Friday, 20 December 2019

Happy Christmas

Wishing you a Happy Christmas
and good wishes
for the New Year
 from
 Jo Lyons
and the
Education & Skills team

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a happy Christmas and new year.  Thank you for your contribution to education and skills and wider families, children and learning agendas in 2019.   Although there have been challenges, I have been extremely proud of the continued excellent practice and good outcomes for our schools and wider education providers, children, young people and families this year.  I hope you all enjoy your well-deserved break and I look forward to working with you in the new year.

Youth Employment Service (YES) Service Achieve Matrix Award


The Matrix Standard is a unique quality standard for organisations to assess and measure their advice and support services, which ultimately supports individuals in their choice of career, learning, work and life goals.

There was a two day assessment where the assessor met with 15 clients, parents and carers and partner organisations for 360 feedback and spoke to managers and advisers about their roles and the impact on local families’ lives.
 
The national assessor was impressed with the level of tailored support for young people and commented  “Each client is receiving bespoke support that is customised to take into account the whole person and their individual circumstances, with action plans frequently reviewed to help achieve an EET (Education, Employment or Training) outcome…The City of Brighton and Hove has every right to be very proud of YES and how it is fulfilling the key role of ensuring no one is left behind.”

Congratulations to the YES Service on these excellent outcomes.


Congratulations to Michael Lowe who won Apprentice of The Year at the Sussex Business Awards on 5 December, beating three other finalists to the title.  Michael, who successfully completed his Postgraduate Teaching Apprenticeship at the University of Brighton, undertook the programme while at Goldstone Primary School and is now a fully qualified teacher at the school.

Lis Bundock, Senior Lecturer in the School of Education, said: “Michael’s amazing – a little bit of magic happens in his classroom.  We are truly delighted that Michael’s well-earned success has been recognised with this prestigious award.”

Goldstone’s Head Teacher, Chris Pearson, added: “Michael is a great example of what degree apprenticeships are all about. They are a great way of bringing on the talent that you can see standing in front of you.”

Michael said “Winning the Apprentice of the Year award was a genuine surprise but the reaction I have had from colleagues and friends has been lovely. I have worked for Goldstone Primary for ten years now, firstly as an INA, then as a TA and having completed my ITT at the school I am now a teacher. The course was definitely challenging, but I was surrounded by a wonderful group of people who supported me and it was a very worthwhile experience.”

I am delighted to hear that Michael has been rewarded for all of his hard work and I look forward to hearing more success stories from other apprentices on the scheme.  For more information about apprenticeships, please contact Gavin Graham on 01273 293320 or apprenticeships@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Michael Lowe with Chris Pearson, Headteacher of Goldstone Primary School

Bike It Wild

Presentation at the Bike It Wild event

Blatchington Mill held a celebration of their Girls’ Cycling Club last week.  The school noticed that the majority of pupils cycling to school were boys and started up a cycling club just for girls. This was hugely successful and a trip was planned in the summer.  It turned out to be the hottest day of the year when they cycled up to the South Downs and slept under the stars.  At the event last week, the girls gave a presentation about the club and the trip, the fun they had and the positive difference it had made to their confidence and self-esteem.  There are plans to reconvene in the summer term.

The school also showed a film about climate change and how pupils at Blatchington Mill are leading the way in their school, questioning practice and making suggestions.  Even the school ties are now made from recycled materials.

Well done to Blatchington for such running two such successful and engaging projects.  I look forward to hearing more in the future about both the Girls’ Cycling Club and the pupils’ endeavours to fight climate change.

It All Adds Up



Our Local Authority maths project, ‘It all adds up’ has been receiving very positive evaluations from teachers in the city.  The teachers have said they have found many things helpful, including: 
‘Discussion of strategies and games to help children learn well’, ‘fluency games’, ‘subject knowledge’,’ the opportunity to work through examples of how to teach and see the progression of strategies’ and ‘having time to really think through the different strategies to consider effectiveness and misconceptions and the opportunity for open discussion’.

