Tuesday, 19 July 2022

End of Another Academic Year


With the end of the summer term fast approaching, I would like to thank you all for the hard work and dedication you have shown towards the children and young people of Brighton and Hove over the past twelve months.  This has been a challenging year for everyone but the resilience and commitment you have demonstrated over recent months has been really inspiring to witness.  I hope you are all able to enjoy a well earned rest in this beautiful weather and that you have a very happy and safe summer.  I look forward to working with you all again in the Autumn term.

Upcoming Young Artists of Brighton & Hove


Earlier this year, the Virtual School ran its first ever art competition welcoming all Brighton & Hove children in care, children previously in care and care leavers. All entrants have now been invited to participate in a live art exhibition held in an established local arts organisation.  The exhibition, which hopes to raise the profile of this group of children in the city, is titled Upcoming Young Artists of Brighton and Hove, and will take place at the Phoenix Art Gallery, Brighton. It will feature the work of all the competition entrants, including five winners of the Virtual School’s art competition. The exhibition starts at 12pm on Saturday 3 September and ends at 5pm on Sunday 11 September 2022.  

PSHE Co-Ordinator’s Development Event


It was great to hear that the PSHE team held their first in-person training since the pandemic on 30 June. Over thirty PSHE leads from across KS1-4 attended the event at the Jubilee Library.  Ashley Seymour-Williams led a session on PSHE and Ofsted, followed by Dr Polly Haste's workshop, helping PSHE leads to prepare their narrative with Ofsted or any visitors to schools.  Secondary leads and their feeder primary colleagues then discussed the impact of Primary RSE on Y7 learning. 

The afternoon was rounded off with a formal goodbye to Sam Beal who has led the PSHE team for so many years.  It was also a chance to say goodbye to Hugh Garling who has worked with the PSHE team since 2009. It was fantastic to that so many dedicated PSHE leads came together, including the new secondary PSHE leads, to consider where this curriculum work can be developed over the next year. 

Sussex Speak Out Challenge

                               Alfie introducing himself to the finalists and audience

Congratulations to Alfie Douglas, chair of the Youth Council, who was invited to be a judge at the Sussex Speak Out Challenge on the 29 June at the Old Market Theatre.  The Challenge is a programme designed to develop young people’s confidence and communication skills, giving them the opportunity to speak out on issues important to them.  Over 200 young people had taken part in the challenge, culminating in a schools Sussex final with eight finalists.  Alfie was joined by other invited judges, including Councillor Alan Roberts and Atiya Gourlay, Strategic and Partnership Lead for East Sussex Children’s Services.

Virtual School Summer Conference – ‘Empowered Teachers Empower Young People’



The Virtual School Annual Summer Conference was held on 30 June to great success. In a packed programme, Kit Messenger from Changing Chances talked about the benefits of moving from a more behaviourist approach, to one which is more trauma-informed and attachment aware.  Senior leaders from The Weald Community School in West Sussex also shared their experiences about coaching with kindness and support, whilst still maintaining high standards of behaviour and achievement.    There were also presentations from Brighton & Hove’s Anti Racism Advisor, Camille Kumar and from the Brighton & Hove Young People’s Project founder and manager Vannessa Crawford.  Two care leavers and an educational psychologist also spoke about the power of language when talking about SEND, children in care and care leavers. 


Hove Park Wellbeing Work


It has been great to learn more about the important work that Hove Park School is doing with students to embed emotional wellbeing support into their school and ensure that every student feels safe, happy and cared for.  A skilled pastoral team and fully integrated counselling service work together to support students, parents and teachers across the school in a variety of ways.  This could be through working with parents, advising and training teachers on how to support students in the classroom or delivering therapeutic intervention in school.  Feedback from students and their families is showing that a whole school approach to wellbeing is making a real difference. Further mental health resources and guidance can be found here

