The final term of the new school year is often a time for celebration and our schools are enjoying everything from enrichment days to active weeks.

Proms play a big part in the next few weeks and we congratulate everyone who has taken exams while wishing them well in their next educational endeavours.

Some of our schools have also been celebrating particular awards.

We congratulate Clements Primary Academy in Haverhill for achieving the gold standard for the UNICEF UK’s Rights Respecting Schools Award.

Assessors found that children’s rights were “embedded across the school and underpin every facet of school life”.

The Bridge School in Ipswich were also celebrating after they unveiled their IQM Centre of Excellence award and were hailed an “excellent example of inclusive practice”.

High praise indeed for both, but hugely deserved for all the hard work that goes on, often behind the scenes.

As you read this, we would have held our Leadership evening, which brings together leaders from across all our schools for a provoking and inspiring leadership event.

We will be reviewing our last three years and looking ahead to develop our next three-year strategy.

How do we do this? We recognise our current leaders are the ones who will fulfil and achieve the ambitions of the next three years.

We will reflect on each of us, our qualities, behaviours, skills and attributes and how they complement others across the trust.

I know it will have a fascinating and insightful evening. But also hugely worthwhile as we start planning for the years to come.

We end this month with our annual Unity Day which brings together staff from across the trust to celebrate, collaborate and cultivate skills, knowledge and wellbeing.

Unity Day will provide our staff with the time and space to cultivate their knowledge and skills while joining together with colleagues across the Unity network and beyond.

We all know that the education system is facing a recruitment and retention challenge on a national scale.

But we believe Unity Day is a great chance to show our staff, and beyond, that together we are stronger.

It is a great chance to network, socialise, share stories, learn lessons, take part in a range of staff development workshops and seminars and listen to our fascinating keynote speakers.

Each staff-led session is based around seven key themes to help empower our staff and make remarkable change happen.

Unity Day really is a highlight of the trust calendar and we look forward to seeing staff from all our schools come together at Thomas Gainsborough School.

By Tim Coulson, Chief Executive, Unity Schools Partnership