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| Patcham Infant School Rights and Responsibilities Poster |
We have just finished the first year of the ‘Poverty Proofing the School Day’ audits and the research team, made up of staff from our schools and settings across the city, have visited 24 schools so far. There is much to celebrate in terms of the commitment of schools to those pupils where families are struggling with money. We will shortly be publishing an interim report which celebrates this and also identifies themes for further exploration that are emerging. There are still a few schools who have not registered. It is not too late to sign up if you would like the team to come and visit your school, contact hilary.ferries@brighton-hove.gov.uk
Congratulations to our SEN team
As part of the SEN reforms launched in September 2014, Local Authorities (LAs) were tasked with converting all existing Statements of Special Educational Needs into Education, Health and Care Plans by 31st March 2018 – a truly mammoth task not just for the SEN team but also for schools and all professionals involved! All the 1,299 existing statemented children in Brighton & Hove had to have a review of their needs in order to co-produce the Education, Health and Care plan between parents/carers, the child/young person, schools and involved professionals. Despite the pressures, we maintained the spirit of the new Children and Families Act and offered a co-production meeting to every family. By the 31st of March, Brighton & Hove had completed 1,298 conversions (all but one!) in the context of very many LAs having large numbers still waiting. The one conversion outstanding was delayed at parents’ request and involves a highly complex network of services.
Congratulations on this remarkable achievement to all involved.
Puppet performance of ‘Not today Celeste’
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| ‘Not today Celeste’ performers at St Luke’s Primary |
This month at St Luke's primary Bobble Hat Theatre Company presented a puppet performance of a book called ‘Not today Celeste’ by local, Brighton author and artist Liza Stevens to Year 4. This extraordinary performance sensitively explored how depression can affect a family and ways to cope. From the opening bars of the first song, the children were totally engaged and immersed with the story. The performers presented a difficult subject with humour and dignity in a child friendly and accessible way.
Here are some reactions from the children:
‘Great puppetry and really energetic.’
‘It really helped me learn more about depression; that it’s different from feeling sad and that it is nobody’s fault.’
‘The message was to always talk about a problem.’
‘The songs were amazing and catchy and we loved joining in singing.’
‘The story was really well written and a good story about life. Sometimes we need to ask for help.’
Well done to St Lukes, and please look out for opportunities for your school to see this production!
Religious Education
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| Lat Blaylock, Editor of REToday, speaking at the RE event |
Every 5 years the Standing Advisory Council of Religious Education requests a review of the locally agreed syllabus for RE. This statutory responsibility allows representation from teachers, councillors and representatives from different faiths to review what is being taught in Religious Education across the local community schools. All LA schools except voluntary aided schools or free schools / academies with specific faith basis have a duty to follow the locally agreed syllabus.
With this in mind there was a review of our syllabus and we employed Lat Blaylock, the editor of REToday, and a leading teacher and academic to present our new syllabus. The new review has excellent practical examples of how to implement this in schools. Over 50 attendees, including student teachers from the universities, were treated to an entire day of inspirational learning. The response to the event was overwhelmingly positive with 100% feedback stating that the event was useful and 95% stating it was very useful.
In order to develop support for RE further, we will be setting up an online forum and sharing space for materials and we are in talks with the teaching schools about how they can support specialist network meetings and further CPD in this essential area. See www.beem.org.uk/Page/10048
Premier League Primary School Stars
Premier League Primary School Stars are holding three roadshow events across Sussex for school staff to find out how your school could benefit from the project and AITC’s support more widely. You can sign up to attend a roadshow by clicking here. Any state-funded, Sussex based Primary School can express their interest in being involved, although they are particularly interested in working with those schools and young people most in need. The programme is heavily-subsided through funding from the Premier League Charitable Fund and places are extremely limited each year.
The best way to learn about the project and the impact it can have is by watching this video with Cadogan, a Year 5 pupil, from Coombe Road Primary School in Brighton: www.plprimarystars.com/educatables If you are unable to attend a roadshow event and wish to discuss the project or how AITC can support your school, please don’t hesitate to contact: schools@albioninthecommunity.org.uk.
