It is my pleasure to introduce myself as the new Executive Headteacher at Welling School having joined at the beginning of last week. Please forgive me for not getting in touch straight away but as you will understand the start of term has been even busier than usual, especially given the circumstances.

I join TKAT and Welling School having been Executive Principal in another Trust in Kent and prior to that having been Principal in two schools in Kent and East Sussex. All of these roles have afforded me the opportunity to work with staff and students focusing on ensuring high standards and excellent outcomes in our schools and I am excited to be joining Welling School to do the same.

My role as Executive Headteacher is to work with Mr Pett and the wider leadership team to provide strategic direction and additional capacity to ensure the impact of our work so that we realise our shared ambition for Welling School to be a truly exceptional place for students to learn and achieve. It is important to note that Mr Pett’s role as Headteacher remains unchanged and the Executive Headteacher role does not detract from that.#

Starting a new role in a new school means you have to learn quickly. I have been very grateful for the warm welcome I have received and am enjoying having virtual 1-2-1 meetings with all staff in order to get to know them and how our roles fit together to best serve our students and families. It will unfortunately be a while until I have the opportunity to meet students in school but the meantime I will be in touch with them through the student bulletin.

As you will know our remote learning provision has been further developed in response to this period of school closure. Staff have been working extremely hard to ensure we do this effectively - for some this will involve developing a new or extended set of skills and for all it requires re-thinking and re-planning lessons and programmes of learning. We know there are some early teething issues and be assured that staff are constantly reviewing our provision to fine tune these. An FAQ document and some useful demonstration materials will shortly be sent to families so you have a reference point should you need it - failing that please always get in touch so we can help you.

This week we have also focused on the issue of the quality of food hampers for those students in receipt of free school meals. Whilst I am immensely grateful to school staff who set about organising and delivering food, my colleagues and I were disappointed with the service provided to families in relation to the amount and quality. You will have seen from the national and local media that this was not a problem isolated to Welling School and that across the country much attention has been given to this. Mr Pett immediately worked with our providers and has been given a clear reassurance that next week’s provision will be significantly different. Please accept our thanks for your understanding while he has been dealing with this.

I hope that we can welcome you to Welling School in the near future which will give us the chance to meet face to face but in the meantime I look forward to the future work we will do together so our students can achieve their very best and secure the bright futures they deserve.

Yours faithfully

Mr Daniel Hatley

EXECUTIVE HEADTEACHER