Subject:                                     Weekly news update 20

 

 

 

 

 

This week.....shout about your school and its staff by entering the Journal School Awards 2009 – a wonderful way of

celebrating the fantastic achievements being made by the region’s schools.

Go to - www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/schools-awards or call Jennifer Cook on - 0191 204 3310.

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News and Events

 

Future Leader project up and away

At a briefing session on the 10 February in Newcastle, the schools involved in the Future Leaders scheme had the opportunity

to meet the Leaders who are taking on the challenges set by SCHOOLS NorthEast and the CBI. Seven Teams of Leaders and

twenty five of the region’s primary and secondary schools developed individual project plans for the coming months and will

showcase their work at the SCHOOLS NorthEast Summit on the 19 June.

To find out about the projects and the participating schools, go to the news section of our website – www.schoolsnortheast.com/news

 

FAO: Primary schools

Small Primary School Federations Conference

DCSF is hosting a regional conference on small primary school federations. This event will be held on Thursday 19 March at the 

Assembly Rooms in Newcastle. The conference is aimed at Head Teachers, governors and LA officials who are interested in

federations, and also those primary schools that have already federated but are looking at moving towards a hard governance

model. The event will look at the unique challenges facing small primary schools and how federating can help. The conference

offers delegates the opportunity to listen to the experiences of Head Teachers that have already federated, to learn more about

the process and to hear from senior DCSF officials and NCSL on the role of federations and collaboration in today's education

system. To register visit: www.livegroup.co.uk/federationsconference

 

FAO: Secondary schools

Careers event

A new and fully interactive careers event aimed at raising Year 8 and students’ awareness of employment opportunities in two of

the region’s most prominent sectors -Oil & Gas and Energy. The event will highlight the vast number of career opportunities and

and jobs available in the two fastest-growing sectors in the North East economy, to its future workforce. Over 30 key North East

Companies will be on hand as students get the chance to visit the exhibitions stands, take part in exciting skills challenges, ask

questions and collect information on the range of career and lifestyle opportunities the Oil & Gas and Energy sectors have to offer.

There will be 4 sessions for your school to choose from and places for the event will be provided on a first-come-first-served basis.

Funding may be available to help with the costs of transporting staff and students to and from the event.

To sign up your school, contact Catherine Marchant, Young Enterprise North East - catherine.marchant@yene.org.uk, 0191 4959500.

 

FAO: Science Coordinators

Work on your chemistry

Newcastle University’s School of Chemistry runs a wide range of planned Outreach activities for the region’s schools, catering for

all age groups and welcoming individual requests from schools/teachers for specific activities. Sign your pupils up for one or more

of the following activities:

·         A-level Revision Workshops - 25th March (A2) and 2nd April (AS).

·         Laboratory Visits and 6th form Spectroscopy Tours - no specific dates, book by prior arrangement.

·         "Chemistry in Your Shopping Basket" - Chemistry awareness and careers presentation aimed at years 5 – 9, designed jointly

with Northumbria University to be delivered in schools, needing no special or laboratory facilities. No specific dates, book by

prior arrangement.

 Contact Dr Peter Hoare for more information – 0191 222 8542, www.ncl.ac.uk/chemistry/staff/profile/peter.hoare.

 

Brush up on your Physics

A day of lectures and workshops “for everyone teaching Physics”, brought to you by Science Learning Centre North East, the Institute

of Physics and Durham University. The event will feature Keynote lecturer Dr Gordon Love talking about; “Light: skies, eyes and spies”

whilst Dr Ifan Hughes will show you “Cool things to do with lasers”. As well as lectures, there will be an opportunity to “Ask a physicist”,

ICT resources, and workshops, including sessions for both the experienced teachers and those new to the subject. To be held at

Durham University on the Wednesday 24 June.  £5 administration fee only – lunch and refreshments included.

For more information or to reserve a place, go to - www.slcne.org.uk/course/physicsday or call 0191 3706200.

 

Fund application workshops

Aligned Solutions Ltd is creating a workshop to help schools create winning applications for funding. To understand the issues

and problems facing schools, two focus groups are being organised with each group requiring 8-10 delegates to attend for an

hour to share their views and help with the creation of the workshop. In return, delegates will receive a 50% reduction for one

place on the workshop, to be held in late March 2009, as well as handouts and best practice to help with the application process.

Choose from two dates: Newcastle, 5 March, 4.00pm, Billingham, 9 March, 4.00pm.

For more information contact David Ward - davidward@alignedsolutions.co.uk, 0191 280 4238.

