Wednesday 3rd November 2021
The autumn term Area Primary Headteacher meetings will be held in November and, after a gap of over 18 months will again be face to face, apart from the West meeting - see dates and venues below. The meetings will start at 9.00 am and will include, as always, refreshments and lunch. You are likely to want to attend your local meeting, but if the date doesn’t work for you please do attend any of the other meetings. There is no need to book your place at the meeting, just turn up (leaving some time for parking) and enjoy the day.
The autumn term newsletter will be circulated at the meeting.
The dates of the meetings are:
NORTH-EAST Wednesday 10 November Colchester Community Stadium
MID Thursday 11 November Lion Inn, Boreham
Please note that we will observe a two-minute silence at 11.00 am for Armistice Day.
WEST Wednesday 17 November online – Zoom link
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81691563218?pwd=WVgrZDEyNFlmeTF6aWNsNFZwNXgxZz09
Meeting ID: 816 9156 3218
Passcode: 874580
SOUTH Thursday 18 November Holiday Inn, Basildon
The agenda will include updates from the Local Authority focusing on strategic priorities. In addition there will be a presentation from Joel Shaljean (Lads Need Dads – North East and South meetings) as well as a training presentation about managing parental complaints (Mid and West meetings).
Gavin Freed, the CEO of Juniper Education, will attend each meeting (after lunch) to discuss the challenges that have been faced by schools as a result of the novation of the payroll contract from ECC, and the steps that Juniper is taking to address any continuing problems.
During the EPHA slot we will feed back on the outcomes of the headteacher wellbeing survey, which has been running for the last few week. Around 220 heads have responded so far and the results are fascinating, underlining how much pressure heads are under at the moment. The results of the survey will be shared widely, at both a local and national level, and it would be incredibly powerful to have responses from all Essex primary heads. The average completion time for the survey is 5 minutes and 4 seconds (!) so if you haven’t had a chance to take the survey, please spend a few minutes doing so – I will close the link at the end of Friday 5th November.
The survey link is https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/8JN5YBC
Once you have had a chance to look at the agenda, do contact me if you have any “pre-questions” for LA officers or any of the other presenters.
Last but not least, the minutes of the EPHA AGM and Executive meeting(s) held on 30th September are now available on the EPHA website. The links are:
EPHA Annual General Meeting
https://essexprimaryheads.co.uk/files/epha-agm-minutes-30-09-21.pdf
EPHA Executive minutes
https://essexprimaryheads.co.uk/files/epha-executive-minutes-30-09-21.pdf
EPHA Executive meeting with LA Officers
https://essexprimaryheads.co.uk/files/epha-executive-la-minutes-30-09-21.pdf
Please don't hesitate to contact me if you need any more information about these or other EPHA matters at pam@langmead.me.uk
I look forward to seeing you at the meetings.
Pam Langmead
EPHA Professional Officer
Pam Langmead