July Update

Such a lot has happened in the last month that it's difficult to know where to begin! Perhaps the best way would be chronologically. So, as the song says, let's start at the very beginning.

Firstly, I hope you all had a great holiday, whatever you did and wherever you went. I know it must seem a long time ago now and you are already well into this term.

The second weekend in June saw the 5th Asia TEFL & the 1st MILE Conference. Several of our staff gave presentations: Alison Lyall, Rob Clement, Ron Coveney, Mick Hughes, Mark Baldwin & Karen Halahan from Malaysia and Gavin Cowley from Brunei. Thanks also go to those who 'manned' the CfBT stand (see photo album). We had lots of visitors and it was a real opportunity to let people know just who we are and what we are doing in Malaysia. If you've been checking your e-mails, you would have seen the Star article and the picture of the ever popular Mick Hughes being 'swamped'. In case you missed it, here it is. Other presenters weren't so lucky with the press coverage but several did get mentioned in the article.

In June there were also two conferences in the UK to which several of our staff were invited. The first was a two day Primary Symposium, "Leading the Highly Effective School" which several of us attended, whilst others had meetings with senior people in the Reading office. This was followed by the "Making a Difference - Together" staff conference where Jeremy Bishop and Rebecca Hazell both gave a talk on their work in Malaysia. At both conferences we were able to meet people from other projects in the UK and from around the world, which gave us a better idea of what CfBT does on a global basis. We will tell you more about it at the Annual Conference , but in the meantime, if anybody would like more information, please feel free to contact us at the office.

Whilst in the UK we received the e-mail from CDC that informed us of the date change for the Annual Conference. You can imagine the panic that this caused! Only two weeks to go and we weren't in the office to let everybody know. Thank goodness for e-mails! The new date, as you now know, is the end of August. For those of you who had already made flight bookings, I would suggest that you wait a while before making any changes so as not incur any more extra charges than you already have. We will be in touch as soon as we can confirm the new date with any certainty.

The last thing that I would like to say is about the recent changes to the management structure for SE Asia. You should have all seen the e-mail from Andrew Caie by now, but in case you haven't, the main points are that he is now the Executive Director Malaysia and as such is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Malaysia office. Chris Bell will move to Malaysia full time soon and will be responsible for Business Development in SE Asia. These changes have been brought about in the main by changes in the CfBT Reading office and a response to last year's staff survey. Andrew is looking forward to catching up with everybody at the Annual Conference in August but has also said that you should feel free to contact him any time if the need arises.

OK, so the last paragraph was not the last thing I wanted to say. Obviously, many of you are anxious to know what is happening next year. I get many e-mails from you all and this question appears in some form or other in most of them. The short answer is, "I don't know." I can say that Andrew Caie and Chris Bell had a meeting with CDC recently and are currently endeavoring to arrange a meeting with the Secretary General. We are all hoping that something positive will come out of that meeting. And as I always say, "When we know something, you'll be the first to know."

Ron Coveney
INSETT Manager