Happy Christmas

Wishing you a Happy Christmas 

and good wishes for the New Year

from

Jo Lyons

and the

Education & Skills team

Schools Christmas Concert

A highlight of my week was attending this year’s Schools Christmas Concert. A spectacular performance by over 1,500 children and young people from 44 schools across the city. This event is a great example of our Brighton & Hove Education Partnership working together to show its very best practice. Congratulations to all the young singers and musicians, the Music and Arts service and the schools for their hard work and creative performances. As well as the amazing choir, we heard the Brighton & Hove Big Band, Brighton Youth Orchestra, and Orchestra 360. My favourite of the night was ‘No Room at the Inn’ by J Redwood with Cedar Centre and Downs View School. Also so good to see everyone using Makaton, even the audience!

Christmas Concert School Choirs

Merry Christmas, Everyone! https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/940342242337804293

Longhill High School - Be the Change Programme

Graham Moore and students from Longhill High School

Volunteers from Brighton’s business community were touched by the honest and emotional stories from 13 and 14 year olds from Longhill High School who stood up and talked about their life experiences and day to day challenges at the one off Be the Change event at the school which was organised and managed by LoveLocalJobs.com.

Student from Longhill High School presenting to the room

Almost 100 students and 25 business volunteers from organisations such as Southern Water, American Express and Focus Group took part in activities that focussed on happiness, confidence, hope, relationships and employability and many of them bravely spoke about the very personal issues which they feel are holding them back. The central aim of Be the Change is to encourage young people to aspire to a brighter future and discuss the issues they need to overcome in order to achieve that goal, with the support of business professionals from the local business community.

Group work with business guides and students from Longhill High School

Jo Ellis, Head of Year 9 from Longhill High School said: ‘Brilliant Day! To see students feeling safe and secure, being honest and open with their peers about their own insecurities was amazing. I have never seen so many of these students engaged and listening so intently all day. I have been inspired as a teacher by the skill demonstrated by the Be the Change team – they really did have a huge impact on every young person in the room. I would definitely recommend Be the Change for all year 9 students.’

Teaching Schools

The two teaching schools in the city, Pavilion and Downs Teaching School Alliance and the Sussex Coast Teaching School Alliance are both developing their offers to schools locally and beyond. Both teaching school alliances in partnership with the Local Authority have put in bids for the DfE’s Strategic School Improvement Fund for maths at KS2 and behaviour and attendance at KS4. We will know whether these have been successful in early January.

Pavilion and Downs are now offering a range of courses and opportunities using expert teachers from across the five member schools. These include coaching for staff and 'leading for Characterful Schools'.
Sussex Coast are taking part in the EEF project; 'School Partnership Programme', which enables colleagues to be fully trained in supporting and challenging other schools. They are also delivering a suite of leadership programmes in partnership with the Institute of Education.
Find out more about the opportunities they offer on their websites; http://www.pavilionanddowns.co.uk/ and https://sussexcoasttsa.co.uk/brighton-hove/primary/sctsa

Congratulations to Carden Nursery and Primary School

Carden has become one of the first schools in England to win a new national award for making a commitment to develop its students to be the best they can be in competitive school sport.

School Games Mark platinum winners, Carden Primary School

They are one of only 104 schools in the country to receive the special School Games Platinum Award. They have been rewarded for their commitment to the development of sport across schools and into the community. They have shown consistently high-levels of enthusiasm and commitment to school sport.

Helen Longton-Howorth, Head Teacher said: ‘I am so pleased and proud that our fantastic PE team and children who have worked tirelessly to achieve this award have been successful. It is testament to our hugely successful sports and PE programme which is so beneficial to all our students.’

Well done, Carden. We are very proud of your success.

Youth Cross Party Working Group

The first meeting on the Youth Cross Party Group took place on 13 December. The aim of the group is to explore long-term arrangements for youth provision in the city and a governance model that includes the voice of young people. Nine young people attended from a range of youth organisations including Brighton Youth Centre, the Hangleton and Knoll Project, the Children in Care Council, the Youth Council and AudioActive. The meeting was chaired by Councillor Dan Chapman and also attended by Councillors Vanessa Brown and Alex Phillips, and our Executive Director of Families, Children and Learning Pinaki Ghoshal. The group discussed how it will work in the future including how to feed in views from more young people across the city. The group also discussed the proposals for a Youth Portal to bring together information on activities for young people. The next meeting will be held in January and look at existing youth services in more detail and priorities for future work.