Anti Racist Education 


Work under the strategy is gaining momentum and I am proud to announce that we have recently recruited a brilliant team of seconded teachers and support staff who will be working alongside our Education Advisor, Camille Kumar, to progress this work. Congratulations to Angela Simmonds (Varndean School), Anoushka Visvalingham (St Luke’s), Dulani Kulasinghe (Patcham Infants), Flo Sparham (Goldstone), Peddy Knowles (Middle Street) and Shareen Hone (Cardinal Newman) who will be supporting the strategy and ensuring schools and colleges across the city are provided with guidance and support to take this vital work forward.   A special event will be taking place on Saturday 15 October bringing together everyone who can contribute to anti-racist education in Brighton and Hove. For more on this event, please contact camille.kumar@brighton-hove.gov.uk


Congratulations to Hill Park School on retaining their Outstanding Ofsted grade at their inspection in June. The report noted “The school’s curriculum is highly distinctive. Based on the national curriculum, it has been tailored to meet the very specific needs of the pupils it serves. All pupils follow bespoke pathways of learning” and “staff are skilled at designing learning that engages children well.”  Well done to Hill Park staff, governors and pupils - what a lovely way to end the academic year.
                                                      Children at Hill Park School

Goodbye and Thank You


We have reached the time of year when some of our headteachers and principals across the partnership retire or move on to other exciting things. We would like to thank them all for their commitment to the children, young people and families across the city and wish them all the best for the future. We will miss them all and hope they will keep in touch.      


Andie Wilson, Head at St Mary Magdalen’s Catholic Primary School

Kate Schofield, Co-Head at the Connected Hub and PRU
                                               
Michele Lawrie, Head at St Peter’s Community Primary School           

                                                                                             
Simon Davies, Head at Balfour Primary School

Wendy Harkness, Head at West Hove Infant School

Vicky Phillips, Head at Coombe Road Primary School
         
Chris Pearson, Head at Goldstone Primary School 

                                         
Louise Smith, Head of School at West Hove Infant School                      
 
Martyn Giddens, Head at Bevendean Primary School

We also say goodbye this month to Shiromi Cabraal, our Post 16 Education & Skills Officer.  Shiromi has been a dedicated public sector employee for many years and has spent the last 12 years at the council in Education and Skills.  I would like to thank Shiromi for all of her hard work, including being instrumental in achieving a good Ofsted result for Adult Learning provision and driving the Post 16 Standards and Curriculum Partnership.   We wish her all the best for the future.
      
                                                              Shiromi Cabraal

Our next news will be in September when we will welcome new faces to the Brighton & Hove education partnership.

Best wishes,
Jo

Keep in touch and follow me on Twitter @JoMLyons

Thursday, 30 June 2022

Youth Employment Hub 1st Birthday

 

                                     Councillor Phélim Mac Cafferty and Elle Dyson 

                                                              Elena Watkiss 

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

                   Members of the Youth Council in the police cells at Brighton Town Hall

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





Friday, 27 May 2022

Brighton Festival Children’s Parade 2022

 

I was so pleased to be able to attend the Children’s Parade earlier this month and to share in this amazing event.  The theme this year was Rebuilding and Hope and it celebrated the strength and resilience of communities across our city.   I was so impressed by the wealth of creativity of the children and young people from many of our Brighton & Hove schools. Thank you to all the parents and school staff who supported them in putting together such an outstanding parade this year.



Sport and Physical Activity Consultation



Brighton & Hove City Council has launched a citywide consultation taking place over the next three months to find out how we can better support people in Brighton & Hove to move more and enjoy being active for life.    The views from the online survey and other engagement events will be used to create a Brighton & Hove Sport & Physical Activity Strategy.  As well as completing the online survey and discussions there will be opportunities to talk to the team at events taking place across the city. Join the conversation online here or at an event by Sunday 31 July.

For more information on how you can get involved in events or how to share this information with parent/carers in your school communities, follow the Healthy Lifestyles team on Facebook or Twitter, or call the Healthy Lifestyles team on 01272 294589.

