Futures Vision Bus Tours 2008

This is the fourth Futures Vision Tour Awards that I have had the pleasure of co-ordinating for the Trust. The Tours provide a unique way of enabling students and teachers to share their enthusiasm for their work and their schools with visitors from the worlds of business and education. Delegates are able to gain a real understanding of the priorities and challenges faced by schools by going into classrooms and talking with people on a normal working day.

This year the awards recognise and celebrate the achievement of schools that are already deeply engaged in the agenda described in the Government’s Children’s Plan, “Building Brighter Futures”. The plan talks of ‘a new role for schools at the centre of their communities’. It states that the government expects every school to be “uncompromising in its ambitions for achievement, sitting at the heart of the community it serves” and “by investing in all of those who work with children, and by building capacity to work across professional boundaries we can ensure that joining up services is not just about providing a safety net for the vulnerable – it is about unlocking the potential of every child.”

There are two types of award:

1. for an individual school;
2. for a group of schools

The Individual School Award recognises excellence and achievement of a school that has high quality community engagement and that is already well on the way to achieving the criteria set for the 21st Century school in The Children’s Plan. The award winning schools are outward facing, sitting at the heart of a developing community learning network, and committed to the education and welfare of all children and young people.

The Group Award recognises the work of a group, cluster, trust or federation of schools that have been working together to achieve the inclusive services for the community envisaged in The Children’s Plan. They, collectively, illustrate high quality community engagement and have made great strides in building integrated working and shared objectives across services, with schools at the heart of a
learning community that is open to all.

I hope that you all enjoy both the experiences offered by the schools and the discussions with your fellow passengers on the coaches and at the various receptions. In the past three years we have found that a number of delegates have kept in touch with each other and with some of the award-winning schools. They have taken away exciting ideas and new and productive relationships have often been formed to the benefit of all concerned. I hope that you find this year’s Futures Vision Tour equally stimulating.

Ken Walsh OBE
Associate Director
Specialist Schools and Academies Trust