Happy Chinese New Year

Wishing a very happy Chinese new year to everyone across Brighton and Hove!

2020 is the Year of the Rat. It was great to hear about all the celebrations going on in schools and around the city highlighting the positive partnerships we have with our Chinese community.

Young Carers Awareness Day 2020



I was delighted to attend the #YoungCarersAwarenessDay event last night at the Brighthelm Centre to present awards to some amazing children and young people.  The evening, which was organised by the Council and the Carers Centre for Brighton and Hove, celebrated the achievements of Young Carers across the city. 

Young Carers Awareness Day is an annual event, led by Carers Trust, which aims to raise awareness of the challenges faced by young carers and campaigns for greater support.   Every day across the UK thousands of young people help to look after someone in their family, or a friend, who is ill, disabled or misuses drugs or alcohol. 

Please watch and share this video arranged by and starring the Young Carers’ Family Coach Katie Shortt plus a Young Carer, promoting Young Carers Awareness Day  https://new.brighton-hove.gov.uk/news/2020/citys-young-carers-take-centre-stage

Well done to everyone involved in making the evening such a successful event.

Joint Career Leaders and Work Experience Co-ordinators Meeting

A recent meeting was held between secondary school and college Career Leaders and work experience co-ordinators to discuss how we can work proactively together to  support the achievement of the Gatsby Benchmark 6  - experiences of workplaces, which recommends that every student should have first-hand experience of the workplace:-

o By the age of 16, every student should have had at least one experience of a workplace, additional to any part-time jobs they may have.

o By the age of 18, every student should have had one further such experience, additional to any part-time jobs they may have.

The new Ofsted Framework  includes a new section on the judgment of ‘Personal Development’ which focuses on many dimensions of personal development and evaluates the education centre’s intent to provide for the personal development of all pupils and evaluates the quality with which the education centre implements this work.  At the meeting facilitated by the Employment and Skills Project Officer and the C2C Enterprise Co-ordinator, participants shared challenges and best practice around meaningful encounters with employers and the world of work, and discussed collaborative approaches to enhance current activity.

SEND/Inclusion Conference

This term’s School & College Leaders’ Meeting on 7 February at the University of Sussex will focus on Whole School Inclusion: working in partnership to ensure high impact interventions for SEND learners to reduce exclusions and increase engagement with the curriculum.

The aim of the meeting is to contribute intelligent analysis, knowledge and experience to promote the development of policy and practice in Brighton & Hove schools for the inclusion of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
This conference will focus on value of whole school SEND. The Keynote Speaker will David Bartram OBE, Director Prescient Education.  There will also be stimulating workshops delivered by local specialist leads running during the conference.

This is an important opportunity for Headteachers, Principals and Heads of School to benefit from participating in this event to help inform and discuss how best to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND.  SENCOs are also welcome to attend with their headteachers/ principals.

Please sign up via BEEM (login required), email schools.training@brighton-hove.gov.uk or call 01273 293511 by Friday 31 January 2020.

Holocaust Memorial Day 2020 #Stand Together

The Brighton & Hove Jewish Community's Holocaust Education Project together with the Rwandan Youth Information Community Organisation (rYico) and Brighton and Hove City Council commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day on Monday, 27 January.

Moving and powerful speeches were given by Bryan Huberman, the son of the late Alfred Huberman, a Brighton-based tailor by trade and one of a group of 732 orphaned child survivors of Nazi concentration camps who came to the UK in 1945 and Vivenie Mugunga; one of the original founders of rYico, a UK-based charity that supports vulnerable young people in Rwanda.

 

Many schools will have marked this important day, perhaps using materials sent out by the Equality & Anti-Bullying Service. 

Thinking about how all communities in Brighton & Hove can #StandTogether is an important message in the context of what appears to be an increase in prejudiced and hate incidents.

The Power of Reading

We are pleased to be supporting 12 schools in the city with the Centre For Literacy In Primary Education (CLPE) project ‘The Power of Reading’.

Day 1 of the four day training programme was held at Rudyard Kipling Primary School earlier this month.  I am delighted that Rudyard Kipling has been awarded ‘Associate School’ status for the Power of Reading.  Teachers were very happy to be given bags of high quality texts that they can use in their classrooms.  

Well done to all involved in this project.

Fairlight Primary School – Sharing Prayer Room Practice

Damien Jordan, Headteacher at Fairlight was approached by some Year 5 and 6 Muslim boys asking for a space to pray in school. Damien found a space and worked with the pupils, parents and EMAS staff to provide what was needed within the space, including washing facilities and to reflect on issues such as the age of the children and how the space can be used by girls and boys.

Imam Uthman from Al-Medinah Mosque also provided support to the school particularly to ensure the school was confident in its messaging to pupils.  Messages included for example the idea that it is up to individuals to choose if they want to pray and not for older siblings or peers to exert any pressure.  Damien feels that this has been very much pupil led with his role being to ask questions and from a careful distance monitor the use of the room.  Damien reports that this has further strengthened relationships with pupils and their families. 

One parent wrote to Damien saying;

“We do appreciate the effort from the headteacher, the staff and teachers…to embrace the beauty of different colours with your inclusive program. The fact that the school provides a room for prayer and even invited Imam of Al Medinah Mosque last week really touches us.”

Damien also commented that this could be extended to a ‘Multi-faith’ or ‘Reflection’ Room if a space is requested by pupils of different faiths.  Damien is happy for other schools to contact him to find out more (DamienJordan@fairlight.brighton-hove.sch.uk).

