Happy New Year, rather belatedly - I trust you all had a good festive break, though it probably feels like a long time ago by now! We're pleased to be starting 2008 with our Learning to Learn residential in Bristol on 31st January & 1st February, when we'll be hearing from Professor Paul Black from Kings College, London, and Jane Reed from the Institute of Education.

Our events don't stop there, however! For people working with parents and families, our annual Families for Our Times conference in partnership with the BBC on 7th March is a must. The following week our National Learning Forum event is 'Reaching the Unreachable - Teaching the Unteachable', which looks at who exactly is 'hard to reach', by whom and why! Following the success of our one-day Learning to Learn conference in Reading in December, by popular demand we're running a parallel event in Manchester on 24th April, featuring Ian Gilbert and Jackie Beere - see inside for more details.

This newsletter covers a wide range of topics, from the Children's Plan and the Investors in Families scheme, which has just celebrated its first birthday, to National Learning at Work Day in May. An interesting recent development for us has been joint work with NUT on teachers as learners, linking with Learning to Learn and with the efforts of Union Learning Representatives to involve school staff in non-traditional learning experiences on National Learning at Work Day, which the Campaign co-ordinates and which takes place in over 5,000 workplaces every year. If your school or Union doesn't take part in Learning at Work Day and you'd like to know more, please visit www.learningatworkday.com.

Since Christmas we've also been delighted to have been asked to advise the Government on the Education & Skills Bill currently going through Parliament. As you may be aware, this is the legislation that proposes raising the learning leaving age to 18, and gives adults who missed out on school-leaving qualifications when they were younger a statutory entitlement to free access to such provision. We've been pleased to offer Skills Minister David Lammy individual feedback on the adult provisions, and last week I was called as a witness before the House of Commons Public Bill Committee to answer questions. (I have to admit that this was a terrifying experience, but also very interesting, and it's great to see our expertise recognised in this way.) We are now finalising a formal response to the Bill to circulate to members of the Committee, which will be on our website soon, and which tries to include comments we've received from colleagues out there at the chalkface - but if you have a burning issue you want to make sure we raise, do drop me an email at thartley@cflearning.org.uk.

Finally, let me end by paying tribute to my colleague Linda Siegle. When Linda & I took on the running of the Campaign together in 2005, it was for a period of two years, after which Linda planned to reduce her hours and rediscover her many other interests! In fact, it's been almost three years before we could think about sparing her, but from January Linda is working three days a week as our Senior Adviser, developing work with the corporate sector, Trusts and Parliamentarians, and advising in other areas. The silver lining of this for me is that I get the chance of greater involvement in our work with schools. I'm really looking forward to working with you all in realising the huge potential of Learning to Learn over the next few years.

Regards
Tricia Hartley, Chief Executive
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