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Councillor Phélim Mac Cafferty and Elle Dyson
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Trish Callaghan, Holly Stockley, Allan Hancock, Councillor Phélim Mac Cafferty,
Elle Dyson, Tristan Court
On 1 June 2022 staff, partners and young people gathered at the Youth Employment Hub to celebrate the Hub’s first birthday. The event offered an opportunity to reflect on the year and thank everyone who has been part of establishing the space, services within it and those who have helped provide better services to our city’s young people. In its first year, the Hub has worked with 683 young people; supported 345 young people into employment and training and issued 160 certificates through the AQA Unit Award Scheme. Cierra, a Hub member has written a poem about her experience of the Hub:-
'This place will make you feel less lonely,
With those you can depend on,
People who won’t give up on you even when you lose hope,
To help you find the strength within you,
To believe in yourself again,
And support you with any challenges along the way too,
Where you will be treated with care and kindness,
Which you may not always receive,
And a sense of safety you may not always feel.
In this place there is ‘no wrong door’,
Meaning they will support you no matter what,
And that says it all really,
About how amazing this place truly is,
This place I’m talking about is the Youth Employment Hub,
Where every time I leave,
Things just feel a little lighter.'
I really enjoyed attending the Primary School Athletics competition at Withdean earlier this month. The event saw 1,300 Year 4, 5 and 6 students from 42 schools across Brighton and Hove compete in a number of track and field events across two days. Congratulations to the Day 1 winning teams from Hertford Juniors, Bilingual Primary and St Paul’s Primary and Day 2 winning teams from Goldstone Primary, Aldrington Primary and St Nicolas Primary.
It was also great to have over 60 sports leaders from Blatchington Mill, Dorothy Stringer, Patcham High and Varndean College all supporting the event as well. Without them it couldn’t happen! They were all outstanding and great ambassadors for their schools/college.
Youth Led Grants Funding
On Saturday 25th June, the Youth Council members helped to give out £80,000 to local youth projects in Brighton & Hove through the Youth Led Grants funding. Over 30 different projects applied for funding and the young people worked hard to decide which projects would receive funding. They assessed bids that offer positive activities for young people that include the following criteria:
• Improve young people’s health and wellbeing;
• Increase opportunities for young people to participate in new and challenging experiences;
• Increase volunteering and work experience opportunities;
• Support with recovering from the impact of Covid-19.
As a reward for all their efforts, they enjoyed a tour of the police cells at Brighton Town Hall.
UEFA Women’s Euros
Students taking part in workshops
Our city is getting ready to host three of the UEFA Women’s Euros matches this summer at the Brighton and Hove Community Stadium. It has been lovely to hear how pupils from Hove Juniors, Hill Park School, Patcham Juniors and Patcham High have been working with professional musicians from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to create lyrics and musical ideas for an anthem celebrating the history and culture of Brighton and Hove and women’s football in the area. The students took part in a workshop using a range of instruments to create anthems to form part of the celebrations in the run up to and during the tournament. I look forward to hearing the final anthems!
Supporting Families Programme
I am delighted to announce that Brighton and Hove supported 500 families as part of the Supporting Families programme in 2021-22, exceeding our target by 26%. This is a particularly impressive achievement given the additional challenges faced by families and services as a result of the pandemic. Well done to the teams involved for all of their hard work. We are now planning for the new Supporting Families programme which starts in October. For further information on the new national programme, please visit Supporting Families Programme 2022-25.
The end of the academic year is approaching fast, and primary and secondary colleagues are working hard to ensure that our Year 6 pupils are supported as they move to their next phase of learning. Primary schools are embarking on their units of the citywide literacy project which Brighton and Hove secondary schools will continue with in the Autumn term. A great example of working collaboratively!
Good luck to all Year 6 students across the city who are moving on to Year 7. I look forward to hearing how it has gone. For any feedback, please contact Joyti Azad at Joyti.Azad@brighton-hove.gov.uk.
Making It REAL Project
The Making It REAL project
It is great to hear that Brighton & Hove City Council has invested in training for the Making it REAL (Raising Early Achievement in Literacy) project for around 80 children’s centres across the city. The project is an award-winning nationwide initiative developed by the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) to raise literacy skills in children under 5 years, focusing on nurturing children’s listening and attention skills. Brighton & Hove Inclusion Support Service (BHISS) has piloted ‘a Special approach to Making it Real’ working with families of children with additional needs, encouraging them to feel confident in a shared moment with their child.
Summer Self-Care Resources
The Anna Freud centre for children and families has released new self-care resources which may be particularly helpful for staff and students as we approach the end of the summer term. These packs feature a range of creative based activities on self-care strategies that other young people have found useful in helping them stay mentally healthy. Resources for Primary schools can be found here. Follow this link for resources for Secondary schools.
Resources for staff are available here. It is hoped these will encourage staff members to prioritise their self-care before and during the summer holidays. Resources include a staff toolkit as well as a poster that can be shared in a staff room or online to colleagues. Additional resources to help encourage self-help for parents and carers can be found on the website here.
Children in Care Council
Children in Care Council
The Children in Care Council recently took part in a graffiti session, exploring their views around mental health and the support they would like from social workers and teachers. This was then shared at the corporate parenting board in June.
Congratulations to Stanford Infant School on achieving a Good grade at their Ofsted inspection. Well done to everyone involved. The report said: “Parents, staff and pupils are rightfully proud to be part of the Stanford Infant School community” and “staff and governors are ambitious for all pupils and fully focused on ensuring that they receive a high-quality education.”
Rudyard Kipling Primary School has also received a Good outcome. Congratulations to all of the staff and governors for their great work. The Report stated that “the school's values of kindness, respect, equality, teamwork and positivity are at the heart of everything it does” and “leaders and teachers have designed an ambitious and engaging curriculum that grows pupils' knowledge”.
Hill Park School has received an Ofsted inspection this month and we are awaiting the outcome.
Welcomes
I am very pleased to welcome Jack Davies, who has taken over as Principal at Brighton Aldridge Community Academy this month. We look forward to working with Jack in his new position.
Jack Davies
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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