I was elected Chair of the Partnership Board for Thanet 1 in November 2008 and wanted to give you some idea of my background and experience.

 

 I have been involved in teaching for over twenty years and feel that I have been lucky enough to experience a wide variety of schools and educational settings. I have taught in various size entry schools as well as an infant only school and mixed primaries. As part of my career I have taught all ages from 4 to 11 as well as teaching undergraduates at Christ Church University Canterbury.

This academic year is the fifth year of my Headship at Minster. In this time I believe I have learned a great deal about working with our local community. As a school we have a good relationship with the Church (essential in any C of E school), the Salvation Army, and our feeder pre-schools, including our on-site nursery which is run as a charitable trust and where I am a committee member working alongside the parents who form the majority of the committee according to the PLA constitution.

As the Head teacher of the school I have also worked closely with the Minster MATCH board to help fund and run local projects including our All Weather Playing Surface which is a local project between the Parish Council, the Football Association, the MATCH committee, the LA and the school.

 

As a school we have been asked to form part of a satellite service for the Birchington and Rural Children’s Centre. This I know will be of benefit to local families and as a school we were only too happy to enable this to happen.

 

As a Head teacher you also have the opportunity to work alongside many of the outside agencies such as Social Services, Health the specialist teacher service etc, that are part of every school’s life, and the relationship and partnership between all of these is essential if the children in our care are to prosper. As a Cluster Board member I had the opportunity to learn about the work of the Cluster Team, the Cluster plan and how budgets don’t stretch as far as we would like!

 

We are all aware that school plays an important part in a child’s development however we also know that there are many more factors that can influence their future. It is vital that all of us work together to ensure our children have their many needs addressed. The LCSP is an opportunity to bring all of these services together to work for the benefit of all children and if we can work together to achieve this, the children of Thanet will be able to fulfil their potential.

 | Published: 19-4-07  | TOP