The twilight planning session was attended by staff from across the year groups and gave the opportunity for joint planning and discussion.

Many thanks to the Sussex Coast Teaching School Alliance and the Sussex Maths Hub for working in partnership with us on this important project and for organising such a valuable development opportunity.

City Wide School Writing Strategy



Several schools are getting ready to take part in the Power of Reading (for inspirational writing) which starts in January,   The programme is led by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, at Rudyard Kipling Primary School, who are an associate school.  My thanks to Joanne Smith for her hospitality and for taking this forward.

It is good to see so many schools engaging with the English Hub at Springhill Catholic Primary School in Southampton.  If you are interested in finding out more, their website is https://www.springhillcatholic.co.uk/information-1/ .  They have an offer of courses, visits and audits.

Our third strand to the writing focus, Improving Writing Outcomes, is based on the successful methodology of the recent DfE funded maths project.  It  is also receiving positive evaluations from teachers.  These include:  ‘time to reflect on how to use texts linked to writing and the value of this’, lots of useful and practical ideas we can use’, ‘sharing ideas/experiences with lots of other schools’, ‘time to talk’ and ‘getting ideas from organisers as well as attendees and useful tips for books to read and activities’. 

We hope to see the impact of these programmes in the pupils’ enjoyment of and engagement in writing, as well as in the end of key stage outcomes.

We are keen to work with schools to plan and devise city wide programmes on areas for improvement.  If you have ideas and suggestions, please contact Hilary Ferries at hilary.ferries@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Healthy Schools Celebration Event

Cllr Dee Simson presenting the Awards to the winners

On Thursday 28 November 33 infant, primary and secondary schools attended a celebration event at the Sussex County Cricket ground to celebrate their schools achieving one of the following awards:

School Games Mark – Sport and Physical Activity
A Smile or I am Whole Award – Mental Health
Healthy Choice Breakfast Club Award  - Healthy Eating

54 schools in the city have achieved one of these awards in 2018/19.

It was a great afternoon celebrating and showcasing all of the great work these schools are doing around physical activity, emotional social wellbeing and healthy eating.  Cllr Dee Simson presented the pupils and teachers from these schools with their awards.   Inspired by each other’s work around these 3 main themes, schools were also encouraged to make pledges to go back to school and change / do something different for next year.

Well done to all of the schools involved and I look forward to hearing about the pledges which have been made following the event.

Cllr Dee Simson and the winners

A Jolly Festive Sing-Song





I was delighted to attend a wonderfully festive evening at the Brighton Centre on Monday 2 December – The Schools Christmas Concert. This annual event is a great example of the Brighton & Hove Education Partnership working at its best.

The children and young people, parents, carers and audience guests enjoyed the carefully rehearsed and enthusiastically presented Christmas sing along with swing band and orchestral numbers, Santa hats, tinsel and reindeer antlers in abundance.

The evening was a fantastic success.  Well done to everyone involved!


Ofsted inspectors have been busy in the city over the last month. 
 
St Mary Magdalen was the first school to receive a Good outcome under the new Inspection Framework within the city. The inspector said: “This is a highly inclusive, multicultural school, where pupils mix well together. Leaders have created a culture of care where all children are welcomed and embraced.” 

Leaders promote high academic and pastoral ambitions for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They believe there are no limits or ceiling on what any pupil can achieve and actively seek out the best support for pupils to enable them to succeed.”

Homewood College and Bevendean Primary School received inspections in the first week in December.  We are still waiting for the final reports for Benfield, Woodingdean and Bevendean Primary Schools and Homewood College and will update you about these in the January blog.

We are looking at organising a conference / workshop about the new framework, which is likely to take place on 28 February.  Please look out for more information in the new year.

Best wishes,
Jo


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



Friday, 29 November 2019

Stonewall Champion


I am absolutely delighted to confirm that following submission of evidence in July to Stonewall’s Children and Young People’s Champion Award, Brighton & Hove City Council has recently won the Gold Award with a score of 126/130.

