Pupils from Rudyard Kipling Primary enjoying World Book Day celebrations
Thank you to all schools who did some amazing and creative work on World Book Day. I really enjoyed hearing more about the celebrations taking part across the city.
Rudyard Kipling Primary School traditionally have a World Book Day whole school text which all classes enjoy, from Nursery through to Year 6. This year, the school chose “How To Be A Lion” by Ed Vere. This book highlights the need to speak up for yourself and those less strong than yourself. It features Leonard, the gentle Lion, and Marianne, a poetry loving duck, whose values of respect and kindness should guide us all. This has led to many creative opportunities for the children to explore the book through art, performances, role-play, research, and poetry to name but a few! The children looked fabulous, and there was a real reading roar around school. Well done to everyone involved with this brilliant celebration. I hope that you all had a great World Book Day and would love to hear about what you got up to.
Education Disadvantage Strategy
School governors came together at the University of Sussex recently for their first face-to-face conference since 2019. The conference, led by the local authority, was a really great reminder of how engaged our governors are, with lots of questions and debate with the keynote speaker, Marc Rowland. Marc is nationally renowned in the field, having worked with numerous schools and other organisations, as well as advising the DfE on addressing educational disadvantage. He is well known in the city and has previous spoken at headteacher and deputy headteacher conferences. Addressing education disadvantage is a top priority for the local authority. Leadership and Governance is one of the six themes of Brighton & Hove’s Strategy for Tackling Educational Disadvantage, so it was good to discuss how governors can have an impact in this area and how they can be monitoring the progress and attainment of disadvantaged pupils in their schools. I am looking forward to spending more time with governors at the live events organised by the School & Governance Development Team in the summer term.
Hello Future 23
Attendees at the event
Over 800 students, parents/carers and teachers attended the Hello Future 23 careers event earlier this month. Led by the Coast to Capital Careers Hub, in collaboration with American Express and Brighton & Hove City Council, 55 local businesses showcased career pathways for the next generation of employees at the event hosted by Brighton MET. This year combined in-person activities for students from 16-18 years old with live-streamed talks from industry experts. Brighton’s Mayor, Councillor Lizzie Deane opened the event and said, “The response from local businesses to come along and participate in this event has been incredible, and it demonstrates just how committed our local business community is to supporting the next generation”.
Donna Keenan, Apprenticeship and Pre-Employment Manager, Employment and Skills, who facilitated the council involvement said “During the day, students had the chance to talk to careers advisors for impartial, one-to-one advice on their best next steps. There was also a session for teachers and tutors to learn more about local Labour Market Information (LMI) in partnership with the Brighton Chamber of Commerce”. Post-event digital and printed resources will be shared with students to give them the information they need to access the different routes to employment, including technical/vocational training and apprenticeships.
Youth Council Represents Brighton & Hove at Regional YouthCon Event
Brighton & Hove Youth Council members
In February, seven members of the Brighton & Hove Youth Council travelled to Kensington to represent Brighton & Hove at a British Youth Council YouthCon Event. They joined over 150 other young people from around the South East, East of England and London to network and collaborate on building their campaigns. With a morning of guest speakers, training and networking they spent the afternoon developing their campaigning skills and working with other reps from across the region to develop the National Cost of Living and Wellbeing Campaign.
Virtual School Annual Foster Carer Conference
Attendees at the conference
The Virtual School’s annual Foster Carer Conference took place at Sussex University last week. There were insightful presentations from Louise Bomber (TouchBase) talking through trauma recovery, as well as from Kit Messenger (Changing Chances), inspiring everyone with how we get our dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins! There was a hugely useful post 16 presentation from Sian Edwards from the National Network for the Education of Care Leavers, and Debbie Garrett talked about the great resource that is Youth Participation. A demonstration from Encyclopaedia Britannica drew a very enthusiastic response as attendees came to fully appreciate the benefits of the app that the Virtual School has commissioned for carers as well as schools. A great day and a much appreciated chance to connect/reconnect with our community of foster carers.
Home to School Transport Team (HTST) and the Parent and Carers Council (PaCC) Connect Sessions
Last month, the Home to School Transport Team (HTST) and the Parent and Carers Council (PaCC) met jointly with parents and carers who use the council’s home to school transport services at two PaCC Connect sessions. The sessions aimed to explain upcoming changes to how the Service is procured and also share with families the way they operate behind the scenes. Central to the presentation was the principle that children and young people’s needs are at the forefront of everything the team does. A daytime face to face event was held in Brighton and an evening event was held online which enabled more families to be involved, and specifically working parents who aren’t able to attend meetings during council working hours.
