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| World book day at Woodingdean Primary School |
World Book Day
World Book Day is all about dressing up as your favourite book characters
and on 3rd March there were some colourful costumes all over the
city. Meriel Jones, Every Child a Reader
(ECaR) Teacher at St. Martin's (CE) Nursery and Primary School asked each class to make a big book for their book corners which
the children can share, cherish and enjoy! Adults in the school community were
asked to share their favourite books in a school assembly and the children were
so engrossed and interested in what we liked and why.
Several year groups visited Jubilee/Moulsecoomb libraries. Meriel
said ‘’The children were completely
bowled over by the building itself, couldn't quite believe it was a building
purely full of books. When it came to choosing a book they were amazed at the
choice on offer. They really loved their experience there.’’
It is so positive to see that events like this have been successful
in engaging many children from our Brighton and Hove schools in reading and
books.
This month we received the Ofsted report for the City
Council’s Family and Community Learning provision which was inspected in late
January. I am delighted it has been rated as a good provider with a judgement
that safeguarding is effective. Inspectors noted the responsiveness of our
family learning team. The provision was deemed to be collaborating well with
partners and responsive to learners, while targeting the hard to reach pupils.
Overall learner achievement was rated as good, while learners with difficulties
found to achieve outstandingly well. Tutors’ planning and general guidance was
also deemed to be good.
Ofsted also inspected Longhill secondary school this
month and I look forward to receiving the final report.
Post
16 Skills and Learning
At
the end of National Apprentice week I joined other council leads, Head
teacher’s local businesses, colleges and other agencies for the launch of the
Employer Pledge at the Dome. The
Employer Skills Taskforce has been headed by Zac Toumazi, CEO of Sussex County
Cricket. The event considered how
businesses can be better linked to schools and how apprenticeship numbers can
be increased.
One
of the recommendations is to recruit a Governor for Enterprise within each
school, who can champion entrepreneurship within the curriculum, support initiatives
that raise awareness of the world of work and promote employability. Another
commitment is to recruit 1000 apprentices in 1000 days a commitment from
employers across the city. As part of this, the council has committed to
recruit 100 apprentices 2016/17 and will be supporting employer engagement with
schools, which is another part of the pledge.
Please
follow the link to find out more.
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| Stephanie Baker Post 16 Apprentice presenting at the LSEP |
At
this month’s Learning, Skills and Employment Partnership meeting it was also positive
to hear two of the council's apprentices talk about their experience within the
council, in their role as apprenticeship ambassadors.
Secondary School Admissions Review- Engagement Phase
Secondary School Admissions Review- Engagement Phase
I have been busy with Richard Barker (Head of School
Organisation) and other team colleagues this month hosting a serious of
engagement events across the city as part of our review of secondary admissions
catchment areas. There have been 8 events so far and we have had
over 500 responses via the council’s online portal. Additional events will take place after the
Easter school holidays including opportunities to engage with young people. This
engagement phase runs up till 1st May and will inform the statutory
consultation that will take place in autumn 2016.
Please do look at the
website www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/schooladmissions and provide your views and
comments as this is such an important development for the city and its children,
families and schools.
Launch of the Schools of Sanctuary Programme
I was delighted to open the launch event for the Schools
of Sanctuary programme. 50 people attended representing 22 schools and we were
all moved by the stories of refugees Alex Ntung and Gee Manoharan. Students and
staff from Blatchington Mill shared Moving Stories – films made by young
people to tell the stories of leaving their home country and moving to Brighton
& Hove. Teachers from St Luke’s and Patcham High shared work they had done
to include teaching and learning about refugees across the curriculum and St
Bartholomew’s staff explained the work they had done to welcome and include two
Syrian refugees into their school family. The feedback included ‘a very moving morning, the personal stories
were extraordinary’, ‘incredibly affirming’.
Jenny Lansdell -Chair of Sanctuary and Tania Hendry - Hove Park School
Integrated
Learning Support and Educational Psychology Services
The consultation period is now over on our plans to make
improvements to the way our learning support and educational psychology
services support schools, their pupils and their families. We have listened to
the feedback and have taken it into account in our final proposals for change.
