Earlier this month, in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, Brighton and Hove City Council took two significant steps. Firstly, a pledge was made to be an anti-racist council. As part of this pledge, specific commitments have been set out including reaching out to and working with Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities to create and deliver an anti-racism strategy and focusing on supporting Black, Asian and minority ethnic businesses through council procurement.
Additionally, a motion was passed at Children, Young People and Skills Committee offering more training for schools, teachers and trainee teachers including building understanding of the impact on pupils and staff of bias, discrimination, white privilege and institutional racism.
Of course these are currently just words. I hope that we will be able to work together in partnership, building on good practice in place, but with increased resource and commitment to improving the experience of Black, Asian and minority ethnic members of our school communities. Please feedback to us your ideas for how we can do this work more effectively. For more information on the steps taken, please see the following links:-
Refugee Week 2020 took place from 15-21 June 2020. It was marked by many schools across our city and I was delighted to learn more about Brackenbury Primary School’s activities during the week.
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| Origami boats by pupils at Brackenbury Primary School |
Assemblies were held, specific for each key stage, focusing on a story about what it might be like for a refugee. It helped pupils to think about putting themselves in someone else's shoes to develop empathy and understanding for others. Classes also imagined what the world could be like and put these messages on origami boats; imagining a world where everyone really was all different, all equal. Examples such as “we are all safe, everyone has a roof over their head, everyone was welcome, we are all kind to the earth and everyone is happy” were given.
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| Messages from pupils at Brackenbury Primary School |
The team at Blatchington Mill School has been so impressed with their students’ dedication to completing their school work to an exceptional standard since the start of the pandemic. They also wanted to ensure that their students aren’t missing out on the variety of extra-curricular activities that would usually be offered in school. As such, in addition to weekly virtual assemblies and clubs, the School has decided that this year they will host their annual Summer Concert on their website.
Ashley Harrold, Headteacher said “We’ve had a sneak peak at some of the excellent performances already and we can’t wait to share them all with you at 6pm on 30th June at blatchingtonmill.org.uk. Please join us in celebrating the students' musical efforts. At a time when the arts in our city are facing such challenges it is important to celebrate and promote the positive impact artistic expression, including music, has on all of our lives.”
During this period of Covid 19, when many of our pupils have not been in school, they have benefited from high quality home learning across the city. Schools have worked creatively to meet the needs of their school community and this has been, quite rightly, unique to each school. Provision has included activity packs and resources being sent home, learning platforms, video calls and recorded staff messages - who knew we had such great dancers amongst us? We are in the process of collecting case studies with several schools across the city so we can capture and share the wide range of distance learning provision that is being offered in Brighton and Hove schools.
Virtual Sussex School Games
Over the past seven weeks, 5,151 young people from 11 secondary/FE schools, colleges and 32 primaries in Brighton & Hove have taken part in the Virtual Sussex School Games.
Congratulations to Blatchington Mill School who have topped the Sussex Spirit of the Games participation Leaderboard for the past 5 weeks! Balfour Primary School, Bilingual Primary School and Peter Gladwin Primary School have also been at the top of the Sussex Leaderboard for their average score in the Boccia and Athletics Challenges. Also a special mention goes to Saltdean Primary School who are the top Brighton and Hove primary school for their participation numbers. There are 3 weeks left so it would be great to get more students and schools involved before the end of term. Please see www.sussexschoolgames.co.uk for more information.
Last week was also National School Sport week at Home. Resources can be accessed via the following link and used over the summer months https://www.youthsporttrust.org/national-school-sport-week-home
Laptops to Support Homelearning
Following the DfE announcement to provide digital devices and internet access to young people, Education, Standards & Achievement have been liaising with the Virtual School; social care and School’s ICT to identify eligible young people and to arrange for the most appropriate technology to be delivered either to their school setting or to Regency Road. As an authority, we were allocated over 1100 laptops and nearly 200 wi-fi devices. Most of these are now with the young person they were intended for and plans are underway to ensure the remainder are with them soon.
Opportunities for Young People in Care and Care Leavers
I was so impressed to hear about the roles that Young Ambassadors have been playing as members of interview panels for positions within Children’s Services. As care experienced young people who have undergone training in recruitment/interviewing skills, Young Ambassadors can now confidently and meaningfully participate in interview processes; the biggest being the annual recruitment of newly qualified social workers. It’s been great to hear that this has also continued during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Tom Stibbs, Principal Social Worker said of the Young Ambassadors: “What a positive experience it was having the young people as part of the panel and what a great job they did. Without exception they were all valued members of the panel and provided insightful contributions to the assessment and scoring of candidates”.
Training Brighton University Students
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| Training taking place |
“The most useful session for me yet, thank you. Best of luck to you all, you’re amazing!”
“Thank you for sharing your stories, it is really helpful.”
“Thank you for sharing and speaking with us! I’ve found this very useful and interesting to hear experiences.”
For more information about the Youth Participation Team please go to https://www.facebook.com/BrightonandHoveYouth, or
Young City Reads, the Brighton based reading project which helps to inspire children to read for pleasure, launched ‘Young City Reads at Home’ earlier this month to offer families across Sussex, and beyond, a reading challenge they can complete together while the schools remain closed, in their own time, and at their own pace. More than 3,000 children were signed up to take part in Young City Reads before lockdown, and when schools closed the organisers decided to make all the materials available online.
Sarah Hutchings, Director of Young City Reads commented: “All the resources are on our website and can be downloaded for free. We are also delighted that Brighton & Hove Libraries’ Borrow Box scheme is offering anyone with a library card the opportunity to download the ebook for free, making the project accessible to children from families on a low income”.
For more information, please visit the Collected Works website.
The ASK (Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge for Schools and Colleges Programme) offer has been transformed into a remote service so that support and information can continue to be offered to students, teachers and parents and is now available in Brighton and Hove. Please see the following link to a short film that explains the offer and how to access it https://vimeo.com/412287347
Sessions currently on offer for pupils include: “Recognising your strengths”; “How to write a winning apprenticeship application”; “Interview skills” and “Practical ways to boost your employability”. Sessions are delivered by the meeting/webinar platform of the school’s choice at a time and date to suit. The programme runs between now and the end of term.
For more information, please see the Ask Brochure: http://wave.brighton-hove.gov.uk/schools/bulletins/Lists/Posts/Attachments/5519/ASK-Brochure-Digital_2020-2.pdf
Reverend Derek Bastide
We were very sorry to hear that Reverend Derek Bastide, former chair of Brighton & Hove Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education passed away recently. He supported Brighton & Hove SACRE for many years developing and monitoring Religious Education and although he retired from the Chair role four years ago his steady, calm and patient guidance and expert knowledge was greatly appreciated by all who were fortunate to work with him.
If you would like to find out more about Derek please see the link to his obituary in the Church Times. https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2020/12-june/gazette/obituaries/obituary-the-revd-derek-bastide .
Best wishes,
Jo
Keep in touch and follow me on Twitter @JoMLyons
Find details here Twitter accounts across all council services.
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