AFTER three months in post, one of the first questions the Tory councillors asked then education boss, Oliver Gerrish was; “How many head teachers have you met?” When he replied that he had met a number of “educationalists”, the Tories said: “That will be none then.”
The Tories will have to get up early in the morning to catch council leader and education boss, John Kent.
Thurrock Council’s Leader and new education portfolio holder has launched his plan to visit every school in the borough over the coming months.
On Monday (17 June) , Cllr John Kent visited Thameside Primary in Manor Road, Grays with director of children’s services Carmel Littleton.
They were met by head teacher Christina Pumfrey and Cllr Kent said afterwards: “I was really impressed by how Christina has taken the school’s long-standing community ethos and driven it forward in her short time there.”
He said: “Education is vital to success across all our communities and to do that our schools must be able to understand their local people.
“We are already seeing a steady improvement in standards and those that are doing well are working hard to share their knowledge and experience.”
Cllr Kent added: “In this programme of visits I aim to speak with as many teachers and pupils as possible; I want to know what they think about their schools and what can be done to make it better.
“I can’t promise to do it all, but I can promise that I will listen and take their concerns, thoughts and ideas to senior officers here at the council.”
He added: “We have promised that we want to provide the best education possible. My expectation is that the children and young people of today are well-placed to get the management jobs in Thurrock’s regeneration projects of tomorrow.”
Thameside Primary School head teacher Christina Pumfrey said: “We are seeing real improvement at our school, thanks to the dedication and hard work of teachers and support staff, but also the enthusiasm and energy of our pupils and commitment of parents. It is fantastic to see our young people progressing so well through the early years of education.”
Visiting every school in the borough, and just where will he find time to run the council 🙂
It fits in very nicely with the part time ethos at the top of Thurrock Council. The Chief Exec is part time and the leader of the council is part time. It goes to show what a waste of money they were when employed in one job on a full time basis.
I wonder if he will claim travelling expenses on top of his multiple allowances to visit all these schools?