This month we celebrated Eid across the city with many events in schools and communities. Pinaki Ghoshal, Director of Children’s Services, Mark Storey, Head of Education Standards & Achievement and I were delighted to be invited to a picnic at Carden Primary school attended by parents, teachers, and councillors. We enjoyed celebrating with the community and sharing some delicious food.
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| Pinaki Ghoshal, Director of Children’s Services and Mark Storey, Head of Education Standards & Achievement at the Eid Picnic |
Virtual School Conference
The Virtual School for children in care and children previously in care held its annual summer conference this month at the University of Sussex. Sharon Gray, OBE and winner of the ‘Teacher of the Year award’ delivered a truly inspiring keynote speech on ‘Authentic Inclusion’. Sharon’s innovative whole school approach left us humbled and inspired. We were then treated to talented performances from members of ‘Miss Represented’ who are an arts collective of women facing challenging life situations and who share their stories through song, poetry and monologue. The afternoon session consisted of ‘Your space’ therapy workshops which described a range of simple therapeutic tools that could be used to support a child’s emotional well-being and educational achievement.
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| Miss Represented |
Overall, the conference provided a refreshing reminder of how privileged we are to work with young people and more importantly, of the tremendous potential we have to impact on their educational outcomes and life chances.
Maths trip to China
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| Emma Gale from Coldean and Lauren Clowes from Downs Junior |
Emma Gale from Coldean and Lauren Clowes from Downs Junior are the two Primary Mastery Specialists that have been selected from the whole of the Sussex Maths Hub to go to Shanghai as part of the teaching for mastery maths initiative. We are delighted to see expertise from the city recognised and really pleased that they are part of the very successful Strategic School Improvement Fund (SSIF) maths project.
Withdean Athletics
This month we had 44 of the city’s primary schools taking part in Primary School Athletics over 2 days with 1,500 children participating from years 4, 5 and 6 at Withdean Stadium. I went along and it was wonderful to see so many of our primary children competing and enjoying sport. Congratulations to the following schools for coming first in their divisions on Wednesday: Benfield, St Bernadette’s and St Paul’s, and again to Benfield for coming first overall in both the Field and Track cups. On the Thursday, Cottesmore, Elm Grove and Carden won their divisions with Elm Grove and Cottesmore winning the Field and Track cups respectively.
It was great as well to see Sports Leaders from Blatchington Mill, Dorothy Stringer, PACA and Patcham High supporting the event, without the support of the Sports Leaders and their PE departments these primary events just couldn’t happen.
Closing the ‘Word Gap’ in Early Years
It was good to join Nursery and Pre-school managers and leaders from across the city at the Brighthelm Centre this month to explore effective ways to build children’s vocabulary through books and stories. The morning included presentations and workshops by Mary Ellinger, Headteacher at the Royal Spa Nursery School, Claire Pimenta, Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist, Nancy Savage, Library Early Years Services & Bookstart Co-ordinator and Mandy Hodge, Early Years Coordinator and Nursery Class Teacher at Moulsecoomb Primary School. Ways forward from the morning have been identified, which the Early Years Team are looking forward to seeing, supporting, sharing and celebrating.
Parental Conflict Conference
This month a wide range of professionals came together with partners from Sussex University, Sussex Police and the department for Work and Pensions to discuss the impacts of parental conflict on children and young people and some of the ways we plan to support parents to reduce conflict. I was delighted to open the conference; Reducing Parental Conflict: Helping Parents, Helping Children. The event was attended by over 130 professionals who work with families from education roles through to employment support, social work and early help support.
We heard from Professor Gordon Harold and his team about the extensive and compelling academic research into the drivers and impacts of parental conflict. We have established a new task group with partners involved in this agenda and I’ll be posting regular updates as we develop training for professionals, screening tools and interventions to furnish a coherent pathway for supporting parents and families. You can find the day’s presentations here and for emerging evidence and ideas go to the Early Intervention Foundation’s new Reducing Parental Conflict Hub .
Play and Learning at Fairlight Primary
Many schools in Brighton & Hove have either taken up the work of Opal to develop their play or are considering this as a way forward for their school.
Fairlight Primary have come to the end of their work with Opal. The path to amazing play however is a continuous journey for all and the school will continue to develop their outside space and improve their provision further. For example, they will be working with the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership and Autograph around the actual meal part of lunchtime to complement the work in play.
Fairlight undertook their initial audit over 18 months ago, thinking that their play was okay. They just scraped in as a Silver School and through the journey with Opal have now moved to the highest rating of Platinum School and are in the top 5% of schools in the country for play.
Damien Jordan, Headteacher of Fairlight Primary, said:
‘I cannot recommend Opal and the process enough as a whole school focus that impacts across the whole curriculum but that also gets to the heart of good teaching and learning.
As many of you will also know from our physical environment, we have a very interesting and restricted outdoor site (all concrete- no school fields) so schools shouldn't feel this isn't for them or is an impossible task. We have made it work with one of the most restricted sites that Opal have worked with.’