A range of evidence of work done to prevent homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying and to promote lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans inclusion was required from teams within Families, Children and Learning and from schools for criteria related to training, working groups and strategic leadership.

This is a positive reflection of the hard work of staff in our schools and our partnership working with the ever brilliant Allsorts Youth Project who provide a range of support including training, LGBT Peer educator sessions in school and support for parents and carers of LGBT young people.  

I would like to record thanks to Allsorts and also to Sam Beal, our Partnership Adviser: Health & Wellbeing, for her tremendous work with partners city wide which has been reflected in this award.  

Huge congratulations on this fantastic achievement to everyone involved. 

Anti Bullying Week


Anti Bullying Week took place from 11-15 November with a theme of ‘Change Starts with Us’. This nationwide event is organised by the Anti Bullying Alliance and is intended to raise awareness of the issue of bullying among children, especially in schools. Children of all ages as well as parents and carers are encouraged to get involved in the event and take part in activities that will help to shine a light on the problem of bullying and ways to help resolve the issue. In Brighton & Hove a wide-range of activities took place this year. Thanks to schools for participating in this year’s anti-bullying week, I have enjoyed hearing about activities via Twitter. We have had positive feedback on the resources produced by the Equality and Anti-Bullying Service and further feedback is welcomed – please send to pshe@brighton-hove.gov.uk so that the service can continue to provide high quality resources. 

This year Patcham High took a slightly different approach to an anti-bullying week assembly.  Patcham High holds an assembly each half term marking a religious festival.  This half term, the assembly brought together Anti-Bullying Week (Change Starts With Us) and Guru Nanak's birthday being celebrated on 12 November. The assembly included an extract from the Dalai Lama's book 'A Call for Revolution' to emphasise to our young people that change does start with them. That we, as adults, have faith in them to make the right decisions and do the right thing to move our society away from "hatred, violence, selfishness, greed and fanaticism". The life of Guru Nanak was used as a role model for standing up for equality for all and fighting to remove discrimination from society. 


Be the Change




The Brighton Be the Change 2019 launch event took place on Tuesday 19 November in Hove.

Be the Change is aimed at young people from Year 9 (14 years old) who for one reason or another may be disengaged at school or lack confidence in their own abilities but who have real potential once they are involved in inspiring and engaging activities and given positive role models. The programme helps to support these young people on their journey, opening their eyes to the world of work and wealth of the possibilities and career opportunities in their hometown and beyond.   
Launching with this powerful day long conference, Be The Change brings together young people with business guides from the local area. Schools participating include BACA, Varndean, Blatchington Mill, Longhill and Cardinal Newman.  The event was an interactive and engaging experience which shed light on the importance of individual qualities as well as qualifications and demonstrated to young people that (although not always academic) they are bright and talented and, with support, they can have successful futures. 

I look forward to hearing more about this programme over the coming months.

Every Child a Reader

We are very excited about the additional resource in place to expand Every Child a Reader (ECaR) across the authority so that more children in our schools can benefit from this excellent provision.
Primary and Secondary schools have been invited to sign up to train teaching assistants for Better Reading @Primary (BRP), Fischer Family Trust Wave 3 (FFTW3) or Inference Training by Friday 29 November. Bex Shore, our ECaR Teacher Leader and Joyti Azad, LA Strategic Lead, will be meeting with Primary Headteachers at their next briefing to explain these interventions in more detail and share the exciting way forward by bringing ECaR into more of our schools. 

Schools that currently have an ECaR teacher have seen the impact on reading throughout their communities:

“There are many reasons why the ability to read is a challenge for some but we know that the Every Child a Reader programme can demystify the process and open up the wonderful world or reading and writing for a child. At Middle Street, Vicky’s role as an ECaR teacher impacts across the whole school as well as opening up the world of literature and enriching the lives of the individual children she has worked with over the years.” Julie Aldous, Headteacher at Middle Street Primary School.