My visit to Patcham High

The Bridge Centre at Patcham High

Thank you to John McKee at Patcham High for welcoming me to the school this month. During my visit it was positive to see how the school is developing new provision and intervention at their Bridge Centre to support the social and emotional needs of young people and continuing the development of the school’s inclusive practice. Patcham are working closely with Albion in the Community to support the development of the Bridge. It was good to meet Laura Sourbutts who is the Senior Learning Mentor at the Bridge and hear how passionate she is about the work and meeting the needs of the young people. 

Patcham books

The Skills & Employment Team

The Skills & Employment Team co-ordinated a Rapid Response Employment Event with the DWP (Department of Work & Pensions) for staff made redundant from Palmer & Harvey at Jubilee Library on 11 December 2017. Palmer & Harvey, one of the UK’s largest private companies, went into administration with 2,500 immediate job losses a fortnight ago. Locally this has affected 160 people who live in BN postcodes. Barclays, Ocado, Legal & General & Parker Building Supplies were among the employers who attended, plus LoveLocalJobs and a range of recruitment agencies. Expert help was also at hand with face-to-face interviews and help with C.V. writing. The DWP & Citizens Advice Bureau were there to offer advice on the benefits system, and the changes with the rollout of Universal Credit in Brighton & Hove. Independent and college training providers also attended to let people know about course and re-training opportunities.

Rapid Response Employment Event at Jubilee Library

The Skills & Employment Team, led by Rachel Carter, works to support and sustain adult skills in the city and to achieve the objectives of the City Employment & Skills Plan. Many thanks to all the council staff who rallied round to make this event happen in a week and the library service who gave us free use of conference facilities. We could not have run this event without the team of apprentices Ella, Mairna & Harriet who were so helpful and flexible.

Lots of our schools have been inspected in the last month, and we’ve had the results back for a number of them.

I’m delighted to announce that Westdene Primary, Cottesmore St Marys, Coldean Primary School, Patcham High and The BPRU were all graded as Good once again in their last Ofsted inspections. Congratulations to headteachers, school staff, children and governors.

All reports are available on the Ofsted website: https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/

Balfour Primary also had an inspection this half term and although the overall judgement was Requires Improvement, we are pleased that the inspectors reported: 'Balfour Primary School is a place where pupils can be themselves and are respected as individuals’ ‘the quality of teaching is now good and improving’.

The Ofsted Annual report is also out, read it here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ofsted-annual-report-201617

Research and Evidence Based Practice

I am looking forward to welcoming Kevan Collins, Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Fund to our school and college leaders meeting on January 19th, which has the theme of research and evidence based practice.

Kevan will be talking about the importance of evidence and research in education, using some of the EEF projects as examples. Jonathan Cooper will be talking about St Luke's approach to research based Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and colleagues will be sharing some of the research they have done.

All school and college leaders and interested senior leaders are very welcome to attend. Please register on BEEM and, if you would like to share anything from your school or college, please contact Hilary Ferries (hilary.ferries@brighton-hove.gov.uk).

Welcome, Goodbye and Thankyou

After 30 years’ service, Wendy Ellis-Martin, Transport Team Leader, is taking early retirement and will be leaving her role in January. We wish her all the very best in her future endeavours.

Iain Parks, Deputy Headteacher from St Andrew’s and St Martin’s will be leaving the authority to take up a headship role in Liverpool which starts in January. As well as his Deputy Head duties Iain has also contributed to Brighton & Hove SACRE for the last two years. We all wish him the very best luck in his new role.

Congratulations to Roger Snell, Traded Services Manager, who has been successfully recruited to a 12 month secondment as Orbis Schools Lead starting in February 2018. The role is to lead the development and delivery of the traded service strategy for schools and academies within the Orbis Partnership and will involve working closely with service leads to understand and develop existing approaches and identifying new opportunities within the market to help strengthen the Orbis offer. Orbis is a local authority shared services partnership between Surrey, East Sussex and Brighton Councils. Roger will use the extensive knowledge built up working here and previously in East Sussex in his new role and we are pleased he will still be in regular contact. Arrangements for how his role will be covered during the 12 months will follow.

Best wishes,

Jo

Keep in touch and follow me on Twitter @JoMLyons
Find details here Twitter accounts across all council services.

All Different – All Equal

PACA students with their anti-bullying socks

This month was Anti-bullying Week (ABW) and once again there was lots of great practice going on in our Brighton & Hove schools. The theme of ‘All Different, All Equal’ reminded us all to celebrate both our similarities and our diversities with equal measure. 

