Subject: Weekly news update 22
This week.....if your
school is not taking part in the Times Spelling Bee that launches today, take
inspiration and set up your
very own whole school spelling
bee.
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News and Events
SCHOOLS NorthEast Summit
Hopefully you have now put the
SCHOOLS NorthEast Summit in your diary for Friday 19 June at Wynyard Hall
in Cleveland.
Look out for announcements on
the high-profile line-up of speakers and the exciting programme of workshops
and skills sessions
in the next few weeks.
Inspire your young ladies!
north east
women Leaders conference is a day of inspiration, information and
motivation for 500 young women aged 16-18 from
The region’s schools. Leading
women from business, cultural arts, public service, academia, science and
sports will share their
experiences and offer advice on
how to achieve ambitions, make the most of your talents and break through the
glass ceiling.
Students will also be
challenged to focus on their futures using their creativity and enterprise in
hands on workshops led by our
region’s rising stars and
future leaders. Speakers include:
·
Margaret Fay OBE, Chair of ONE NorthEast
·
Helene Speight, business woman and finalist in The Apprentice
2008
·
Professor Sharon Mavin, Associate Dean, Newcastle Business
School
·
Loran Moran, CEO of NRG (Northern Recruitment Group)
·
Erica Whyman, Chief Executive, Northern Stage
·
Sarah Green, Director, CBI NorthEast
To be held at Newcastle
Business School at Northumbria University (City Campus East) on Friday 24
April.
To book places please email NEWleaders@schoolsnortheast.com
or call 0191 280 5037 with contact details and the number of
students you would
like to bring by Friday 27 March. Go to - http://www.schoolsnortheast.com/content/events.html
to download a flier
FAO: Enterprise Coordinators
If we can, you can!
Having
started the ball rolling with the Cloud9 Summit last month, The Entrepreneur’s
Forum are keen to develop their role in supporting
enterprise
education across the region. They are asking for your help in developing the
‘If we can, you can’ Enterprise Education Pack
to
ensure that the resource is of maximum value to schools and to the teaching of
enterprise education in a wide variety of different
contexts.
You are invited to join a discussion session to help in this task and have your
say on the types of resources, topics and lesson
plans
that you think would be useful to North East schools. Peter Hirst, young
entrepreneur and founder of Anything But Limited, will be
on-hand
to get the discussion underway and refreshments will be served throughout the
afternoon. To be held at the Hilton Hotel,
Gateshead
on Thursday the 2 April from 12.30-5.00pm
For
more information or to get involved, contact Stephen Green - Stephen@entrepreneursforum.ne, tel
-0191 2267497. To take at look at the
Entrepreneurs
Forum’s bank of 300 video clips on YouTube, search for IWCYC.
FAO: Language Teachers
CPD opportunity
Apart
from hosting an extensive programme of Liguacasts, GCSE and A Level
conversation master classes for pupils in the North East,
Routes into Languages also provide Continuing Professional Development
opportunities for Teachers of modern foreign languages.
The
next CPD training will be held on Friday 27 March from 10.00am-3.00pm at
Newcastle University. The programme includes:
·
Achieving
the International Schools Award (Brian Stobie, Durham LA and ATLAS)
·
Film in
the MFL classroom (Mike Tait & Holli MacGuire, Tyneside Cinema)
·
Getting
the best out of KS3 (Gill Teal, Newcastle LA) 12.15 & 13.00: Asset,
ladders, and alternative accreditation (Claire Robinson, OCR)
·
Promoting
careers with languages to VI form (Margaret Evans, Northumbria Uni)
To
register for this event or to find out more information about Routes into
Languages and their events programme in the North East, go to -
http://www.routesintolanguages.ac.uk/events/register.html?event_id=748.