Vote for Care Leaver Project
Kitchen Kick Start is a Food Matters project that is seeking funding at the moment. The group will work with care leavers and other vulnerable young people to teach budgeting skills and how to cook healthily. The project aims to equip people with skills for long term independent living. Working with small groups of young people in real life settings, each session is practical and hands-on, with the theme of the workshop being determined by the young people’s needs and what they want to learn. Click on the link below where you can vote for the project for our care leavers and watch their video. And feel free to forward for others to vote – put on your facebook/twitter etc. https://www.thepeoplesprojects.org.uk/projects/view/kitchen-kick-start
Thought I’d share a lovely article that has been published on the UN website highlighting Hove Park School's work with Brighton Table Tennis Club. This story is part of a series exploring the ways people across the UK are showing refugees and asylum-seekers a #GreatBritishWelcome.
Adolescents - living healthy lives, making healthy choices
At the recent Secondary and Continuing Education Partnership, which is attended by School leaders, College Principals and the Universities, we worked together to discuss how we support young people to live healthy lives and make healthy choices to protect themselves and stay safe. The Partnership welcomed the St Giles Trust, which is a London-based charity that offers intensive specialist help to young people to prevent them becoming involved in risky behaviour, including drug taking and dealing. https://www.stgilestrust.org.uk/Most young people are not using drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or having early, unprotected sex. However, it’s not ok that many young people do use substances.
Work is underway, in partnership with Public Health, Adolescent services and schools, to help young people who are involved in risky behaviour to stop. The aim will be to make sure families have the right information and the right support to know where to go for help.
Strong relationships, future aspirations and young people feeling connected to family and school are powerful protective factors. A pilot is underway with schools to tackle this, together with a menu of interventions, enhancing the skills of schools to be able to tackle issues and engaging with the pupil voice. The emphasis on support for parents is important, with social media messages, workshops and campaigns.
Watch this space for further updates on this very important piece of work in a future blog.
Incredible successes on city’s new autism programme
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| A still from the Just Right video |
I’d like to celebrate Just Right, a new programme created by specialist teachers and health professionals in Brighton & Hove to help children with autism. Just Right is proving to be a massive success, with schools across the city and beyond queuing up for their unique training programme. The success of the Just Right programme lies in its use of colour ‘zones’ to help children understand the emotions they are experiencing and how they can go about positively managing them. Each zone relates to a different sensory or emotional state.
The programme aims to help children understand and communicate how they are feeling and what makes them feel ‘just right’ – for example, when they are calm and alert and able to respond to whatever is happening in their environment.
For more information about the Just Right programme, please have a look at the video: https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/content/press-release/%E2%80%98incredible-successes%E2%80%99-city%E2%80%99s-new-autism-programme
Apprentice Myth-busting Events
A heads up that we are working in partnership with the Sussex Council of Training Providers (SCTP) to run two apprenticeship events in June and July. The events will bring together employers, training providers and anyone interested in apprenticeships to provide up to date information on traineeships and apprenticeships (from pre-employment to higher and degree apprenticeships).
The events will take place in two locations across the City:
Hove Town Hall on Wednesday the 20th of June 2018, 4.30pm-7.30pm. Book your free ticket here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/apprenticeships-busting-the-myths-hove-town-hall-tickets-45519178087
The Brighton Centre on Tuesday the 10th of July 2018, 4.30pm-7.30pm. Book your free ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/apprenticeships-busting-the-myths-brighton-centre-tickets-45515742812
Both events will host a marketplace and panel discussions for employers and providers, supported by apprenticeship ambassadors and independent advice organisations.
Supported Employment
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| Staff at the Mad Hatter Café on Western Road |
You may recall a story I shared last month about Stephen and his work experience at the Mad Hatter Café. Xavier, the café manager, and his staff were so impressed by Stephen, his hard-work ethic, dedication to customer service and big character that they have decided to employ him. Xavier commented it was an easy choice to make after seeing Stephen taking the initiative to spray and wipe down every table inside the café and out each day before finishing.
