As a learning organisation, the continued development of all our colleagues is really important to us. Whilst Inset days are a regular occurrence in school calendars, enabling colleagues in our academies to access professional learning opportunities, we also want to ensure that our infrastructure colleagues are also offered the change to learn and develop in their roles.
We recently held an inset day which was extended beyond our schools to our whole trust, so that every single colleague could spend time learning, focussing on developing their skills and collaborating with their colleagues.
Our infrastructure teams, including People / HR, Finance, Data, Corporate Services, IT and Estates, spent time together hearing updates from across the trust, bringing our strategic priorities to life and looking at how our culture and behaviours are key to their success, focussing on our newly introduced Performance, Belonging and Growth conversations, and then working in teams to look at how we can best meet future challenges.
As it was National Apprenticeships Week, we also had the opportunity to shine a light on all things Apprenticeships, dispelling some myths, showcasing how inclusive and accessible they are and encouraging our colleagues to consider them as part of their Belonging and Growth conversations.
Another key event which took place as part of the trust-wide inset day was a session for all of our Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs), Deputy DSLs, Behaviour Leads, Year Leaders and Pastoral colleagues.
It was a day-long session looking at different aspects of exploitation. We heard from Tony Saggers, who completed 30 years in law enforcement at the National Crime Agency in 2017. His final role was Head of Drugs Threat & Intelligence (and UK co-Lead with a Police Chief), with the additional NCA portfolio lead for County Lines (and national co-Lead with Police Chief and the Home Office leads).
Tony delivered a session which included, amongst other elements:
- How perpetrators create and/or exploit vulnerability
- Types of consequence, including unhealthy/toxic relationships, weapon carrying, debt bondage, concealment of drugs and missing episodes
- Typical variations of the county lines business models (including how criminal tactics have permeated wider exploitation)
- Unravelling what children may assess as ‘relationships’, ‘loyalty’, ‘opportunities’ and ‘benefits’ (including addressing the ‘no snitching rule’)
- Spotting signs and symptoms – including within the school daily schedule
- Evaluating absence, pattern absence and pattern behaviour
Our Trust Safeguarding Lead, Alana Watson, organised the session and said: “We were very fortunate to have had Tony Saggers presenting to us today. His expertise in tackling exploitation provides invaluable insight, equipping our pastoral teams with the knowledge and strategies to safeguard our children and young people. A crucial conversation for all those committed to protecting the most vulnerable.”
We’re committed to providing professional development and learning opportunities for all of our colleagues. We know that having engaged, skilled and knowledgeable colleagues will have a direct impact on our students and help provide them with the very best educational experience.