Our City, Our World


Our City, Our World is the new sustainability, climate change and environmental education strategy for Brighton & Hove schools.  At the end of April, over 50 school leaders (headteachers, governors and sustainability leads) from local schools attended the Our City, Our World Net Zero conference. 

The morning focused on Leadership for Sustainability, with an introduction from Cllr Hannah Clare and presentations from Dr David Dixon, who has recently published a book on this topic, and BHASVIC who are working with the DfE on climate literacy and the green skill agenda.  In the afternoon, delegates met with local experts in energy, travel, food, resources and biodiversity to vision schools in 2030 – the year Brighton & Hove has pledged to be Carbon Neutral.  We will be using these strong visions to shape the future of provision to school.

Family Hubs Transformation Fund


I am delighted to confirm that Brighton & Hove City Council has been awarded up to £1 million to help boost the lives of children and disadvantaged families throughout the city via the government Family Hubs Transformation Fund.  We’re one of only 7 local authorities in the country to be given the money to develop ‘Family Hubs’, which will better integrate services for children of all ages and their families. 

The hubs will be a place where ‘families only have to tell their story once’, with different professionals working together to develop high quality, joined up, whole family support services from conception to 19, and 25 if the young person has special educational needs or a disability.   We look forward to working with partners over the coming months as we move forward with the transformation and will be holding a stakeholder conference on 13 July.

50 days Until WEUROs Football Tournament 

                                       Cardinal Newman Football Ambassadors

I was really pleased to hear that over 100 year 7 girls from 9 of the cities secondary schools took part in a Football Tournament at Waterhall this month to mark 50 days until the WEUROs tournament starts in England. The tournament was supported by female Football Ambassadors from Cardinal Newman – who lead warm up sessions and refereed the tournament. It was a great afternoon with Sussex FA and 2 local clubs attending to speak about sessions they are running for girls in the community. Blatchington Mill were the winners of the tournament.   

There are free school resources available online here with lots of activities happening around the tournament in the Fan Zone in Valley Gardens from the 9 July.  An exhibition will also be running at Brighton Museum about the History of Women’s Football.  For more information please see here.

Anti-Racist Education Strategy 


Work on the anti-racist education strategy is going from strength to strength and I commend the many teachers, support staff and leaders attending trainings, developing lessons and improving their practice to ensure a better education system for our children. All schools and further education settings are encouraged to start their anti-racist education review process by listening to people in their school community who are affected by racism. On BEEM you will find guidance, training dates, template letters, focus group guides and everything else you might need to start this important work. Find out more in this term’s anti-racist education newsletter, available on BEEM

Virtual School Art Competition


This year the Virtual School ran its first ever art competition for children in care, children previously in care and care leavers up to age 25. It has been amazing to see the exceptionally high standard of all the entries.  Well done to everyone who entered and a big thank you to all the parents, carers, guardians and teachers who helped facilitate some absolutely wonderful pieces of work.  Here are some of the winning entries:





Women Inspiring a Peaceful and Sustainable Future


On Monday 16 May, Year 11 Hove Park student, Asal Latifi spoke at the United Nations Office in Geneva as part of a ‘Women Inspiring a Peaceful and Sustainable Future’ conference. Congratulations to her for taking part in such a huge event.  I would encourage everyone to watch the speech via the link here.  Enter via the ‘RSVP’ option just below ‘Becoming Part Of It’ and then select the ‘Online Livestream’ option. Then ‘checkout’ and follow the simple instructions.


A huge congratulations to Blatchington Mill School, King’s School, Mile Oak Primary School and Brackenbury Primary School for their good judgements from Ofsted.  Well done to all of the staff and governors for their great work. 

St Peter’s Community Primary School has been rated Requires Improvement. The local authority team is working closely with the staff and governors to support the school going forward.

