King's group Academies Newsletter

A message from Nick Cross, CEO Dear Colleagues, When we returned to a new academic year this autumn, we found ourselves caught between a world that was starting to feel ‘normal again’ and yet strangely not. I think we would all agree that it has been wonderful to be back fully with pupils without many of the restrictions that were in place last year. However, we have been faced with new challenges at work and at home. I know that each and every one of you has worked incredibly hard over the last 18 months in testing circumstances. Your commitment to provide a high-quality education and pastoral support is very much valued. The pandemic has shown us that within our academies, every single job is equally important. For example, the contribution of our site and cleaning teams has kept us all safe and enabled us to reopen our doors. I want to highlight this work as I know that it often takes place when most of our staff and pupils are at home. I know that you, like your colleagues, have worked through testing times to ensure that our premises are in the best possible condition. You will be pleased to know that this month, we are joined by Paul Marks, in the new role of Estates Director. He will be working with you all to ensure that you have the resources, equipment, training and support you need to do your jobs. I know that at this time of year, thoughts turn to the government’s national pay proposals which is reported avidly across media. I am sure that you have heard that this year, due to continuing financial pressures across government budgets, proposals for revised pay scales are minimal. I know that many of you will find this challenging at a time when there are increased pressures on personal budgets by things such as rising energy and food costs. The recent queues for fuel have not made daily life any easier. I want to assure you that whilst Kings Group Academies follow national pay decisions, our academy status provides us with a level of flexibility which we can use to consider the other ways in which we recognise and reward our people. Providing meaningful support to you is incredibly important to us because we know that it makes a difference to the education we provide. As many of you will be aware, we appointed Lorraine Walsh as Director of Human Resources over the summer. Part of Lorraine’s role will be to ensure that our staff are provided with the best possible support. Over the coming months, Lorraine will be working across the Trust to identify and communicate to you the ways in which we can support staff as well as looking for feedback on what we can do better. Lorraine, Paul, Sue Collins and I form the Central Team; we work across Kings Group Academies to ensure that we deliver our statutory obligations. We work closely with a range of colleagues including Principals, Governors and others in our leadership teams. We are conscious that this means you will not always hear about everything we are working on. We are, therefore, going to reflect on how we communicate with you and importantly how we hear feedback from all our colleagues across the Trust. For now, we thought you would like to hear more about our roles; please go to page two. SIR ROGER FRY VISITS KGA Autumn 2021 King’s Group Academies Newsletter It was lovely to welcome back and host Sir Roger Fry, Chairman of King’s Group Academies and Nick Cross, KGA’s CEO to KAR on September 20. The two visited all the schools in the Academy over a couple of days. It was Sir Roger’s first time back to the school for two years and he toured the site, catching up with staff, meeting our new Senior Students, including our Head Boy and Head Girl (pictured below), and held a Q&A session with them as well as our Senior Leadership Team. Sir Roger commented that the site looked great and that the new 3G pitch was a fantastic asset for the school. He also remarked how confident the Senior Students were and an absolute credit to the school, making his visit a memorable one!