Primary schools used materials developed by the Primary PSHE Lead Teachers, which included:

• Reception classes focused on welcoming all children into their games using the story of Blue Penguin 
• Years 1 & 2 created class community jigsaws to celebrate their connections as well as celebrating their differences
• Lower key stage 2 classes thought about Jo Cox’s statement ‘We have more than connects us than divides us’ and created connection webs, and thought about how they could help ensure everyone is treated equally in their schools 
• Upper key stage 2 looked at the Equalities Act and some equality campaign slogans and designed their own equalities t-shirts, and they also practiced safe challenges to prejudiced or bullying behaviour

Patcham Infant class community jigsaw display

Secondary schools also got in on the action and carried out anti-bullying lessons in PSHE lessons and tutor time. There were lots of displays, assemblies and activities including:

• A ‘Words Hurt’ display
• ABW wrist bands being sold to raise awareness
• New cohort of Anti-bullying Ambassadors were trained and introduced in assemblies
• Students shared stories of how they have been bullied / discriminated against because of their religion
• Positivity walls with messages of positivity and compliments to take and keep or share 

This year schools were encouraged to wear odd socks in a fun way to support anti-bullying week. It’s an opportunity for children to express themselves and appreciate individuality and uniqueness! Many schools across the city took part in this wonderful way of celebrating our differences.

Well done to all and let’s make sure this great work continues throughout the year. 

Apprenticeships in our schools and early years settings

Congratulations to the Apprenticeship Team for holding a positive event for schools and early years providers this month in Hove Town Hall. The event was dedicated to help schools navigate the new apprenticeship options available. Staff from schools, early years providers and university were on hold to talk to those attending and answer their questions. 

If you would like more information on apprenticeships, please contact Carla Butler Carla.Butler@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Governance Strategy and Partnership Event

It was a pleasure for me to welcome over 60 governors to this term’s Governance, Strategy and Partnership (GSP) meeting. We held this straight after the Apprenticeship Fair and it was good to see some governors arrive early to find out more about what apprenticeships were on offer for their school. The GSP agenda was packed as always, with some challenging discussions about school funding, SEN and education standards. This meeting is a good opportunity for our senior managers to update governors about the current issues facing schools, so they can have informed discussions with their headteachers in governors’ meetings.

I was also delighted to see two of our current governors give presentations about their own development as governors - thank you to Amanda Mortensen (Local Leader of Governance) and Adrianne Nnadi (Training Link Governor).   

Governors’ handbook from 50 years ago

There was some light relief at the end of the session when Sharon MacKenzie, School & Governance Development Manager, showed us a governors’ handbook from 50 years ago (note the price of 2s & 6d!). There were some similarities, such as funding being closely monitored and partnership working with other schools being promoted, but one area that has thankfully long gone is headteachers having to provide reports about corporal punishment!

Richard Barker, Head of School Organisation, speaking at Governance Strategy and Partnership Meeting

Achievement Awards

I was delighted to join young people their carers and staff from across Families, Children and Learning for our annual achievement awards for children in care and care leavers. It was a great opportunity to see the tremendous achievement of our children and young people and schools and colleges and more widely in music, sport and art. 

  

Una McCartan, Lyndsey Grice and colleagues at the Achievement Awards. Thank you for your hard work to make the awards happen!

Brighton & Hove Education Partnership

Our Brighton & Hove Education Partnership Board met again this month to continue its strategic planning around the key priorities. One of the priorities that the board has identified is that of education staff recruitment, retention and celebration. This is growing into a national concern and I think it is great that locally we are tackling this early, before we see a real impact in Brighton & Hove. Whilst some schools have no problem recruiting, there are those who find it difficult and so we hope a whole-city approach will make a difference and ensure all schools and colleges can find and retain excellent staff.

To this end we are planning a recruitment fair in January, both for those who are already training to be teachers and for those who think they may wish to pursue a career in education. Headteachers and young people will be presenting at this. We are hoping to have pop-up stands around the city to advertise the fair, and we will be working closely with the Universities and teaching Schools. We also hope to promote the different avenues into schools work.

If you have any ideas or suggestions for how we could move this forward, please contact Hilary Ferries hilary.ferries@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Sweetpeas Group

Music Mike with children and parents at Sweetpeas

Global’s ‘Make Some Noise’ is Heart FM own charity which supports different projects across the UK. Sussex Heart FM works in partnership with six local projects within Brighton & Hove to support the most isolated and disadvantaged families. This year Heart FM selected ‘Sweetpeas’, a parent-led group based at Tarner Children’s Centre, as one of the projects to support. Sweetpeas is a project which supports parents / carers and families with children who have special educational needs and learning disabilities. The group helps parents / carers share their experiences, build their confidence, and create peer networks to support each other. Heart FM visited Tarner Children’s Centre to take part in one of the sessions and to meet all the parents and children.

