News from Education and Skills: June 2017

Eid Mubarak

It has been good to see and hear about the Eid celebrations across our city earlier this week. I hope that all our children, young people and their families had a fabulous time celebrating together. It was positive for me to see some of the work our schools have been doing during Eid.

Carden Primary Year 6 visit Al Medinah Mosque

Year 6 at Carden Primary visited three local religious buildings learning about the many similarities and shared history that exists between the three Abrahamic religions. Learning to accept and respect other people's faith is a British Value and pupils from Carden certainly represented the school excellently by listening carefully and asking thoughtful and respectful questions. They also visited Holland Road Baptist Church, Brighton & Hove Progressive Synagogue and Al Medinah Mosque where they explored the buildings and listened to talks lead by members of each faith.

A Family Picnic and Eid Celebration was also held and Year 6 shared their work from these visits at the picnic. A parent commented that this was a great status booster for her kids to see the school celebrating a festival that her child ordinarily celebrates with very few people; as they ‘don't have any family here it's wonderful to get a sense of how Eid is celebrated in a large community’.

Sam Beal, Gavin Thomas and Shiromi Cabraal from our Education & Skills team joined John McKee, headteacher from Patcham High, for an Iftar Meal (the evening meal when Muslims end their daily Ramadan fast) organised by the Dialogue Society. It was a lovely event that focused on the importance of interfaith dialogue and working together. More about the Dialogue Society can be found out on this link http://www.dialoguesociety.org/ or by following on Twitter @DialogueSociety

Congratulations to our schools

Peter Gladwin Primary School held an art exhibition and the theme this year was the Rights of the Child, which was to help inform our families and the community about the school’s journey to becoming a Level 1 Rights Respecting School. Each year group chose a different right to represent through art.

Year 6 art representing every child’s right to a safe place to live

They received some fabulous feedback:

‘Absolutely Brilliant! Fantastic for the whole school to join together for an event like this. Really beautiful artworks. Well done!’

‘A truly amazing display at Peter Gladwin. A real show of talent. Thank you for being open to us to share in this wonderful artwork!’

Parents enjoying the art exhibition

Peter Gladwin School was also featured in the June issue of Sussex Life magazine. The article was about the children’s love of reading and about their very special Reading / Therapy dogs, who visit the school weekly to support many of the children’s enjoyment of reading. Charlotte Barnes, Taboo’s owner and handler, has been coming to the school for a number of years and has helped many of our children learn to read with confidence.

Leon and Archie reading the Taboo the Reading Therapy dog

Leon and Archie were great ambassadors for the school. They were both interviewed by the magazine’s editor and both boys explained how they enjoyed reading to Taboo and how reading to him takes away many of the stresses of reading to an adult. (Leon pointed out Taboo just listens and doesn’t interrupt!) They both said how their reading had improved and about their favourite books.

The dogs are very much part of the Health and Wellbeing programme at the school and are having a huge impact on children’s confidence and reading progress. Well done Peter Gladwin.

We were delighted that Balfour Primary also had an article published in the TES on the 7th of June about their mock election. The experience helped the children to learn all about democracy and decision making. Please click on the following link for more information: http://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/election-countdown-how-our-school-election-persuaded-me-voting-age

I was excited when I personally had the opportunity to be involved by sending in my postal vote.

Election countdown: 'How our school election persuaded me the voting age should be reduced to four'

www.tes.com 'The process let us build our philosophy for every child, family, and goat': One headteacher reflects on a mock election.

Balfour Primary voting

Virtual School Conference

I was privileged to join colleagues from across Families, Children and Learning, and our schools alongside foster carers and young people for the Virtual School summer conference at the AMEX Community Stadium.

Lonny & Jo presenting Varndean's Attachment Aware approach

This year’s theme was ‘Education & Corporate Parenting’ and we were excited to have the inspirational Luke Rodgers as the keynote speaker, talking about his experience as a care leaver and the importance of positiveness and resilience. @Luke_Rodgers www.fosterfocus.co.uk

Please click on this video link below:

Luke Rodgers

In addition, we had presentations on attachment aware schools, the inclusive behaviour policy, information on providing education for asylum seeking young people, young people and foster family testimonies, Brighton & Hove’s official Corporate Parenting Strategy and an update from Virtual School headteacher Mark Storey and Assistant Director Helen Gulvin.

I was impressed with how our work to meet the needs of our children in care and those adopted has progressed across the city over the past two years with Brighton & Hove leading the way with its best practice.

Primary Moderation

Moderation at Westdene

Across the city over the last few weeks, most Primary, Infant and Nursery schools have worked with the Local Authority moderation teams for EYFS, Phonics Screening, Y2 Reading, Writing and Maths and Y6 writing monitoring visits. We were also externally moderated by the Standards and Testing Agency for KS1 Moderation.

We are a small team, enhanced and enriched by the expertise and experience of school staff who commit to become part of the moderation team supporting class teachers as statutory markers of teacher assessment judgements. The skill of the teacher team in working with colleagues through this rigorous and intense process is to be commended. We endeavour to ensure the process is supportive with teachers given time to share their evidence for teacher assessment. The moderation process also provides opportunity to consider strengths in current teaching and learning in relation to national curriculum goals and areas that all school staff may need to revisit or develop. Thank you to all staff and schools for engaging positively and professionally in this statutory process.