“Rudyard Kipling is exceptionally fortunate to have a full time ECaR teacher, Julia Tooke, who is a highly skilled practitioner and middle leader who drives reading and writing throughout the school. Her knowledge and expertise is shared with a team of TAs who lead interventions to positively support the role of ECaR at Rudyard.” Joanne Smith, Headteacher at Rudyard Kipling Primary School. 

We look forward to working together in this area so that we can continue to open up a whole new world for children through the joy of reading. 


Family Learning Halloween Event



Family Learning Brighton & Hove held a Halloween event at Hangleton Library on Sunday 27 October to celebrate Family Learning Festival month.   Twenty five local families joined us for spooky stories and crafts and picked up packs of English, maths, crafting and scavenger hunt activities to take home for half term.  It was lovely to see families enjoying the activities together and a good opportunity to share information about the Family Learning service in Brighton & Hove and to hand out the Campaign for Learning Best Coach guides.


For information about Family Learning Brighton & Hove please contact Kirsty Cregan on 01273 810213.

O360 Young Leaders



Brighton & Hove Music & Arts have been leading Orchestra 360 (o360), an inclusive music group for children and young people with Special Educational Needs/Disabilities and their parents/carers and siblings for 3 years; and the group has become one of our largest and most popular music activities, with over 100 children and young people taking part.

Ahead of o360 sessions running in November and December, working towards a performance on 14 December 2019; a group of 6 o360 members were invited to a Young Leaders training day, to develop their musical and leadership skills. Music leaders who facilitate the group were keen to find new ways to support the young people to make good musical progress, while also designing a training pathway that will open-up new opportunities in music leadership for young people with SEND.

All the young people took part in warm up games, rhythmic and singing activities; discussion and practice of how to lead music activities with young people; a carousel of taster sessions where they each tried 5 different instruments; more intensive individual tuition on a chosen instrument and group music-making activities. 

Facilitated by James Redwood, Emma Collins and a team of music leaders from Brighton & Hove Music & Arts, the day was successful in piloting a new approach to supporting aspiring music leaders and further o360 Young Leader training will be offered on a regular basis throughout the coming year, in conjunction with the orchestra’s regular programme of activity.

One parent of a young participant said ‘I just wanted to let you know that my daughter has not stopped talking about how much she enjoyed Saturday. It is often quite hard to get her to talk about what she has been doing but she hasn’t stopped talking about what music she did, how she can help set up and encourage younger children. It really had a big impact on her.’

For more information about o360 please visit the website:



Children in Care and Care Leavers Awards



Every child or young person in care has had different experiences in life.  The Children in Care and Care Leavers Awards is an annual celebration recognising the personal achievements of children and young people who are in care or have been in care in Brighton & Hove.

Designed to recognise how award winners have made a difference to their own or someone else’s life, the theme for this year’s event was “Reach for the Stars” to show that there is no limit to how high people can aim or how far their success can soar.

The annual awards took place last week on Friday 22 November, hosted by British Airways i360.  I’d like to offer congratulations to all the awards winners and everyone who has worked so hard to make this celebration such an inspiring and successful event.

Brighton & Hove Primary Schools Cross Country




The Brighton & Hove Primary Schools Cross Country event took place on 20 November.  1,197 children, from 43 different primary schools, completed the course safely and with lots of smiles on their faces! 

A big thank you to the 48 Sports Leaders from Hove Park, Blatchington Mill and Dorothy Stringer who helped get all of these children around the course safely.   Thank you as well to Phoenix Athletics club and their volunteers for helping with the funnel. 

The children who finished in the top 5 in the year 5 races and top 10 in the year 6 races will be invited along to the Sussex School Games finals on Thursday 2 April at Waterhall to represent Brighton & Hove. 

There are lots of opportunities in the city to get running: 

Parkrun 

Brighton Marathon and Brighton Half Marathon Youth Races 

Brighton Athletics Club 

Phoenix Athletics Club 


School Attendance


I’m delighted that our attendance campaign “Miss School Miss Out” championed by our Brighton & Hove Education Partnership is starting to have real impact.

