Subject: Weekly News Update 35
This week... check
your school postbox! Today you should receive your personal invitation letter to the
SCHOOLS
NorthEast EPIC Summit on the 8 October. We do hope that you have
the date in your diaries and can join us at the inaugural
event. If you’re a fan of Twitter, look out for regular
‘Twitterings’
on the
Summit programme by following epicsummit.
It’s also Shine Week!
Encourage your pupils
to shine this week by getting your school involved in Shine Week - a national
festival that celebrates the
talents, energy and
enthusiam of young people all over the country. With over 2,500 schools and organisations involved last year,
Shine Week looks set
to create a buzz all over again. To find out more about the events and
activities taking place and to get free
Shine resources for
your school, go to - www.shineweek.co.uk/content/shine-resources
.............................................................................................................................................................................................................
SCHOOLS NorthEast EPIC Summit 2009...
Book your place today!!!
You’ve only three weeks left to take advantage of the Early
Bird discount on your place at the inaugural SCHOOLS NorthEast
EPIC Summit! The unique event will be held on 8 October at
Wynyard Hall and will combine discussion of the big issues facing
education and our region, with practical guidance and
inspiration to help you make a difference in your school and community.
For more details of what’s going on at the Summit and to book your
place, go to – www.schoolsnortheast.com,
clicking on the
Summit logo in the middle of the homepage or the Events page.
........................................................................................................................................................................
News and events
We need musical entertainment!
If you have a school band, choir or music group then SCHOOLS
NorthEast wants to hear from you! We are looking for talented
musicians to entertain the region’s Head Teachers at our EPIC
Summit on the 8 October at Wynyard Hall. Students will
perform to approx 300 delegates in what will be a wonderful
opportunity to showcase their skills and their school. SCHOOLS
NorthEast will cover transport costs and provide lunch to
performers, so if you think your musicians have what it takes, please
contact SCHOOLS NorthEast at - k.stonehouse@schoolsnortheast.com,
tel - 0191 2805037.
Journal School Awards 2009
School Leaders and Teachers gathered together at Newcastle’s
Centre for Life last Thursday for the third North East Schools Awards.
The awards celebrate all things great in the region’s schools
and winners were announced in twelve categories that included Head
Teacher of the Year, Sustainable School and School of the Year.
SCHOOLS NorthEast offers our congratulations to all of the
winners and runners up. To read the full list of winners, go to
-
Solar Car Challenge 2009
The 2009 Solar Car Challenge takes place on Thursday morning at
Nissan Motors in Sunderland. Schools from across the North East
will send forth their aspiring engineers to compete in the race.
Using a kit provided by the event organisers, the pupils have designed
and created their own cars and will attempt to win first place
at Thursday’s competition. We’d like to wish good luck to all of the schools
involved in the challenge. Fingers crossed for sunshine!
Leadership Development & Funding Opportunity
In collaboration with Heads of Schools, Senior Teachers, OFSTED
Inspectors and experienced business coaches, Nova Business
Learning has developed a certificated programme in performance
coaching that concentrates on the leadership skills of your key staff.
This course will help to provide them with the skills to
successfully develop themselves and their teams. The programme is aimed at
teachers and school leaders with an interest in performance
improvement and continuous professional development. It is suitable not
only for Heads of Department, but would also appeal to teachers
who look to encourage and support the development of colleagues,
especially NQT’s. Nova will be introducing this course at the
Schools North East Summit 09 and are offering limited places on a pilot
programme which may attract funding for eligible schools.
For more information call 0191
265 8877 or visit www.novabl.co.uk/file/school.php
Regional school procurement service
It has never been more important for schools to get the best
value from their budgets and to help schools do this, the DCSF have
funded an Educational Procurement Centre (EPC) programme, to
provide schools with the skills, tools and support to help them
buy better. A North East EPC team has been set up to deliver
this free procurement service for schools. The programme also offers
free professional development such as online training courses to
improve procurement knowledge and to help you to engage more
effectively with suppliers to achieve a better outcome when
buying goods and services.
For more information on the EPC
service visit www.teachernet.gov.uk/management/epc. To find out about the regional EPC service, contact
your local EPC Manager: alan.cross@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk
...................................................................................................................................................................................................................
