News from Education and Skills: September 2019

Welcome back at the start of a new academic year. Congratulations to all schools, colleges and education providers on another great set of results this year.

It is still early days in terms of analysis but what is clear is that Attainment across all age groups is strong:

In early years the City is in line with national averages;
At KS1 there has been a marked increase in results compared to 2018 and our schools are above National averages in the vast majority of measures;
At KS2 we have again seen improvements with results that are well above provisional Nationals. Reading continues to be the strongest subject for local children. Writing is also above the national figures, and maths is in line with the national average;
At KS4, we maintain well above Nationals on the number of students achieving passes and strong passes in English and Maths in their GCSEs. The Government’s ambition is for all students to achieve a ‘strong pass’ in English and Maths combined;
At A Level, despite reforms, results remain strong and improved. This is the sixth year running that Brighton & Hove is above or level with national benchmarks.

All in all a set of results that any city would be proud of. This is clearly the product of hard work and strong partnership working. Well done to all staff, pupils and students! Further details can be found in the early headlines report reported at CYP committee on 16 September. https://present.brighton-hove.gov.uk/Published/C00000883/M00009732/$$ADocPackPublic.pdf

Congratulations to Coldean Primary School on achieving the Primary Science Quality Mark which was managed/led by the school’s science lead - Corinne Swayne.

The Primary School Quality Mark programme ensures effective leadership of science, enables schools to work together to share good practice and is supported by professional development led by local experts. The Primary Science Quality Mark is led by the University of Hertfordshire, School of Education in collaboration with the Primary Science Teaching Trust.

Jane Turner, PSQM National Director said: “Gaining a Primary Science Quality Mark is a significant achievement for a school. The profile and quality of science teaching and learning in each awarded school is very high. Children are engaging with great science both in and outside the classroom, developing positive attitudes towards science as well as secure scientific understanding and skills. Science subject leaders, their colleagues, head teachers, children, parents and governors should be very proud.”

Secondary School Admissions

The School Admissions application process for pupils to start secondary school in September 2020 is now open. The closing date for applications is 31 October 2019 and parents can apply online though the council's website. There are details of the schools' open days and information about the application process in the council’s school admissions booklet.

Successful Youth Fair

Lisa Mitchell (Employment & Skills Project Officer) and Linda Shaw (Local Employment Scheme Co-ordinator) at the Youth Fair

The Employment and Skills team and the Youth Employability Service joined Local Employment Scheme Co-ordinator, Linda Shaw at a Youth Fair hosted at Hove Job Centre. Young People aged 18 to 24 were invited to attend to discuss the employment and training options available to them. The aim of this bespoke event was to support young people to move into work, apprenticeships, training or education. The event also increased the awareness of the work coaches who support the young people.

Children and Young People Who Love to Sing

Touchbase are now running “Belong”: a funky choir for children and young people in care, or previously in care, aged 10-18 who love to sing! The choir runs fortnightly on Monday at 16.30-18.00 during term time at Hove Methodist Church and is free to attend. The singing sessions will involve Theraplay informed practice to support both regulation and relationship. Snacks and drinks will be offered on arrival. You can either turn up together with your child and complete a registration form onsite or apply for it by contacting Rhiannon@touchbase.org.uk . Foster carers and adoptive parents can take some time out nearby in the local cafes. Come join us!

We hope to hear them sing at a number of events across the city this year – so watch this space!

The National Apprenticeship Awards 2019 regional winners have been announced, with winners from a wide range of industries and occupations now progressing to the national stage of the National Apprenticeship Awards 2019. Well done to Mairna Marzoug from Brighton & Hove City Council who won The Nuclear Decommissioning Site Licence Companies Award for Higher or Degree Apprentice of the Year 2019 and is now gearing up for entry to the national awards to be held later this year.

Mairna Marzoug from Brighton & Hove City Council

Rudyard Kipling Primary School & Nursery turns 60 years old this year! To celebrate their anniversary, the school will be holding a day of special events on 4 October. We would like to wish them a very happy birthday and hope their celebrations are thoroughly enjoyed by everyone involved with the school.

Workshops for parents

Over this year the Parenting Team has been working in collaboration with our Secondary Schools in the City running various workshops to support parents through the teenage years. These are 2 hour workshops held in schools around ‘Coping With Teenagers’ Emotions’ and ‘Getting Teenagers to Co-operate’. This is a light touch intervention that feeds into the parenting skills courses for Parents/Carers with more complex issues. Over 60 parents attended last term alone.

Parents have told us: “Useful and well presented. Easy to organise: good communication with office. Convenient time and location."

For further information please contact Gina Simmonds at the Parenting Team on 01273 294471 or e-mail parenting.team@brighton-hove.gov.uk and see the Parenting Team websites at https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/content/children-and-education/childcare-and-family-support/parenting-team

The Sussex Council of Training Providers (SCTP) is delighted to announce that it has been successful in securing the contract to deliver the Apprenticeships Support and Knowledge for Schools (ASK) Programme in East Sussex, West Sussex and Brighton & Hove. The award has been made by charity CXK, who have been granted a 3 year contract by the National Apprenticeship Service and the Department for Education to deliver the programme across the South region.

