The concept of COMMUNITY is fundamental within the vision and ethos of Consortium Trust; it is the link that grounds our schools within their locality, it is the feeling of belonging that brings pupils, staff and parents together within the school boundaries, and it is the structure that brings all of those schools and localities together within a single organisation - Consortium.  It is however, also much broader than that because, not only do we want to create that sense of Community for the Trust, we want everyone to feel part of that Community and contribute to its development and evolution.  In order to achieve that we have to communicate and ENGAGE - draw things together, offer support and challenge, and be willing to be ambassadors for that Community.  But that only comes when there is two way commitment and understanding.

There are many ways in which our schools and our pupils engage with our communities - through the curriculum, through working with other schools, and through local understanding of pupils, their, sometimes complicated, lives, and their likes and dislikes.  As parents and carers you support that understanding and are an integral part of the school community and our staff are keen that you, too, engage in that development and evolution.

Being a contributing member of a community, brings a huge amount of value; both personally, and for the community in which you engage.  I make a number of contributions through volunteering my time, expertise and experience, not just at Consortium, as Chair of Trustees, but also in Scouting, and more recently with the RSPB within the Biodiversity, Monitoring and Surveying team.

These different types of Community Engagement bring different types of 'fulfilment' to me, but they  also bring different benefits to the organisation that I contribute to.  All are mutually beneficial in so many ways.

But Community Engagement doesn't have to mean volunteering - it is a way in which you can be part of strengthening and contributing to that sense of togetherness - it means that you care; that you value your surroundings and want to make things the best that they can be; it means that you want to understand and help others understand the importance of that, and that there is a two way commitment.

As a Trust Board, we are determined that all of our Schools are at the heart of their local community - that they contribute to the area as well as invite communities into the school.  I hope that by reading this edition of Horizons Home Time newsletter, you will see what that looks like on a day to day basis, and I would ask you to consider how else that Community Engagement could strengthen and be even more impactful and mutually beneficial to your child, your school, your local community and to yourself.

There is a phrase "it takes a village to raise a child" and that is very much the approach that is at the heart of Consortium - by working together and bringing that 'togetherness' around a child, great things can happen.

With many best wishes and many thanks for your ongoing support.

Dawn Carman-Jones, Chair of Trust Board