Subject: Head Teachers - Weekly news
update 14
This week.....look out for information
about how your school can benefit from the best budding business brains in our
region.
SCHOOLS NorthEast is working with the CBI’s Future Leaders
programme to get the region’s brightest talent in business to apply
their thinking to some of the most pertinent challenges facing
our schools. This week you’ll receive information about how your school
can get involved, but if you are bursting to know more email: r.earnshaw@schoolsnortheast.com
or visit
http://www.cbi.org.uk/pdf/CBI-NorthEast-FutureLeaders.pdf
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News and Events
Funding Advice surgeries – book your place
SCHOOLS NorthEast has
enlisted the expert knowledge of School Fund Finder to run two free surgeries
on how to get funding for your
school. National and
regional funding organisations will be on hand with information on accessing
trusts, grants and foundations and you
will also receive tips
on how to complete funding application forms, write bidding letters and make
the most of your PTA and charitable activities.
29 January – Burnside Business and Enterprise College, North
Tyneside. Time: 8.00am for 8.30am start – 11.00am
12 February – Carmel RC College, Darlington. Time: 8.00am for
8.30am start – 11.00am
To reserve a place/s at one of
the surgeries, please email – info@schoolsnortheast.com or call
0191 280 5037
Working with the media surgery – final few places on offer
This free introductory session will help you to understand how
to approach the media and explore the techniques you need to ensure that you get
your message across. The session is open to all, but places are
now very limited so get in quick!
9.00am-11:00am, Thursday 22 January - One NorthEast’s Head
Office, Stella House, Newburn Riverside, Newcastle.
To reserve a place please email – info@schoolsnortheast.com or call
0191 280 5037
Forget
the Golden Globes and Oscars, the education awards’ season is hotting up -
let’s make 2009 a winning year for North East schools!
The
CoLaS Awards 2009 - Last chance to nominate an outstanding young learner
The Learning and
Skills Council will soon be hosting the annual
awards for employers, organisations and individuals who have
reached the pinnacle
of innovative, progressive learning excellence. You have one day left to
nominate your students (over 14yrs)
for the ‘young learner
of the year’ award category so go to - http://www.lsc.gov.uk/regions/NorthEast/News/colas09/
now and sing
their praises!
TES School Awards - 2009
The TES school awards are now open for entries in sixteen
different categories including:
·
Sustainable school of the year
·
Primary school of the year
·
Outstanding new or refurbished secondary school
·
Outstanding leadership team
·
Outstanding Community Involvement
The awards are very
simple to enter and are open to all state and independent primary and secondary
schools in England and Wales.
To nominate your school go to –
www.tes.co.uk/awards
Teaching Awards 2009
Make sure your school, staff or governors get the recognition
they deserve by entering them for a Teaching Award.
You make a nomination now by visiting http://www.teachingawards.com/nominations/, the closing date is 01
March 09.
For a copy of the judging
criteria email: enquiries@teachingawards.com
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News round-up
Local news
·
Teesside
pupils first in the world to tour their not yet built comprehensive (The
Northern Echo)
·
Northumberland School welcomes Chinese visitors in new
exchange (The Journal)
·
Stockton
schools in running for 50,000pound wind turbines (Gazette
Live)
·
Thornaby
school lined up for the axe (Gazette Live)
·
Councillors
and parents will fight moves to close Thornaby secondary school (Gazette
Live)
·
Southwick
Primary School closes after 102 years (Sunderland Echo)
·
Teesside
teachers told to report school bullies (Gazette
Live)
·
Pupils
dig in for mining project (Sunderland Echo)
·
Pupils
create a colourful show (Chronicle
Live)
Credit crunch and schools
·
How
will the recession affect your child's education? (The
Telegraph)
·
Scrap
scholarships, says private school head (The Telegraph)
·
Private
schools facing sale due to downturn (The Telegraph)
·
Secretly
for sale: the private schools fearful of a mass exodus (Times
online)
·
Cuts
to cause 'austere' future for schools (The Guardian)
·
Credit
crunch warning for schools (BBC News)
·
Schools
told to plan for 'austere future' (The Telegraph)
·
Schools
'face austere future' (The
Independent)
·
Independents face
building freeze as recession bites (The
TES)
Diplomas and Apprenticeships
·
Diplomas
gaining dramatic support (BBC News)
·
Apprenticeship
boost in downturn (BBC News)
·
Brown
launches plan to fund 35,000 apprenticeships on tour of regions (The
Guardian)
·
35,000 additional
apprentices to help beat downturn and take advantage of the upturn (DCSF)
·
McJobs
for the boys and girls: thousands to get qualifications (The Guardian)
·
Gordon
Brown's to create 35,000 new apprenticeships to tackle recession (Daily Telegraph)
·
Professionals
shun diplomas (Children and Young
People Now)
·
Students
opt for 'easy' diplomas (The Guardian)
·
Only
1 in 6 take top diploma level (Financial Times)
Head Teacher shortages
·
Head
teacher shortage continues (BBC News)
·
Union
worried by head recruitment difficulties (Children and Young People Now)
·
Big
salaries fail to attract school heads (The Independent)
·
Schools
facing Head Teacher shortage (The Telegraph)
·
£100,000
fails to attract secondary school heads (The Guardian)
League tables, Sats and report cards
·
Warning
on replacing Sats tests (BBC News)
·
New
ideas for the 21st Century: A better way to rate our schools (Times
online)
·
Tories
to scrap exam coursework (Times Online)
·
Legal
move to aid school tables (BBC News)
·
School
tables must be rushed out (BBC News)
·
Labour
sees SATs pass marks plunge for English and maths (Daily Mail)
Social mobility
·
Children's
life chances still dependent on social class, report finds (The
Guardian)
·
Children
of poorer families face as big a hill as ever (Times
online)
·
Parents’
backgrounds determine life chances of children, report claims (Daily
Telegraph)
·
Milburn
to tackle social mobility (BBC News)
·
Labour's
Britishness classes 'too political' (The Telegraph)
Wellbeing
·
North
of England children happiest (The Telegraph)
·
Thousands
excluded for sexual bullying in schools (Times online)
·
Ofsted:
Half of schoolchildren bullied (The Telegraph)
Other educational news
·
Incompetent
teachers face new crackdown (The TES)
·
Too
frightened to declare a disability (The TES)
·
Face
scanners at school gates (The TES)
·
Play
darts to help improve your maths skills (The Telegraph)
·
A
classroom saga: can Dr Evil get boys to start reading again? (Times
online)
·
CES
2009: Robots for schools to make computing fun (The
Telegraph)
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Star pupil
Darts – As Ted ‘The Count’ Hankey secured his title
as British Darts Association World champion yesterday, the government
announced its plans to
use darts to improve numeracy skills amongst children and adults. The
Government estimates that people
who lack GCSE-standard
maths will earn £50,000 less over a lifetime than those with better
mathematical skills and darts could
be the perfect way to
tackle this problem. What a Bully-Bonus!