Coombe Road have recently had an inspection and I look forward to reporting back on this in my next blog once the report is out. I’m delighted to report that Rudyard Kipling have once again been graded as Good. Well done to Joanne and her team for all their hard work.

Amanda Spielman gave a speech at the Festival of Education, ‘Enriching the fabric of education’. She talked about a review of the curriculum and the importance of recognising leadership challenges and valuing management. Amanda also discussed the future being about inspecting on the things that really matter for good education, which is music to our ears! Take a look:

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/amanda-spielmans-speech-at-the-festival-of-education

Celebration at Roundabout Children’s Centre

10 Volunteers from Roundabout and the Deans Children’s Centre came to a thank you lunch as part of the Nationwide Volunteers Celebrations month.

Helen Cowling Children’s Centre Service Manager presented all of the volunteers with their Certificates of Achievement. Our Volunteers are an asset to the centres and we appreciate all of their time they give to us volunteering in groups, attending advisory meetings and much more.

Equality and Diversity in schools

I joined headteachers and college principals across all phases of education this month to challenge ourselves and our approaches to meeting the needs of our BME students across the city. Thank you to Ashley Harold (headteacher of Blatchington Mill) for opening the event with some open and honest reflections on the need to tackle discrimination.

Ashley Harold HT Blatchington Mill opening event on BME

We were able to explore how educational settings are developing in response to the changing ethnic demographic. We looked at how we can build on good practice to further develop evidence based practice to ensure positive outcomes for all our students.

The speakers were thought provoking and we all appreciated the personal stories from schools and community members on the challenges of inclusion.

Take a look here on BEEM here http://beem.org.uk/P2396 for the presentation and resources that were shared.

Abha Aggarwal from RISC (Reading International Solidarity Centre) on colourblindness

Our Future City

Joining my colleagues and partners on Our Future City Board last week, I was able to hear about the positive outcome of our ‘#Be Well Programme’. Over 350 children from nursery and primary schools in the city have been taking part in creative projects, designed around identified wellbeing needs. The programme brought together colleagues working in education and across the arts and cultural sector to co-design innovative creative experiences which utilised music, dance, animation, puppet making, story-telling and sculpture to explore themes that included belonging, resilience and identity. The programme has been very successful and I would like to thank all schools that participated.

School children visiting the Booth Museum

An evaluation report and film have been created, including ten case studies which outline the approaches used and the impact on wellbeing, with all ten schools reporting an uplift in feelings of wellbeing from participating children. The film, report and associated resources will be available from the Our Future City website from mid July: http://www.ourfuturecity.org.uk/ Please do take a look.

Poverty Proofing

This month we began our work to implement the ‘Poverty Proofing School Day Programme’. It involves using an audit tool that helps schools review their practice through the lens of poverty, to remove barriers to learning and improve outcomes. A team of trained researchers (all staff from local schools or Local Authority) will be going into schools and listening to all the students over a period of days. There is also an online survey for parents, staff and governors. They then write a report, which will identify areas to celebrate and areas to consider.

The best practice will be shared across the city and school leaders will decide how to act on the areas for consideration.

Researchers are completing their training by shadowing the lead from Children North East in Woodingdean and BACA and then will start the audits this term with Patcham Junior and Moulsecoomb Primary. 35% of schools have expressed an interest so far. If you would like to know more, please contact Hilary Ferries (hilary.ferries@brighton-hove.gov.uk).

Iceland Nursery Visitors

A Talk about EYFS in the Royal Spa Nursery Gardens

13 students from Iceland visited Tarner and Roundabout Children's Centres, Royal Spa and Tarnerland Nursery School, Roundabout Nursery and Queen's Park Primary school to learn about our methods of supporting our youngest children and their families in the city. They were very impressed with the two day programme that the Early Years Team arranged for them, which involved looking at how Children's Centres deliver interventions in the home and in groups to support families, how the nurseries deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum, and how early education is organised and funded in the UK. They have already booked another visit for next year!

Welcome to new members of the team

Alia in the Post and Print Team

We are delighted to welcome Alia Hassan, who has started a Business Admin Apprenticeship working in the Post and Print team at Hove Town Hall. This was arranged by Carla Butler, the council’s Apprenticeship Programme Officer. Brighton Metropolitan College are offering additional learning support.

Carla originally found Alia some work experience with the council’s Transport Department which was very successful and led to Alia being offered her Apprenticeship.

Alia says ‘I think this is a really good opportunity and I am enjoying my job. I am learning lots about using the printers, franking and enveloping machines. I am also doing some work in the Post Room - it is quite busy in there!’

Karina Davis

Welcome also to Karina Davis, a new member to Carla Butler's Apprenticeship Team, employed as a Business Support Officer. Karina will be supporting the administration of the Apprenticeship Levy, recruitment and apprenticeship activities.

Karina says ‘I am astonished by the sheer range of apprenticeships available and really looking forward to working in the Apprenticeship Team and meeting new and existing apprentices.’

We all look forward to working closely with her.

Please take a look at the apprenticeship videos on the Brighton & Hove Council YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg6-4QRIpCdEm8E3IJ7nRmQ

Albion in the Community will be delivering the Premier League Primary Stars programme over the next academic year in schools, which will see the charity use the appeal of the Premier League to inspire children to learn, be active and develop important life skills.

Albion in the Community are holding an information event about the programme at the American Express Community Stadium on Thursday 6 July and would like all of the primary schools to be involved.

Thursday, 29 June 2017

Eid Mubarak