The Faith and Belief in Educational Settings Guidance is also available on www.BEEM.org.uk (log-in – protected groups – religion) to provide useful contextual information related to prayer rooms.

Congratulations Hove Park

I am delighted to confirm that following a recent visit by the awarding body assessor, Hove Park School has now been accredited with the Wellbeing Award for Schools.  The assessor was incredibly impressed with everything he heard and saw.  He commented on the very positive relationships between staff and students and the obvious care and support the school shows for each other and the whole school community.   Congratulations to Jim Roberts and all at Hove Park School.

The attached link sets out further information about the framework and the criteria needed for the award. https://www.awardplace.co.uk/award/was

Primary Headteachers Meeting

The Primary Headteachers meeting took place on 21 January at the University of Sussex.

The morning started with an update from George Roe from Public Health, BHCC about the Back on Track training which offers support to families where a parent is drinking too much.

For information on the support offered for parents, and to contact Francesca Carpenter, the Family Practitioner who works with parents please go to: https://new.brighton-hove.gov.uk/back-track-brighton-hove/support-parents-or-carers-who-would-drink-less

To find out more about the support for children and young people and to contact Youstina Brais, the Family Practitioner who works with children and young people please see: https://new.brighton-hove.gov.uk/back-track-brighton-hove/support-young-people-who-are-worried-about-parents-drinking

For more information on how to book on to training please go to: https://new.brighton-hove.gov.uk/back-track-brighton-hove/help-professionals-support-families or contact george.roe@brighton-hove.gov.uk to learn more about the bespoke, onsite training which can be offered.

Linsey McGill then provided an update about the specialist CAHMS service and supporting and referring families – for more information please contact linsey.mcgill@brighton-hove.gov.uk.

Gillian Hibbert, Safeguarding lead provided a presentation regarding Safeguarding, particularly around the requirements that have been highlighted by Ofsted in recent inspections.

Hilary Ferries, Senior Adviser: Education Partnerships then led a workshop for headteachers to discuss the Brighton & Hove Education Partnership Priorities of disadvantaged, inclusion and wellbeing and record what is already going well and what more could be done.  These will be collated and given to the groups leading on the priorities.  Headteachers are very welcome to join one of the groups and can contact Hilary Ferries for more details on 01273 293738 or email Hilary.Ferries@brighton-hove.gov.uk

An event is being planned to give Headteachers the opportunity to discuss the Ofsted process in more detail and to hear from a guest speaker.  The event will take place on 30 March 2020 from 1pm at the University of Sussex.  More details about this will be available on BEEM shortly.

It All Adds Up

At the Maths Project Meeting this week it was great to be with teachers talking about how best to teach maths and different strategies they could use. ‘It All Adds Up’ has been our maths project, in partnership with Sussex Coast Teaching School Alliance and two wonderful specialist maths teachers in the city, who are also part of the Sussex Maths Hub.



As part of our Miss School Miss Out attendance campaign, we’ve made a video of some of our secondary school pupils saying what they like best about going to school.

They told us all sorts of things that they enjoy – from seeing friends to football and netball, maths and art, film club, and study trips to London, Amsterdam and Harry Potter!

Every school in Brighton & Hove has staff trained to help families who are struggling with school attendance. Please contact your school for their support in the first instance.

The council's access to education team can also offer help and advice with school attendance. Email attendanceteam@brighton-hove.gov.uk or call 01273 291378.

The new Miss School Miss Out secondary age video is now on our website with an accompanying statement:
 https://new.brighton-hove.gov.uk/news/2020/miss-school-miss-out

Bevendean and Woodingdean Primary Schools have received the outcomes of their inspections which took place in December.  I am delighted to announce that they both retained their “Good” Ofsted judgements.

The inspector at Bevendean said “This school is indeed ‘a place for everyone to succeed and thrive Pupils are happy, proud of their learning, confident that they are doing well and ambitious for their futures.”

At Woodingdean the inspector stated: “Pupils enjoy coming to school. They speak confidently about their work. Pupils are attentive and respectful. They hold doors open for visitors. Pupils who have difficulty making the right choices about how to behave get a range of effective support.”

Congratulations to everyone at Bevendean Primary School and Woodingdean Primary School on these great outcomes.

Welcomes and Goodbyes

This term we welcome Paul Barber to Brighton & Hove.  Paul is the new headteacher at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Primary School. Our thanks to Anita Philbrook for taking on the role of acting headteacher last term and all best wishes to Paul.



Paul Barber

We are putting some extra Head of Service resource into Education & Skills given the need for us to continue to have effective oversight and strategic ownership of work within the branch, which includes Home to School Transport.  This will be for a 3 month period on a part time basis.  Regan Delf will be joining us on 13 January 2020 to provide additional Head of Service capacity and will be the interim lead for Home to School Transport.  Rob Glaister is joining us on secondment from Housing on 20 January 2020 to be the team manager, with day to day responsibility for operational matters.  These arrangements will enable Richard Barker (Head of School Organisation) to work on the other priority areas within his service.

Regan Delf



Rob Glaister

Sad news

Hugh Baldry, who worked with us a school partnership adviser from 2014-2015, had an incredible fight with a range of health issues, but sadly passed away on December 27th.  His family were around him. His daughter Abi, who used to teach at St Mark’s said ‘a peaceful end for an incredible man’.

Hugh Baldry




Best wishes,
Jo

Keep in touch and follow me on Twitter @JoMLyons
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