Imagine this: you spend your first day of your new job being whisked away to Derbyshire and told that you would be spending the next 3 nights sharing a tent with new members of staff who in some cases had never even met before. Well that was the case for 12 teachers and learning coaches from XP, and XP East.
You can read more about our induction here from the recent presentation evening, but this was our first week on the job and do you know what? It affected all of us both professionally and personally. We are Crew!
Watch our video below for a summary of our first ever expedition.
Shot with iPhone 7. Edited using iMovie. Made by Crew.
We recently attended a meeting with the Department for Education (DfE) in Sheffield in order for them to assess our âreadiness to openâ as part of their review of new schools. The DfE panel consisted of 9 officials who represented areas related to main priorities linked to new schools: âOutcomes for children and learnersâ, âQuality of Teaching and Learningâ, âBehaviour and Safetyâ, âQuality of Leadership and Managementâ, âPupil recruitment and financial viabilityâ, and âSite and buildingsâ.
The following also attended in order to answer various questions from the panel: Gwyn Ap Harri (Chief Executive of the Organisation), Andy Sprakes (Executive Principal) Stephen Bielby (Chair of the XP Trust) and Liam Scully (Chair of Governors for XP East).
Iâll be honest and say that this was a rigorous and testing process, but we were confident that we had everything in place in readiness for opening. The meeting ended with a very positive summary from the presiding DfE official, and explained that we would be âRAG-ratedâ (red – concern, amber – some progress , green – positive) on the aspects that were being scrutinised and that a report would be sent to us in due course.
The video below shows a brief overview of the events that took place.
UPDATE: We are delighted to announced that we were RAG-rated as Green in every single category! This means that the DfE have no concerns about XP Eastâs opening for September 2017.
