Transforming Futures Trust Parent Portal

Dear TFT Staff,

I wanted to email you all to introduce myself as your new CEO and to use the opportunity to thank you all for the ongoing work and commitment you show for our children.

I am delighted and very proud to have been appointed as the CEO of the Trust. It is clear to me that, under committed leadership at all levels, you all strive to improve the outcomes and life chances of the children we serve. These are the most vulnerable children and young people in our society. I am keen to work alongside to build on all that you already do and to contribute to the quality of SEND provision in Devon, Cornwall and Plymouth.

You will know by now that I have a bit of an eclectic background. I started as a primary school teacher in a mixed year 2 and 3 class in 1998. I had little aspiration to do much more than to teach reading, invasion games and understand column addition at that time. However, life had other ideas. I found myself increasingly involved in school improvement activities, initially supporting the local authority, then as an acting headship, before my first full headship in 2004. During my first full headship I was asked to support a local school that had been found to require special measures. This I did, utilising the skills and experience of my staff team, sharing best practice with middle leaders, teachers and support staff. I am keen to continue this collaborative approach to improvement in our Trust.

At the same time as my career was happening to me, my family also grew. An unintentional level of professional development, as all three of my children have SEND. My eldest, and only daughter is now 17 and at Petroc in Barnstaple – on the pathway to teach…EEK. My youngest has a diagnosis of autism and, with the benefit of his EHC plan attends a special school in Barnstaple. My middle son has profound and multiple learning difficulties, including autism and is pre-verbal and a proper character. He attends Pathfield Special School in Barnstaple. I always think of Geoff Goldblum in Jurassic Park when he states ‘Anything can and does happen’ when he talks about children. It is definitely true in my house.

Having my family led to several changes in my career pathway, including when working as headteacher and SENCo in Midhurst, West Sussex. I utilised the chance of being a parent governor at my son’s schools to develop partnerships to support inclusion across the area. Then I moved to Ofsted and worked as one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors, before being asked to act as the Specialist Adviser for SEND. My wife, who has worked as a teaching assistant in primary, secondary and specialist provisions still maintains that she taught me all I know and should have been the adviser herself. I have many stories I could tell you about that time and working with the central policy team in Ofsted – but there isn’t time now. I then worked as Deputy Director of Education at Plymouth CAST for two years, before returning to Ofsted. The most notable work I have done in the Southwest recently are the LA SEND inspections in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Torbay. If you want to know about my commitment to our most vulnerable children, these reports I think make that clear.

Like I have said, I am delighted to now be in post, as I am keen to use all I have learned to work with you to continue to improve provision. I am particularly looking forward to coming to meet you all in person as soon as I can and learning more about you and what you do in our Trust. In the meantime, please be assured I am very aware that times have been challenging, particularly with the impact of the pandemic. Therefore, can I reiterate my thanks for all your hard work.

I look forward to leading the Trust as we move into this new chapter together.

With very best wishes,

Matthew Barnes

Dear TFT Staff,

I hope this finds you well. I have now been in post for just under eight weeks. In that time, I have been delighted to have been able to see many of you at work with the children and young people that we serve. I have only one setting left to visit, which I hope to do very soon.

During these visits I was particularly struck by the strength of relationships between you and the children you work with. It would not be an overstatement to say I was moved quite a few times to hear some of the very positive responses made by children to the support and nurture they were given. It was a real privilege to see you at work. I’d like to take this chance to thank you all for what you do for some of the region’s most vulnerable pupils.

Since joining the Trust, I have been busy getting to know the settings, their leaders, the Trust and the relationship we have with DELT. I have also met with a number of key stakeholders, including CEO’s from other Trusts, Local Area leaders from across Plymouth, Cornwall and Devon, colleagues from the Regional School Commissioner’s office and with those among DELT. It is notable the number of external stakeholders who hold the work you do within our Trust in very high regard.

Many of you will know that we say ‘good-bye’ to Mr Earnshaw, the headteacher at Courtlands School at the end of this term. We held a small good-bye ‘tea’ with staff, parents and pupils at the school on Monday. There was another tear in the eye moment when one young man felt it was his time to contribute to the various speeches being delivered as part of the goodbye. We wish Mr Earnshaw all the very best heading up the SEND advisory support service in Plymouth.

We have already put in place an advert to replace Mr Earnshaw. However, in the meantime, I am delighted that Mrs Smart, the headteacher from ACE Tiverton has agreed to ‘step up’ and lead both schools in the interim. I am very much looking forward to seeing how this arrangement develops and allows both schools to continue to strengthen provision for their pupils during this period of change.

Some of you may also have noticed that we have recently advertised for a permanent Chief Governance and Operations Officer within the Trust. We will be interviewing soon and will let you know as soon as possible what the outcome is.

I also had my first Board meeting with the Trustees. In this we looked at a range of issues that are current challenges for the Trust. For example, we discussed the White and the Green papers and what they mean for us. We have also been exploring the Trust’s Education Strategy and how this relates to school improvement within the Trust generally. I was really pleased to pick up the importance of staff wellbeing to the Trustees. As part of this we will be building on some strong practice already in place, including through a developing Workforce Strategy. As I said to many of you on my visits, this is something I am passionate about. I am keen that the Trust does all it can to invest in and support you as its staff.

Once again, thank you for all you do and your hard work. I am very aware that many people are feeling the hangover from the pandemic and what that meant for schools. Your commitment does not go unnoticed. I really want to finish by wishing you all an excellent, restful and well deserved half term break.