Could do better
Social
mobility – A report by a Commission, set up by the Liberal democrats published today claims that
social class still
accounts for much of
the gap in attainment between higher and lower achievers. The Commission
suggests that the increased
spending on education
has disproportionately favoured the middle classes and calls for more resources
to be targeted at schools
with the most
disadvantaged intake, better incentives for teachers to work in those schools
and a new approach to admission
policies to ensure the
poorest children get to the best schools. The Government has now established
its own Social Mobility
Commission, headed up
by Darlington MP Alan Milburn, and will launch a White Paper tomorrow.
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Head to Head
Joan Low has been Head Teacher at Dene Community School of
Technology, County Durham, two years and one term.
Previously Joan was Deputy Head of Laurence Jackson School in
Guisborough.
Last week was a busy but really exciting week with ongoing work with
the county’s BSF team. I now have a set of building
blocks which is making the visioning so much easier.
The two best things that happened last week were: 1) GCSE Mock
results were presented to Year 11 students and the reaction
of staff and students was really good. 2) Our Teachers have
joined the SLT for professional development and it has been good to
watch them settle into the new role.
The biggest disappointment at school last week was having to seek
alternative education for a Year 11 student who is unable to
manage being in school.
The funniest thing that happened in school last week was the bat flying
around in my office late one evening and the reaction of
the Deputy Head and the Caretaker who had to catch it.
One thing that would have made my job easier last week would have been the
ability to be in two places at the same time.
Top of my to-do list for this week is to complete the work
on the personalised curriculum which we want to have in place effectively
for the Autumn Term of 2009.
My hero of last week was One of the Local Authority consultants , Fay Murray , who
has assisted with the planning of some
professional development and training for our recently appointed
Student Support Officers.
My villain of last week was one of my managers in school who shared the pessimistic
perception that the school would indeed
close whilst I was busily planning the school of the future !
The mischievous impact of this has been tricky to manage.
The famous person I would like to visit my school would be Carys Tew who
said, ‘No one can do everything, but everyone can
do something’ as this is a message which I regularly give
to students at our school
My question for next week’s Head is: What is the
single biggest thing that will influence and affect our work as Head Teachers
in the next 5 years ?
If you would like to take part in
our regular ‘Head to Head’ feature and tell us all about your week, please
contact the team at
info@schoolsnortheast.com
or call us on 0191 2805037.
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Funding and opportunities
Britannia Building Society Foundation and Community Fund (UK)
The Britannia Building Society Foundation offers grants and
donations of between £1,000 and £25,000 to registered charities and
schools working within education, particularly numeracy and/or
financial literacy. The Foundation prefers to buy specific items of
equipment but in some circumstances will consider capital
expenditure and salary costs. There are two regional trustee committees
who evaluate applications, each meeting twice a year, so
decisions can take several months.
For more details or to make an
application to the Foundation, email: charitable.foundation@britannia.co.uk
or call - 01538 391 734
Northern Architecture – Education Workshop Programme
The latest programme of workshops from Northern Architecture aim
to encourage pupils to understand and explore their built
environment and address many aspects of the curriculum and Every
Child Matters agenda in unique and meaningful ways. Pupils
will be motivated and challenged to think about the places in
which they live now and how they might change in the future. Activities
include ‘The A factor’ where students become architects for the
day, ‘Architexture’ which sees pupils work together to build their own
miniature town or village, and ‘Architexts’, a creative writing
challenge. Workshops are full day, for a class of up to 30 pupils, and cost
£200 inclusive of materials.
For more information go to – www.northernacrchitecture.com/education,
or call Sara Cooper on – 0191 2602191.
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North East in a Nutshell – know
your region
The population of the North East stands at just over 2.5 million
people. That makes the region the smallest in England, and the only
one to have experienced a decrease in population over the past
ten years.
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Wise words
The most important thing we can do for our children is to give
them roots and wings. If we give our children roots they know where they come
from.
If we give them wings they have confidence they can achieve
their dreams.
Anon
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SCHOOLS NorthEast is your network. Please get in touch
with your ideas, concerns, views and experiences- email: think@schoolsnortheast.com
....and don’t forget, if you’ve missed any of our previous weekly
news updates, you can find them at:
http://www.schoolsnortheast.com/content/new-resources/weekly%20news.html
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update, please email us at – info@schoolsnortheast.com
Have a good week!
SCHOOLS
NorthEast Team
Katie
Stonehouse
Communications
Officer
SCHOOLS
NorthEast
Tel: 0191 280 5037