Happy Christmas

Wishing you a Happy Christmas

and good wishes for the New Year

 from

 Jo Lyons

and the

Education & Skills team

  

Daily Mile

St Paul’s pupils enjoying the Daily Mile

Despite only having a small amount of outdoor space, St Paul’s Church of England Primary School have taken up the daily mile with great enthusiasm. A total of 45 different children have participated and there are 5 children who have been every day. Well done St Paul’s!

11 of our Brighton & Hove schools are currently running a Daily Mile or similar programme in their school. In Brighton & Hove there are significantly more children (in school Years 1-11) who are active across the week (32.0% undertake an average of 30 minutes or more both at school and outside school but not every day), compared to the national average (25.7%). In our city there are also significantly fewer children (in School Years 1-11) undertaking less than 30 minutes of sport and physical activity a day at school and outside of school (61.2%) than the national average (67.5%). There is still work to be done to get children active for 60 minutes in & out of school and how the daily mile can help schools achieve their Active 30 minutes.

St Paul’s pupils enjoying the Daily Mile

The PE and School Sport Premium funding guidance does make reference that ‘Where schools choose to take part in an active mile, you should use your existing playgrounds, fields, halls and sports facilities to incorporate an active mile into the school day and develop a lifelong habit of daily physical activity’ .

Schools can use the Active Planner for further guidance and support around introducing Active Miles / activities into the school day. https://www.activeschoolplanner.org/

School Christmas performances

It’s that time of year when our schools and colleges have been ‘wowing’ their parents and communities with amazing end of year performances.

I had the great pleasure of visiting Coldean Primary to see their Key Stage 1 performance of ‘Dumbo’ which was a fabulous display of talent from all their children. Thank you, Coldean.

  

Little Green Pig

Little Green Pig are a charity that run writing workshops in schools and after school clubs for children and young people. They came to the Primary Heads meeting this month and shared a video of the BrightSTAR project which took place in Moulsecoomb Primary. This was a whole school writing project based around a school curriculum topic of space. More details are available through the website where you can also watch a film of the project and its impact here: https://www.littlegreenpig.org.uk/blog/watch-a-transmission-from-brightstar/

 

Every Child a Reader

Vicky Hemstedt, Reading Recovery teacher from Middle Street Primary at the House of Lords  

Staff from Middle Street Primary School in Brighton went to the House of Lords this month to talk about their outstanding success in helping pupils who struggle with reading. Since 2012 more than 40 children at the school have benefited from the Reading Recovery programme. Children who are struggling with Literacy in Year 1 are given daily 1-1 individualised literacy lessons with an expert teacher. This is a national scheme coordinated locally by Brighton & Hove City Council and used by 16 schools in the city.

Fast forward six years – and the first pupils to have received Reading Recovery left for secondary school having caught up with their peers and with a love of reading. Many of these children went on to become ‘reading buddies’ and school librarians. Middle Street’s Reading Recovery teacher, Vicky Hemstedt, said: ‘The programme has had a massive impact in our school, not just with improved exam results but also in terms of behaviour and engagement in class. It’s incredibly rewarding to see children’s sheer joy and boosted self-esteem when they become successful readers and writers.’

The council’s Reading Recovery coordinator, Louise Zahra, said: ‘Reading is a fundamental skill – children simply can’t achieve their potential without it. The Reading Recovery programme has had a massive impact in all the schools who have used it – it’s literally changed the lives of thousands of our city’s children.’

  

The Schools Christmas Concert

Pupils at Schools Christmas Concert, photo Ayla Carli 

On Monday the 3rd of December over 1,200 children from 43 different primary and special schools took part in the Schools Christmas Concert at the Brighton Centre. It was a fantastic evening of festive music-making organised by Brighton & Hove Music & Arts with a programme featuring both traditional and contemporary festive songs. Further showcasing musical talent in the city, the massed choir where accompanied by young musicians from Brighton & Hove Youth Big Band and Brighton & Hove Youth Wind Orchestra during this celebratory evening of music. Congratulations to all the young musicians who performed!

Pupils at Schools Christmas Concert, photo Ayla Carli 

Family Learning

Family baking

Brighton & Hove’s Family Learning team ran a Family Christmas Baking session with the Food Partnership at the Community Kitchen this month. Six families came along for an afternoon of baking festive cheesy crackers and stained glass biscuits. Family Learning courses are informative, practical and fun offering a great opportunity for parents, carers and their children to enjoy quality time together learning new skills and are often the first steps to further learning.

  

Family baking

  

As always it’s been a busy time with Ofsted this month. Congratulations to City Academy Whitehawk and Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Primary School on retaining their Good judgements from Ofsted.

The Ofsted Inspector said the following about City Academy Whitehawk:

‘School leaders at all levels, as well as the governors, are strongly committed to providing the best possible education for pupils.’

The Ofsted inspector said the following about Our Lady of Lourdes:

‘Leaders work effectively together and have created a positive culture that supports all members of staff in doing their very best for the pupils in the school.’

We also have to give great congratulations to Royal Spa Nursery on being judged Outstanding again.

The Ofsted inspector said this about Royal Spa:

‘There is a culture of care and kindness throughout the school. The learning environment both indoors and outside is a wonderland of activities waiting to entice children to use their curiosity to learn.

The comment of one parent exemplifies that of others:

‘In my opinion Royal Spa is everything a nursery should be: safe, welcoming, caring, educational and fun. Due to the attentiveness and warmth of the staff, my daughter settled into nursery and is excited to go in each day.’

Other inspections have taken place and we are awaiting the results for Hertford Junior School, Middle Street Primary School, Fairlight Primary School and King’s School. I look forward to reporting back next time.

The Ofsted Annual Report 2017/18 is also now out, read it here.

Welcomes and Goodbyes

It’s time to say goodbye to Andy Lincoln from St Andrew’s CE Primary. Thank you for his leadership at St Andrew’s during his time as interim head teacher.

Helen Emerson, PSHE Lead Teacher

It’s time also to say thank you and goodbye to Helen Emerson, PSHE Lead Teacher for the local authority and PSHE Co-ordinator at Dorothy Stringer. Helen is leaving us to work as Secondary Subject Specialist for the PSHE Association. We are delighted for Helen as this recognises her skills and abilities, but it is also recognition of the high quality PSHE practice we have in Brighton & Hove. I would like to thank Helen for the support she has given to secondary schools and in particular new PSHE co-ordinators. Helen has been instrumental in organising Theatre in Education Tours dealing with exploitation, developed resources for PSHE and provided excellent training to schools. Her commitment and ‘can do’ energy will be missed, but we wish her well.

Best wishes,

Jo

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