However, last Thursday I had to deal with a tragedy that no family, school or community should have to deal with. It concerned a family with seven children who had moved into the area three years ago and who have been living in overcrowded accommodation.
Early in the morning three of those children were trapped in a house fire in Blackpool and subsequently died. One was a nursery child, one a reception child and one in Year 3, all at our school. All were boys.
That afternoon I had to inform the school's staff and pupils of the three children's deaths. We are all numb, upset and angry - experiencing a mix of emotions. We now have to support our children, their families and the community through the trauma.
In the evening we held our induction evening for new families coming into the Early Years Unit in September. We had sent invitations to the evening to other services, included representatives from environmental health. My last conversation with the environmental health officers had been to discuss ways in which tenants in private accommodation can share their concerns about private landlords with the appropriate authorities.
It is essential that initiatives such as Sure Start, Early Excellence Centres and Neighbourhood Nurseries are encouraged to support the needs of the local community. It is not about hitting simplistic targets, such as the number of adults receiving training to return them to the workplace.
Of course, this is important for the long-term strategy of addressing the economic improvement of the community. But, in the short term, we must eradicate the situations that lead to the kind of tragedy with which I had to deal last week.
