End of another academic year

We are almost at the end of another academic year, and it’s a time to celebrate our achievements across the city. Standards overall in our schools and wider education provision have continually improved this year and we are in a better place than ever before, something for you all to be incredibly proud of, well done. Thank you for your continued commitment to children and families in the city. Enjoy this fabulous weather, and for those who are going away, enjoy your well-deserved holiday.

This year’s Refugee Week there was a special celebration held at Royal Spa nursery school. The nursery has been awarded the first Nursery of Sanctuary award in the city. We are proud to be a city of sanctuary, working to provide a welcoming environment for refugees. Good practice for refugee children and families is embedded in the nursery, through their welcome, the celebration of all their languages and the support to access a range of local services. Families are invited to join in and volunteer wherever possible. Congratulations Royal Spa!

Mary Ellinger, the Headteacher, talked about how Royal Spa became a nursery of sanctuary:

‘All our staff and governors had training about refugees. This was very powerful in raising our awareness and inspiring us. In the winter we had a Celebration of Light. This drew on the common themes of light from many different winter festivals. We invited all our families to attend, but particularly encouraged our refugee families. This was a joyous event, with a walk carrying lanterns made by the children, and music from a Syrian father. It finished with a wonderful array of food from around the world.’

For more information: http://refugeeweek.org.uk/how-a-brighton-nursery-school-is-celebrating-refugee-week/

  

The Capoeira session had lots of participation and smiley faces

I’m delighted so many of our schools celebrated refugee week across the city. Blatchington Mill held a capoeira session which went down really well with the students who were extremely keen to get involved! They held an international cake fair which saw students and staff bake cakes from countries they had a connection with. The cakes were then swapped and shared with year 7 students; they had a huge array of countries represented including Syria, Italy and Wales.

World cakes table

  

Blatchington Mill pupils at the Great Get Together event

Success again in our primary schools

Congratulations to all pupils, staff, headteachers and governors on the very positive outcomes for the KS2 national tests again this year. Early provisional results show that we have remained above the national figure, which is a great achievement and part of our commitment to helping children have the best start in life. More details are available in this press release. The end of term celebrations will give an opportunity for young people to rejoice and reflect on all the exciting experiences and opportunities that have contributed to their learning so far as they transition to the next stage of their educational journey.

  

Celebrating our Newly Qualified Teachers

NQT event in Hove Town Hall

I was really pleased to be able to go and thank this year’s cohort of newly qualified teachers, who are just coming to the end of their induction year. The Local Authority School & Governance Development Team hosted an end-of-year celebration, where NQTs really valued having time to reflect on their year. They also heard from an ex-NQT, Vic Leon-Cutler from Goldstone Primary, about what to focus on in their second year, and Helen Horsley from Sussex Coast Teaching School Alliance, who explored all the opportunities that will be available to them in the future - maybe even headship! Thank you to all involved.

  

Sussex School Games Finals

Blatchington Girls Stoolball pupils with their Silver certificate

I just wanted to share with you the success of the Brighton & Hove Team at the Sussex School Games Finals.

The Brighton & Hove team did so well finishing 4^th out of the 9 areas across Sussex. Which is our best team result ever!

Here are the results:

Cottesmore Primary Year 5/6 Mixed Quad Kids Athletics, 1^st Place

Carden Primary Year 5/6 Mixed SEND Football, 1^st Place

Blatchington Mill Year 9/10 Girls Stoolball, 2^nd Place

Downs Park School Year 5-8 Parallel Athletics, 2^nd Place

Dorothy Stringer School Year 7 Street Cricket, 3^rd Place

Hertford Juniors Year 3/4 Mixed Tri Golf, 4^th Place

Stanford Juniors Year 5/6 Gymnastics, 5^th Place

Dorothy Stringer School Year 7 Girls Netball, 5^th Place

St John the Baptist Primary High 5 Netball, 6^th Place

Hangleton Primary Year 5/6 Hockey, 9^th Place

Cottesmore Primary Year5/6 Mixed Quad Kids Athletics pupils with their Gold certificate

All of the teams did so well to make it to the final as in each sport there was an average of 21 schools from across Sussex taking part. 23 Brighton & Hove primary schools took part in the High 5 Netball Tournaments – with St John the Baptist Primary winning the final and going through to the Sussex final. We also had Sports Leaders from PACA umpiring the Netball Final and Blatchington Mill helping with the Gymnastics Final & general event support.

