Written by Sue Newstead, Director of Learning Provision
Cumbria Education Trust has always believed that collaboration is the gateway to school improvement. Learning from each other, choosing all the best bits from schools and creating a framework of excellence together, brings about rich conversations and a better understanding of why we choose the practices and areas to develop as one Trust. As our theme suggests, Creating Excellence Together!
We are proud of our past achievements, such as the creation of the Quality First Teacher toolkit, the fair and robust assessment processes which accurately identify a SEND need, our strong safeguarding practices, curriculum developments and lots, lots more.
This year, we celebrate the introduction of the Learning Provision Practitioner roles. These roles are supporting and collaborating with hub areas, with individual cases and larger school projects. Examples of this include:
- Autism – in the Northern Hub, our Autism Practitioner has been working with CET feeder schools to develop autism-friendly environments and a better understanding of what autism means for individuals
- English as an Additional Language (EAL) – our EAL Practitioner has joined together with our Marketing team to develop our websites for easier communication with parents and families who do not speak English as their first language
- Safeguarding – our Safeguarding Practitioners are strengthening consistency in our record keeping and supervision processes, as well as designing and delivering Level 2 and 3 Safeguarding courses after successfully completing their Train the Trainer certification.
- Social Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) – our SEMH practitioner has started a collaborative group to further develop our SEMH provision. This will nicely compliment the work of Dr Grace Thomas, Project Coordinator, and Donna Lund, Trauma Awareness Practitioner, who continue to develop CET’s Family Connector offer and the understanding of ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences).
These roles, which were internal appointments from existing talented staff, ensure that our family of schools continues to receive the expert support and advice needed from time to time, sharing knowledge and developing provision in specialist areas. The Learning Provision team is always open to hearing ideas to further strengthen our Learning Provision area, and welcomes anyone who wishes to be involved in expanding this offering.