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| Jo
Lyons, Regan Delf and Mayor Pete West on the i360 for the #IAMWHOLE campaign |
Created in Brighton & Hove through a partnership between the local NHS, Brighton & Hove City Council and young people from the city's YMCA Right Here project, the #IAMWHOLE campaign is aimed at young people aged 13-25 across the country, as well as to parents, teachers, employers and services that provide mental health support. At the end of the day, the brand had reached fifth place in the world for tweets, had received four million hits on Facebook and over 5,000 individual people had drawn circles on their hands. By raising awareness of the issues and support available, the #IAMWHOLE campaign aims to help teenagers and young adults look out for each other as well as making sure everyone knows where to go for professional advice if they need it.
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| Jordan Stephens from The Rizzle Kicks |
A new national website has been launched: www.findgetgive.com, designed to help young people to search for support, share stories about their own mental health and give feedback on services they have used for others to read. ‘Find Get Give’ also includes resources for parents and carers, so please spread the word.
Our secondary schools, colleges and the youth council were supported to take the ideas from the city campaign and develop their own response. Campaign clothing was provided, specially designed by #IAMWHOLE campaign ambassador, Jordan Stephens, from UK hip-hop duo The Rizzle Kicks.
It has been great to see young people across the city developing films, delivering lessons to peers in schools, having their own thunderclaps and many more imaginative ideas.
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| #IAMWHOLE at PACA |
Thank you for all your support. We can't wait to see a flood of ‘circle on hand selfies’ coming from Brighton & Hove schools and colleges over the coming weeks and look forward to working with all our schools and wider partners to improve mental health support for our young people.
Congratulations to St Nicolas Primary who were awarded a Good, a great achievement following their last Ofsted Assessment of Requires Improvement. The report emphasises the strong leadership of the headteacher and the positive contribution that the governing body makes. Well done to Andy and the staff team at St Nicholas. Ofsted have also inspected St Bartholomew’s this term and have judged it still to require improvement. Inspectors recognised the positive direction of travel and noted the very positive response from pupils and parents and praised the accuracy of their school improvement tracking systems.
Ofsted have also been in the city visiting St Peter’s, the Bilingual Primary School and City College. I look forward to reporting back on the outcomes of these inspections in my next blog.
The LGA Peer Review – Safeguarding
We have all been busy in Families, Children and Learning engaging in a Local Government Association (LGA) peer review of Safeguarding. This has been a positive experience where there has been a rigorous look at our processes and practice. While there were a few things they thought we might want to do differently in the future, most of which we were already aware of, they were overwhelmingly positive about our direction of travel. The LGA’s view is that we are doing the right things and that the experience of children and young people as a consequence is improving. They remarked at numerous points on our positive culture which involves us being reflective of our practice, open to learning and child focussed. Although we must never be complacent, we are proud of the work our services are doing and the difference they are making to the lives of very vulnerable children and young people across the city.
Congratulations to award nominees
I’m delighted that our Virtual School has been nominated for the Children and Young People Now Awards 2016 for their work developing Adoption Support. This is alongside two other teams in Families, Children and Learning; the Breastfeeding Team and the Early Parenting Assessment Programme (EPAP).
Hannah Cydnie, our young apprentice, has also been shortlisted for the Public Service People Managers’ Association (PPMA) Apprentice of the Year 2016 award. This is fantastic recognition of the quality of our apprentices and the support the council offers them.
The new Brighton & Hove Inclusion Support Service
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| Mo Bham, Head of Brighton & Hove Inclusion Support Service |
Our new Head of Service for the recently formed Brighton & Hove Inclusion Support Service, Mohammed Bham, has now settled in to his new role. Mo has been meeting headteachers and sharing his vision for the Service. The city’s reorganisation of Educational Psychology and Learning Support Services has properly taken shape this term with a new integrated service in a new home at the County Oak Avenue site. The Integrated Support Service priorities and ways of working should maximise effectiveness and improvement with all our education settings to support inclusion. They are transforming into a more unified service of the future for children and young people (ages 0 – 25 years) with additional needs. They are in the process of developing a unified ‘single point of access’ request system that should help provide an integrated response. Schools will be receiving regular updates via the Schools Bulletin and their link Educational Psychologist and Specialist Teacher.