One parent said ‘Sweetpeas is a life saver for me and my daughter. It is a safe clean place which is really important for me and especially my daughter. Sweetpeas gives me the chance to talk to other parents who are all very supportive.’ 

Music Mike with children and parents at Sweetpeas

National School Meals week

This month we had the opportunity to celebrate with our primary schools everything that’s good about school meals in Brighton & Hove – healthy, tasty, social and fun! Good quality ingredients are used within the service, including sustainable fish, Red Tractor quality meats and fresh vegetables. Eat a rainbow promotes take-up of vegetables, salad and fresh fruit amongst our pupils.
  

Food & Mood provides healthy choices that children can sit and enjoy together. Studies show that sharing a meal with friends can help improve overall wellbeing.

This month it was great to see Hangleton Primary, Peter Gladwin and Patcham Infants trying a new pizza base (thin and crispy) topped with our vegetable-packed homemade tomato sauce. Some classes had the opportunity to top pizzas which were then cooked for them in time for lunch for the whole class to enjoy together! We finished off on Friday with a Seaside Special, adding some salmon fishcakes to our MSC fish as an extra for children to try (Omega 3 benefits).

Thanks to all the schools for celebrating the schools meals service and taking part in activities.

Peter Gladwin pupils making pizzas

I’m delighted to announce that St Joseph’s Catholic Primary were graded as Good once again in their last Ofsted inspection. Congratulations to Fran Morrison and all staff, children and governors on this positive outcome. Link to report

St Paul’s CE Primary were also inspected this month, and were judged to be Good again. Congratulations to Linda Dupret and all staff, children and governors on this positive outcome. Link to report

The Ofsted report for Homewood College was released and although the overall judgement was Requires Improvement, we are pleased that: ‘The governors, headteacher, senior leaders and staff are determined to improve their school further. Pupils make strong progress in art because of good teaching and high expectations. Safeguarding is effective. Relationships between pupils and staff are exceptionally strong.’ Link to report

We are very proud of all these schools’ successes – well done.

We have had a very busy time with these recent inspections, and more at the following schools: Balfour Primary, Coldean Primary, Cottesmore St Mary's Catholic Primary School, Patcham High, the PRU and Westdene Primary.

Once the reports are out I will report back in the next blog.

St Martin’s School visit Mayor Mo Marsh

Children from St Martin’s Primary celebrating Ofsted success with a visit to the Mayor’s Parlour

To celebrate St Martin’s Primary Ofsted achievement moving for Requires Improvement to Good earlier this term, some of the children and staff were invited to the Mayor’s Parlour. They enjoyed meeting the Mayor and getting to see the Council Chamber. Congratulations to Alex Wingham and all staff, young people and governors on this positive outcome. 

Mayor Mo Marsh with St Martin’s Primary children in the Council Chamber

Children’s Centres Annual Team Day

Gordon Harold speaking at the Children’s Centres Conference

Our Children's Centres held their annual team day in November and I was privileged to join them and opened the morning. There was such a lot to celebrate this year including an Outstanding OFSTED inspection at Jumpstart nursery, a new volunteer run café in Hollingdean, lots of parents signing up to the European Funded PACE project, a high take up of Triple P interventions in the centres, and very positive new working relationships with community and voluntary organisations CHOMP, The Brighton Dome, Brighton & Hove Music and Arts, MASCot, and Brighton & Hove Food Partnership.  

Volunteer staff at the Hollingdean Community café

Gordon Harold, a professor in child and adolescent mental health, gave an inspiring presentation focusing on the impact of inter-parental relationships on children's emotional health and wellbeing. Gordon has recently been advising the government on their policies to develop and roll out this area of work within Children and Family services, so the team were delighted to hear first-hand about his research and policy recommendations.

Caroline Parker Head of Early Years, Family Support, Youth and Parenting launched the Early Years Strategy which the Children’s Centres teams have been involved in writing and will be implementing the 'Ten Next Steps'. You can read the strategy here: early years strategy.

The event also had a focus on the emotional health and wellbeing of staff, who came up with some very innovative ideas to help combat stress in the workplace which they hope to be able implement locally in the centres.
  

Gordon Harold speaking at the Children’s Centre Conference

Helen Cowling - Service Manager for the Children’s Centres was delighted with the very positive evaluations from staff about the event. Well done to the team!

Best wishes,

Jo

Keep in touch and follow me on Twitter @JoMLyons
Find details here Twitter accounts across all council services.

