diversity and inclusion as a force for transformation, and the overarching story of the Trust’s regeneration, has led to the CEO and the Director of People, Michelle Gabriel, being asked to speak at the MAT Partnership Network South Conference in November.