A Learning Ambition for Norfolk

What is the Learning Ambition?

We want Norfolk to be a county where all children and young people can flourish. Our ambition is that all children and young people are achieving their full potential and developing skills which prepare them for life. This is a key part of our Norfolk Flourish ambition.

Why do we need a Learning Ambition?

We know that there exist challenges within our education system, which affect outcomes for  children and young people across the county. Over the course of the last year, we have been engaging with a wide range of education settings and stakeholders, to discuss the best way that Norfolk County Council can support a self-improving system.

Some of the priority challenges were identified as:

• Recruitment and retention of skilled staff
• Demands on support for Early Years learning
• The percentage of school pupils with SEND
• Increasing levels of challenging behaviour in Norfolk's mainstream schools
• Achievement at KS2
• Participation at post 16

We feel that our role as a Local Authority is to create the conditions for success within the system, facilitating joint pieces of work which help education providers to collaborate, support, challenge and learn with each other.

What does the Learning Ambition look like?

We want to be clear about our role in the education system and the areas in which we feel we can be most supportive, so that everyone understands how the system can work together.

Childrens Services is now engaged with a range of complementary strategies to address wider needs, all of which align with our Flourish ambition and which are designed to bring the system together.

These strategies are:

• The Learning Ambition
• Attendance is Everyone's Business
• Local First Inclusion
•  Speech and Language Transformation
• Prevention & Early Help Strategy
• Mental Health Strategy