News from Education and Skills: January 2023

Brighton & Hove City Council will be launching a Virtual Work Experience Programme during National Careers Week 2023 which takes place from 6th to 11th March. This programme will raise awareness of the different careers across the directorate areas. The Council’s pre-employment team have been working with service areas and have created some great video content to raise the profile of the many different jobs people do. There will also be live webinars taking place with speakers from the council talking about their role and what this involves with a focus on the following:

• A healthy and caring city - Caring for Children and Families Health and Adult Social care/ Families, Children and Learning

• A sustainable city - Green Futures/Sustainability/Environment

• A city working for all - Governance, People and Resources

• A city to call home - EEC/Housing, Neighbourhoods and Communities

For more information, please follow this link.

Primary Headteacher Meeting

I was delighted to see so many headteachers at the primary headteacher meeting earlier this month. It was great to have an opportunity to welcome new heads and heads of school and to take part in a “getting to know you” activity with colleagues too. Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting.

Stephen Woodward, Programme Manager - Family Hubs Transformation, talked about Family Hubs and headteachers were then invited to share their ideas about what would make these effective for schools and communities. There was also a lot of excellent input from headteachers during the morning with Maddie Southern sharing her experience of getting the Inclusion Quality Mark In Hove Junior School, Damien Jordan updating us on his work with the Albion Football Club on a variety of projects in school and Stuart McConnachie, Louise Willard, Andy Richbell and Jane Fendley detailing their experiences of recent Ofsted inspections, including aspects that the Ofsted inspectors really liked and some of the challenges.

Natasha Marris, Primary School Teaching Learning & Assessment Consultant, shared some important information relating to assessment and moderation (which has been shared in the bulletin and separate email to KS1 and KS2 headteachers) and Richard Barker, Head of School Organisation, spoke briefly about attendance and moving forward with a city wide attendance strategy. Stuart McConnachie is organising a working party to lead the schools in discussion about support and challenge to improve attendance within primary schools. I look forward to seeing everyone again at the next meeting.

Westdene Primary School Receives Platinum Artsmark Award

Congratulations to all of the pupils and staff at Westdene Primary School who are celebrating after receiving a prestigious Platinum Artsmark Award. The Artsmark Award is the only creative quality standard for schools, accredited by Arts Council England. It supports schools to develop and celebrate arts and cultural education, putting creativity and wellbeing at the heart of the curriculum and ensures every young person can be creative and access a diverse, high-quality cultural education.

In order to achieve their Artsmark Award, Westdene Primary School had to develop their arts and culture provision to embed a broad and ambitious curriculum. This was achieved by creating an overall plan that was committed to and delivered across the whole school. Westdene Primary School was supported by Artswork in planning and developing their objectives, working alongside the school at various stages to support their Artsmark Award achievement. Well done to everyone involved in this fantastic achievement!

Youth Council PSHE and Health and Wellbeing Reports now Live!

Towards the end of 2022 the Youth Council’s campaign groups had been doing some consulting through focus groups and workshops around Health and Wellbeing and Young People’s experience of PSHE. Two reports were compiled and signed off by the Youth Council and will be underpinning their work in these two areas in the coming months, alongside other research they have been reading. For more information, or to access the reports, please contact John Lewry, Lead Youth Participation Worker at john.lewry@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Brighton Chamber Partnership

Brighton & Hove City Council and Coast to Capital Careers Hub are supporting a brand new, first of its kind project in Brighton with Brighton Chamber, aiming to raise career aspirations and opportunities for school and college students in the city.

The new partnership will run until September 2023. It includes a membership to Brighton Chamber for all local secondary schools and colleges and an exciting programme of events and initiatives, all designed to help careers leaders and their students connect with local employers. The joint programme of work will include connecting teachers with industry leaders, offer students the chance to visit local employers and hear from inspiring business leaders and find and create quality work experience opportunities for students across the city.

One of the areas that the schools will be able to tap into with the business community is the growth of jobs and careers in the green & circular economy. There are an estimated 15,000 small and medium sized businesses in Brighton & Hove and many offer valuable training and work experience opportunities and are looking for future employees.

Elm Grove Primary School received an Ofsted inspection this month and Brighton Aldridge Community Academy has received a monitoring visit. We are awaiting the outcomes from both visits. Congratulations to St Nicolas CE Primary and Patcham Infant School on receiving Good grades in their inspections.

The inspection report for St Nicolas said: ‘Pupils are happy and enthusiastic ambassadors for their school.’ and ‘The ethos around school is inclusive and nurturing. Staff are relentless in their ambition for every pupil to achieve as well as they should.’ The inspector at Patcham Infant School reported: ‘At Patcham Infant School there is a strong culture of appreciating and embracing individual liberty.’ ‘The provision for pupils’ personal development is a strength in this school’ and ‘the curriculum from early years upwards is interesting, engaging and ambitious. In all subjects, leaders have precisely identified the order in which pupils should learn’.

Welcomes

There have been several new and acting headteachers across the city at the start of this term. We look forward to working with them over the coming months and to supporting them all in their new roles. I would also like to say thank you to Kirsty Murray who has returned to her role as Deputy Head at Queen’s Park Primary following her time as Acting Head.