Pupil absence in Brighton & Hove has decreased by 0.25% from 5.06% in 2017/18 to 4.81% in 2018/19.  This is our lowest average pupil absence in the last 6 years and the second lowest average in the last 13 years.  Persistent absence has decreased by 1.13% from 11.77% in 2017/18 to 10.64% in 2018/19.  This is our lowest percentage of pupils classed as being persistently absent ever.

Well done to all our schools and the Access to Education Team for their continued focus on this important area of work.


We have now had three inspections at primary schools under the new Inspection Framework, which started in September 2019:  St Mary Magdalen Catholic Primary School received a Section 5 inspection and Benfield Primary and Woodingdean Primary School received Section 8 inspections (Woodingdean’s finishes today 29 November).

We are now awaiting the results of these inspections and look forward to reporting these in the next newsletter.

Bright Start Nursery Rated 'Good' by Ofsted


Congratulations to Bright Start nursery in central Brighton which has been rated ‘good’ by Ofsted.

Their inspector described Bright Start, which is run by Brighton & Hove City Council, as a vibrant, busy and stimulating nursery. They said that:

Children are very happy and safe, and their well-being is given very high priority
Parents say how staff go above and beyond what they expect and confirmed how happy they are with the care provided
Behaviour is good and every child's unique qualities are understood and catered for
Staff work hard to make sure every child achieves well, especially those who need extra help with their learning
The curriculum offers children a broad range of learning experiences
Children leave Bright Start confident, sociable and ready for their future learning.

See here for further information about Bright Start nursery.

Congratulations to all of the staff at Bright Start and everyone involved in achieving this result.


Welcomes


We would like to welcome Simon Davies, the new Head at Balfour Primary School.  We are all looking forward to working closely with him in his new role.


Welcome also to two new members of the Access to Education Team:-  Natasha Young who is an Engagement Officer with a particular emphasis on monitoring Elective Home Education (EHE) and Hannah Campbell who is working on Child Performance/ Chaperone Licences.

Best wishes,
Jo

Keep in touch and follow me on Twitter @JoMLyons








Friday, 25 October 2019

Happy Diwali!


Wishing a very happy Diwali to everyone across Brighton and Hove!


Earlier this week, Pinaki Ghoshal and other members of our team came together to enjoy some treats and celebrate.


Pinaki Ghoshal and the Performance Improvement and Programmes Team

Gold Arts Award Success

Jacob
Jacob, a young trans person, has passed his Gold Arts Award, a national Level 3 qualification with UCAS points. He has been working on the award with a BHCC Youth Participation Team youth worker for almost two years, overcoming social anxieties to take part in, and lead on, creative projects. He learnt new skills, such as mask making; creating and photographing animal masks, and also took part in photography workshops. 

For further parts of the award Jacob visited and reviewed arts events and researched the art of drag, writing to the BBC voicing his concerns that Ru Paul’s Drag Race was not trans inclusive.  He also successfully took part in arts leadership opportunities, including ones at The Tate and Barbican! Jacob said, “leading these projects was daunting at first, since I am quite a shy person but I found that once I got there and got into the projects it was a lot easier to be able to lead and talk to the public.  Overall, through doing the Arts Award I learnt a lot about being more confident, both in myself and my skills as a photographer and a leader. Working on these projects was a great experience that I enjoyed so much and would love to do again.”

Annual Education Leadership Conference

Viv Grant speaking to attendees at the conference

We were delighted to welcome Viv Grant from Integrity Coaching as our keynote speaker for the Annual Education Leadership Conference this year. She spoke about the importance of keeping connected to our values and keeping connected to what matters most in school and college leadership.  She shared some of her experiences of headship and ways to overcome the ‘sacrifice syndrome’.  The powerpoint of her presentation can be found here  http://www.beem.org.uk/Page/3121

After the keynote she facilitated a workshop in which she encouraged delegates to explore their different drivers and think about how they affect behaviours. Feedback from the day has been very positive and we are hoping to do some further work with Viv with our school governors and to support the development of our wellbeing strategy going forward – watch this space.