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News round-up
Local news
·
Accolade
for Parkside School (Northern Echo)
·
Schools
have mixed feelings over Durham academy (Northern Echo)
·
Region’s
parents win first choice of school (Northern Echo)
·
Children
create eco-art in East Durham coast project (The Journal)
·
Fund-raising
pupils' cash boost for appeal (Sunderland Echo)
·
Pupils
create book after two-year study into Cullercoats (The Chronicle)
·
£4m
for Sunderland school improvements (Sunderland Echo)
·
Call
to abandon Durham schools merger (Sunderland Echo)
·
Bosses
told to scrap Durham academy plans (The
Journal)
·
Top
marks for improved school (Northern Echo)
·
Wear
Valley school is top class (Northern Echo)
·
North
East schools given 55 million boost (The Journal)
·
Durham
pupils see their films on the big screen (Northern Echo)
·
Kenton
pupils make jewellery from their own DNA (The Chronicle)
·
Tyneside
Head Teacher says 'let pupils start school at 11am' (The Journal)
·
Premier
Waste Management teach Durham school pupils about waste (The Journal)
Fast-track to Teaching
·
Fast-track
plan for teachers (Financial Times)
·
Can
bankers really make the grade as teachers? (Times)
·
Fast-track
plan to turn jobless into teachers (Independent)
·
Professionals will be able to retrain as teachers in six months
(Daily Telegraph)
·
Public
will get right to have say on GPs, police and schools (Guardian)
·
Fast-track
teacher training for failed City staff 'just a gimmick' (Daily
Mail)
·
Six-month
teacher training plan (BBC News Online)
Survey of Faith schools
·
ISC reaction to Ed
Balls statement on Ofsted survey (ISC press statement)
·
Balls
orders Ofsted survey of faith schools' moral values (Guardian)
·
Inquiry to check faith schools are teaching right from wrong
(Times)
·
Private
faith schools 'failing to prepare pupils for British life', claims Ed Balls
(Daily Telegraph)
·
Ofsted checks on school
extremism (BBC News Online)
·
Lib Dems opt for
inclusive faith schools (TES)
IGCSEs
·
Ed
Balls accuses private schools of misleading parents over International GCSE
(Daily Telegraph)
·
New
GCSEs offer pupils 48 chances to sit tests (Daily Telegraph)
·
State v private school row breaks out over international GCSEs
(Guardian)
·
Balls admits attainment gap is narrowing too slowly (Guardian)
·
GCSEs branded 'marketing tool' (BBC
News Online)
School admissions
·
School
admission figures show 92,000 children missing out on first choice (Guardian)
·
Four in five get top
school (BBC News)
·
One
in six fails to get first choice of school (Independent)
·
Up
to half of children miss out in school admissions row (Times)
·
92,000 miss out on first choice of secondary school (Daily
Mail)
Grades for schools
·
Try
harder, Balls: head teachers reject plan for 'scorecard' (The Independent)
·
Heads
reject grades for schools (BBC News)
·
Plan
to give schools grades 'too simplistic' (Independent)
·
Head
Teachers reject plans to grade schools on new 'scorecard' (Daily
Mail)
The ‘Education gap’
·
Brown's
pledge to give all children an education (Independent)
·
Schools
in affluent areas must do more to help poor pupils, says Ed Balls (Daily Telegraph)
·
Tories warn of
educational gap (BBC News)
SATs
·
Sats creating 'impoverished' curriculum, say advisors (Daily
Telegraph)
·
Testing of 11-year-olds should be phased out, advisors tell
government (Guardian)
Other educational news
·
Heads urged to rebel against 'Tesco model' for schools (Guardian)
·
Record
numbers to take International Baccalaureate rival to A-levels (Daily
Telegraph)
·
Balls
calls for more accountability in schools (Children and Young People Now)
·
Schools struggle to
keep up with law, say Lords (Children and Young People Now)
·
Burden of
responsibility weighs heavily on governors' heads (TES)
·
Schools
'overlooked' by Labour education reforms (Daily Telegraph)
·
Governors predict
budget squeeze as recession bites (TES)
·
More work done on
speedy head plan (TES)
·
Independents
lower selection criteria as they feel the pinch (TES)
·
'Pragmatic
and sensible', Maggie Atkinson on the Laming report (Children and Young People Now)
·
'Empower us to sack
bad staff' (TES)
·
Extremely
premature children 'more likely to struggle at school' (Daily
Telegraph)
·
Multi-million
school IT scheme 'at risk' from parents (Times online)
·
Schools
to be graded by parents and pupils (Daily Telegraph)
·
Tories
pledge academy boarding schools (Guardian)
·
All
work and no play is bad for boys (Times online)
·
Science
education: let’s inspire the next generation (Telegraph)
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Star pupil
Grangetown Primary School - another week, another one of the
region’s schools featured in the TES receiving congratulations
on winning an award. This time its the turn of Grangetown Primary
in Middlesbrough who have won a Leading Aspect award
for ‘Excellence in behaviour management and securing parental
and carer involvement’. The Leading Aspect Award, supported
by the DCSF and designed by educational practitioners,
recognises leading practice that exists in schools. Congratulations to all
involved!
