A Great Start to the Summer Term

 

I am delighted that the start of the term has gone so well for schools, colleges and early years providers.  It has also been great to see how happy so many children and young people are to be back in school and that they are also engaging in after school sports, drama and other clubs safely.  I would like to say a huge thank you to the heads, teachers and support staff for the efforts they have made to make this all happen safely.  It really does feel that we are starting to move forward into the new normal.

Over the Easter holidays Brighton & Hove ran the DfE funded Holiday Activities and Food programme (HAF) for children and young people aged four to 16, eligible for benefits-related free school meals. 

Over four days, 15 activity providers ran HAF at sites across the city. These included Ofsted-registered playschemes, sports organisations, community groups, a provider for black and minority ethnic young people as well as specialist organisations for children and young people with SEND. 

Visits to schemes showed the value of being able to engage children and young people in enriching and physical activities with their friends following the winter lockdown. It was fantastic to have children with smiles on their faces and to hear giggles of enjoyment as they participated in everything from building dens and creating masterpieces from clay, to playing ultimate frisbee and learning to skateboard. Healthy meals and nutritional education, as well as family support, were on offer throughout. 

Our summer programme will run for four weeks and be on a larger scale with better coverage of the city. We want to work with more schools – primary, secondary and special – to deliver on their premises. This can be either school-run provision, or through an external specialist provider. We want as many children, young people and families as possible to benefit and so will be in touch shortly about how you can take part in HAF summer 2021.

For more information please contact Mel Kinnear, HAF Programme Manager, Brighton & Hove City Council, melanie.kinnear@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Trans Toolkit Consultation

I would like to say thank you to all the schools that shared the Trans Toolkit consultation and to those staff who participated in the consultation. This was an extra piece of work for you at a difficult time, but your support is appreciated and will make a difference to the final version of the Toolkit and therefore provide support to you and your school communities in the future. More information about the outcomes of the consultation will be shared at a later date. 

Foster Care Fortnight

Foster Care Fortnight is The Fostering Network's annual campaign to raise awareness of the transformational power of fostering and to celebrate the fostering community.  It takes place from 10-23 May.  The theme for the fortnight will be #WhyWeCare.

We would like the whole fostering community to step up and shout loud about #WhyWeCare. There are lots of ways that you can provide support for the campaign, such as creating videos, updating social media headers and sharing Facebook posts.  For more information, please contact fosteringrecruitment@brighton-hove.gov.uk.

We need more foster carers within a 25 mile radius of Brighton & Hove from all walks of life who have the commitment, passion and dedication to support vulnerable children and young people.  For more information, why not attend one of our informal virtual information sessions for the opportunity to chat to experienced foster carers, ask questions and meet our team. For details of upcoming sessions, please visit the events page.

Holiday Art Clubs

Examples of work produced at an Art Club

Since 2019 the Virtual School has worked with Future Creators to run week-long holiday art clubs for children in care and previously in care. More recently during the Covid period, the art club has taken place online with ever increasing numbers of children joining and resulting in a wonderful online exhibition.

In addition to this, every child that takes part is offered the opportunity to gain a qualification by taking part in the Arts Award. Some of our Year 6-8 young people have already started the Bronze Award which is equivalent to a GCSE grade 4. 

The most recent art club took place during the first week of the Easter holidays, with the theme of fantasy gardens.  I was delighted to see some examples of the lovely work that’s been produced at the club.

New Minibus Donated to City’s Top-Rated SEN Pre-School

Glenn Tyler, Anne Rhodda, Jimmy Tarbuck, Len Goodman and Jamie Little 

I was really pleased to hear that a new minibus has recently been donated to the Jeanne Saunders Centre – an ‘outstanding’ specialist pre-school centre for children with special education needs and disabilities run by Brighton & Hove City Council.

The minibus has been generously donated by Variety Golf, a children’s charity. The bus was purchased through Variety, the children’s charity sunshine coaches programme. Sunshine coaches are donated to schools and care centres for disabled and disadvantaged children. Brighton & Hove City Council also part-funded the minibus.

Manager of the Jeanne Saunders Centre, Anne Rhodda and driver Glenn Tyler were presented with the minibus earlier this month by Jimmy Tarbuck, Variety Golf President, Jamie Little, Director of Variety Golf and former Strictly Come Dancing judge Len Goodman and 2021 Captain at Croham Hurst Golf Club.

We have not had any further Ofsted inspections this month. Fully graded inspections will return in the autumn but Ofsted have confirmed that “lighter touch, on site inspections” may take place in schools during the summer term. Please see the link for more details Education inspections in the summer term - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Welcomes

Elle Dyson

Congratulations to Elle Dyson who will be starting a secondment in the new role of Employment Hub Co-ordinator on 1st May. Elle will be using her experience as Employability Adviser and social media lead in the Youth Employability Service to co-ordinate the employment hub’s virtual and physical activity. 

Youth Employment Hubs are being established across the country in response to the rise in unemployment of young people caused by the pandemic. The city Youth Employment Hub located at Montague House in Kemp Town is being developed in partnership with colleagues at the Department for Work and Pensions. It will offer IT facilities, careers and job support, events and training. A virtual site is currently under development and further information will be provided as the project progresses. 

Best wishes,
Jo

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