Stephen said about his job, ‘It is good, no wait- it is very good!’ He has been doing some food preparation, serving up at the tables, keeping the place clean and tidy and doing lots of washing up. He has proved very popular with staff and customers alike at The Mad Hatter. His manager Xavier said: ‘I am very glad and happy to have Stephen as member of team at The Mad Hatter Café. He deserves this position because he has proven himself during his work experience. I wish you all the best, Stephen, and welcome to The Mad Hatter.’
Freesia - Islamaphobia film
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| Freesia Poster |
I was delighted to be invited by the Brighton & Hove Muslim Forum to see the award winning UK film Freesia at the Attenborough Centre at the University of Sussex. It was a hard-hitting portrayal of three families in present-day Bradford that covered a range of complex issues such as far-right extremism, grooming, unemployment and more. It challenged stereotypes whilst acknowledging the challenges within all communities. I was grateful to have this opportunity to reflect on these issues and how they may affect young people in Brighton & Hove.
Freesia stars Aqib Khan from the film 'West is West' and Afsaneh Dehrouyeh of U.S. TV show 'Tyrant'. The DVD can be ordered here: https://www.filmvoltltd.com/freesia
Parental Conflict
Please look out for information coming soon about our conference on inter-parental conflict, due to take place on the 20th of June. The keynote speaker will be Dr Gordon Harold from Sussex University who is at the forefront of research into the impact of parental conflict on children and young people. The conference will be open to schools and a wide range of organisations working with families and is part of a programme of work funded through the Troubled Families programme in the city. The conference kick-starts planning to develop new training in this important area, alongside a review of the interventions available to reduce parental conflict. If you are interested in reading more follow this link to the Early Intervention Foundation site.
It’s been a busy Ofsted time for us.
Queen’s Park had a short inspection at the beginning of March, and were judged by Ofsted as good. Congratulations to Anne Cox and all the staff and pupils.
Congratulations to Alex Wingham and his team at St Martin’s on their achievement of an Outstanding grade at their last SIAMS Section 48 inspection in March. The inspector commented that ‘The school community are united in their affirmation that St Martin’s is a very special school and its Christian ethos underpins all aspects of staff and children’s experience.’
Congratulations to Dorothy Stringer and St Mary’s who both retained their ‘Good’ Ofsted gradings in inspections in March. Both reports praise the leadership, staff and governors for their dedication to school improvement. We would like to congratulate the pupils, staff and governors of both schools for these very positive outcomes.
Tarnerland Nursery have recently been inspected and I look forward to reporting on their result in the next blog.
Maths Progress
We would like to welcome Natasha Marris, Assessment, Teaching and Learning Consultant to the Education Standards and Achievement Team. Natasha joined us directly from teaching year 6 at Hertford Junior School and has been working effectively in her new role leading statutory assessment and moderation and supporting teaching and learning in schools.
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| Jenny Stratton (Teaching for Mastery Co-Lead: Sussex Maths Hub, Deputy Head Westdene Primary) with the Maths Master Class |
Natasha has been working with an additional group of schools to develop mathematic progress in KS2. Natasha has coordinated a sequence of events starting with Maths Master Class facilitated by Jenny Stratton and Natalie Alty (Newick Teaching School) and attended by teachers from schools across the city. During a busy afternoon, teachers considered: potential misconceptions around the teaching and learning of fractions; different ways of representing fractions; the use of stem sentences to support learning in maths and they reviewed existing evidence and progression from children's books. In preparation for collaborative lesson design, delivery and evaluation with a colleague, teachers also viewed different resources that can be used to support conceptual understanding and discussed the key components when lesson planning.
We look forward to continued sharing of good practice as a strong professional learning community.
Welcome
Welcome to Anna Wharfe, our new Prevent Education Officer. This is a new role, aimed at supporting the education sector within the city to deliver Prevent activity in order to safeguard young people and build up their resilience to extremism and terrorism. Anna has worked as a teacher in Brighton & Hove for the last 11 years, most recently as Head of Curriculum for Key Stage 4 Life Skills at Patcham High. She very much looks forward to meeting you all. Anna’s email address is anna.wharfe@brighton-hove.gov.uk
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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