The programme will provide apprenticeship awareness assemblies, apprenticeship application workshops, careers fair attendance, free resources, a teacher CPD session or a whole range of other options. For more information see https://amazingapprenticeships.com/about-ask/

The ASK programme has historically been targeted at Years 10, 11, 12 and 13, and provides a variety of support including access to digital broadcasts, workshops and application support. From August 2019 the offer has expanded to include a specially tailored digital programme for younger people in Years 7, 8 and 9.

To secure your support for your school contact Vanessa Potter, Executive Director, SCTP: vanessapotter@sctp.org.uk

NQT Events

Mark Holdaway from the Brighton & Hove Inclusion Support Service (BHISS) speaks to NQTs

Last week we had the pleasure to welcome some of this year’s Primary and Secondary NQTs at Newman College, where they were given valuable information about all the support available during their induction year. Both events included inspiring speeches from ex-NQTs and also Mark Holdaway from the Brighton & Hove Inclusion Support Service (BHISS). Behaviour management is one of the biggest concerns for NQTs and I was pleased to see that Mark is leading considerable training for NQTs in this area throughout the year, for both primary and secondary NQTs.

Sharon Mackenzie and the School and Governance Development Team co-ordinate an extensive training & development programme and provide useful resources on our BEEM portal for all those NQTs registered with us. We hope they all have a successful and rewarding year!

UN e-Learner Climate Change Course

Following concerns by pupils about climate change, which are shared by the politicians in Brighton & Hove and leading scientists, it was agreed that we would promote the expectation that at least one teacher in every school in the city has completed the UN e-learning course on climate change in order to be able to deliver lessons on the issue in schools. The e-learning courses are free and are available here: https://unccelearn.org/course/

I would encourage all Headteachers to nominate at least one teacher to do at least one of these courses; preferably the self-paced course https://unccelearn.org/course/view.php?id=7&page=overview and the short course on Children and Climate Change https://unccelearn.org/course/view.php?id=23&page=overview . To discuss, contact Gavin Thomas, Access to Education Manager, on gavin.thomas@brighton-hove.gov.uk or 01273 293431.

Making It REAL

Last year 44 staff were trained by the National Children’s Bureau to deliver the Making it REAL project through Children’s Centres, nurseries and our libraries. This week a further seventeen early years staff were trained over two days at the Jubilee Library. So far the project has reached over two hundred families at events held across the city. In the Summer term, EMAS (Ethnic Minority Achievement Team) worked with a group of mothers from the Bangladeshi community and their nursery aged children. The project was based on the Making it REAL principles which aimed to work with parents to improve the speaking, listening and literacy skills of pre-school children and give them a positive start. It was run by EMAS staff Irene Chowdhury, Hasna Choudhury and Meeta Johnson.

The sessions were structured between events at the Children’s Centre space at Fairlight School, home visits and an environmental print walk from the Level to Jubilee Library where all the families were helped to join. There was 100% attendance at every session and there was positive feedback from all the families. The project gave the EAL (English as an Additional language) mums an opportunity to learn the important role they play in their children’s learning by engaging with them through simple everyday activities.

Conference for School and College Leaders

Viv Grant, Speaker at the Conference for School and College Leaders

We are looking forward to seeing school and college leaders at our annual conference on 4 October at the AMEX Stadium. This year’s theme focuses on wellbeing. Keynote Speaker Viv Grant, Director of Integrity Coaching, will be addressing the title: “Daring Greatly: How successful school leaders rise above the challenges of their roles and stay connected to their vision, passion and purpose”. Viv has been in the teaching profession for over 30 years and at the age of 31, was appointed as one of the youngest Heads in the country to turn around a failing primary school.

This will be a really interesting and informative day, definitely one not to be missed! To book onto this event please contact: School & Governance Development on schools.training@brighton-hove.gov.uk or telephone 01273 293511.

It’s been a very quiet term so far with no Ofsted inspections taking place yet. I’m sure it won’t be long before we hear from them again though so watch this space! Ofsted launched their new framework in September 2019 and there is a lot of useful information available on the Ofsted Website. We would recommend everyone reads the Framework and inspection handbook. There is also a useful guide to the new area around curriculum.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inspecting-the-curriculum

Welcomes

It was a pleasure to welcome our new and acting headteachers and heads of school to our annual council induction to welcome them to the city and support them all in their new roles.

Welcome also to Matt Hillier (Head Teacher at Dorothy Stringer); Anita Philbrook (Acting Head at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Primary School), Wendy King (Interim Head at Saltdean Primary), Ben Massey (Head of School at West Hove Infants), Lorna Cumming (Head of School at Hove Juniors), Rachael Durneen (Head of School at Hertford Junior), Amanda Meier (Head of School at the Connected Hub), and Kate Schofield (Head of School at Homewood).