Congratulations to our new Teaching Schools

Benfield primary school children celebrating with the hats they have made

I am delighted that the Sussex Coast Teaching School Alliance is now up and running and will be led by Benfield Primary in Portslade. It is made up of an alliance of schools including primary, secondary and special schools. This is a great success for this partnership and for the city. See Twitter account @BenfieldPrimary @Portslade Leader

Congratulations also to Pavilion & Downs Teaching School who have just had a very successful launch which I attended earlier this month. Follow their Twitter account on https://twitter.com/paviliondowns and their new website http://www.pavilionanddowns.co.uk/ to hear about their offer and aspirations.

William Deighan at the launch of the Pavilion & Downs Teaching School

The two teaching schools are such important developments for the Brighton & Hove Education Partnership and will provide us with a great opportunity to support initial teacher training and ensure continued professional development is in place for our entire school workforce. The teaching schools will also promote and develop school-to-school support and will share best practice and support schools with a range of needs.

Ellen Mulvihill speaking at the Pavilion & Downs Teaching School launch

Special School & PRU Reorganisation

Our proposals to merge our existing special schools and PRUs to create three integrated Hubs was given final approval at the council’s Children, Young People and Skills Committee last month. You can read the full committee report here. This means that we can now move ahead to implement changes after a very lengthy period of debate and consultation. While we know there have been mixed views about the various elements of proposed changes, we are confident that all of us will want to work together to fulfil the vision for our new Hubs and improve even further provision and outcomes for our young people with SEND.

This is an exciting development for the city. We already have good and outstanding specialist provision in our city. Our vision, based on feedback and consultation with families and professionals, is to improve this by:

• Ensuring excellence consistently across the board for all children and young people
• Extending the integrated education, health and care (extended day / respite for short breaks) offer on the site of each Hub
• Providing more support for our families coping with the most complex needs and challenging behaviours
• Extending the post 16 offer for our most vulnerable young people
• Improving the process of transition to adulthood·      

If you require any further information, please contact Regan.Delf@brighton-hove.gov.uk

World Mental Health Day

Fairlight Pupils with ‘Flo and the Funny Feelings’ author Anna Williamson

Carlton Hill, St Luke’s and Fairlight pupils recognised World Mental Health Day on the 10^th of October. Year 4 children at Fairlight learnt to understand their different feeling like happiness and anxiety from the story ‘Flo and the Funny Feelings’. Author, TV presenter and Childline counsellor: Anna Williamson visited the school to share the story about safety and how to recognise worry, stress and anxiety. The story also explains some coping mechanisms and the importance of seeking help from trusted adults if they are worried.

   

Anna Williamson reading to a class at Fairlight

Read more at: Brighton & Hove Independent and The Argus

Well done to all schools involved.

This learning is part of the Primary Schools Mental Health Initiative. Sign up here to receive the Primary Schools Toolkit. www.findgetgive.com

The YMCA have also been busy and produced the Right Here Parent / Carer Mini-Guide to support parents and carers of children aged 5 – 10, providing information and advice around how to talk to your child about their emotional mental health wellbeing: Parent Guide

For more information: https://www.brightonandhovewellbeing.org/

Celebrating our local Black History

In conjunction with the University of Brighton’s Race and Faith Staff Equality Network Group, all are welcomed to discover the incredible Black History of Brighton & Hove, and the ongoing impact and contribution of African and Caribbean people in Sussex at the Edward Street Lecture Theatre on Friday 20^th Oct, 4-6pm.

Join Bert Williams MBE, who leads the Brighton & Hove Black History Project as he reveals the hidden history of Brighton & Hove, and provides an opportunity for you to engage with the stories of Black and Asian men and women and their connection to the city.

The talk will be followed by a wine reception and exhibition of Diversity Lewes' heritage project, which celebrates diversity in Sussex and tells the stories of some of the county's most extraordinary residents.

The event is free, but please book your place by following the link: Event Brite tickets

I would love to hear from schools and other providers what positive things you are doing to celebrate Black History.

Our Education Offer

I’m delighted we now have our first published Local Authority brochure, which outlines the services and support our Families, Children and Learning teams provide to early years settings, schools, colleges, universities and other education establishments across the city. Information about each of the services available in our ‘Education Offer’ is provided, together with details of how your school or settings can access them, the potential benefits and how they can help to support better outcomes.

This publication clearly signposts to the wide range of services and support available to you, your staff and pupils. It also highlights our shared commitment to working in partnership with you to improve standards in education and achieve better outcomes for all children & young people in Brighton & Hove.

