Please find below a written response from Gwyn ap Harri (co-founder of XP and CEO of XP Trust) regarding the consultation surrounding the proposed changes to our school calendars.
Best wishes, Jamie Portman
Dear Parents
Thank you for your considerable feedback during the consultation regarding our school calendar. We received over 800 responses and we have read and considered every single one of your comments.
It was clear from the consultation that the vast majority of parents agreed with the Trust, that the strongly preferred calendar was Option 3, the calendar that aligns more with the newly rationalised DMBC calendar.
Over 80% of parents across the Trust either preferred this calendar or didn’t mind either way.
The strong message within the comments was for the Trust to make the right decision for our children and to focus on the quality of educational provision. As a Trust we also reflected on the fact that a majority of parents were choosing time for families to be together over potentially cheaper holidays, and that these parents were not from affluent areas.
We know from the consultation that this decision will not please all our families, who strongly preferred our old calendar, and we understand why, but moving forward on balance, we feel that the Trust will be able to work more effectively together with one unified calendar, and therefore provide a higher quality education for our children than even the high standards we are reaching now.
I apologise to the families that feel they are being inconvenienced by this decision, and we will of course honour any pre-booked holidays by families and staff.
To address some points raised by parents during the consultation:
- We are proud of our differences from other Trusts, but we aren’t different just to be different, our differences are based on clear rationale. This isn’t the slippery slope to conformity. Over my dead body. In fact, watch this space…
- I will never apologise for the strength of wanting to work with our Primary colleagues, in fact, my message is that all Secondary schools should do more of this, as they will benefit massively as XP has. The convention of Secondary schools dictating to Primary schools is something I abhor.
- We will always take decisions on balance, but with the most important factor being the quality of provision to our children, including my own.
Finally, I would like to thank parents for their kind, beautiful and humbling comments about our schools. We were genuinely moved to tears by some, on both sides of the consultation. We work tirelessly on this very hard and very important work, and your comments reminded us why we give our todays for our childrens’ tomorrows.
Thank you.
Best wishes
Gwyn ap Harri
CEO
XP Trust
07886190332