Success in Early Years

I’d like to congratulate the work of our Early Years team. From September 2017 working parents of three and four year olds have been entitled to an additional 15 hours free childcare a week (the extended entitlement) in addition to their universal entitlement of 15 hours free childcare, making a total of 30 hours a week. The early years and childcare team and the Family Information Service have been working for months to ensure that the scheme is a success in the city. The first national data published by the Department for Education shows that 1,206 three and four year olds took up their extended entitlement in the city in November 2017, which is 107 per cent1 of those with an eligibility code. 

Of 152 local authorities we are eighth in the country and top in the south east. The average figure for the south east is 85 per cent, and for the country as a whole it is 90 per cent. In addition our local data shows that all early years settings open at least 30 hours a week (except for nurseries in independent schools) are offering the extended entitlement, as well as 45 childminders – that’s 33 per cent of childminders in Brighton & Hove.

While the scheme is very challenging for providers, particularly in terms of government funding rates, many are appreciative of the support offered by the early years team – one provider recently emailed to say:

‘As a team, you are very supportive, always answer quickly, seem to genuinely want to help me, and never make me feel as stupid as I feel, with forms!! Thanks x’           

For more information, please contact Vicky Jenkins, Childcare Strategy Manager – Free Entitlement. vicky.jenkins@brighton-hove.gcsx.gov.uk

¹The figure is more than 100% because of children coming into the city from East and West Sussex for their free childcare

Research and Evidence Based Practice

Headteachers at the Research and Evidence Based Practice

It was good to see over 60 heads and senior leaders at the school and college leaders’ conference on 19 January at Sussex University. The theme was ‘evidence based research: why and how?’ and we welcomed the Deputy Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Fund, James Turner, who talked about the value and potential that evidence based research has in raising achievement for all pupils, and particularly the most vulnerable. Jonathan Cooper, Headteacher from St Luke’s, spoke about how he has embedded a culture of action research into Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and then we had a series of tabletop presentations from Goldstone, Cardinal Newman, St Luke’s and the University of Sussex. We are keen to promote the use of research and action research in the city and will be forming a small working group to take this forward. Please contact Hilary if you are interested in joining this group or have ideas about next steps the partnership could take for research. hilary.ferries@brighton-hove.gov.uk 

James Turner speaking at the research conference

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) have released a number of reports focused on outcomes of research into disadvantaged and the attainment gap. Take a look at their website.

Funding for School Improvement

We were delighted to hear this month that the Brighton & Hove Education Partnership have been successful in their bids to the national strategic school improvement fund. Our new teaching schools led these bids, working together with our LA team and schools to agree priorities and come up with a plan to improve outcomes. The two bids bring more than half a million pounds into city schools to support KS2 maths and to improve disadvantaged outcomes. Congratulations to Sussex Coast and Pavilions and Downs teaching schools for their partnership approach. The maths bid will build on existing school to school support as Saltdean and Coldean will be supporting other schools, the University of Brighton will be providing a lesson study approach and we hope to work with the Maths Hub. The second bid focuses on disadvantage, tackling attendance and persistent absence and will include mentoring, parental engagement, governors’ accountability and will be employing ‘nudge technique’.

Poverty Proofing

The ‘Poverty Proofing the School Day’ initiative is going very well. 60% of schools have signed up so far. There are audits every week this term and next. I would like to thank schools for their enthusiasm and commitment to the project. Several heads have said to me that the audit has been helpful to hear the voices of all the children and young people and to look at their practice through the lens of poverty. A great deal of positive practice has been identified in our schools. There are also emerging themes for development such as planning out school trips across the year to ensure parents can budget, ensuring that families that struggle with money can access clubs and strategically, how best to provide free school meal for all KS1 pupils for trips. There is still time to sign up for the autumn term or spring term 2019. Just contact Hilary Ferries. hilary.ferries@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Awards for making a big difference

Geoff Raw, Chief Executive of Brighton & Hove Council, and Councillor Warren Morgan recently hosted the Council’s Big Difference awards, celebrating the hard working and dedicated staff across all directorates in the council. We are so proud of Shirley Vanstaaden, Receptionist at Hollingdean Children’s Centre, who  won the individual award for her work to set up a low cost healthy café at the centre for the local community.

Shirley Vanstaaden with Steph Lakelin (the Children’s Centre Manager), Geoff Raw, Councillor Warren Morgan and Mrs Maureen Chowen, the High Sheriff of East Sussex.

Our congratulations also to Ben Cox, one of our Family Coaches and Vikki Witham, a Practice Manager at Drove Road for being highly commended for their work. We also had a number of teams and individuals from across Families, Children & Learning nominated. We are so pleased to see all of your hard work being recognised and celebrated. Full details can be seen here on the Wave.

Congratulations to our School Meals Team

Susie Haworth from the School Meals Team

Susie Haworth, our School Meals Team Manager, is the first 2018 winner of the city’s prestigious Food Hero award for helping thousands of children enjoy their daily lunch. Susie has made the school meals healthier, by reducing the amount of meat served, the amount of sugar in desserts and by removing trans-fats, GMO’s and artificial additives. The team has introduced Fairtrade bananas, local free-range eggs, sustainable MSC fish and serves only British Red Tractor meat. Well done Susie and the school meals team. 

Read more about the award and the Food Partnership here.

I’m delighted to share with you that the team of students from Varndean School did superbly on Tuesday 23^rd to win the regional play off of the Premier League Enterprise Challenge. They will now be one of only six schools involved in the national final at Ernest and Young’s offices in London in April. You can read more by clicking here.