Printed copies of this Family, Children and Learning Education Offer will shortly be distributed to schools and other settings. You can now view a downloadable PDF copy of the brochure at Beem

               

I’m delighted to announce that Elm Grove were graded as Good in their last Ofsted inspection. Congratulations to Louise Willard and all staff, young people and governors on this outcome. Elm Grove Ofsted Report  

St Martin’s were also inspected last month and have also been judged good. Congratulations to Alex Wingham and all staff, young people and governors on this positive outcome. St Martin's Ofsted Report

We are very proud of both schools’ success – well done.

Education Partnership developments

The strategic board of the Brighton & Hove Education Partnership met again this month and mapped out the work they will lead across the city involving all education partners. Some of this work will include:

The recruitment, retention and celebration of staff in education - a group is looking at the development of materials all schools can use, considering 'pool' arrangements or joint advertising and interviewing and hosting an annual award ceremony to recognise education success across the city.

A plan to improve attendance and reduce exclusions in schools was begun. This includes our team liaising with the early years team to address 'good habits early'. The plan also involves school cluster partnerships and the Local Authority working together with a clear message across the city to parents that ‘every day counts’.

An outstanding PSHE event on SRE

Secondary PSHE leads at the Brighton Museum training session

Monday 9^th of October saw an exciting new project and resources being brought to Brighton & Hove by Alice Hoyle from the Sex Education Forum and Dr Jen Groves from Exeter University and hosted by Brighton Museum. The regular Personal, Social, Health and Economic consortium with many of the secondary school PSHE leads had a fun, informative and engaging training session learning about sex and history. Using objects from the past to open up discussion about issues in relationship and sex education in a safe and removed way including things such as consent, body image, gender identity, healthy and unhealthy relationships and pornography. The session was brilliant with lots of laughter and learning, with many of the PSHE leads already looking at how to develop this into classroom practice. PSHE colleagues also got the opportunity to view the fascinating Museum of Transology.

If you would like more information, please contact Helen.Emerson@brighton-hove.gov.uk .

School Admissions Animation

Following the agreement of the Children, Young People & Skills Committee, the Council has now started its public consultation phase regarding proposed changes to the admission arrangements for September 2019. The major proposals are changes to the secondary school catchment areas to better manage the numbers of pupils in the Varndean / Dorothy Stringer and Hove Park / Blatchington Mill catchment areas and a reduction in the Published Admission Number of 5 primary schools. The public consultation will close on 19 November and there are 11 public meetings so far scheduled to give people the opportunity to hear about the proposals and to ask questions.

Further details are available at: Consultation Press Release. The consultation and accompanying documentation can be found at: Consultation.

We have produced a quick guide to help everyone gain a better understanding of the secondary school admission process. The deadline to apply for a secondary school place is 31 October. Take a look at the School Admissions Animation. 

Heads up: Anti-bullying week 13 – 17 November

Anti-bullying week this year has the theme is ‘All Different, All Equal’ and suggests particularly celebration of difference and equality.

Let us know what exciting things you will be doing. Some helpful links to get you thinking:

Childline bullying advice

https://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/

http://www.bullying.co.uk

www.antibullyingweek.co.uk/

Communication 

Almost all schools and LA services are now using Twitter to celebrate best practice and communicate across the city – take a look. If you’re not yet up and running and need help, please ask.

Best wishes,

Jo

Keep in touch and follow me on Twitter @JoMLyons

Find details here Twitter accounts across all council services.

A great start to the academic year

Varndean students at work

We started the academic year on a high with a positive set of education outcomes at primary, secondary and post 16 with data at or above the national average. A great result for our education partnership across the city and credit to our teachers, support staff and young people. 

‘Poverty Proofing the School Day’

An outcome of the Fairness Commission was to offer every school in the city the opportunity to take part in ‘Poverty proofing the School Day’. The team of trained researchers from across B&H schools carried out four audits last term and are in six schools this term. The team speak to every child and young person in the school about a range of aspects and the results are analysed and compiled into a report for the school. This identifies good practice, which will be shared across the city and also raises questions for the school to consider about how to make school life better for children whose families are struggling with money. Feedback from schools that have taken part has been very positive and some of the primary headteachers will be talking about their experience at the primary headteacher meeting on 10 October where Luke from Children North East will be talking a little more about it. If you would like to take part, please contact Hilary Ferries hilary.ferries@brighton-hove.gov.uk .