Well done to everyone involved!

  

Fighting food waste and unhealthy diets

Brighton & Hove school children have been waging war against the twin evils of food waste and unhealthy eating using the simple superpower of Veg Power Pots. The fun-sized and appealing colourful cups have been filled with a different daily choice of raw veg, including carrot batons, mange tout and sweetcorn for the past three weeks, offering the children of Fairlight Primary School an alternative to the usual cooked vegetable portions with lunch.

Provided in partnership with Brighton & Hove City Council, school meals contractor Autograph, working with Brighton & Hove Food Partnership, the healthy raw-veg initiative follows a school waste audit last June. This showed that vegetables were the most wasted foodstuff from school lunches, but also children said that they preferred raw vegetables to cooked ones. The children have loved the experience and we have used Veg Power stickers and posters to motivate them and as a celebration they will have the opportunity to create their own ‘Veg Power Pictures’ in a photo booth.

Chloe Clarke from the Food Partnership said ‘The Veg Power Pots are such a simple idea but they pack a mighty punch – making sure that children eat their vegetables with lunch. It’s win : win in the fight to get children to eat their vegetables and tackle food waste!’

Brighton & Hove Food Partnership will now evaluate the initiative's effect on the amount of food waste the school produced. If food waste is shown to be reduced, it is hoped that the Veg Power Pots can be rolled out to other schools in the city.

Last October, the Food Partnership made a joint pledge with Brighton & Hove City Council to become a Veg City. This is part of the national campaign, established by the Food Foundation called Peas Please which is trying to take ensure everybody eat more vegetables.

Fairlight Primary pupil sampling a Power Pot

Congratulations to Shirley Vanstaaden and Hollingdean children’s centre

Shirley Vanstaaden, receptionist at Hollingdean Children’s Centre and Steph Lakelin, Children’s Centre Manager

You will remember Shirley Vanstaaden, receptionist at Hollingdean Children’s Centre, won the Council’s Big Difference award earlier this year for her work to set up the centre’s community café, which is now run by local volunteers. Shirley was nominated for the award by her manager – Steph Lakelin, and in June they together attended a garden party at Buckingham Palace. The garden party was held in recognition of the many individuals who go above and beyond to help others.

Well done once again to Shirley, and thank you to all the volunteers and staff at Hollingdean Children’s Centre for their work to establish this café for the local community.

For the last 3 weeks, Ofsted have been in the city inspecting the local authority's Children’s Services. The inspection runs until Friday 20th July and we will provide an update next week with our reflections on how the inspection went overall. The results of the inspection will not be published until later on in August. A big thank you to our teams for all the hard work they are putting into this inspection, we are proud to be able to show the inspectors examples of great practice with families in the city.

Hangleton Primary had an inspection last month and was graded Good. Congratulations to Executive Headteacher Emma Lake, Anna Keane, Acting Head of School, the governing body, and the children and parents of course.

Brunswick Primary was also inspected last month. I look forward to announcing the results when the report comes out.

Well done Roundabout Nursery

Roundabout Nursery children celebrating their Outstanding grading

Congratulations to Roundabout Nursery in Whitehawk, for an ‘Outstanding’ grading by Ofsted inspectors for the third time. The nursery works tirelessly to support some of the most vulnerable children in the area. They have a huge amount of children attending who have Child Protection and Child in Need plans, and have the highest amount of children in the city attending who are eligible for two year old funding. The nursery is part of the Roundabout Children’s Centre.

Inspectors said:

• Children make excellent progress in this exceptionally welcoming, inclusive nursery.
• Staff are highly sensitive to children’s individual circumstances and developmental needs, and all children, including those with Special Educational Needs and/or disabilities, are exceptionally well prepared for their future learning and starting school.
• Managers are strongly committed to continually developing the provision.
• Staff are excellent role models and offer children calm, reassuring guidance and praise.
• Staff very skilfully plan activities that build on children’s learning and extend their interests exceptionally well.

