It was great to see such a large turnout of headteachers and principals from our city’s schools and colleges attending an online event ‘A whole school, whole city approach to climate education and action’ last month. The event aimed to address both council priorities and students’ concerns about the environment.
Brighton & Hove declared a climate and biodiversity emergency in 2018 pledging to be carbon neutral by 2030. In a recent survey of over 500 secondary school students, nearly half felt they only had a very basic or no knowledge about the environment and most felt there was not enough about the environment being taught in schools.
There is already a lot of good environmental practice in many of our city’s schools. To ensure this is embedded in the whole school culture, it must be lead and supported by school leaders. We heard inspiring talks from Patcham Juniors, Dorothy Stringer and BHASVIC on how they are leading climate and environmental action and from St Luke’s Primary on how they have adopted a Climate Curriculum.
I was delighted that we were also joined by a passionate and eloquent student from Teach the Future and the founders of ThoughtBox and The Harmony Project, sharing examples of how they integrate climate and nature’s principles into the curriculum. A representative from Let’s Go Zero introduced this national campaign for schools working to be carbon neutral by 2030 – 6 schools signed up that day!
In the afternoon, attendees discovered more about practical action they could take on areas such as food, travel, school grounds, outdoor learning, energy and decolonising the curriculum. We hope this is just the start of work to prepare for a sustainable future in our city’s schools. We look forward to working with headteachers and principals to develop further support for schools shortly.
Virtual School Summer Conference
The Virtual School is pleased to be hosting its annual summer conference as an online webinar on 24 June this year, which will feature Kit Messenger as a keynote speaker. Kit is a former headteacher with over 25 years’ experience working with young people and is also founder and Co-Director of Changing Chances, an organisation with a mission to ensure all young people are supported in ways that enable them to feel great, maximise their strengths and achieve their very best. Kit received 5* reviews at the Virtual School’s recent foster carer conference with one carer describing her keynote as the best she had seen in 20 years!
Headteachers, governors, senior managers in schools, designated teachers, SENCOs, teaching assistants, social workers, foster carers and other professionals who work with or support Children in Care/Previously in Care are all encouraged to book a place and can do so via this link: Virtual School Summer Conference 2021
School Streets Programme
Another city primary will get to sample the benefits of our School Streets programme this week when Westdene Primary takes part in a taster day on Thursday 27 May. School Streets support the safe movement of children to and from school by creating streets that allow for more walking, cycling or scooting. They reduce congestion around the school gates, improve air quality and encourage active and sustainable travel around the school.
What will be different for Thursday’s taster day is that access to the road will be restricted for the entirety of the school day (between 8am and 4pm), with children taking part in a series of activities throughout the morning and afternoon including bike safety; eco/air pollution activity; Eco Street and active travel pledges. The day will be an opportunity to gather the views of parents, carers, school staff and local residents and we will also be monitoring the impact on the local area.
In September 2020, as part of measures to support a safe return to the classroom during the Covid-19 pandemic, School Streets was trialled at nine schools. Currently, four schools, Brunswick Primary, St Luke’s Primary, Downs Infant, Downs Junior, St Nicolas CE Primary are all running the schemes. More information on the Westdene School Streets Taster Day, including information on the road restrictions, can be found on our School Streets page.
UEFA Women’s Euros Launch
Carlton Hill and Patcham High school students
Carlton Hill and Patcham High school students attended the launch of UFEA Women’s 2022 legacy plan at the Pavilion on Wednesday 16 May.
The tournament will take place in July 2022 – with the AMEX hosting a number of games. You can find out more about the tournament and now pre register for tickets by clicking here: UEFA Women’s EURO legacy launch
Brighton and Hove is also a FA Girls' Football School Partnership area – giving all primary and secondary schools in the city access to CPD opportunities to encourage more girls to play the game and help deliver the FA’s ambition of making girls' football equal by 2024.
Make sure your school is registered by going to Girls’ Football in Schools to access free resources. For further information on the Girls' Football School Partnerships please contact Emma.greenough@brighton-hove.gov.uk
Hove Park School Wins First Prize in National Mandarin Speaking Competition
A Year 9 team from Hove Park School recently entered the annual Mandarin Speaking Competition organised by the British Council. This is a prestigious national competition, and this year over 200 students from some 70 schools competed. Illango Bogschutz, James Cox, Fintan Crean, Katie Galloway and George Stevens wrote, practiced and performed an original script in Mandarin, which was expertly filmed and edited by Dylan Barker.
The judges liked the creativity of the script, based on a news broadcast. The Hove Park School team was delighted to learn that, against intense competition, they had won first prize in their category. They will receive a £100 book voucher plus a digital workshop or tour for their Mandarin class.
Head of Languages, Mr Sandford said “Winning this element of such a prestigious competition is a very public recognition of all the hard work that both the teachers and students put into the study of Mandarin at Hove Park School. We are very proud of all of our languages being taught this year in school and we continue to buck the national trend of disengagement in language learning. What I’d like everyone to recognise is that all these high standards have been maintained over not one, but two lockdowns! Amazing effort by everyone”.
Well done to everyone involved in this outstanding achievement!
Congratulations to Jess Middleton, Apprentice Business Administrator who completed her apprenticeship last month with a distinction. Well done to Jess for such a great achievement in a very difficult time.
I would also like to wish good luck to the nine new Post Graduate Apprentice Teachers who are due to be starting their apprenticeships on 7 June. Thank you to the all of the schools involved for their support. These include Mile Oak Primary School, Downs View School, Varndean High School and Longhill High School. I am so pleased that the teacher apprentices have helped bring gifted and talented people into our teaching pool. All teacher graduates have achieved a grade of outstanding.
Ofsted have confirmed that monitoring visits may take place in Requires Improvement or Inadequate schools during the summer term. We also know that full inspection will not return until the Autumn term. Please see the link for more details Education inspections in the summer term.
Moulsecoomb Primary School received another monitoring visit in May. We are awaiting the report to be published.
Welcomes
There are a number of welcomes this month, both within the Education and Skills team and within our city’s schools.
Welcome to Ashley Seymour-Williams who will be joining the Education and Skills Team as Senior Education Adviser: Partnerships.
I am also very pleased that Norman Haskins will be joining the team at Hidden Children Officer and would like to welcome him to the role.
Within our schools, I would like to welcome Shelley Baker who has started this month as Headteacher at Varndean School.
Shelley Baker
Welcome also to Tina Davidson who has taken over as Headteacher at St John the Baptist Catholic Primary School.
I would also like to welcome Gemma Chumnansin who will be starting a new role as Headteacher of Woodingdean Primary School on 1 June.
Gemma Chumnansin
Finally, welcome to Drew Dower who will be taking over as Head of School at Benfield Primary School from 1 June.
We are looking forward to working with all of our new colleagues and supporting them in their new roles.
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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