George Grimsey, University Student, has joined The White Rose Academies Trust on his one year University Industrial Placement. George will be working closely with the Executive Principal and the Head of Communications and Projects, as a key member of the Central Trust team; read George's third blog below:
It has now been three weeks since my last blog and I cannot believe how fast the time has flown. The last few weeks have been an extremely busy period for the Trust with a number of new opportunities presenting themselves.
The focus last week was supporting the Executive Principal on an upcoming project; this was a very busy period as we carried out lots of research on his behalf. This experience was extremely valuable, as we had to work well as a team to meet the deadline. Another valuable experience in the last few weeks was a skype meeting. In this meeting, we started off with a few technical issues and couldn’t hear through the laptop. Fortunately, we managed to think on our feet and find a solution. This experience has taught me that not everything always goes to plan which is not necessarily a problem.
"The focus last week was supporting the Executive Principal on an upcoming project; this was a very busy period as we carried out lots of research on his behalf. This experience was extremely valuable, as we had to work well as a team to meet the deadline."
In the last few weeks I have also been busy co-ordinating various meetings for the Executive Principal and other senior leaders. This has involved me planning dates when everyone is available, sending calendar invites, organising rooms and refreshments and then making sure everything is organised prior to the meeting. Usually this involves creating an agenda and gathering any resources that are requested. I have then been attending the meetings I am coordinating to take notes and actions for next time. Following the meetings, I send these actions out to all attendees. One of the groups I am coordinating is focusing on improving Teaching and Learning. I attended the first meeting for this group last week and I am currently in the process of creating a Terms of Reference following a discussion with the Principal of LCA who is the chair of the meeting, coordinating these groups has been a great experience and I have learnt a lot about how progress is made in schools.
This week I attended an exciting meeting between the Trust and Leeds United FC at Elland Road. I am looking forward to the follow up meeting next week at Leeds City Academy.
I am now looking forward to working on my new project which will involve starting the WRAT Alumni Group. This has already involved me creating a mail merge and letters which will be sent out shortly. This will also involve me supporting the creation of a web page as well as a number of other tasks.
I have really enjoyed every experience at the Trust so far and I cannot wait to see what new opportunities arrive over the coming weeks.