National Adoption Week


National Adoption Week took place between 14-20 October.  The week reminds us to celebrate our families through adoption in Brighton and Hove and the good work schools can do to support them and promote the education of children and young people adopted from care.

We have excellent examples locally of schools carrying out termly Personal Education Plans for children adopted from care, schools that facilitate regular meetings of parents through adoption and who set up ‘Key Adults’ and ‘Teams Around the Child’.  Our ‘Designated Teachers’ for children previously in care attend network events for information and advice which are organised by our Virtual School - which also provides a Helpline for parents, school staff and other professionals on education matters. 

We have received some excellent feedback from Parent Adopters:

“The school groups are a great idea – we need as many ways as possible to share experiences and inform schools about the needs of our children and the support many of them need to negotiate their education”

We provide workshops on education matters for parents to attend and clinics for parents and school staff to explore helpful tips and strategies – these Workshops and Clinics receive very positive feedback from parents: 

“Thank you this was really helpful. Lots of ideas to use with my daughter” (Workshop) 

“Really helps with joined up thinking” (Clinic)

Please see our helpful resources:- 

and
Attendees at the twilight workshop
The council has provided the Personal Social Health Education Service with funding to support work in schools to end period stigma and create #PeriodPositive schools in which pupils and students will feel confident to ask for menstrual products if they do not have them or cannot afford them. This funding has enabled the Personal Social Health Education Service to be trained by Chella Quint, founder of #PeriodPositive. Chella has also delivered a twilight workshop to interested schools and services from across the city. Those who attended enjoyed learning the menstrual products song and dance!


The council funding will also provide puberty packs to schools who attended and curriculum based resources to be used across the city and so funding for some pilot schools. This work complements our partnership with the Red Box Project and in preparation for the Department for Education beginning its programme of funded period products for schools.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/free-sanitary-products-in-all-primary-schools 


I would like to take this opportunity to thank Red Box for the work they have done in ensuring that all secondary, primary and junior schools have a Red Box and to thank schools for ensuring pupils and students have access to the menstrual products they need.  If you would like support in making your school #PeriodPositive please email pshe@brighton-hove.gov.uk   


Post Graduate Teacher Apprentices
Michael Lowe
Charlotte Gill
We are proud to congratulate the first cohort of Post Graduate Teacher Apprentices (PGTA) who have recently completed their end point assessment with a grade of Outstanding!

Michael Lowe and Charlotte Gill both embarked last year on the PGTA with University of Brighton, the first group of apprentices and schools to take part in Sussex.  

Chris Pearson, Head Teacher of Goldstone Primary School said “Michael worked with us as a TA and an INA but always showed that he had the strengths needed to become a fine teacher. The scheme gave him the chance to develop these skills in a way which gave us positives as a school and him an opportunity which otherwise would have been impossible. We employed Michael to work as a teacher in one of our year five classes”. 

Lis Bundock from The University of Brighton added “both Charlotte and Michael have been extremely gifted and talented apprentice teachers and it has been a pleasure to see them grow.  It is amazing that there is this fantastic route to NQT”. 

I am delighted to see that this scheme has been so successful and has provided such a positive outcome for both Michael and Charlotte.  The 2019 cohort started in July this year, and we look forward to welcoming a new group of talented apprentices to the world of teaching very soon.  

For more info about apprenticeships, please contact Gavin Graham on gavin.graham@brighton-hove.gov.uk or 01273 293320.

Black History Month

To coincide with Black History Month the Council encouraged staff to wear specially commissioned badges remembering the lives of historical Black and Minority Ethnic people with connections to Brighton & Hove.  Schools in Brighton & Hove have also been marking Black History Month in a range of ways and using a range of resources including these materials about Thomas Highflyer: http://thomashighflyer.co.uk/resources/



Happy Birthday Rudyard Kipling!