The Nursery managers Deborah Taylor and Teresa Owen said ‘We are thrilled to be recognised for all that we do with the wonderful children and families in this area. It is so important to us to make a difference and we are incredibly proud of our staff. Getting an ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rating is a huge achievement, but retaining it twice is amazing. The report reflects our ethos: ‘Creative, Inclusive and Passionate in everything we do’.

http://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/CARE/EY334821

Apprenticeships

Apprenticeship Roadshow 

The Apprenticeship Roadshows took place at Hove Town Hall in June and at the Brighton Centre in July. The events successfully engaged about 400 people, who attended to find out more about apprenticeships and traineeships. The attendees at both events were able to talk to a wide range of training providers and employers and the events both featured panel events about apprenticeships and traineeships, giving the experiences of apprentices, apprenticeship employers and training providers. The feedback from visitors from both events was very positive.  

Goodbye and thank you

This is the time of year where we have to say goodbye to some of our team members and partners. I wanted to thank them formally on behalf of everyone in Families, Children and Learning for their contribution to the lives of our children, young people and their families.

It is always sad to say goodbye to headteachers and education leaders and there are several colleagues who have or are moving on this term. My thanks to colleagues who have contributed so much: Trevor Cristin (Head at St Andrew’s Primary), Janet Tremble (Acting Head at BACA), Katie Scott (Head at PACA ), Gayle Adam (Head at Patcham House), Wendy King (Head at Bilingual Primary), Joan Marshall (Head at Hertford Junior) and Marcelo Staricoff (Head at Balfour Primary).      

We wish them all well in their future careers and the next chapters in their lives. 

Also special mention to the following heads who are taking on new roles or returning to their old roles: Rachel Simmonds (Acting Executive Headteacher at Mile Oak Primary). Rachel will return to her role as Head at West Blatchington Primary. Helen Horsley (Head at Benfield Primary). Helen has moved to her new role as Head of Teaching School. Rachel Kershaw (Acting Head at Cottesmore St Mary’s Primary), who will move to a new role as Head of St Margaret’s Primary. Zoe McGuigan will become Executive Head of Hertford Infant and Junior school in a new role. Clare Price, who will be moving back to her substantive role as Deputy Head at St Margaret’s Primary after acting up as Interim Head.

Regan Delf

Last month I was very pleased to give a warm welcome to Georgina Clarke-Green who has taken on the role of Assistant Director for Health, SEN and Disability. This month it is with sadness that we say goodbye to Regan Delf, who steps down from this role, looking for a change to her pace of life. Regan has been with the local authority for five years, although as our National Strategy Adviser and then as a consultant she has worked with us for much longer. She will be much missed, both for her wit but more particularly her leadership of SEND which has led to transformations in our SEN provision, the bringing together of children’s disability and adult learning disability, the creation of BHISS, the development of a new school’s well-being service, the successful conversation of SEN statements into EHCPs, and this week the expected agreement to work in partnership with the National Autistic Society to develop specialist provision in two mainstream schools.

Regan will continue on a part-time basis to offer advice and support with the establishment of the three new SEN hubs in the city and while we are being inspected we may also at times need to call on her expertise.

Thank you, Regan, we will miss you so much.

September Education Leaders Conference, Leadership: The Art of Being Brilliant

A heads up that the annual Brighton & Hove Education Leadership Conference will be on Friday 21 September 2018 and we're delighted that our Keynote Speaker will be Dr Andy Cope. Andy’s flagship keynote ‘The Art of Being Brilliant’ has been delivered to rave reviews all over the world. Andy believes leaders need to be challenged in an entertaining and humane way. He promises no big words or psychobabble, just a rip-roaring tour through the essentials of leadership as it needs to be RIGHT NOW.

The conference will be a morning session followed by lunch. To book a place via BEEM , email schools.training@brighton-hove.gov.uk or call 01273 293511.

Best wishes,

Jo

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