Carlton Hill primary and the Connected Hub both had short inspections last month and both continue to be good. Congratulations to both Headteachers Tamsen Beer and Louise Cook and the governing bodies.
Brackenbury also had an inspection last month and was graded as Requires Improvement. The Ofsted inspector said positively: ‘The headteacher has shown determination to improve outcomes for pupils. Progress is beginning to improve’
Mile Oak was also inspected last month and was graded as Requires Improvement. The Ofsted inspector said positively: ‘The revised curriculum provides a range of exciting and purposeful learning. Pupils are developing the skills they need across all subjects’
I look forward to watching both schools on their journeys to good.
Congratulations to all involved.
Brunswick Primary is currently being inspected and Hangleton Primary had an inspection this month. I look forward to reporting back when the reports come out.
Governance Partnership Forum
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| Sam Wilson, Virtual School team lead, speaking a the Forum |
Governors came together last week for their first Governance Partnership Forum. These events have been added to the Governor Support training programme this year so governors can discuss key priorities in more detail within their partnerships. This term’s session focussed on how governors can have an impact on outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. As well as exploring some of the issues we have citywide, three governors also shared case studies on how their governing bodies are on a journey to improve outcomes and what they have identified as key areas for their schools. There was also a real appetite for the issues raised in the presentation from Sam Wilson, Headteacher for the Virtual School for Children in Care, so this is something the team will be looking to explore further at another event. The team is planning to use more schools to host the larger governance events in future - many thanks to Blatchington Mill for hosting this time.
Miss School Miss Out attendance campaign
The new Miss School Miss Out campaign was launched recently to be a positive campaign including social media that builds on the existing “Every School Day Matters” messaging and further explains the importance of attending school. The message of the campaign is to encourage families to consider the impact of good school attendance and encourage both parents and children to seek help if needed.
Part of the campaign will include the publication of short articles featuring a school absence issue with information on support available which can be shared by schools via email or social media or using their internal screens.
There is a social media campaign starting on 18 June based on the things that pupils will miss out on so make sure to follow council’s Twitter feed @BrightonHoveCC. We will be using #missschoolmissout and there is a new webpage for the campaign on the council’s website.
Mental Health work at Hove Park School
Hove Park have been acknowledged for their work around Mental Health. They are in Part 3 of a series on Radio 4, ‘Storm and Stress.’
It’s a really interesting series which they are also using with staff as part of their Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme. The third programme ‘How to help’ is available on BBC iPlayer here.
Well done to Headteacher Jim Roberts and the staff.
Poverty Proofing the School Day
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| Longhill peer researchers sharing their findings about poverty proofing the school day and how to support disadvantaged students |
‘Poverty Proofing the School Day’ is about listening to school communities to find out whether any practice or policy unwittingly disadvantages families who are struggling with money. Members of the ‘Poverty Proofing the School Day’ have now carried out audits in 32 schools across the city. The audit enables pupils, staff, parents and governors to talk about different aspects of school life. At the recent School and College Leaders Business meeting, some of the students from the Peer Researcher team at Longhill High School spoke about their experience as researchers: the things that they learned about poverty, issues that surprised and shocked them and what they had learned from the experience of being researchers.
Congratulations
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| Varndean's own Alison Browning receives MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List |
We are absolutely delighted to share the news that Alison Browning, Varndean’s Challenge Co-Ordinator, has been awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
Alison has received her award for services to young people at Varndean School, by enabling hundreds of them to complete the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and to be recognised for their charitable works, during a 30 year career of exceptional dedication and commitment to education.
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Helen
Osborne, Friends Centre Principal, who has been awarded an MBE
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We’re absolutely thrilled to announce that the Friends Centre Principal, Helen Osborne, has also been mentioned in the Queen’s birthday honours list today for an MBE award for services to Adult Education. Helen was honoured for her work in adult education and, most notably, for her work since 2014 as Principal of Brighton's Friends Centre, an adult education organisation 'at the heart of learning in the City' for the past 72 years. Helen is also well-known for her work in Girlguiding across East Sussex.
Congratulations to Patcham High’s fantastic Personalised Learning Department, for the amazing work they do with SEN students. The team were winners of the year at the 2018 Sussex Teacher of year awards.
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| Katie Mills and Julia Cason receiving their Sussex teacher of the year award |
Welcome
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| Georgina Clarke-Green, our new Assistant Director for Health, SEN and Disability |
I’m happy to welcome Georgina Clarke-Green as our newly appointed Assistant Director for Health, SEN and Disability, who will be starting with us on the 2nd of July.
Georgina has worked within special needs for 17 years, 14 of which as a Senior Manager or Head of Service. In her previous roles, she has overseen statutory SEN processes and led a wide range of specialist teams such as the Educational Psychology Service, Advisory Teachers, Inclusion Service and Headteachers of Pupil Referral Units. She’s passionate about ensuring that all children, young people and adults with additional needs are given every opportunity to realise their potential in order to enjoy a fulfilling and purposeful life.
Georgina is looking forward to meeting as many colleagues here as possible in order for her to understand more about Brighton & Hove and learn about the good work that we do.
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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