It was wonderful to attend Let’s Dance last week when it returned to Brighton Dome in a week-long festival celebrating and showcasing dance from the children within our city. Let’s Dance, which is organised and managed by Dorothy Stringer School with the help of Varndean College dance leaders, is the largest celebration of school dance in the whole of the UK. With over 2000 performers involved each year, it plays a major role, not only in encouraging our young people to be active, but also in ensuring that dance and physical activity remains a high priority in educational establishments across the city. Congratulations to all those who took part in Let’s Dance and to everyone involved who has worked so hard to create such a fabulous series of performances. For more information please follow this link.
Women in Leadership Conference
The theme for this year’s conference for aspiring and existing deputy and assistant headteachers was Women in Leadership. The conference looked at what we can do to inspire girls to aim high and develop leadership skills and ask how we can remove the barriers for female leaders to move into senior positions. Keynote speaker Vivienne Porritt gave an engaging and thought-provoking talk on the gender pay gap for women working in education; flexible working; diversity of women in education, and representation of women leaders in education. There was input from our anti-racist lead teachers and a wide choice of workshops including: handling difficult conversations; a panel of female senior leaders sharing their experiences, and workplace wellbeing given by Public Health. We were also joined by an inspiring group of young female student leaders from BHASVIC who shared their experience of school openly and honestly. Feedback from the event has been really positive and some schools have already created groups for girls to share their voice. Well done to everyone involved.
National Careers Week
Our ‘Local Authority Careers at BHCC’ virtual work experience (VWEX) programme has been chosen to be spotlighted on the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) careers platform, following a new partnership with Springpod, our VWEX partner, bringing our VWEX programme to a national audience this spring. Over 1000 local students and residents have enrolled in the programmes with more than 200 digital badges awarded for completion. Offering a diverse range of activities, including interactive projects, case studies, and the opportunity to reach out to our staff working in those sectors, our programmes provide a unique glimpse into the inner workings of local government and social care. These programmes are free to use and open to anyone. They are also OnDemand, so you can choose when you want to learn. Please see below for online enrolment and take a look at our trailer video here for our local authority work experience programme.
Foster Carer Conference
The Virtual School held its annual Foster Carer Conference at Sussex University at the end of the spring term, and it was fantastic to see so many carers. Children from our “Care to Dance” club performed an amazing routine, and we also heard an inspiring talk from one of our own care leavers. Our keynote speaker Ashley John Baptise shared his inspiring story of growing up in care; his journey to Cambridge and his amazing resilience in the face of challenges, that no child should have to face. Sussex University shared practical support for applications to higher education and we had uplifting presentations from Happy Home Learning, Audio Active and Al Start. The day was a wonderful celebration of the work our carers do and an opportunity to share the high aspirations we all have for our children in care.
Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) in Brighton & Hove Schools
It is very exciting to hear that a number of schools in Brighton & Hove have engaged in the OPAL programme, including Fairlight Primary and Nursery School, who have achieved the Platinum Award on several occasions, which has resulted in them being invited to be part of the OPAL college and offering open days for schools interested in following this approach to great play for children.
On a rainy lunchtime, Primary Teaching & Learning Consultant, Joyti Azad went to visit Brackenbury Primary, who were inspired by what they saw at Fairlight, to see what this looks like in action. On her visit, the school was sharing their work with colleagues from West Sussex who were also considering this approach. Joyti said “Whether the children were ‘cooking’ in the mud kitchen, scooting around the playground or dancing to the beats of the outside sound system, they were all enjoying the experiences of playing outside creatively with big smiles on their faces. Staff at the school report fewer behaviour incidents during playtime and pupils who had previously avoided outdoor play are now more prepared to embrace the experience.” If this sounds like something your school would be interested in, don’t just take Joyti’s word for it, why not arrange a visit to one of the schools to see it for yourself.
Brighton Hope Hack
It has been great to hear more about the youth led Hope Hack workshop which took place this month at the i360, organised by Hope Collective. The aim was to involve younger residents around issues such as racism and division, education, housing, transport and employment and mental health and give them an opportunity to share experiences and look at solutions for their assigned topic. The Racism and Division group opted to develop a literary contribution in the form of a children's book named "Alex’s Amazing Adventures” about a non-binary child named Alex. The narrative explores the involvement of different family structures, including those with same-sex parents, adopted families, and families affected by disabilities. "Alex’s Amazing Adventures," is to be a mandatory reading material for children aged 7 to 13.
