Refugee Week

Richard Williams and Angie Lynn from Sanctuary on Sea presenting the award to Teresa Owen, one of the managers at Roundabout Nursery

The theme of Refugee Week was ‘Different Pasts, Shared Futures’. Innovative lessons, projects and celebrations during last year’s Refugee Week were used by a number of schools as a springboard to start their work for a School of Sanctuary Award. Amongst them, Royal Spa Nursery School and Roundabout Nursery used Persona Dolls to teach pre-schoolers about refugees. Dorothy Stringer undertook Moving Stories workshops in collaboration with Blatchington Mill and the University of Brighton, in which they made and shared videos of pupil’s migrations. St Joseph’s has pupil-led Languages of the Month in every class. We celebrate that these all achieved a School of Sanctuary Award, with Blatchington Mill and St Luke’s Primary both winning their second Award. Stanford Infants, Hove Juniors, Sussex House Nursery, University of Brighton Nursery, St Peter’s Portslade and Brackenbury School are all engaged with the School of Sanctuary programme and hope to qualify for their awards in due course. And it’s great that both BHASVIC and Brighton MET are looking at working towards becoming Colleges of Sanctuary. Well done to all. 

Good news from Hove Park

Jim Roberts, Headteacher and Michelle Prentice, Deputy Headteacher, recently attended a reception at the House of Lords to be formally told they have made it into the EdTech50 schools in the UK. This is a recognition by the Education Foundation. There were lots of applications and the judges were hugely impressed with Hove Park! This follows on from Michelle’s work that she presented at the Education & Skills Committee.

John Gaston, exams officer at Hove Park School and creator of Examscreen

Also, a Hove Park teacher has won an award for his Exam app. Congratulations to John Gaston, the exams officer at the school, who invented Examscreen to meet the need for a clear and consistent way to display exam information. Mr Gaston hoped that it would be a way of improving student experience and reducing workload for exam officers and invigilators. His idea has now earned him a £5,000 prize and the app has been adopted by more than 600 schools. Mr Gaston said: ‘I decided to create Examscreen because I saw that there was a gap for a tool that would standardise and professionalise exams across the UK with many benefits to the individual schools and students.’ See examscreen.co.uk and www.coolinitiatives.com.

Congratulations Isabel Reid

Isabel Reid, Winner of the National RSE Teaching Award

Isabel is the Inclusion Co-ordinator at Carlton Hill Primary School, PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic) Lead Teacher for Brighton & Hove City Council and an SLE for Pavilion Downs Teaching School. Isabel was nominated for the award by Tamsen Beer, Headteacher, Carlton Hill Primary School. The judges were extremely impressed with the quality of Isabel’s work to improve the quality of teaching and learning in relationships and sex education (RSE) both in school and citywide. Here's a quote from the nomination which will resonate with anyone who has worked with her: ‘Isabel is passionate about ensuring that every child leaves Primary school with the skills and knowledge to support them through the complicated teenage years ahead of them.’ 

We are all very proud of Isabel and thank her for her hard work and commitment. We are lucky to have her and other PSHE Lead Teachers, Sarah Jackson and Hugh Garling, supporting schools in the city; particularly with statutory relationships, relationships and sex and health education on its way. Isabel said ‘I am really pleased to be recognised for the part I have played in promoting high quality RSE at my school and across the city's primary schools.’

See www.sexeducationforum.org.uk , www.ncb.org.uk and get involved, and access a range of resources about RSE DAY here.

The Power of Reading

Congratulations to Rudyard Kipling Primary School and Nursery, who have been invited by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) to become an Advocate School for the Power of Reading. This is a proven English curriculum which places high quality texts at the heart of teaching and learning, and impacts greatly on engagement, achievement and attainment in language, reading and writing. As an Advocate School, they will receive training, support and visits from Advisory Teachers at the CLPE, and be open to visits from other schools and settings to share their good practise and expertise. Rudyard Kipling are thrilled to have been given this opportunity by the CLPE and are lucky to have an ECAR teacher who is part of the CLPE. Congratulations to the school’s Headteacher Joanne Smith and all the teachers and pupils at Rudyard Kipling. 

Withdean Athletics 

Pupils taking part in a relay race at Withdean Athletics

It was great to see so many children taking part and enjoying Athletics this month at Withdean. We were so fortunate with the weather! 840 children from 24 schools took part! A big thank you again to all of the Sports Leaders from Blatchington Mill, Dorothy Stringer and PACA, who all did a great job in officiating at the competition. The day couldn’t have happened without them.  We would also like to say a big thank you to the team of volunteers and staff from the Active for Life Team. Hopefully lots of our children have been bitten by the running bug and would like to do more after school! 

