Robs Weekly Round Up

28 June 2024

Dear colleagues,

It’s always great to start the week with some positive news and so on Monday morning my eye was drawn to an email titled ‘Thank You’ which had been forwarded on with a message saying, “this will make you smile”.

It was a thank you message from a parent that had been passed on from Chris Britten at Ysgol Y Deri. It showed exactly why what we do as an organisation matters.

The parent was getting in touch to show their “deepest gratitude” to the team at YYD for their work to boost their child’s self-confidence and self-esteem.

“I can’t thank you all enough for your support and the way you have consistently gone above and beyond for us both” the letter goes on. “Your tenacity in thinking outside the box and offering such a wonderful, needs led response and support has been unwavering and we will be eternally grateful for everything.”

The type of support the team at Ysgol Y Deri provides is unique but what is not is their commitment to supporting children and young people in whatever ways they need us. This is shared by colleagues across the Vale.

Our schools provide more holistic support than ever. Several schools in the Vale took part in A Day of Welcome earlier this month to mark Refugee Week. The event, designed specifically for schools, provides an opportunity for primary and secondary schools to engage with issues relating to refugee migration and to promote a culture of welcome and understanding. 

It was particularly fitting that during Refugee Week itself, Holton Primary School was awarded School of Sanctuary Status – becoming the first primary school in the Vale to do so. The appraisal panel highlighted that “overall there exists a clear and purposeful strategic vision which sits with all of the School of Sanctuary values.”

I’ve written previously about the wide-ranging work staff at the school do through initiatives like their Junior Diverse group to ensure all their pupils and parents feel an equal part of the school community. Some of you may also have seen Holton Primary pupils’ work on display in the Civic Offices earlier this week as part of our Windrush Day celebrations.

The ethos of the school was summed up by one member of the appraisal panel in saying: “on visiting the school it is evident how the concept of welcome and active inclusion is embedded, right through from the schools Strategic Equality Plan, policies, the curriculum, displays, and speaking to the children, parents and staff. You can feel the Anti Racist Curriculum flourish.”

Everyone involved in supporting the welcoming environment that the school offers should be enormously proud. Becoming a School of Sanctuary is not an easy task, requiring a whole school effort and going above and beyond statutory requirements and Holton is a truly exceptional example of what being a School of Sanctuary is all about.

The Learning links Team is currently supporting 14 more schools in the Vale who are working towards the School of Sanctuary Award – the criteria of which ensures learners and their families feel safe, supported and empowered to access an appropriate education and achieve the best possible educational outcomes.

Many of our schools have also completed the Anti-Racist Action Research programme, which alongside their School of Sanctuary progress supports the work we are doing as a Council to become a County of Sanctuary.

Llongyfarchiadau Holton for this achievement and pob lwc to all those working towards it, you should be very proud of the work you do to support an open and welcoming learning environment and community in your school. 

This week is Armed Forces Week. As always, I was very proud to represent the Council at the ceremony outside the Civic Offices earlier today. It was an honour to join representatives from the Armed Forces and Abi Warburton, our Armed Forces Officer alongside the Deputy Mayor, the Leader, the Armed Forces Champion, Lord Lieutenant, High Sherif  and other guests in celebrating the work of the Armed Forces.

There is a large forces community in the Vale and again, our Learning and Skills and schools colleagues play a vital role in supporting the children and young people of forces families.

Three Vale Schools - Llantwit Major School, St Athan Primary School, and Llanfair Primary School – have also achieved Armed Forces Friendly Status, which the Learning Links Team also supports schools with. 

The amazing work our schools do to support the children who have parents serving in the Armed Forces, their families and the wider Armed Forces community is commendable and contributes to MOD Local Authority Partnership Action Plan (MODLAP). The Vale of Glamorgan currently has all 26 embedded actions of good practice, and the MODLAP is being developed further each year. The dedication of the schools to their Armed Forces community is an example of how Vale Schools pay due regard to the Armed Forces Covenant.

This year’s celebrations felt particularly pertinent with so many of our colleagues having worked closely with the Ministry of Defence to support the temporary accommodation in St Athan being established for those families who had helped support the British Armed Forces in Afghanistan.

I’d like to give a special mention to Llantwit Major School, St Athan Primary, St Iltyd Primary, Wick and Macross CiW School, Ysgol Y Ddraig, and Ysgol Dewi Sant, as they are currently working with Learning Links and the Ministry of Defence to host Entitled Persons from Afghanistan in their schools.

Since April, 56 children have been enrolled in Vale schools and accessed the curriculum. The schools involved have ensured that children and their families have had positive experience of education in Wales and demonstrated what it means to be a School of Sanctuary for all. 

I have been told that the MOD has been so impressed with the work carried out at East Camp St Athan, that they have fed back to Welsh Government that the tri-partnership model between the Learning Links Team, schools in the Vale, and the operational MOD staff at East Camp will be used as a case study that will be replicated across MOD sites in other parts of the UK. Gwaith da pawb!  

This has been a fantastic piece of ongoing work and I’d like to thank all those involved for your efforts to make it a success.

This is a shining example of how we as a local authority operate not only in Wales, but across the UK. 

It is exactly these values that I hope will shine through in our new Corporate Plan and the Reshaping programme. Yesterday Tom Bowring and I presented the latest update on this work to staff in a special Learning Café session. Thanks to more than one hundred colleagues who joined us to hear more.

Some of you may already have seen that a write up of the session and some more information has been published on StaffNet today so if you were not able to make it yesterday I’d urge you to take the time to read it and learn more.

I would like to take one last opportunity to say diolch and hwyl fawr to Paula Ham who is leaving the Council today. That so much of this round-up is about the excellent work of Learning and Skills is perhaps the best tribute to her impact in the Vale in recent years. Paula, on behalf of the whole organisation I wish you a very happy and healthy retirement and all the best for the future. Liz Jones will take up the position of Director of Learning and Skills next week and I know is looking forward to introducing herself as soon as she gets the chance.

Before I round up this week's message, I want to bring your attention towards a piece of work our Digital Team are undertaking.

With our current print contract with Xerox soon coming to an end, the team are taking the opportunity to review the organisation's Print Strategy and ensure we do all we can to save energy, paper and money. You can help the team gather key information about your team and how changes to the print strategy could affect you by completing a short form.

Finally, I’d like to say a pre-emptive diolch yn fawr to our Electoral Registration team. If you hadn’t yet heard next week is a pretty big one for elections teams in the UK. Rachel Starr-Wood, our Electoral Registration Manager, and the rest of the team are already in full election mode, and have been for several weeks.

Postal vote opening began this week, and we are now at the start of what will be an incredibly busy seven days. Diolch yn fawr to all the team and other colleagues across the organisation who have been working hard and for all the work that will be done between now and the declaration of results in the early hours of next Friday morning. I hope to be able to thank you all in more detail next week if I am not asleep at my laptop following my Returning Officer duties! 

As always thank you to all staff for their work this week. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

Rob.