Brighton & Hove School and College Leaders Conference

Pinaki Ghoshal, Director of Children’s Services, opening the B&H School and College Leaders Conference

I was delighted to join leaders from across our schools and wider education partnership for our annual School and College Leaders Conference at Sussex University. It was great to see so many leaders turn out for this important event. We had two excellent speakers: Dame Alison Peacock, from the new Chartered College of Teaching and Mary Myatt, independent consultant and author. They both gave inspirational talks about leadership. Themes included; the importance of learning from each other, not setting limits on children, professionals having a voice in education and making learning look irresistible through a high-challenge, low-threat culture, and remembering we are humans first and professional second (see BEEM for details of presentations and video links). If you are interested in planning next year’s conference with us, do let me know! 

Colleagues at the B&H School and College Leaders Conference

Supported Apprenticeships at B&H City Council 

Apprenticeships create opportunities for many people and we have been making sure everyone gets the chance to kick start their career. More flexibility allows those who have previously faced barriers to entering the world of work to get their foot on the ladder. The difficulties encountered by SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities), BAME and women candidates are more easily overcome with the possibility of part time work and greater support. Take a look at our video: https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/supportedapprenticeships 

We are holding an apprenticeship awareness session for all school, colleges and Early Years providers at Hove Town Hall on the 7th of November (see BEEM for more details http://www.beem.org.uk/Event/60300). I look forward to seeing you then. 

Brighton & Hove Education Partnership 

The Strategic Board of the B&H Education Partnership meets again on 3 October. At this meeting we will be beginning to plan for the education priorities that the board has agreed to focus on across the city. These include the recruitment, retention, development and celebration of education staff in the city, supporting the promotion of attendance, school-to-school support and improving outcomes for disadvantaged children. The aim is for all members of the education family to work together and to explore what each can contribute to make things better for children and young people in our city. The board are planning to start a half-termly newsletter and will publish our progress regularly on BEEM. 

Working with residents in Whitehawk 

Teams on the day supporting the pirate theme!

On Wednesday 20 September many services took part in an open day up at the Whitehawk Hub. This open event encouraged a wide group of residents to find out more about the services on offer to them and it provided an opportunity for teams to get to know each other better too. The day had a great atmosphere and I thank our teams for all their hard work to help make the day a success. 

Above are colleagues from our apprenticeship team, youth employability service, the supported employment team, children’s centre staff, plus colleagues talking to residents about the Providing Access to Childcare & Employment (PACE) project.

Early Years Jobs – Celebrate

Over the summer, Early Years Jobs celebrated 15 years of service, previously known as the Childcare Job Vacancy List (or JVL). The City Early Years and Childcare team produces this publication on behalf of all early years and childcare providers in and around the city and they also provide invaluable safer recruitment support and guidance. Since 2002, the advertising service has continued to be popular with both employers and jobseekers and continues to be the most up to date list of early years and childcare jobs in the city. The team celebrated with a little afternoon tea and cake party. 

The Early Years Team celebratory tea party

Here is the latest Jobs in Early Years and Childcare and webpage for those who want to find out more. 

Youth Employability Service

YES Employability Advisor Elle Dyson with Young Person Connor Day

This month I was pleased to visit a Youth Employability Service drop-in session at Whitehawk Community Hub. The YES team offers free support to young people aged 16-19 (or up to 24 if they have ever had a statement of special educational needs or an EHCP) who are not in education, employment or training and live in B&H. It was great to see Dean and Elle in action supporting the young people and hear from them first-hand the challenges the young people face and the provision for supporting them to overcome these barriers and to get into training and work. 

YES Employability Advisors Dean Coussens and Elle Dyson

youthemployabilityservice@brighton-hove.gov.uk, www.facebook.com/yesbrightonhove, @yesbrightonhove  

Ofsted are certainly back in town with Elm Grove and St Martin’s being inspected this month. Their results have not yet been announced but I look forward to sharing them with you in my October blog.

Varndean young people

And we couldn’t forget the goats, of course!

I’m delighted to announce that Varndean were graded as Good in their last Ofsted inspection. Congratulations to William Deighan and all staff, young people and governors on this outcome. Take a look at their fabulous report, which we are very proud of: http://www.varndean.co.uk/_site/data/files/documents/ofsted/Varndean%20School%2010024794%20final%20report.pdf  William Deighan, headteacher: ‘We're pleased that the report recognises that Varndean has moved up a gear in all aspects. Inspectors quickly grasped the ethos and culture of our school that drives our curriculum, our smaller schools provision and the need to see young people as individuals. As ever, more to do and excited to be already getting on with it.’