Talking to Mo, it is clear he is proud to be leading the service, and recognises the team as a talented, creative group of specialist staff providing a prevention and early intervention service to improve the education, learning, and social emotional and mental health of all children and young people with additional needs.
Contact details for the new service are: Brighton & Hove Inclusion Support Service, c/o Brighton & Hove Music & Arts Building, County Oak Avenue, Brighton BN1 8DJ. Tel: 01273 293481
Any Age Apprentices
We are recruiting five level three apprentices to work in the council’s nurseries. The apprenticeships have been promoted by an open evening at City College and publicity featuring an existing nursery apprentice to explain that apprentices can be any age. Please click the link below to read an interview with Hazel about her experience as an apprentice: https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/content/children-and-education/working-childcare/apprenticeship-information-childcare-providers
Thank you to Hazel for being an inspiration to others and to the Early Years team for their work.
Brighton & Hove Education Partnership
The engagement with headteachers, governors and wider partners about the further development of our Brighton & Hove Educational Partnership linking local schools, colleges, universities, wider partners and the local authority is well underway. This is an important opportunity to maintain and grow the strong partnerships and way of working we have established to ensure high education standards and to achieve the best outcomes for our young people by looking to each other and further afield to share and develop best and innovative practice.
Headteachers and governors are invited to go online and have your say here. Hilary Ferries (Senior Adviser: Education Partnerships) is leading a range of discussion opportunities throughout this term: please contact her if you would like to engage further and provide your views.
Governance, Strategy and Partnership
I joined senior colleagues from Education and Skills on 13 October for our termly Governance, Strategy and Partnership Meeting. There was a packed room full of governors representing our schools across the city.
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| Roger Snell at GSP Meeting |
Peter Chivers (Head of Music and Arts) talked about our future city and developing a network for any governors to ensure that we continue to develop interest in the Arts and Culture in all schools.
Dion Page-Hammond (Education Safeguarding Officer) reminded governors of their safeguarding responsibilities and informed the group that he would be setting up meetings with safeguarding governors, in a similar structure to our Equalities Focus Groups.
Roger Snell (Schools’ Traded Services Manager) provided a demonstration of BEEM (http://www.beem.org.uk) and shared the range of traded services the LA provides to schools.
Ellen Mulvihill (Head of Standards and Achievement) gave an update on our positive headline results for 2016. She particularly focussed on how Ofsted have been looking closely at the fact that pupils who are disadvantaged are not achieving well enough. Governors were reminded of their role to scrutinise and monitor what their schools are doing for these disadvantaged children.
The evening was also an opportunity to engage with governors on the development of our Brighton & Hove Education Partnership model and for governors to discuss and share their views and shape this important development.
National Adoption Week
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| Adoption week |
It was great to see a range of events taking place this month for Adoption week, which began on 17 October. Our Virtual School led the way leading a number of activities to promote our work with our adopted children and families. At the Secondary Designated Teacher Network, a presentation and discussion took place on how best to support adopted children. It’s clear that attachment awareness is high on the agenda for our schools and we are beginning to see how this is having an impact on a number of schools across the city.
At the primary network, Lonny Offley from Downs Juniors delivered a presentation on best practice on adoption support in her school. This was very impressive work and was fascinating to hear how one school were listening to the voice of their adopted children and having special lessons for children to explain what Fostering and Adoption means.
Annual School and College Leaders Conference
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| Pinaki and Christine Gilbert at Annual Leaders Conference |
Pinaki and I joined education leaders from across the city’s schools and colleges for our annual education conference at Sussex University. This year’s event focussed on building leadership capacity and partnership working. Christine Gilbert led a debate on ‘leading in a school-led system’ and shared a number of models from across the country that are being developed.
Adam Wright – a motivational speaker – looked with us at some creative approaches to ‘optimising whole school performance’. The feedback from the event was extremely positive with headteachers and leaders commenting on the importance of taking some time out to learn and network together outside of school and college.