Students from the Varndean football team celebrating making it to the national finals

Also, our Premier League Primary Stars case study video, featuring Cadogan from Coombe Road Primary, is now ‘live’ on the PL’s website and can be viewed by clicking here.

BEST week at Moulsecoomb Primary

During week 8^th-12^th January 2018, Moulsecoomb celebrated BEST Week (Book, Eat, Sleep and Talk) an exciting week where the School Meals Service (Susie Haworth) and our School Meals Contractor Autograph supported the school. We delivered Hungry Caterpillar Workshops for Reception pupils, Eatwell Guide sessions for year 1 pupils and parents/guardians were invited to come and try a school lunch.

The picture shows reception pupils after reading the book, they talked about different fruits and vegetables and the 5 A DAY message. Pupils were given a selection of fruits and vegetables to make faces with on the paper plates. They then tried the fruits and vegetables and talked about the taste and flavours. This was a great way to encourage the younger pupils to try new fruits and vegetables, which many of them did. Spinach seemed to be a firm favourite in the first group!

Moulsecoomb reception pupils making fruit and vegetable faces

The year 1 classes took part in the Eatwell Guide sessions and were given an Eatwell Guide activity sheet to complete. Amy Glass, nutritionist for Autograph was very impressed with the pupils’ knowledge, particularly in the second year 1 class she visited, who had a great understanding of the food groups.

Sam and the kitchen team at the school served a total of 70 meals to parents – a fantastic take up of the offer, one pupil said it was their best day ever to have their mum come to lunch and many of the parents commented on how different school lunches are compared to when they were at school – phew!

All in all a fantastic week of food, fun and activities with very important messages at its core and a big thank you to Caroline Gutteridge who organised it all and for inviting us to participate.

We have had an unusually quiet time with Ofsted recently, after a very busy November. Only Goldstone Primary and Cardinal Newman have been inspected this month. I look forward to sharing their results with you in my February blog.

For those who might be interested in some bedtime reading, this guide gives an overview of the data contained in the inspection data summary report (IDSR) for primary and secondary schools and information to assist in interpreting the charts.

 Holocaust Memorial Day 2018

The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin

Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on the 27th of January each year. It’s a time for everyone to pause to remember the millions of people who were murdered or whose lives have been changed beyond recognition during the Holocaust, Nazi persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. 

The Brighton & Hove Holocaust Education Project Group worked with two local schools to organise programmes on the 24th and 25th of January featuring talks on the ‘kindertransport’; the Jewish Experience; the Sinti Roma experience; poetry writing and presentations of students’ artwork and poetry, and dance. 

Young Carers Day

Jo Lyons introducing the event and welcoming the carers and families

On Thursday the 25^th the council, along with the Carers Centre, Young Carers Project and NHS marked national Young Carers Day by hosting an event for Young Carers and their Families in the Council Chambers, Brighton Town Hall. It was an opportunity to acknowledge the challenges young carers and their families face in addition to celebrating their achievements. Young carers often miss out on fun activities and seeing friends because of their caring role. They often don’t do as well at school as their peers, and are more likely to have issues with school absence, bullying and emotional or mental health needs. The event highlighted the importance of the support young carers and their families receive from work carried out by the Young Carers Project and council services. It was such a positive evening,  I was privileged to attend, congratulations to those young people that won awards.

If you have identified a young carer and would like to find out more about what support they could access, or make a referral, please follow this link for further information https://carershub.co.uk/

  

Mayor Mo Marsh presenting a certificate to one of the young carers

Thank you to Debbie Corbridge, Mayor Mo Marsh, Councillor Dan Chapman, Siobhan Melia, Katy Razavi and all staff for their involvement.

Welcome and Goodbyes  

Fifi Bula, Apprentice Business Support Administrator, joined our service as an apprentice supporting our traded services work, as well as working with colleagues in IT. Fifi has been integral in the rollout of BEEM and providing ongoing support for schools. We are very proud that she will be moving on to a higher level apprenticeship within the council and pass on our best wishes in her future role. Fifi will be joining the Performance team supporting a number of key projects including the roll-out of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provision.  

Fifi Bula, Apprentice Business Support Administrator

The Virtual School team have a new Lead, Sam Wilson, who joined us this month. Sam graduated from the University of Bradford with a degree in Biomedical Sciences and from Kings College, London with a Masters in Neuroscience. Sam joins the Virtual School with a wealth of educational experience; teaching in London and West Sussex for the past twenty four years, and has a passion for improving attainment for young people who are in care and those that have been in care. Sam strongly believes that children in care and those previously in care deserve the absolute best; before we even meet them they have faced a myriad of challenges.

As Lead for the Virtual School, it will be part of Sam’s role to constantly support and challenge the progress of children who are or who have been in care so that they reach their full potential.

Sam says ‘it is an unfortunate fact that children in care make less progress but as foster carers, teachers and corporate parents who have the highest aspirations for our young people, we can make such a difference’.

 

Sam Wilson, Virtual School team lead

As many of you will now know, Regan Delf, our Assistant Director for Health, SEN and Disability, has decided to retire at the end of April. She has made a significant contribution to the needs of our children and young people with SEN and disabilities and positively lead the SEND strategy across the city. We’ll wish her a good farewell nearer the time, but she will be very much missed across the city.

Best wishes,

Jo

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