Rudyard Kipling Primary School celebrated their 60th birthday this month.  Prior to the big day, the whole school assembled on the field in a RKPS 60 formation which was photographed with a drone.  Then on Friday 4 October staff and pupils celebrated in style by wearing their party clothes to school and decorating the school with banners and balloons.  A special assembly was attended by old students from the school who answered questions from current pupils.  The rain held off for all the school community to enjoy a traditional conga round the school field.  After school, pupils were invited to a party hosted in the school hall by the parents.  The atmosphere throughout the day was upbeat and fun - certainly a day to remember for pupils and staff alike.




Childminder Conference

Attendees at the Childminder Conference
Early years and childcare were delighted to welcome more than 50 of the city’s childminders to Inspiring Minds on Saturday 19 October at Hove Park School.

There are around 120 childminders in the city, providing high quality care and education for up to 360 children under five, as well as for many older children, before and after school and in the holidays. The event brought together many of these skilled professionals as well as those new to childminding to hear from a range of speakers, who reinforced their excellent practice with young children and made suggestions for new things to do.

Inspirational speakers included the legendary Dave Benson Phillips who invigorated our minds with his music and Makaton session to support early communication skills; education consultant Neil Griffiths who re-ignited our passion for storytelling and shared the importance of books and reading for our youngest children; and Vasilis Gkogkidis and Tosin Adebisi from LEGO Serious Play who inspired us to talk about our challenges and plan for success in a fun practical session.

Delegates had the chance to develop and build their networks and to hear from Jacqui Burke, early years specialist about marketing their business using social media, and from the award winning Pebbles Childcare about working together, building relations and developing a sustainable business.

Fantastic feedback from childminders included:
“Inspiring and refreshing”
“A great opportunity to network”
“Very informative, interesting and inspiring”
“Fantastic speakers”


And from the speakers:
“I loved every minute of it!” Neil Griffiths
“Congratulations on a very successful event. I was pleased to be a part of it” Jacqui Burke
“Wow! What a wonderful day of inspiring speakers, networking and information. It was an honour to be part of such a wonderful event” Pebbles Childcare

Many thanks to Annette Barnard and Zoe Cox and their colleagues in the early years team for putting on this brilliant event.

Neil Griffiths, Education Consultant

The Power of Reading for Inspirational Writing

I am delighted that we are able to support schools with their development of writing. Ten schools are taking part in ‘The Power of Reading for Inspirational Writing’, led by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education through their associate school, Rudyard Kipling. Two members of the Power of reading team talked through the evidence base and potential impact of the programme and the structure of the training development days.  Members of staff from Rudyard Kipling School shared some of their experiences of the programme.  Some of the texts that could be used were shared and there was a time for questions.

A second strand of the project, ‘Improving Writing Outcomes’, which has been commissioned from the Sussex Coast Teaching School  Alliance, is due to start on 7 November.




There have been no school Ofsted inspections so far this term but I’m sure we will hear from them again shortly so watch this space!  

Welcomes and Goodbyes

Rhian Hughes

We are delighted to welcome Rhian Hughes to Brighton & Hove City Council at the end of this month.  Rhian joins us as Head of SEN Statutory Service.  She has many years of experience working in special educational needs and is committed to supporting children and young people achieve their outcomes.

Rhian says “I look forward to working together with families, schools and services across education, health and social care to develop and shape the service. I hope to meet many of you in person as I settle in and learn more about the area.



Jacqui Lance


At Christmas we say goodbye to Jacqui Lance, who has been Headteacher of St Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School for ten years and is now retiring.  On behalf of everyone here in Families, Children and Learning, I would like to thank Jacqui for all she has done for the children at her school and across the city. 

The school motto is ‘Reaching Up, Reaching Out’ and reflects Jacqui’s commitment to excellence in all areas.  Her determination to nurture the whole child, spiritually, academically, socially, emotionally, physically and aesthetically has led to a happy and high achieving school. Jacqui has led on different initiatives across the city, including the recent curriculum conference and I know she has been a huge support to her Deanery colleagues as headteacher representative. We will miss her very much and wish her all the best for future.  

My thanks also to Sarah Clayton who is working as interim Headteacher at the school this term. 

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