We are building brilliant learning in brilliant learning places here in Leeds...

This is an ambitious statement but we all know that everything we do needs to be good or better and there can be no exceptions. OFSTED and the Audit Commission have raised the bar again with the new OFSTED Framework and the new Corporate Assessment and we are rightly facing higher and higher expectations in everything we do. However, we don't do it for OFSTED or the Audit Commission, the DCSF or the Government. We do it because we all believe that the children and young people of this great city are its future and have extraordinary potential. It is also important that we recognise that our parents and carers, our communities and our partners want every school and all our provision to be brilliant. And, we can do it!

Over the last few years we have proved time and again that we can do it and that underachievement, poor behaviour and poor performance should be things we simply won't accept anymore. Simply visit Carr Manor, Morley High, John Smeaton, David Young and you'll see it. And the message must be that we need all our colleagues to be passionate, persistent, determined, courageous and hard working.

There can be no excuses; our challenge over the next five years is to deliver world class outcomes... whatever it takes.
Chris