Aflo the Poet, an influential activist who protests via poetry, spoke about her work and encouraged the attendees to use their voices. The question “Do you feel like a hero?” was asked to the audience at the beginning of the day, with very few people raising their hands in agreement. The reaction at the end of the day was a sharp contrast, with everyone raising their hands and cheering, proud of their achievements that day.
Brighton & Hove Students Inspired By This Girl Can Be Event
The This Girl Can Be Inspired By event, which took place recently at the Sussex Cricket County Ground, was attended by over 60 pupils from 7 secondary schools across the city. The event aimed to inspire girls to participate in sport and physical activity and was also a chance for them to hear from inspirational women who have forged careers in the sport and leisure field and to think about a career in the sector.
The day involved panel discussions from some brilliant women, including a rugby coach, about to support the women’s six nations competition, a sports nutritionist, a wellbeing coach and a cricket coach, now in charge of the BACA cricket academy. Students participated in small group sessions with two of the women and asked some insightful questions about their jobs, what drew them to the jobs, what sports they love and what they might have done if they hadn’t gone down their current path. Following a yoga and mindfulness session, the girls took part in workshops around being active and finding the right sports bra and period health, and a student voice session designed to find out more about why some girls are inactive. I look forward to hearing more about this important work.
The Local Employment Scheme for Construction
The Local Employment Scheme for Construction, funded by S106 contributions, recently hosted an event in collaboration with local construction colleges Brighton MET and Brighton Aldridge Community Academy to attract local tradespeople into a teaching career in further education. Participants had a tour of the MET Construction Campus and an informal discussion with teaching staff from both colleges. We had very positive feedback from the trades that attended and as a next step they will be invited to shadow a teaching session at the colleges. The Local Employment Scheme for Construction supports the upskilling of local construction workers. Find out how the Local Employment Scheme funded training and development on the Coldean Lane development in our video here.
Annual Conference For School Governors
Last weekend I was very pleased to open the annual conference for school governors, hosted by the School & Governance Development Team. This is always such a good opportunity for governors to have some thinking space and be challenged on an important aspect of school leadership and governance. The focus of the conference this year was ‘Exploring the Intersectionality between Race and SEND’, and we were very fortunate to hear from keynote speaker Frances Akinde, who really challenged our thinking and gave us lots of food for thought about how to support some of our most vulnerable children and young people. Also supporting the conference were officers from the council’s Anti-Racist Education Team and representatives from the Governors of Colour Network. I was really encouraged by all the work that council colleagues, governors and school staff are doing in this important area of work, and I look forward to hearing how the work develops.
The recent short Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACS) in Brighton & Hove came to a close on Friday 15 March, following a week of preparation and a week with the Inspection Team onsite to visit teams, interview staff and meet with our service users and partners in the city. The Inspection Team met with the Families Children & Learning Directorate Management Team, the Leader of the Council, Cllr Bella Sankey, our Lead Member for Children’s Services, Cllr Lucy Helliwell, and our new Chief Executive, Jess Gibbons, to give their verbal feedback on their inspection findings. The feedback is now subject to a QA and moderation process in Ofsted, so cannot be shared until we are in receipt of their formal outcome letter, expected in a few weeks.
Longhill High School, Stanford Junior School and Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Primary School have all been inspected this month and we await the results.
Welcomes
Jess Gibbons
We are delighted to welcome our new Chief Executive Jess Gibbons this month who has come to Brighton & Hove City Council from her role as Chief Operations Officer at Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. We look forward to working with Jess over the coming months.
Goodbyes
We say goodbye and good luck to Debbie Crossingham at the end of this term, who is retiring as headteacher of Westdene Primary School. Debbie is one of the city’s longest serving headteachers, and will be hugely missed. Under Debbie’s leadership, Westdene was the first primary school in the city to be awarded Teaching School status and the school continues to focus on collaboration and sharing practice across the city. Ofsted recently gave the school a glowing report in all areas, showing Debbie’s inspirational and strong leadership. We wish you all the best for a healthy and happy retirement Debbie!
Best wishes,
Jo
Keep in touch and follow me on Twitter @JoMLyons
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