News round-up
Regional news
·
Pupils
put climate change at heart of their lessons (Journal Live)
·
Youngsters
praised in Future Business Magnates awards (bdaily)
·
Region’s
schools are just top class (Journal
Live)
·
North
East schools excel in arts award (Arts
Council)
Northumberland
·
Schools
perform well in Ofsted inspections (News Post Leader)
·
Pupils
create poster about the UK for International project (News
Post Leader)
·
Newbiggin
Middle School beach party on Druridge Bay (Journal Live)
·
Former
pupils enjoy open day (News Post Leader)
·
Teenagers
promote healthier lifestyle choices (News Post Leader)
·
Puppets
take over school lessons (News Post Leader)
Tyne and Wear
·
Pupils
get the chance to shine in week-long festival (Sunderland
Echo)
·
Children
compete in sandcastle challenge (Chronicle
Live)
·
Youngsters
wild about garden (Sunderland Echo)
·
Teachers
show they're real characters (Sunderland Echo)
·
Young
Wearsiders get the ball rolling (Sunderland Echo)
·
Pupils
warned against risk-tasking (Sunderland Echo)
·
Star
from LazyTown Live! wows school pupils (Chronicle Live)
·
Inspiring
tomorrow’s athletes to go for gold (Journal
Live)
·
Pupil
sent home from class over 'wrong shoes' (Chronicle Live)
·
Benwell
pupils dress up at unusual sports day (Gazette Live)
·
10-year
project school garden will last for future generations (Journal Live)
·
Pupils
join fight against conmen (Sunderland Echo)
·
Gateshead
pupils urge MPs to relocate to the North East (bdaily)
·
School
celebrates Artsmark Gold award (News Guardian)
Durham
·
Pupils
try out tag rugby (Northern Echo)
·
'Smartwater'
used to tackle school crime (Northern Echo)
·
School
celebrates long-awaited new playing field (Northern Echo)
·
School
Awards: Double delight for winning primary (Journal Live)
·
Head
Teacher retires (Northern Echo)
·
School
celebrates long-awaited new playing field (Northern Echo)
·
New
apprentices are the "ideal opportunity" to prepare for economic
recovery. (bdaily)
·
Language
grants on offer to Darlington schools (Northern Echo)
·
Public
meeting on Durham academy (Northern Echo)
·
School
of rock for youngsters (Northern Echo)
Tees Valley
·
Education
plans are given mixed reception (Gazette
Live)
·
Middlesbrough
have Hula Hoop fun in the sun (Northern Echo)
·
School's
achievements praised (Northern Echo)
·
Celebration
marks move for Saltburn Primary School (Gazette Live)
·
Emergency
contraception given to Teesside pupils (Gazette Live)
National news
21st Century Schools White Paper
·
Schools white paper
proposals concern ADCS (Children and Young People Now)
·
Union
welcomes court powers for schools (Sunderland Echo)
·
21st
Century Schools white paper proposes more investment in school partnerships
(Children and Young People Now)
·
Schools:
Labour's unqualified failure in the classroom (Daily Telegraph)
·
Minister
stands firm over education shake-up (The
Independent)
Comments from teaching unions
·
Education
White Paper is a mixed bag (ATL)
·
Comment
on latest government white paper - 30 June 2009 (ASCL)
·
NASUWT
comments on 21st Century Schools White Paper (NASUWT)
·
21st Century Schools White
Paper (NUT)
·
Education
White Paper 2009 - Curate's Egg or Unfinished Symphony? (NAHT)
Teaching licence plan
·
Academy staff spared
from licence to teach (TES)
·
Licensed
teachers? Ed Balls hasn't done his homework (Daily Telegraph)
·
Licenced
teachers won't be better teachers (Daily Telegraph)
·
Balls
plans five-year licensing system in attempt to rid schools of bad teachers (The Guardian)
·
Teachers
face competence check-ups (Journal
Live)
·
Teachers
face the sack in 5-year licence plan (The
Independent)
·
Teachers
face sack under new classroom licence plan (Times Online)
·
Teachers
facing 'classroom MOTs' (BBC News)
·
Balls
plans five-year licensing system in attempt to rid schools of bad teachers (The Guardian)
School budget management
·
Millions wasted
by inefficient school money management (Children and Young People Now)
·
Schools
'may be wasting millions' (BBC News)
·
Schools
accused of wasting £1bn every year (The
Guardian)
·
How
the school system should respond to a shrinking budget (The Guardian)
Forced child marriages
·
Forced marriages:
the wrong sort of holiday deal (TES)
·
Teachers
told how to spot forced marriages (Times Online)
·
Forced marriage plea to schools (BBC News)
·
Be
vigilant against forced marriages, schools (The Independent)
School Languages
·
School languages crisis as pupils reject subject
(Times
Online)
·
Britain's
top pupils are shunning language GCSEs (The Independent)
School places
·
Ed
Balls calls for crackdown on parents lying for school places (The Guardian)
·
A
loophole the Government has to close (Times Online)
·
Balls
announces school places inquiry (The Independent)
·
Check
on school places cheating (BBC News)
Other educational news
·
More
'all-through' schools for children aged three to 19 (Daily Telegraph)
·
Charity
test signals rise in school fees (Times)
·
Fears
over student place shortage (BBC News)
·
Creationism
question in 'misleading' science GCSE (Daily Telegraph)
·
Non-funded sector
must give councils data on five-year-olds from this month
(TES)
·
Evolution of
confusion: pupils take dinosaur fiction for fact (TES)
·
English schools are
best in the UK, says Scottish academic (TES)