We also engaged a consultant to scrutinise our review of our support services
and her report will also influence the final outcome. The work and its final
proposals were well received by the Children, Young People and Skills Committee.
Regan and I are currently in the process of recruiting the new Head of Service
and working with the teams to plan the bringing together the of new integrated
service.
The Education
Partnerships in Brighton & Hove
Many of you will have seen the announcement by the
Chancellor in the recent budget speech and the new White Paper ‘Education
Excellence Everywhere’, which includes government’s policy that every school
must become an academy. Linked to this will be legislation with regard to the
role of Local Authorities and our role in education. It suggests that local authorities will be
moving to a radically different relationship with its schools.
It will be no surprise to you to learn that the City Council
and its Administration are absolutely committed to ensuring that education and
schools remain central to fulfilling the ambitions of children and young people
here in the city irrespective of the governance arrangements that emerge over
time
We hosted a very positive meeting this month with the
head teacher, chairs of the cluster partnerships, college principals and our
wider education partners from the University of Brighton and Sussex, the
Aldridge Foundation and the Russell Education Trust, to look at the positive
work of our current partnerships and how we can improve and develop them
further going forward. We are looking forward to widening this debate with a
session with all heads governors and the wider partnership early next term
where we can look at the full implications of the White Paper and so we can
develop in the post legislative landscape.
There are several potential models that could be developed and we are
working on the merits and demerits of each of those and will fully engage with
you so that any new model is co-constructed. We would therefore encourage you
to engage with us as we plan out what that future will look like so we retain
the best facets of the positive partnerships what we have in Brighton and Hove.
Let's
dance 2016
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| Picture from Dorothy Stringer’s website |
This month was the annual spectacular week long event
celebrating school and young people’s dance organised by Dorothy Stringer
School and it was an amazing evening, a real celebration of dance with well
rehearsed routines, incredible eye catching costumes and even a guest
appearance from one of our Primary Deputy
Headteachers on stage. The stage was full of colour with wigs,
extravagant costumes and a lot of gold lame! 78 schools, colleges, dance groups
and the University of Brighton had danced on stage over the week, and I’m sure the show gets better and better each
year. Thank you to all the children and young people who took part and thank
you especially to Dorothy Stringer School for continuing to give the children
and young people this opportunity to perform together in such a big event.
Welcome and Goodbye
Claire King my Personal Assistant and the Education and Inclusion Office Manager left us at the end of term. Claire has been amazing in her role and has done much to improve our systems and communication in the branch and across Children’s Services. We will miss her very much and wish her well in her new role with the Clinical Commissions group
Claire king and Jo Lyons on Claire’s last day
Welcome to Anne Henderson who has joined the School
Admissions Team from the youth service as Senior Admissions Officer.
Anna Czepil has been appointed as the new Head of SEN
Statutory Services. Anna is currently SEND (Special Educational Needs
& Disabilities) Joint Commissioning Manager in East Sussex. Until she joins
us, which is unlikely to be for three months or so, Ronny Burfield will
continue the excellent job she has been doing so far as Acting Head of this
section.
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| Stephanie Baker |
I am delighted that Rachel Simmonds, Head Teacher from West Blatchington Primary School will join the team part time next term supporting us with our school improvement work and the development of our self-improving school led system.
SoundCity 4
A big, big thank you to
everyone who performed in Brighton and Hove's annual celebration of young
musical talent, SoundCity 4 on Saturday 12 March at the Corn Exchange.
The night brilliantly showcased the incredible, diverse and inclusive music
making that is happening amongst young people across the city. All
acts performed amazingly and made it a fantastic and
memorable night! If you weren’t amongst
the fabulous supporters in the audience, you can watch again here http://brightondome.org/extras/live_streams/watch_again_soundcity/
Best wishes,
Jo
Keep in touch and follow me on Twitter
@JoMLyons