Cottesmore Quad pupils with their Spirit of the Games and 1st place awards

This week we also had the Sussex School Games finals. Some highlights from the day: 
·         Cottesmore winning the year 5/6 Quadkids Athletics and the 
          Spirit of the Games award! 
·         Newman Year 7 Girls finishing 2nd in the Netball
·         Patcham High Year 7/8 Mixed Table Tennis team finishing 
          3rd in the Table Tennis 
·         And Cottesmore’s Year 5/6 Quadkids team winning the Spirit of the                       Games award.

PACA and Patcham High’s Sports Leaders also officiated at the Netball and Table Tennis finals. All of the leaders did an outstanding job, and many of the schools commented how knowledgeable and efficient the leaders were at umpiring and scoring. They were all a real credit to their schools and Brighton & Hove! 

Congratulations to the Supported Employment Team 

Suzette Attwood from SET, and Paul Turk from Southdown Housing attending a workshop in London where they met Justin Tomlinson, the new Minister of State for Disabled People

Brighton & Hove Council’s Supported Employment Team (SET), who recently received a Kitemark from the British Association for Supported Employment, have been taking part in a DWP ‘Proof of Concept’ project. The project involves 11 Local Authorities using the Supported Employment model to help people with Learning disabilities, Autism and Mental Health difficulties who are furthest from the labour market to access employment opportunities. This work is done through a partnership between SET and Southdown Housing’s Employment Support team.

3 of PGTA and their mentors from Downs View School attending induction

Twelve new Post Graduate Teaching Apprentices (PGTA) have started their training with University of Brighton, with five of the apprentices from within Brighton & Hove maintained schools.  The PGTA is a great opportunity for you to grow your own teachers supporting new or existing staff from a pool of fresh talented people. The apprenticeship takes 14 months, starting in June and completing the end of the summer term when the apprentice will be ready to start in September as a newly qualified teacher (NQT). Grants are available through DFE to support the apprentices and vary from £4,500 to £14,500, dependant on subject area. These grants can be used to support the apprentice’s salary making the journey from TA to PGTA more affordable option for the school.

Deputy Headteacher Rachel McDonald-Taylor said: 

‘We're very pleased to say that the four apprentices have started and are already proving to be valuable members of the team. We are looking forward to seeing them grow and becoming fully fledged teachers, passionate about pupils with SEND. The programme is going smoothly: the work based learning coupled with the theoretical input from the University of Brighton is a very holistic combination that is working well for the school.’

For more information on apprenticeships, please contact Gavin Graham gavin.graham@brighton-hove.gov.uk , 01273 293320 or 07510 585701. Click on me to find out first hand from a PGTA apprentice

St. Paul’s links with Zaragoza

St Paul’s children playing Spanish games with their link school

Way back in 2011, the school began a bilingual project to incorporate Spanish into other areas of the curriculum. From then they taught Spanish from reception and in all classes in key stage one and two. This work has led to exceptional results and has grown every year. St Paul’s arranged training so all their teachers could use every day basic Spanish vocabulary with the children and learn new words. As the pupils move up through the school, their Spanish vocabulary becomes increasingly complex. St Paul’s wanted the children to use their Spanish in its natural environment. Every year since 2015, St Paul’s have visited a link school in Zaragoza, Spain, and welcomed children from the Spanish school. It is such a rich experience to use language, explore our cultures and learn about each other’s education systems, as well as making friends. See link http://www.ripl.uk/school-focus/st-pauls-cofe-brighton/ Well done to the Headteacher, all the staff and pupils at St Paul’s!

Congratulations to St John the Baptist for retaining their Good judgement from Ofsted. 

‘The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have a clear vision for the school. You aim for your pupils to have the best opportunities in education, so they are well prepared for the future.’

St Mark’s CE Primary School received a Requires Improvement judgement from Ofsted. They will continue to receive support from the local authority and the wider Brighton & Hove Education Partnership on their improvement journey. There were many positive elements in the report and it was good to read the many strengths of the school being recognised.

Many of our schools in Brighton & Hove have been celebrating Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month.  This has been a great opportunity to celebrate the many successes and positive contributions of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people to our society.  

     

The schools have run a competition with the theme ‘My Roots, My Routes’.  This has been a fabulous way of allowing all children to discuss and celebrate their diverse heritage, and for children to ask questions of people with Gypsy, Roma and Traveller heritage and find out more.

Children have been writing, drawing and talking about their heritage and celebrating the many contributions made by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people to our society.   There have been assemblies and lessons led by our Traveller Education Support Unit which have explored identity, stereotypes and the media portrayal of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people.

Richard O’Neill, author

Patcham Junior School also invited Roma author Richard O’Neill along. Richard has produced a beautiful new book and teaching resources - Polonius the Pit Pony.  The presentation is great and the book has wonderful reviews. The Book Nook in Hove stock (or can order) Richard's books. This would be a great project for Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month.  

Best wishes,

Jo

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