Today Brighter Futures for Children announced the appointment of Brian Grady as our new permanent Director of Education from 1st May. Please find below a personal message from Brian:
Dear colleagues
I am pleased to introduce myself as Director of Education. Reading is a special place. We have all the ingredients for every Reading child and young person to thrive and succeed. As a local resident I see the excellence in our local education system every day, but I also know that not every Reading child benefits from all the opportunities we have on offer. Together we can build on the excellence you already have put in place in your schools to make Reading the truly outstanding education system that all our children and young people deserve.
My professional anchor is in psychology and research. I started my career in the voluntary sector in north London. From there I have had the privilege over the last two decades of holding a number of leadership roles in local authority education and children’s services, working in partnership with schools to improve outcomes for local children. From improving school readiness and early years outcomes through the opening of 32 multi-disciplinary school-based children’s centres across a county, to establishing new primary and secondary provision and overseeing programmes delivering improved attainment for disadvantaged groups, to most recently leading my current London Borough’s COVID-19 pandemic response with 88 local schools and the subsequent planning for wellbeing and education recovery.
I have been inspired by the transformative effect we can have in children’s lives when we work together as a collective system of education leaders. Over the coming months I hope to visit as many of you in your schools as I can to see for myself the excellence we have in our schools and to deepen my understanding of both the challenges and opportunities that you face, so that Brighter Futures for Children can best support you as school leaders and so that we can work on these challenges for Reading children, together.
I look forward to working alongside you to develop the best education, the most exciting opportunities, the widest possible horizons and the brightest possible futures for every Reading child.
I’m sure that governors will be delighted to meet Brian in the coming months, and we hope that he will recognise the strength of school governance in Reading and enable stronger communications and working practices.