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News round-up

 

Local news

·         Teeside school bidders in the spotlight (Gazette Live)

·         Your chance to give your teachers top marks (Journal Live)

·         African day at Coundon school (The Northern Echo)

·         Caring pupils reduce teacher to tears (Sunderland Echo)

·         Military band to play at Durham school (The Northern Echo)

·         North East schools buck national trend in truancy (The Journal)

·         Youth summit to develop entrepreneurs (The Chronicle)

·         School with rich rugby heritage up for the cup (The Northern Echo)

·         Nine into one to create academy (The Journal)

·         Northumberland School set to close in new shake-up (The Journal)

·         Lessons begin at new £6m Sunderland school (Sunderland Echo)

·         Region’s Schools face giving back 'hoarded' cash (The Northern Echo)

·         Education conferences come to Tyneside (bdaily)

·         Durham Teachers visit Tanzania (The Northern Echo)

·         Darlington Teachers head Stateside for learning trip (The Northern Echo)

 

State school admissions

·         School admissions 'too complex' (BBC News)

·         Parents told to appeal if children fail to enter favoured schools (Guardian)

·         School admissions procedures must include checks says ombudsman (Children and Young People Now)

·         100,000 families refused first choice of secondary school (Guardian)

·         Admissions 'still too complex' (Guardian)

·         Schools break admissions rules as thousands fail to get places (Daily Telegraph)

·         Faith schools accused of 'backdoor selection'  (Times)

·         Call for independent body on pupil selection (Financial Times)

·         1 in 5 loses in the great school places lottery (Independent)

·         School admissions 'too complex' (BBC News Online)

·         Ed Balls requests review of admissions 'lottery' (DCSF)

·         Third of pupils miss first school choice (Sunday Telegraph)

·         The grammar schools with empty desks (Sunday Telegraph)

·         School admissions heartache as one-in-six miss out (Daily Telegraph)

·         One in five parents could miss out on first-choice schools (Guardian)

·         Ed Balls orders review of school admission lotteries (Times)

Ofsted report

·         Why some schools excel against the odds where others struggle (Ofsted)

·         Ofsted: Back to basics discipline in school would curb bad behaviour (Daily Telegraph)

·         How best schools beat the odds (BBC News)

·         Ofsted inspectors find secret of turning schools around (Times)

·         Ofsted praises 12 secondaries for beating the odds (Guardian)

·         Ofsted reveals factors behind success of disadvantaged schools (Children and Young People Now)

 

School cash

·         Region’s schools' reserves of cash may be clawed back by authorities (Gazette Live)

·         Region’s Schools face giving back 'hoarded' cash (The Northern Echo)

·         Almost £2bn unspent in school bank accounts (Daily Telegraph)

·         School surplus 'deprives pupils' (BBC News Online)

·         Schools slow to spend budgets (Financial Times)

 

Truancy

·         North East schools buck national trend in truancy (The Journal)

·         School truancy levels at record high (The Journal)

·         School truancy levels at record high (Gazette Live)

·         233,000 pupils miss a day of school a week (Guardian)

·         Fewer pupils miss school (Children and Young People Now)

·         Young pupils fuel record truancy (BBC News)

·         Truancy hits record high (Telegraph)

 

‘Drop-out’ pupils

·         Thousands of pupils 'drop out of school at 14' (Daily Telegraph)

·         Thousands leaving school before GCSEs (Guardian)

·         Drop-out pupils fear (Independent)

·         Thousands of pupils aged 14 drop out of school every year because it has 'nothing to offer them' (Daily Mail)

·         25,000 teens 'drop out of school' (BBC News Online)

 

Academies

·         Academies raise fears about losing independence (Children and Young People)

·         Leave academies alone, teachers tell government (The Guardian)

·         Future of academy schools is called into doubt by principals (Times)

·         Academies programme 'hampered' by Government, claim schools (Daily Telegraph)

·         Academy chiefs hit out at education bill (Financial Times)

·         Academies 'losing independence' (BBC News Online)

 

BSF

·         £919 million increase for school buildings (DCSF)

·         Government launches 'infrastructure bank' to help builders (Daily Telegraph)

·         Treasury rescues big building projects with £2bn injection (Guardian)

·         Taxpayers to prop up PFI projects with £2billion loan (Daily Mail)

·         More money for school building (Children and Young People)

 

Other educational news

·         Thousands of teachers 'at risk' (BBC News)

·         Top private school dumps 'too easy' GCSEs (The Guardian)

·         One in seven teachers are victims of cyber bullying by pupils

·         Books disappearing from schools, says Michael Rosen (Daily Telegraph)

·         Schools being turned into exam 'boot camps', says head (Daily Telegraph)

·         Apprenticeships bill must change says Balls (Children and Young People)

·         Teachers shun citizenship training (Children and Young People Now)

·         How a good Head Teacher can save a school (Daily Telegraph)

·         Career changers turn to teaching (BBC News)

·         Independent body to handle education complaints (Children and Young People Now)

·         Trainees sign up to teach maths and science (The Independent)

·         Education and health prepare for squeeze on public spending (The Guardian)

·         Independent schools: Girls' schools winning the private battle (The Independent)

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Star pupils

North East schools – Despite Government statistics showing that truancy rates rose slightly in the UK last year, with more than

63,000 children skipping class every day, the North East has done well to not follow the national trend. Local Authorities in the

region all saw a drop in the percentage of half days morning or afternoons missed due to unauthorised absence with North Tyneside

and Sunderland seeing the biggest decrease in truancy. Excellent news!