Best wishes,

With very best wishes

Matthew Barnes

Chief Executive Officer

Dear TFT Staff,

I cannot believe I am already writing to you at the end of my first full term at Transforming Futures. It has been a real pleasure to begin to get to know you, some better than others. I continue to be humbled by the commitment, focus and energy that I have seen many of you show when working with our pupils. My sincere thanks for your hard work, especially as we approach the end of what I understand has been another challenging year.

It struck me, particularly hard, on Monday of this week when my son, Arthur was at home in the extreme heat. He was finding it exceptionally hard and with his sensory processing challenges, was swinging from extreme happiness to ‘heated’ agitation. My mind went to how challenging it must have been for so many of you working with our children who, I have no doubt, were finding the heat equally, if not more, challenging than Arthur. It is testament to the above that we were able to continue to provide education to our pupils during the heatwave. So, thank you for that also.

Board of Trustees

Since I have joined the Trust, I have attended two full board meetings and most committees. The Board and the central executive have been working together to ensure that we are focused on the right things to support our schools and the staff within them. Part of this has been long and detailed discussions about our Workforce and how we ensure we prioritise your wellbeing. We are keen to work collaboratively on this with school leaders and the JCNC to ensure we have a Wellbeing Strategy that does what it says on the tin. Please watch this space for more detail as it is developed further.

Other strategies discussed include how we as a Trust support ‘School improvement’, as well as the Education Strategy. There are already many strengths I have learned about in my time around how leaders evaluate and improve our schools and support other schools to the same. It is great to be in a position where I can build on what is already going well in a strategic way to accomplish more with less effort – at least that is the hope. Part of these strategies is the planned Curriculum Conference in October, which I am already really looking forward to. In particular, I am looking forward to seeing all our staff in the same room so that we can learn together and understand how much we have in common and can utilise to improve outcomes even more for our pupils moving forwards.

Leadership at Courtlands

As I know many of you are already aware, Hannah, our headteacher at ACE Tiverton has also been providing leadership at Courtlands since the beginning of June. The executive leadership arrangements have been supplemented by the appointment of a temporary leader with a focus on the implementation of the school’s behaviour policy. We did advertise to appoint a new Headteacher with a hope that they could start in January. However, the process did not bear fruit. Therefore, Hannah and the new arrangements are now planned to continue for the whole academic year to give us time to make sure we get the right arrangements in place for Courtlands in the long-term.

During my latest visit, it was clear that staff have been working exceptionally hard since Hannah’s arrival. Given the time of year, and on the back of the pandemic, I can imagine that this has really involved digging very deep. However, the benefit for the pupils of this hard work is very clear and so I want to put on record my sincere thanks to everyone in the school for what they are doing.

Mount Tamar

I am sure you will be aware that in April, the RSC approved Transforming Futures Trust to become the sponsor of Mount Tamar school, following the directive academy order from the DfE. Since approval, meetings have been held between the Trust Executive, RSC, Plymouth County Council and Mount Tamar school to begin the process of conversion.

At this point we are just completing the ‘Due Diligence’ phase to fully understand what it will mean to take on Mount Tamar. Matt Bindon and his team have been heavily involved in supporting staff at Mount Tamar already. The list of areas to improve presented by Ofsted last year is extensive and I know this support has been well received. Again, this is happening at a very challenging time of year, so a big thanks to them also.

As things stand, the planned date for conversion, when Mount Tamar may join our family of schools, is 1 November 2022. I will keep you updated.

Finance

I wanted to finish this email with a thank you for all your support in helping manage a difficult end of year financially for the Trust. There have been a number of unforeseen challenges that have meant to avoid overspending we have had to put some drastic stops on spend in lots of areas. I know this will have caused disappointment and frustration. However, I do believe this is a one off and exceptional circumstance that has not been helped with factors beyond the control of anyone. So, thank you for your support – it is really appreciated.

Some Changes

Executive Assistant

Some of you will have had the pleasure of meeting Sophie Turner, who has been our Executive Assistant on a temporary basis. Sophie will be leaving us at the end of July. She has been a ray of sunshine and fun in her time with us. I am sure you will want to join me in thanking her and wishing her all the best for the future. We will keep you posted when we can confirm Sophie’s replacement.

CGOO

Since I last wrote to you, we completed a process to appoint a new DCEO Chief Governance and Operations Officer. I am happy to announce that Sandra Harris, who had been holding the post on a temporary basis applied for the substantive role and, following a robust process, was successful. If you haven’t interacted with Sandra yet, you will not know that she has already had a significant impact on the Trust through her efficient, focused and energetic organisational skills in the interim role she has been holding for the past 7 months. However, that only gives an indication of the extensive system and operational leadership experience, as well as a well-rounded, deep understanding of Trust governance, that Sandra has at her disposal. As she has over the last 7 months, Sandra impressed in her interview and will undoubtedly make a significant impact to the Trust moving forwards.

Since joining the Trust, I have now had a number of interactions with staff and pupils from across our settings. It has been a pleasure to speak to some leaders about their curriculum working and design and how they are trying to improve how learning is organised in a logical way. I have seen pupils learning phonics with energy and, to be honest, through gritted teeth. I have been energised by the depth of knowledge and understanding of leaders who lead on safeguarding our pupils. I have also been proud to be part of an organisation where so many people are working towards the same goal. To improve the life chances of our pupils. To finish, can I take the chance to wish you all a very good Summer Holiday and well-earned break. I genuinely look forward to working with and getting to know you better in the next 12 months.

Matthew Barnes

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