I am delighted to be writing to parents and carers in this edition of Horizons Home Time, a particularly warm welcome to all those connected with Reedham Primary School, Norfolk.  Reedham joined Consortium Trust on the 1^st October 2024 and is now part of a growing number of primary schools within our community Trust.  I am very excited to see how this lovely rural school, nestled in the Broads National park flourish and develop.

The focus of this edition of Horizons Home Time looks at the driver 'personal development', there has been significant developments around the Trust that I am pleased to report on.  Already this term we have hosted two Ofsted inspections, with Southwold Primary and Henley Primary both having visits.  As you may have seen in the media the new government have made several changes to the inspection framework with schools and inspectors navigating these changes.  The reports are yet to be published, but I was part of both inspections and the school teams, including the pupils, did themselves proud.

Other developments include a lot of building work with staff and pupils being very understanding during the disruption. I am pleased to report most work is coming to a conclusion soon.

• In our drive towards net-zero and environmental targets, several schools have been equipped with new air-source-heat pumps, including Mendham, Henley, St.Edmund's and Barnby & North Cove Primaries.
• Also, at Barnby & North Cove a significant building project has included a two-classroom extension to accommodate a new Communication and Interaction specialist unit, extended main hall, resurfaced playground and an upgraded outdoor learning area for the EYFS class.
• Over at the Warren Special School in Lowestoft, an 18 month long refurbishment is coming to an end with rewiring, new lighting and most importantly the deep-water swimming pool along with accessible changing rooms having a full makeover.  We are very excited to be opening the pool in January for the first time since pre-covid.

In the digital world, we continue to enhance and develop our virtual footprint, investing in a host of equipment and systems to support pupils learning and hopefully improve the experience of parents.  We have this term...

• Migrated school systems all to Office 365.
• Implemented upgraded 'filtering and monitoring' software that supports digital safety, ensuring that your children are safe online.
• Are rolling out the launch of Learning Pi, a parental portal similar to Tapestry for all year groups.  This is initially in the mainstream primary sector with Kirkley Nursery and our Special Schools joining next academic year so that the developers can 'bespoke' the system for you.

All of these developments are a significant investment in time and money improving the facilities and experiences of you and your children.  With all these developments happening across a Trust of 15 schools and setting and in two counties it takes a team to deliver them successfully and I am very grateful to local school teams and central team for their hard work.

I wish you and your family a safe and  restful half term.

Andrew