I’m told that January is not always the happiest month of the year and contains the most depressing day of the year (16th Jan – two days before my own birthday!). For some of us January this year might feel a little more miserable with the inauguration of the new president of the US and the actions which have followed, to reflect on and consider the future implications for the world. However, locally in Brighton & Hove the month began for those of us in Families, Children and Learning with positivity and pace. I was delighted to be contacted early in the month by Katie Scott the Principal from PACA with some work (see below) they have been doing to lift spirits and promote performance in school, an area of positive practice we could all learn from. We also ended the month with some uplifting colourful and creative displays and events in schools and across the community to celebrate Chinese New Year, with the start of the year of the rooster.
Shanghai Maths at Westdene Primary School
Maths is a citywide challenge for us where children in many of our schools do not do as well as we would like. As a Brighton & Hove Education Partnership we are continually looking at new approaches and interventions that will make a difference and boost progress and attainment. I was therefore interested to join staff at Westdene Primary School and leads from the regional maths hub to meet our visiting teachers from Shanghai as part of the DfE/ NCETM Primary Mathematics Teacher Exchange. The event launched this work and welcomed the teachers in advance of a series of events taking place across the city and beyond. As well as putting a spotlight on maths, the event showcased the fabulous work of Westdene school with children talking about their work and providing musical performances. I was particularly impressed by their boys choir who sang their hearts out to provide a warm welcome to our Chinese visitors. Thank you, Westdene and in particular to headteacher Debbie Crossingham and Deputy Head and Co-lead Teaching for Mastery (Sussex Maths Hub) Jenny Stratton for their city leadership in this area.
Maths will be the next focus of our School and College Business Leaders Meeting on 24 February at the University of Sussex, where there will be an opportunity to hear more about this and other practices as part of our strategy to improve our performance in Maths.
We have had a quiet month for a change with visits from Ofsted to carry out full Inspections. However, congratulations to Brighton Aldridge Community Academy who’s Ofsted report is now out and they have been awarded a grading of ‘Good’ following their previous Ofsted assessment of Requires Improvement. Well done to Dylan and his team at BACA. Cardinal Newman have had a one day monitoring visit from HMI and I look forward to reporting back on this in my next blog once they have the outcome.
Holocaust Memorial Day - how can life go on?
Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on 27 January each year. It’s a time for everyone to pause to remember the millions of people who have been murdered or whose lives have been changed beyond recognition during the Holocaust, Nazi persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
I attended Blatchington Mill School, alongside MP Peter Kyle, the Mayor of Brighton, the police and other community and faith leaders for a moving event to mark the memory of the Holocaust. There were excellent performances from Hove Park, Blatchington Mill and Carden Primary, where they were able to share their learning and thoughts in a series of creative performances. The event highlighted the need for us all to continue to work together to prevent the past repeating itself. The behaviour and contributions of our young people throughout the event was outstanding and made me very proud of the work our schools and parents are doing to build a positive culture where difference is embraced and celebrated across Brighton & Hove.
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| Brian Huberman telling the story of his father Alfred Huberman |
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| Year 9 Students with The Mayor Peter West after giving a presentation in the Windmill Theatre |
It was also good to see that our Traveller Communities were not forgotten with a presentation and displays acknowledging the losses from Gypsy Roma communities in the Holocaust.
School Visit to Patcham High
The school headteacher John McKee gave Pinaki Ghoshal (Executive Director - Families Children & Learning) and I a warm welcome, with a tour of the school and an opportunity to see teaching and learning in action. It was good to hear about the strong partnership the school has with the University of Brighton and the positive use of teachers in training, and also how the school’s approach to coaching young people in lessons is having a positive impact. We spent some time in the art department, where young people were engaged creatively in producing a range of masterpieces in a calm and stimulating environment.
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| Patcham High art work with Vicky Drew, Head of Art |
Following the tour of the school, we had the opportunity to meet a group of young people and hear first-hand their views of how the school has improved over time and how positively they are involved in the development of the school, providing feedback to the senior leadership team. It was interesting to hear the impact that the new approach to not using mobile phones around the school is having on learning, friendships and conversation.
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| Pinaki Ghoshal, Jo Lyons and Patcham High Students |
Our Virtual School
Welcome to our new colleague Sarah Lindfield, who is a new Education Support Worker who will be helping us further develop our strategic approach to meeting the needs of those children who were once in care. This month I have been focusing on the work of our Virtual School, and I attended the Virtual School Team Meeting and Chaired the Virtual School Steering group. The team were able to show encouraging progress statistics, for example last year Brighton & Hove year 6 Children in Care made progress in reading and writing in line with all children nationally. It was fascinating to hear about the examples of effective collaborative working with many schools and individual successes with a number of young people. The Virtual School has been praised for its leadership of our ‘Attachment Aware Brighton’ campaign and we are beginning to see the impact of this wider work with adopted children and those on special guardianship orders. However, in raw attainment there is still a significant attainment gap at all ages so for example at Key Stage 4, 33% achieved a C in English and 20.5% in Maths. There are clearly significant challenges for all Brighton & Hove schools and the Virtual School, which will form part of the focus of our overall approach to improve outcomes for the most disadvantaged children and young people.
School Funding: Understanding the changes and planning for the future
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| Headteachers, bursars and business managers discuss the budget challenges they face |
140 heads, bursars and business managers were joined by LA senior leaders and Peter Freeman, our chair of Schools Forum, for a session to look at school funding at the University of Sussex. It was challenging to hear the stark messages about the future financial challenges we all face, although an important opportunity to fully understand all the changes to schools’ budgets and the national funding formula, and to look together at the implications of this for our schools across the City. A number of strategic approaches that will help to address the difficulties schools will face were shared and discussed. It was good to hear from Pinaki Ghoshal, our Executive Director of Families Children and Learning, how the council and other partners have been working to address the financial issues they have been facing over the past couple of years. A number of our heads spoke honestly about the approaches they have had to take and how they have already begun to creatively look at financial management in their schools, whilst keeping the focus on performance. The session was a start of a conversation with schools that will continue with the LA offering strong support, working on partnership with heads and governors. We will be leading a similar session with governors at the Governor Strategic Partnership meeting on 8 February.
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| Pinaki Ghoshal, Ellen Mulvihill and Richard Barker discuss the challenges at the school funding finance event |
The successful #IAMWHOLE campaign set up by the NHS in partnership with the YMCA and Brighton & Hove City Council, an innovative anti-stigma mental health campaign, aimed at young people aged 13-25, continues to have a positive impact across the city.
Longhill High School students and popular YouTube vlogger Saffron Barker have put together a video to help combat stigma around mental health. Please watch the video https://youtu.be/9oWkPSqv2Y8 , then for further information go to #IAmWhole http://www.ymca.org.uk/i-am-whole
Mini Mile
A heads up to all schools that the Cancer Research UK Mini Mile at Preston Park on Saturday 8 April is free this year for children and young people (7 – 17 years) of all abilities . Please click the link below to apply. The entries are open now. We want as many of our young people as possible to get out there and run!
For those schools and services that are not using twitter, please give it a go. It’s a great way to share some of your best practice with others. If you are not convinced, then please at least take a look and follow the antics of Varndean Goats! @Varndeangoats @Varndeanschool
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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