Mia Bryden, Head of Home to School Transport, Pippa Hodge, PaCC Representative and Becky Robinson, Chair of PaCC said of the events; “The Connect sessions really demonstrated that the value of bringing families together and helping them to understand the inner workings of a service cannot be underestimated. The sessions gave families the opportunity to see the people behind the service, so they can be more than a name on an email or a voice on the phone. They were also an opportunity for the team to meet families face to face and understand more about their daily lives as parent carers.”
Leading Anti Racist Practice in Education: A Moment of Praxis
Camille Kumar
This year’s Aspiring Leadership Conference: Leading Anti-Racist Practice in Education: Curriculum Inclusion and Leadership, took place at the University of Sussex on Monday 13 March. The Conference was attended by 65 school colleagues representing 45 schools across the city and led by Camille Kumar, Education Adviser: Anti-racism. The event included keynote speaker, Dr Yaa Asare, Senior Lecturer of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Brighton. Yaa shared her research on race and ethnicity in the field of education and investigations into racialised experiences.
Anti-racist lead teachers from across the city provided thought provoking conversations with Yaa and each other on how they have led anti-racist work in their schools; what challenges can hinder this work as well as their own personal journeys to a better understanding in this area. Staff from Patcham Junior School provided an insightful film screening of students sharing their experiences as pupils of colour in a Brighton & Hove school. The day allowed delegates the opportunity to reflect on where they are personally and professionally and how to build and maintain momentum and optimism in ensuring all children and young people have the best possible experiences in our schools.
More Pupils Inspired by Author Visits
Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock – “Am I Made of Stardust?”
Janelle McCurdy – “Mia and the Light Casters”
Six schools have received visits from inspirational authors this month as part of BookTrust Represents’ programme to promote and improve the representation of people of colour in children’s books so that all children read a range of books that reflect them and their wider communities. Students from St Martin’s Primary School were visited by Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, author of “Am I Made of Stardust?” who shared her vast knowledge of space and beyond. She seems to have left an astronomical impression on them with really positive feedback from the pupils including:- "Meeting Dr Maggie was very inspiring to me and for other young kids," "it really made me love space” and "Dr Maggie describes things really carefully but it was so easy to understand."
Youth Council Health and Wellbeing Campaign
The Brighton & Hove Youth Council Health and Wellbeing Campaign
Last month, the Brighton & Hove Youth Council Health and Wellbeing Campaign group set key priorities for their work. After carrying out focus groups and listening exercises, then drawing from previous research around what matters most to young people in Brighton & Hove they identified the following four key themes:-
• Improve knowledge of mental health services available for young people;
• Better understanding for young people about diagnosis and treatment;
• Better education on being aware of your own mental health; and
• Detrivialising mental health and labels people use.
They have started to explore and develop actions to meet these priorities, possibly including young person led workshops, a Mental Wellbeing Convention and a possible lived experience podcast. I look forward to hearing more about this work in due course.
On Monday 13 March we received notification that the Brighton & Hove Local Area would be inspected by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commissioning in the arrangements for children and young people with SEND as part of a three week inspection process, due to finish on 31 March. The Inspection Team will be considering outcomes for Children and Young People, the impact of Leadership and Management and will also be looking at the local authority’s oversight of Alternative Provision. The team are taking a child focussed approach and will be tracking some individual cases, visiting some services and provisions and doing some case sampling with health and local authority practitioners. Thank you to everyone who has taken part in the process and provided feedback so far. I look forward to updating you on the outcomes of the inspection as soon as we know more.
This month has been very busy with schools inspections taking place at Westdene Primary, St Paul’s CE Primary and Woodingdean Primary and a section 8 monitoring visit at Brighton Aldridge Academy (BACA). We look forward to hearing the results from all the inspections.
Congratulations to Elm Grove Primary School, Coldean Primary and St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School who all retained their Good grading at their inspections. The report for Elm Grove said "The school’s curriculum is successfully designed to enable all pupils to be included in learning. This is underpinned by the school motto of 'Everyone Included, Everyone Valued, Learning and Thriving Together'". St Joseph’s report said: "Leaders have created a school that truly sits at the heart of the community it serves. They ensure that pupils learn a broad and engaging curriculum. Pupils look forward to learning." Coldean Primary School received a very positive report, particularly around their early years and personal development provision which were graded as outstanding. The report said: "Pupils are proud to belong to this vibrant, inclusive and happy school. Leaders ensure that the school values of ‘kindness, resilience, trust and pride’ are at the heart of everything they do."
Best wishes,
Jo
Keep in touch and follow me on Twitter @JoMLyons
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