October 2014 Forum

October 2014 Forum

The Hertfordshire’s Association of School Governors Forum in October was in two parts led by:

  •  Alison Mann, Operational Manager for Children’s Speech, Language and Therapy (SLT) and Christine Comras, Clinical lead for Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Projects.
  • Jenny Coles, Director of Children’s Services.

Alison Mann & Christine Comras

Alison & Christine presented on the subject of “Narrowing the Gap: Improving Children’s Speech, Language and Communication”.  Some key points they made included:

  • Current expectations are to ensure good teaching of literacy early on to reduce dependency on additional intervention and support,
  • The impacts of poor communication skills including exam results, behaviour, mental health, employability and disadvantage (and lifetime costs arising from these),
  • Focussing on inclusive practices,
  • Principles, solutions & training that will allow schools to make a difference.
Jenny Coles presented at the October 2014 Forum
Jenny Coles – Director of Children’s Services

Jenny Coles

Jenny presented the “Governors’ Briefing” to bring us up to date on Hertfordshire Education issues.  Some key points she made were:

  • The Vision of children’s services being “Giving every child in Hertfordshire the chance to thrive…
    • In their family,
    • In their school,
    • In their community.”
  • At the end of August, over 82% of schools in Hertfordshire received good or outstanding results from Ofsted, this up from just over 77% last September,
  • Reaffirming the contribution made by Governors & the core functions of governing bodies,
  • LA support available for schools.

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