News from Education and Skills: Connecting Careers Provision

Well done to Brighton & Hove City Council’s Skills and Employment Team who were recently recognised by the Careers Hub for their work in connecting careers provision in schools and colleges to the needs of local economies. The Careers Hub team work with secondary schools, colleges, apprenticeship providers and businesses to connect careers education with the world of work to enable the city’s young people to make informed choices about their future and to better understand the range of career options on offer. Commenting on the award Carla Butler, Head of Skills and Employment said: “I am delighted that the efforts of my service which spans apprenticeships and pre-employment, the employability service, the local employment scheme for construction, and adult education hub were recognised for the work they do supporting education and employment pathways in the city”.

Cooking Across Continents

It’s been great to hear more about the Youth Council’s Social Action Project – Cooking Across Continents - which recently held a cooking event for migrant women in the city. The Youth Council had run a dragon’s den style event within its membership earlier in the year and the winning project then applied for funding to run ‘Cooking Across Continents’ - a project recognising that migrant women can struggle to engage with social opportunities. The aim was to create a safe and accessible space for women to connect over the common ground of cooking and food. 17 women in total attended the event representing 8 different nations, supported by 5 young people and the wonderful team at the Community Kitchen. The project was a collaborative piece of work between the Youth Council, Brighton and Hove Food Partnership and the Network for International Women – Brighton and Hove. Participants left with a voucher to enable them to cook beyond the event.

Hove Park School

Congratulations to Hove Park School which has been selected as one of only 15 schools nationally to achieve the prestigious role as lead Languages Hub school for the National Consortium for Languages Education (NCLE). This followed a highly competitive process during the end of the summer term ending in a final endorsement of the selected schools by the DfE. The focus will be to support a network of schools in the area by training partner schools to share best practice, discuss ideas and support quality language learning activities. The key aims of the Languages Hubs will be to encourage high quality language teaching in schools; increase languages uptake at GCSE; support levelling up opportunities for disadvantaged pupils; address the performance of boys and better recognise and support the rich diversity of languages in addition to English spoken by one in every five of the school’s pupils.

James Sandford, Director of Lead Languages Hub, Hove Park School said “This is a prestigious national collaborative project. We are excited and looking forward to working with all our partners and stakeholders at primary, secondary and sixth form schools in the area to realise an important vision for the future of our students and our local community.” For more information, please follow the link here.

Youth Council’s Transport Campaign

Earlier this year, representatives from the Youth Council’s Bus Transport campaign met with councillors, council officers and senior staff from bus operators in Brighton & Hove as part of the Enhance Partnership to present their Bus Transport Manifesto. Highlighting three key areas that were important to young people: Price, School Travel and Safety. Their ideas and suggestions were met with enthusiasm by officers, councillors, and operators alike, with a desire to work with the Youth Council closer going forward, and agreement to follow up on some of their key issues, as well as to better connect with young people. If you’d like to know more about the campaign or see the Youth Council’s Bus Transport Manifesto please email john.lewry@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Peter Gladwin Primary Awarded UNICEF UK’s Rights Respecting Gold School Award

Congratulations to Peter Gladwin Primary School which has recently been awarded UNICEF UK’s Rights Respecting Gold School Award in recognition of the fabulous work the school does around children’s rights. Pupils learn about rights in a variety of ways: through lessons, through art and environmental projects and through the school’s charters. This encourages them to build positive relationships with one another founded on dignity and a mutual respect for rights. The Award was achieved following an assessment visit at the end of the summer term where the assessor said it was “evident that children’s rights are embedded across the school and underpin every facet of school life”. Well done to all of the staff, pupils and families involved in this amazing achievement.

Campaign to Recruit School Governors

Brighton & Hove City Council has recently launched a campaign to recruit governors to help run our city’s schools. Although there are already over 600 governors in schools across Brighton & Hove, more are always needed and there are currently vacancies at various schools across the city. To learn more about becoming a governor, and what it involves, please follow this link.

Apprenticeship Inductions

Good luck to all of the new apprentices who have recently started on their Apprenticeship journey. The Apprenticeship Team started 18 new apprentices working across our Repairs and Maintenance team in housing, Dorothy Stringer School and Hill Park School. These are amazing opportunities for both the apprentice and schools. Some feedback received so far includes: “Everyone has been really helpful and supportive, I am really enjoying the opportunity. It feels great to work with my own tools” – Sarah and “I love my apprenticeship! My colleagues are great to work with, the supervisors and managers are really supportive and the operatives take their time to teach me everything I need to know. I really enjoy helping tenants in their homes. The work is very varied, so I feel like I’m learning a lot” – Josh. The Apprenticeship Team is currently looking at building a cohort for January 2024. For further information please contact Gavin Graham at Gavin.Graham@brighton-hove.gov.uk or 01273 293320.

We have started the term with 3 Ofsted inspections at Queens Park Primary, St Mary’s Catholic School and Tarnerland Nursery, where new headteacher Louise Collings had Ofsted in her third week as headteacher. We look forward to seeing the results. Congratulations to Goldstone Primary who were inspected before the summer holidays on retaining their grade of Good. The report said: ‘Pupils thrive at this friendly school. They are happy, active and excited to learn. One parent summed up the views of many by saying, “My child skips into school each day and comes out buzzing” and 'the curriculum has been carefully designed to engage and interest all pupils. Teachers implement the curriculum well'.