I attended a governor training evening tonight concentrating on the improvement partnerships that will be brought into being Dec 2014. Apparently the government have listened to schools and this is what they have come up with to stop schools feeling isolated. To me it sounds like another committee our over stretched head teachers may be encouraged to join. The budget of 1.6 million won’t stretch very far when the amount of schools involved is taken into account and is I feel just a token gesture really. Schools who have highly qualified lead teachers often ‘lend’ them to other schools they have links with. The new improvement partnership will extend those links and therefore the chance that these already very busy teachers will be made even busier. I agree that schools should help each other but not at the expense of the pupils who miss out on continuity of learning if their teacher is often taken from lessons to assist other schools. Schools within local areas are often already part of an encompassing group or alliance. The government apparently think this new partnership will provide an umbrella group to cover the other group which then covers the schools. Do we really need more committees? Maybe we do. I will be interested to see how all of this pans out over the coming new year.