·
Teachers encouraged
us to cheat in Sats, pupils claim (TES)
·
Call to help the
poor access grammars (TES)
·
SEN parents fight for basic support
(Children and Young People Now)
·
Tories
will raise bar for those wishing to teach, says Gove (The Guardian)
·
Teachers'
anti-discrimination code reworded after faith groups object (The Guardian)
·
Government
doesn't believe in academies, say heads (The Independent)
·
Desmond
Tutu asks G8 leaders to get world's children into school (The Guardian)
·
One
in 14 children unable to speak properly (Times Online)
·
Number of young unemployed set
to rise (Children and Young People Now)
...................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Star pupil
Durham Federation (Durham
Community Business School and Fyndoune School)
Pupils from the Durham Federation have proved themselves a dab
hand at business after being named the winners at the Future
Business Magnates awards in Durham last week. The event, which
brought together pupils from 12 different schools and local
business leaders, showcased the fantastic entrepreneurial skills
of local pupils. Participants were set six challenges involved in setting
up a firm, including location, advertising and finance. The
winners had created a recycling business that collected driftwood and other
beach debris to make home decorations.
Could do better
Childhood obesity
Reports published today suggest that one in six children in the
UK are ‘clinically obese’ by the time they reach primary school. Statistics
published by the Department of Health also reveal that childhood
obesity is at its worst in the North East, with four year olds in
Stockton-on-Tees being four times more likely to be obese than in other parts of
the UK. Research published by Newcastle University
earlier this year also showed that seven out of ten parents with
overweight children underestimated the risks and were in denial about
the problem. Parent’s lack of knowledge about nutrition and
about how to cook were also seen to contribute to the issue.
...................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Head to Head – we’ve got two
this week!
Keith
Cotgrave
has been a Head Teacher at Longfield School in Darlington for six years.
Previously Keith worked in Durham for
thirteen
years, seven of those as a Head Teacher in South West Durham.
Last
week was busy, as usual. I remember the days when the last few weeks of the Summer term
were a bit of a wind down but
it
just seems to be constantly busy for 12 months of the year. Morale is very high
at Longfield, following a very successful Ofsted,
and
even after 30+ years I still find coming to work a great joy.
The
two best things that happened at school last week were: 1) Bannatynes Bright Sparks
Competition on Monday, where all
of
the Secondary Schools took part in presenting their ideas for a new business
venture. The students were brilliant, much more
accomplished
than the judges. 2) Watching the continuing progress of our young Deputy Head
Teacher, Susan Johnson. She is a
real
star, and we have many of them, so the future for school leadership looks very
promising.
The
biggest disappointment at school last week was still not finding out about our
application to bring BSF forward for the
remaining
three secondary schools in the Town.
The
funniest thing that happened at school last week was hearing that the
National Strategies had been abolished.
One
thing that would have made your job easier last week would have been a
decline in the number of e-mails requesting
meetings
for next year. I attend so
many committees that seem to go on forever but achieve very little.
Top
of my to-do list for this week is put forward a proposal to the Director of Children’s Services for earlier Year 6
transition,
and
continue with my role on the NAHT National Council campaigning to get rid of
the SAT’s.
My
your hero of last week was one of our Year 9 students who told the Editor of the
Northern Echo that his paper has little to offer
young
people.
Mike
Ashley continues to be my villain, for obvious reasons. I am sure three or four Head Teachers
could sort out the mess very quickly.
‘To
lead others you must walk behind them’. To what extent do I agree with this old
Chinese proverb?...To lead others needs
constant
empathy with the people you lead. In a constantly changing landscape Head
Teachers have to remember that it is much
more
important to do the right things rather than just doing things right.
My
question for next week’s Head is: It is important for all Heads is to have some form of
balance to your life. How do you
achieve
this?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June Foster has been Head Teacher at Moorside for 15 years. Previously June
was Head of a school in Sunderland and as of
September she will become Executive Head Teacher for both
Westgate Hill Primary and Moorside Community Primary. June was
also named Primary Head Teacher of the year at the
recent North East and Cumbria Teaching Awards.
Every week is a busy week, always enjoyable and always
productive.
Last Friday was very exciting as the National Teaching
Awards Judges were in school to speak to parents, pupils and
staff. We were also interviewing for positions at Westgate Hill and at
Moorside. All in all an interesting week.