Year 11 Employer Speed Dating Event
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| Kai (year 11 student at the Connected Hub) |
This month we organised and facilitated an Employer Speed Dating Event at BACA for year 11 students from our Alternative Provision Schools (Pupil Referral Unit, Homewood College and the Connected Hub). The event gave students a chance to meet and be interviewed by ‘real employers’. The students who came all had a massive boost to their self-esteem and confidence which is so important for this group of young people. The students were buzzing afterwards. Kai was delighted to agree work experience with Wilmott Dixon Construction. Max, who wants to be a cricket coach, has been offered an interview on a Level 2 sports course and was advised that if he achieves the grades required, he can apply to the Cricket Academy at BACA. Several students were offered work experience at Barclays Digital Lab. Another young person is passionate about building kit cars and Latest TV have asked her to write an article about it which they intend to film, broadcast and forward as part of their weekly digital blog to the BBC.
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| Speed interviews with 11 employers and 4 training providers |
National Leaders of Education
National leaders of education are headteachers, executive heads and CEOs, who have experience of effectively supporting schools in challenging circumstances. I’m delighted that Jonathan Cooper, headteacher from St Luke's and Emma Lake, headteacher from Hangleton and Benfield have both been awarded NLE status. It is essential that we have system leaders in the city, they are an important element of a self-improving system and the way we deliver school-to-school support in Brighton & Hove. Jonathan and Emma are available to carry out reviews of your schools if you would find that helpful and are currently bidding for school-to-school support funding through the Aspire Teaching School Alliance.
For more information about NLE’s programme, please click this link:
Our Future City event - #BeCollective
I’m looking forward to attending the next #BeCollective event on Mon 14 November, at Dukes at Komedia on Gardner Street. This will be the Brighton premiere of ‘Most Likely to Succeed’; a Sundance-nominated documentary film that puts forward a powerful case for the transformation of modern schooling.
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‘Most Likely to Succeed’ film
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Please view the 2 minute trailer here: https://vimeo.com/122502930
Since its Sundance premiere, ‘Most Likely to Succeed’ has brought thousands of communities together to engage in lively discussions on the future of education. The film inspires its audiences to revolutionise learning for the 21st century and is a call to action to students, parents, educators, policymakers and organisations to take a stand for the potential of every young person. ‘Most Likely to Succeed’ offers an intelligent critique of the status quo in schools in the United States and provides powerful food for thought for everyone working in the UK context as well.
A dynamic group of people from across Brighton & Hove; school and system leaders, teachers, parents/carers, employers, academics, arts and cultural providers and philanthropists will all be watching the film together. After the screening there will then be an opportunity to continue conversations and to network. I look forward to seeing those who are attending on 14 November.
Schools Christmas Concert, Monday 5 December 2016, 7pm
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| Schools Christmas Concert at the Brighton Centre |
While Christmas might seem like a long time ahead, tickets for the Schools Christmas Concert will sell out quickly. Over 1,200 young singers from Brighton & Hove's primary, junior and special schools will perform a mixture of traditional and especially written songs at the Brighton Centre. We will also see performances from the Brighton & Hove Youth Big Band, Concert Band and Orchestra 360 - an inclusive ensemble for children with Special Education Needs/Disabilities, their parents and siblings. Tickets are now on sale for the biggest event in the music services calendar! Telephone bookings can be made at Ticketmaster on 0844 847 1515 or you can book on line http://brightoncentre.co.uk/whats-on/2016/brighton-hove-schools-concert/
Future Headteacher and School & College Leader events
The next Primary Headteacher Meeting will be taking place on Tuesday 29 November, at the University of Sussex Gallery. The theme will be reducing the differences in progress and attainment between disadvantaged and all children.
The next Primary Headteacher Meeting will be taking place on Tuesday 29 November, at the University of Sussex Gallery. The theme will be reducing the differences in progress and attainment between disadvantaged and all children.
The next Secondary and Continuing Education meeting will be on Friday 25 November, at Hove Park school, and the theme will be Post-16, including Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG).
The next School & College Leaders’ Business Meeting will take place on Friday 24 February, venue tbc. The theme for the meeting will be Maths and the further development of our city-wide strategy.
Best wishes,
Jo
Keep in touch and follow me on Twitter @JoMLyons
Find details here Twitter accounts across all council services.
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