Rudyard Kipling Primary and Stanford Infant School have both received an Ofsted inspection and we are awaiting the reports to be published.

Goodbyes


We say goodbye and thank you this month to Sam Beal who will be stepping down as Education Adviser: Health and Wellbeing after more than 21 years in her role.  As many of you will agree, Sam is held in high esteem by our council and school colleagues, as well as the different community and faith groups she has worked with. We will miss her kind, compassionate approach and her knowledge and expertise.   We wish Sam the best of luck for her future plans and look forward to keeping in touch. 
                                                                 Sam Beal

We also say goodbye this month to Tracey Holder, Parenting Manager at the Integrated Team for Families following her 32 year career with Brighton & Hove City Council.  Tracey will be greatly missed by all of her team and colleagues for her generosity and patience and for always going above and beyond to help her staff to grow and develop.  We all wish Tracey the very best for the future.

                                                             Tracey Holder

Best wishes,
Jo

Keep in touch and follow me on Twitter @JoMLyons


 


Friday, 29 April 2022

Summer Sports

 


Welcome back to the summer term.  I hope everyone has managed to take a break and rest over the Easter holiday.   We are all looking forward to the summer term and the number of sports events going on across the city to support physical exercise, fun and emotional well-being for all our children and young people.  I am excited to hear from our schools and wider education providers as to how they will be engaging young people across the term in sport and the outdoors. 

School Games – Sports Leaders 



16 Patcham High School Sports Leaders and 12 PACA Sports Leaders who had recently taken part in a netball umpiring course were the officials at the Sussex School Games Primary Stinger Netball finals held at Falmer. 9 primary schools took part from across Sussex with Our Lady of Lourdes representing Brighton and Hove. The Sports Leaders did a fantastic job running the tournament in some interesting weather conditions which even included snow at one point! All of the schools commented on how good the leaders were. 

At the same event the Female Football Academy Students from Cardinal Newman ran a girls’ football festival for year 3/4 girls from across Sussex. The students from Newman designed and created the festival for the girls, after they had been involved in the FA’s Girls School Football Partnerships Game On course – which is part of the FA’s programme to give equal access to girls’ football in schools. This is also linked to the Women’s Euros as we are a host city for the tournament in July. Hertford and Saltdean from Brighton and Hove took part in the event. Well done to everyone involved!  Don’t forget you can access lots of free Women’s Euros resources online here.

Brighton Festival Children’s Parade 2022



I am so pleased that the Brighton Festival Children’s Parade is returning after a two year break due to the pandemic.  The parade takes place on Saturday 7 May as part of the programme of activities for the festival and has a theme of Rebuilding and Hope, celebrating the strength and resilience of communities across our city.  I look forward to seeing the creative and imaginative displays from our schools and partners.

Virtual School Art Competition 

                                     Starla’s Sunshine Flower – one of the KS1 entries

It was great to hear more about the Virtual School’s first ever art competition which was launched February, welcoming all Brighton & Hove children in care, children previously in care and care leavers. The competition was grouped into 5 key stages: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Every piece of art that was submitted was impressive and it was wonderful to see so many young people stepping forward to get involved. The winners will be announced by early May and all entrants along with the winners will have their work displayed in an online and a live art exhibition during the summer. The time and venue will be announced in due course.

Lessons on Leadership

                                                Keynote speaker Marc Rowlands

                                                      Presenter Camille Kumar 

                                                    Delegates at the conference

The “Lessons on Leadership” Deputy and Assistant Headteacher Conference took place earlier this month.   Delegates were captivated by key note speaker Marc Rowlands who shared insights from his 11 years’ experience unpicking how to improve the life chances and life choices of disadvantaged pupils.   This was followed by Camille Kumar, who provided a thought provoking and inspiring presentation on Brighton and Hove’s Anti-Racist Education Strategy.  A panel discussion then took place, led by headteacher Chris Pearson and including four heads from local primary and secondary schools that are all relatively new in post.  They were candid and honest about their motivation to lead their schools and were inspirational to our aspiring local leaders of education. 