St Bartholomew’s Primary using sign language

I was pleased to hear about some of the KS2 children from St Bartholomew's Church of England Primary School who have been taking part in this amazing project involving poetry performed using sign language. I thought you might like to see this brilliantly creative film! This is ‘Do You Speak Seagull?’ by Lilian Simonsson on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/226572940

Fostering and Adoption 

Our need for loving foster homes for our looked after children is ever growing in B&H and we are committed to supporting these children to remain living within the area and continue at their local school. As many of you know, we have an ongoing  project to recruit more foster carers to enable our children and young people to be cared for within our own Service and to receive the high quality ‘wrap around care’ that they need. In order to be able to achieve this we need your help. When children and young people are placed with our in-house carers, we are in the unique position of supporting both the carers and the children, which will enable close and improved working together to support the placement overall.

Further to this, one of our key objectives for Children’s Services is to increase the number of in-house foster carers. By transferring from an IFA to Brighton & Hove, we can save over £20,000 per annum, per placement.  Attached is a link to the website, including blogs about the experiences that our foster carers have as part of B&H Fostering Community: https://www.fosteringinbrightonandhove.org.uk  and also a video that brings fostering to life. You’ll hear from our foster carers and one of our care leavers too. https://youtu.be/RNV6hPlwK5g

We need your help to spread our message far and wide, so please do talk to your teams, friends and families about fostering and invite them to the monthly fostering information sessions held around the city. For more information visit the website: https://www.fosteringinbrightonandhove.org.uk or call 01273 295444.

Royal Visit to Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital

Princess Alexandra has visited the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital. Whilst there, the Princess spent some time in our hospital schoolroom, where she met Ann Diver and Suzanne Cowie, two of the staff in our Access to Education team who provide education for children and young people during their stay in hospital. It was a great opportunity for the team to showcase their work.  

Ann Driver (Hospital Teacher) with the Princess                          Suzanne Cowie (Hospital Teacher) with the Princess

Homewood College get a makeover

Two National Citizen Service teams joined forces on a huge job to renovate and decorate this local school which was in need of some attention. They achieved an astounding amount of work - especially with their clearing of undergrowth and bushes to restore a half-made bike track, laying gravel to make it functional for the students of Homewood. They painted inside corridors, classrooms and hallways and cleared gardens and planted flowers. They made and painted a bench and table to place near the bike track and generally lifted the atmosphere creating a fresher feeling to the environment for students and teachers returning after the summer holiday. Thank you and well done. 

The renovation team receiving their awards

Welcome to our Newly Qualified Teachers (NQT) 

Mark Storey (Head of Educational Standards &Achievement) welcoming NQTs             Aaron O’Shaughnessy from Hove Junior    

Earlier this month it was good to meet our NQTs at our annual welcome events at the University of Brighton and Newman College. NQTs were given valuable information about all the support available during their induction year from Sharon MacKenzie and the School & Governance Development Team. As well as the speeches from LA colleagues, it was great to see so many second year teachers providing input at the events, giving top tips about how to survive and thrive in the first year of teaching. Our NQT induction service has now been using BEEM as a one-stop shop for NQT support for over a year now, with all registrations, assessments, resources and training opportunities available in one place. We’ve had some very positive feedback from schools who have appreciated this streamlined system to help support them in their roles of monitoring their NQT progress. We hope NQTs have a successful and rewarding year!

Lily Peacock and Nina Scerri from Benfield Primary                                  Mark Holdaway, Senior SEN Specialist Teacher

Welcome, Goodbye and thankyou  

I was joined by Pinaki Ghoshal (Director of Children’s Services) to welcome our new and acting headteachers and heads of school at our induction this September and support them all in their new roles. 

Welcome to our new headteachers Hildi Mitchell at Downs Infants and Alister Sutherland at Patcham Junior. 

Welcome also to our new Acting heads of school Joyti Azad and Sarah Kirby at Mile Oak, and the acting headteacher Rachel Kershaw at Cottesmore St Mary, and to Tim Self as the Acting headteacher at BHPRU. 
We also have new interim staff in our Virtual School: Gill Hibbert, our new Education Safeguarding Officer and Jill Dyson, interim Virtual School Lead. 

I would also like to welcome Mark Storey as the new Head of Educational Standards and Achievement. Mark has already been working with many of us as Headteacher for the Virtual School over the last 3 years and we are delighted that this new role will strengthen this partnership working.

Communication 

So many schools and education providers in our B&H Education Partnership are now using twitter as one way of communicating information and sharing news and best practice. If you are not yet signed up and want some help to get started just let me know.

Best wishes,

Jo

Keep in touch and follow me on Twitter @JoMLyons
Find details here Twitter accounts across all council services.