Mark Unwin - Stories from the Trust
Huge thanks from me; the Central Team and the Board of Directors for your hard work this term.
And what a term it has been…
One of our roles as a Trust is to share your incredible work widely and there are SO many great stories to talk about, it’s hard to fit them all in!
There’s national recognition in the media (the BBC at Conway)
Incredible charity work: Schools across the Trust raising money to support families affected by the devastating the earthquake in Turkey and Syria – with Greet raising over £3000
Sporting success: Conway’s Girl’s football team’ and Hodge Hill’s F1 team success
And recognition for our schools work to be diverse and inclusive – Greet’s work with Diversity in Football and Brookfield’s recognition from Birch.
A special congratulations at this point to Leon Blake at Greet who has been recognised with an award from the Aston Villa Foundation for his work to promote diversity in football and to all the staff at Brookfields who have been recognised for their work with children and families seeking asylum in this country.
As we look forward to the longer days of summer, I want us to consider our Trust value of Innovation and creativity.
We are called Create for a reason. We are a creative organisation. We want to create a new, better education for the children in our schools.
We all know the value of an education that values both academic excellence AND nurtures creativity in our children. Creativity is essential for personal growth, problem-solving, innovation, and self-expression. It helps our children to think outside the box and approach challenges with a fresh perspective.
The marvellous examples above all stem from schools working creatively:
thinking creatively about different partner organisations we work with (as Leon has been doing with Diversity in Football and Aston Villa);
thinking creatively about the experiences we give the children (who would have thought Hodge Hill would have an F1 TEAM!!!)
showing creatively about how we promote our schools(as Conway did with the BBC)
thinking creatively about how to raise money for charity (as Greet and all the schools have done for Turkey and Syria)
and thinking creatively about how to support children and families (as Brookfields have done to help Refugee and Asylum-Seeking families)
Incorporating creativity into our schools makes learning more engaging, enjoyable, and memorable and encourages the children to take risks, experiment, and explore new ideas.
During this summer term, I want to set a challenge to encourage creativity in our classrooms and across our schools.
Let’s inspire our children to think creatively and let’s think creatively ourselves to create the very best education for them.
Together we can create a generation of thinkers and problem solvers who are equipped to tackle the challenges of the future with confidence and creativity.
Have a fantastic break and I look forward to seeing you all next half term.
Best regards
Mark