Sport and Physical Activity Consultation
Brighton & Hove City Council has launched a citywide consultation taking place over the next three months to find out how we can better support people in Brighton & Hove to move more and enjoy being active for life. The views from the online survey and other engagement events will be used to create a Brighton & Hove Sport & Physical Activity Strategy. As well as completing the online survey and discussions there will be opportunities to talk to the team at events taking place across the city. Join the conversation online here or at an event by Sunday 31 July.
For more information on how you can get involved in events or how to share this information with parent/carers in your school communities, follow the Healthy Lifestyles team on Facebook or Twitter, or call the Healthy Lifestyles team on 01272 294589.
Our City, Our World
Our City, Our World is the new sustainability, climate change and environmental education strategy for Brighton & Hove schools. At the end of April, over 50 school leaders (headteachers, governors and sustainability leads) from local schools attended the Our City, Our World Net Zero conference.
The morning focused on Leadership for Sustainability, with an introduction from Cllr Hannah Clare and presentations from Dr David Dixon, who has recently published a book on this topic, and BHASVIC who are working with the DfE on climate literacy and the green skill agenda. In the afternoon, delegates met with local experts in energy, travel, food, resources and biodiversity to vision schools in 2030 – the year Brighton & Hove has pledged to be Carbon Neutral. We will be using these strong visions to shape the future of provision to school.
Family Hubs Transformation Fund
I am delighted to confirm that Brighton & Hove City Council has been awarded up to £1 million to help boost the lives of children and disadvantaged families throughout the city via the government Family Hubs Transformation Fund. We’re one of only 7 local authorities in the country to be given the money to develop ‘Family Hubs’, which will better integrate services for children of all ages and their families.
The hubs will be a place where ‘families only have to tell their story once’, with different professionals working together to develop high quality, joined up, whole family support services from conception to 19, and 25 if the young person has special educational needs or a disability. We look forward to working with partners over the coming months as we move forward with the transformation and will be holding a stakeholder conference on 13 July.
50 days Until WEUROs Football Tournament
Cardinal Newman Football Ambassadors
I was really pleased to hear that over 100 year 7 girls from 9 of the cities secondary schools took part in a Football Tournament at Waterhall this month to mark 50 days until the WEUROs tournament starts in England. The tournament was supported by female Football Ambassadors from Cardinal Newman – who lead warm up sessions and refereed the tournament. It was a great afternoon with Sussex FA and 2 local clubs attending to speak about sessions they are running for girls in the community. Blatchington Mill were the winners of the tournament.
There are free school resources available online here with lots of activities happening around the tournament in the Fan Zone in Valley Gardens from the 9 July. An exhibition will also be running at Brighton Museum about the History of Women’s Football. For more information please see here.
Anti-Racist Education Strategy
Work on the anti-racist education strategy is going from strength to strength and I commend the many teachers, support staff and leaders attending trainings, developing lessons and improving their practice to ensure a better education system for our children. All schools and further education settings are encouraged to start their anti-racist education review process by listening to people in their school community who are affected by racism. On BEEM you will find guidance, training dates, template letters, focus group guides and everything else you might need to start this important work. Find out more in this term’s anti-racist education newsletter, available on BEEM.
Virtual School Art Competition
This year the Virtual School ran its first ever art competition for children in care, children previously in care and care leavers up to age 25. It has been amazing to see the exceptionally high standard of all the entries. Well done to everyone who entered and a big thank you to all the parents, carers, guardians and teachers who helped facilitate some absolutely wonderful pieces of work. Here are some of the winning entries:
Women Inspiring a Peaceful and Sustainable Future
On Monday 16 May, Year 11 Hove Park student, Asal Latifi spoke at the United Nations Office in Geneva as part of a ‘Women Inspiring a Peaceful and Sustainable Future’ conference. Congratulations to her for taking part in such a huge event. I would encourage everyone to watch the speech via the link here. Enter via the ‘RSVP’ option just below ‘Becoming Part Of It’ and then select the ‘Online Livestream’ option. Then ‘checkout’ and follow the simple instructions.
A huge congratulations to Blatchington Mill School, King’s School, Mile Oak Primary School and Brackenbury Primary School for their good judgements from Ofsted. Well done to all of the staff and governors for their great work.
St Peter’s Community Primary School has been rated Requires Improvement. The local authority team is working closely with the staff and governors to support the school going forward.
Rudyard Kipling Primary and Stanford Infant School have both received an Ofsted inspection and we are awaiting the reports to be published.
Goodbyes
We say goodbye and thank you this month to Sam Beal who will be stepping down as Education Adviser: Health and Wellbeing after more than 21 years in her role. As many of you will agree, Sam is held in high esteem by our council and school colleagues, as well as the different community and faith groups she has worked with. We will miss her kind, compassionate approach and her knowledge and expertise. We wish Sam the best of luck for her future plans and look forward to keeping in touch.
Sam Beal
We also say goodbye this month to Tracey Holder, Parenting Manager at the Integrated Team for Families following her 32 year career with Brighton & Hove City Council. Tracey will be greatly missed by all of her team and colleagues for her generosity and patience and for always going above and beyond to help her staff to grow and develop. We all wish Tracey the very best for the future.
Tracey Holder
Best wishes,
Jo
Keep in touch and follow me on Twitter @JoMLyons
Find details here Twitter accounts across all council services.