 

Could do better

School admissions - Despite recent improvements, research suggests that the schools admissions system is still too complex and

full of loopholes that create disadvantages to many families. The use of lotteries to allocate school places will now be reviewed by

the Government as statistics show that one in five pupils fail to get their first choice of secondary school. Pupils in Darlington and

Middlesbrough were listed in the bottom ten of those getting into their first-choice school.

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Head to Head

 

Jonathan Parkinson has taught at St Thomas More Catholic School in Gateshead for twenty years with the last four as Headteacher.

Previously he taught Physics in Kirklees and Lincolnshire, but not at the same time. Jonathan is also a new addition to the SCHOOLS

NorthEast Board, representing Secondary Heads in Gateshead.

 

Last week was like history, so long ago that is is already difficult to recall...  One of those weeks where the diary didn’t seem to be too

full, so why did I spend the whole week in meetings? OFSTED phoned up because they want to do a survey visit into “capturing the

voice of the learner”. That won’t require any documentation or organisation of things then. The appointments season has begun, so the

diary for the rest of the term is now full.

The two best things that happened last week were: 1) having the consultation period with parents into changes to the school day for

the next academic year ending and finding out that most of the parents are quite happy with the proposals. 2) Finding the time to run 30

miles. Not all in one go, it has to be said.

The biggest disappointment at school last week was having to come to the decision that a managed move for a child who came to

us through the Hard to Place Pupil Protocal had failed.

The funniest thing that happened in school last week..we don’t have funny things happen in school. We banned smiling, successfully

last year. Or it could have been the Teachers’ Striclty Come Dancing on Friday lunchtime where 400 pupils watched 18 teachers “dance”.

The house was brought down by our most mature couple doing a traditional waltz to Moonriver whilst wearing evening dress.

One thing that would have made my job easier last week would have been being out of school at lots of meetings, preferably in

New Zealand (when will someone in SSAT organise that visit?).

Top of my to-do list for this week are appointments, appointments, appointments.... also the termly Governors’ meeting.

My heroes of last week were the staff who willingly humiliated themselves in the cause of Lenten Alms, absolute stars, all of them.

My villains of last week are Tim Cahill and Louis Saha. Why can’t the rest of the premiership leave us alone?

The one thing I would change in school to have the biggest impact on the children would be making sure that every child has the

opportunity to make music and provide the resources that would allow schools to remain open for an extra hour of the day for all pupils to

either do homework, extra study or extra curricular activity.

When I ‘leave school’ I will write a symphony (my career teaching physics and psychology has trained me up for this perfectly!)

My question for next week’s Head is: What is the bit of the job that you actually really enjoy, that doesn’t involve being in the

classroom!

 

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

 

FAO: Primary schools

Little Green Fingers

Npower is offering 50 schools the chance to win a greenhouse as part of its inspiring new Little Green Fingers project - bringing

the learning of energy to life for 4-7 year olds. The project, part of npower’s Brighter Futures Programme, allows pupils to really

get involved in hands on activities and eco-experiments to discover how natural energy can be harnessed. The lucky schools

will win a brand new Hercules greenhouse complete with solar panel, safety glasses, gardening kit and curriculum based

resources. Register your school today and let your kids get their hands dirty!

Go to - http://www.npower.com/littlegreenfingers/entryform.html

 

FAO: Science Coordinators

For the love of physics...

Do you have a fantastic idea for making physics accessible, want to reach a wider audience and need some support to make your

outreach activity happen? Then why not apply for a Public Engagement Grant from the Institute of Physics? They are worth up to

£1000 and aim to support physics-based public outreach activities throughout 2009. Application forms and guidelines for the grant

scheme are available online at www.iop.org/activity/outreach/, or by e-mailing physics.society@iop.org. Closing date: 1 May 2009.

 

World Book Day

Tomorrow marks World Book Day, the biggest annual celebration of books and reading in the UK and Ireland.  Pre-schools and

Secondary Schools in the UK need to register  to receive support material including the World Book Day £1 Book Tokens. World

Book Day was designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and is marked in over 100 countries

around the globe.

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Wise words

 

The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.

Ralph Nader

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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

 

 

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

www.schoolsnortheast.com