In-person and online events

It has been an exciting year for NACE as we celebrated our 40th anniversary. It is the first time, since the pandemic, that we have been able to move back to in-person events, including our termly member meetups and our National Conference in June. It is so important that we give our members the opportunity to meet face-to-face, whenever possible, as there is so much we have to learn from each other. That being said, we continued to run a popular series of webinars, including the launch of our new 40 benchmarks – these benchmarks are based on our eight core principles and draw on effective leadership and practice from across our network of member schools. Other webinars were provided by partner institutions with similar interests to ourselves. Our popular network groups have continued to grow, and they are designed to run at a time that is convenient for you. We aim to maintain this balance of online and in-person events throughout the next academic year, following feedback from members. We plan to make our research work more accessible too, so members will no longer need to commit to a full year of meetings in advance.  
 

NACE Challenge Ambassador schools

2022/23 also saw the launch of our Challenge Ambassador Schools programme, and I am delighted to welcome Toot Hill School, Southend High School for Boys and Ysgol Glan Gele as our first Challenge Ambassador schools. Many more are working towards this prestigious award when they apply for their next reaccreditation of the NACE Challenge Award in the coming years. Many schools took advantage of our lower prices this year for all of our Challenge Development Programme packages – prices were reduced to celebrate our 40th anniversary. You can still take up any of these offers until the end of August 2023, as long as dates for consultancy and/or CPD are set to take place during the next academic year.
 

Member mailing

Keep an eye out for your NACE member mailing which will be with you for the start of September. The NACE wallplanner will contain the dates for our key events due to take place next year. Updates will be provided through our Monthly Newsfeeds as the year progresses. You will also receive a poster of our 40 benchmarks for all schools to work towards, along with an extract from our new updated essentials guide on “Leading for More Able” and more information on our Challenge Development Programme.

Supporting groups of schools

We are receiving an increased number of enquires from groups of schools, regarding both membership and access to our Challenge Development Programme. We already have offers available for membership and we will be launching our cluster offers for our Challenge Development Programme next year. The programme is founded on the NACE Challenge Framework, a well-established tool for whole-school review and school improvement, with accompanying handbook, resources, consultancy, coaching, CPD and opportunities for school-to-school working.
 
I wish you all a very enjoyable and restful summer break and we are all looking forward to supporting you again throughout the next academic year.