Youth Council Manifesto Event



I was delighted to be able to join a manifesto event for young people in late March looking at the theme of health and wellbeing which was the topic most voted for locally in the 2022 British Youth Council’s Make Your Mark Campaign.  The event was organised and run by members of the Youth Council in partnership with Brighton Youth Centre. Over 60 young people took part, from many different youth projects across the city.  Young people could choose to be a part of different discussion groups, enjoy fun activities and hear about youth voice opportunities in the city. 

For more information about the Youth Council, please contact Tracie James on tracie.james@brighton-hove.gov.uk 

Business Start Up Taster Day

                         The three young entrepreneurs - Ellis Muddle – Digital Artist; 
        Sinead Pope – Hairdresser and Asher Burrell - Gardener, Landscaper & Arborist 

                                    The Youth Employment Hub Team, along with 
                                       young volunteers and young entrepreneurs 

I have been really interested to hear more about the ‘Business Start Up Taster Day’ which the Youth Employment Hub held in partnership with the Business and IP Centre Sussex at the Jubilee Library. Three up and coming young entrepreneurs set up their stalls bright and early in the foyer of the library to showcase their products and services. The Youth Employment Hub team were there to support them and promote the event in the city and the BIPC team were on hand to speak to anyone interested in entrepreneurship. In the afternoon, the BIPC hosted a workshop for young people which took them through the services available at the BIPC and the process of starting a business. The workshop was well attended and enjoyed by all. 

Virtual School Annual Summer Conference – online webinar: 30 June 2022 



The annual summer conference will focus on the theme of empowerment for young people, as well as education professionals.  Highly popular and engaging keynote speaker, Kit Messenger will be returning to debate how high expectations can be maintained without punitive approaches or any compromise on standards. 

I am also looking forward to hearing from young author and care leaver, Kirsty Capes. Kirsty’s book, 'Careless' which has been serialised on BBC Radio 4, is an advocate for better representation for care-experienced people in the media. More will be added to the programme in the coming weeks.  To book a free ticket, please follow this link.

Encyclopaedia Britannica


The Virtual School has commissioned Encyclopaedia Britannica’s online learning resource for children in care, children previously in care and children with a social worker as well as any adult responsible for their education. This can be accessed online from any device, meaning that young people are given educational support wherever they are learning from. If you are eligible and would like access to this resource, please email the Virtual School at virtualschool@brighton-hove.gov.uk. For designated teachers who would like to know more about how to use this resource, Britannica will be at the Virtual School’s Designated Teacher Network on 9 June to give a demo. 

Welcomes


I would like to welcome Kirsty Murray who has taken over as acting headteacher at Queen’s Park Primary School and I look forward to working with Kirsty over the coming months.

                                                                Kirsty Murray

This month, we also welcome Simon Wattam who has been appointed as headteacher at St Luke’s Primary School.  I look forward to working with Simon in his new role.

                                                                 Simon Wattam

Goodbyes


We say goodbye and thank you this month to Gill Hibbert who is retiring from her position as Education Safeguarding Officer at Brighton & Hove City Council.  For many years before that Gill worked as an Assistant Head Teacher at Hove Park.  Gill’s attention to detail, experience and calm approach will be missed by the council and schools alike.  We wish her a very happy and long retirement.

We also say goodbye this month to Helen Beaumont, Early Years Consultant, who is leaving the council after twenty nine years, having joined as a teacher in 1993 and since 2001 has been an early years consultant, heading a team supporting early years settings to provide the highest quality early years provision.  Helen’s calm, insightful and compassionate approach, her good humour and dedication will be hugely missed and we wish her well in the future.

                                                              Helen Beaumont

Best wishes,
Jo

Keep in touch and follow me on Twitter @JoMLyons