The two best things that happened at school last week were: 1) At The British Council
School Environment Industry Awards in
London, we won ‘Best External Learning Environment’. We were all
delighted with this, especially the pupils who helped to design it.
2) A teacher erected a tent in the school grounds and when I
looked inside, there were 6, five year olds sitting eating sausage
sandwiches as the teacher fried more on the camp stove. They
look so pleased with themselves.
I never feel disappointed at school but I suppose, not
getting all of the work done which I had planned.
The funniest thing that has happened at school last week was walking across the
dining room, a boy in Y4 called to me and said
as he patted the empty chair next to him, “ Hiya, Mrs. Foster.
Howay sit down and talk to me for a bit”. It was lovely as he made me
feel really wanted.
One thing that would have made my job easier last week would have been not
having to interview two excellent candidates for
only one job. It is so very difficult to make the decision and
then even more difficult to feedback the outcomes.
Top of my to-do do list for this week is get the BSA budget
allocated in line with next year’s School improvement Plan so that the
Governor’s can approve it later on today.
My hero of the week is Nelson Mandella; he is my hero every week.
My villain of last week was my Jack Russell/ Fox Terrier cross as he jumped up and tore
my dress as I was going out to school
on Friday morning.
‘To lead others you must walk behind them’. To what extent do I
agree with this old Chinese proverb?....We all learn from
making mistakes, learning from others and ourselves. You may
walk behind the people you lead but you should be tall so as to see
any obstacles in the way.
My question for next week’s Head is: Someone much
more clever than I once said “You see furthest by standing on the
shoulders of giants” Would you agree with this?
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.
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Funding and opportunities
FAO
Secondary schools/ Language Teachers
Get
your pupils to the LAFTAs!
As UK schools face a
‘language crisis’, what better time to remind your pupils why learning
languages is so important. The LAFTAs
(Language and Film
talent Awards) are a fun and exciting opportunity for your pupils to get
creative, to think about why languages are
important and also
developing their film-making skills. The competition is open to 13-21 year olds
and pupils are asked to make a
two-minute video
showing why languages are important. The video can be in any style -from
comedy sketch to thriller, from animation
to rap piece or
interview. There are six different categories that pupils can enter in and
fantastic prizes include; trips to France and
Germany, surfing lessons
in Spain and a visit to the Olympic Village in London. Regional judges will
select finalists to be sent to London
for the glamorous
LAFTA awards ceremony where celebrity judges will announce the winners. Closing
Date: February 2010.
For
information on how your pupils can enter, go to - www.languageswork.org.uk/laftas/index.htm
Can
your pupils design the World’s Fastest Bike?
Get your pupils even more interested in science, maths and
engineering with the Bloodhound SCC Competition. The competition
will celebrate a SuperSonic car that is currently being built by
the Bloodhound SCC team in an attempt to beat the current world record
for speed across land. Both primary and secondary pupils can
enter by coming up with a design for the World’s Fastest Bike. The
designs should use the same aerodynamic principles that were
applied in the design of the SuperSonic Car. Winners of the competition
receive Gold Membership to the Bloodhound SSC 1K Club which
includes a visit to the Bloodhound development site to see the
SuperSonic Car being developed and tested. Closing date for
entries: Friday 25 July.
For more information on how to
enter, go to - www.dstl.gov.uk/news_events/competitions/BLOODHOUND/entry.php
Freebies!!
FAO
Science Teachers
Grab your free science
debate kits - everything
you need to run a debate with your pupils on a controversial topic. The sets
help
students learn how to structure a debate, back up their
opinion with facts and consider other points of view. The kits are funded by
the
Wellcome Trust,
one of the world’s largest medical charities, to encourage debate on science. The kits are primarily designed for KS4,
but
can be used by pupils aged 11-18 years. There will be four kits available over
the next year (the first one is on IVF) and are produced
by
the same team involved with the award winning ‘I’m a Scientist, Get me out of
Here’.
For more details on the debate kits or ‘I’m a
Scientist, Get me out of Here’, go to – www.imascientist.org.uk/debate/
Introducing
‘Bobby the Boiler’
Worcester Bosch Group
are giving away free children’s books on being green. The book - ‘Picture a
Greener Future’ is aimed at 7-11
year olds and tells
the tale of Bobby the Boiler who looks after the ‘Green Family’ and his
encounter with Solar Sam. It includes tips on
how we can all help to
save energy at home, a spot the difference game, colouring pages and a word
search.
To
get a copy of the book for your school, go to - www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/homeowner/literature/picture-a-greener-future-your-free-childrens-book
.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Wise words
“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too
heavy to be broken."
Warren Buffett
.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
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
To unsubscribe to this weekly
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