For more information about the
Leading Aspect Awards or to see case studies from winning schools, go to – www.leadingaspectaward.org.uk
Could do better
Saya, the Robot Teacher – A professor
at Tokyo University has just built a life-like robot teacher, named Saya, who
comes
pre-programmed with
six different emotions and can easily deal with the demands of taking the
register and keeping the
pupils under control. Saya has already terrified children in Japan, let’s
hope that DCSF are not ordering a shipment of Robot
Teachers to our shores. What will they think of next?
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Head to Head
Rob Arrowsmith has been Head Teacher at Pathways School in
Middlesbrough since June 2008. Previously, Rob was Assistant
Head at Redcar &
Cleveland's Education Other Than at School provision.
Last week was hectic. I was out of school more that I would have liked last week.
There was a range of strategy meetings that
related to BSF and more operational meetings to do with the near
term staffing at school. As a result I was only in school for one
whole day last week.
The two best things that happened at school last week were: 1)The way
that the staff and pupils responded to comic relief
-
it was brilliant. We raised £140 on the day through a combination of events,
including a member of staff having a cream pie in
the
face. Watching the way the whole school interacted during the day was a great
indicator of the journey we have made in a
short
space of time. 2. The positive feedback we are getting from
external agencies that are associated with the school. They
have
commented on how much calmer the school is, how much happier the pupils are.
This is having a positive impact on the
self
image of not just the pupils but the staff as well.
The
biggest disappointment at school last week was that we still hadn't had our latest
OFSTED monitoring visit, it's due at any
time
and I am looking forward to showing them our recent developments.
The
funniest thing that happened in school last week was seeing our maths
teacher (male) in full drag as part of our Red
Nose
Day fancy dress fund raising. The pupils and staff responded well especially in
lessons. I walked into one class of year 11's
who
were sat diligently working and interacting with the teacher to
was wearing lipstick and high heels. It was one of the more
surreal
days on the job.
One thing that would have made my job easier last week would have been
if I could clone myself. Dealing with special
measures,
BSF & a staffing restructure / redundancies has been very hectic. It would
be nice to be able to deal with each of these
very
important issues one at a time rather than all together. However if this
was the case then it wouldn't be the ever changing quick
moving
enjoyable job that it is.
Top of my list to do this week is a School development plan - a very pressing issue for
us. It has suffered in recent weeks due
to
the pressures of the BSF paperwork and the various deadlines that we have had
to meet. The everyday run of the mill chores
still
have to be done.
My
Hero of last week was one of our pupils who continues to impress me with
the amount of progress he has made and the
calm
and mature approach he has. He has started to become a peer mentor
and this is a fantastic indication of how positive he feels
about
the school.
My
villain of last week was the person in the local authority who decided to cut our
school budget by £60,000. As a result the only
way
I can meet these savings is to make redundancies. It's a significant
percentage of our school budget but an insignificant percentage
of
the shortfall the LA have to make up.
Do you really need to write a SEF?..... Not this week! I must admit that I found it
really useful to complete the SEF on my own when
I
first got to the school. It gave me a great insight and baseline of how things
were and where we needed to go. Its not something that I
will
be doing in isolation in the future but first time in a new school it was
very beneficial.
My question for next week’s Head is: Who or what has
been your biggest influence in your career so far?
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
In
need of a new path in Leadership?
Are
you are a senior Leader looking to develop your leadership skills? You could
take a look at the Leadership Pathways programme,
a
self-directed, flexible and modular programme from the NCSL, designed to suit
individual contexts and needs. You will get access
to
the latest in leadership thinking and school practice and a school-based
coach will offer support and challenge you to trial, refine
and
improve leadership practice across the whole school. Apply to join the cohort
on the 27 April to start in September.
For
more information, go to – www.ncsl.org.uk/leadershippathways
Tomorrow's Teacher
Teachers TV in association with
ESRC (the Economic and Social Research Council) is launching an exciting, cross
curriculum project
for schools called Tomorrow's
Teacher. The aim is to inspire Teachers and their students to imagine the
future: to consider how today's
rapid pace of change will
impact upon the educational needs of the next generation, and to think about
how best to deliver that education.
Tomorrow's Teacher provides you
with an engaging set of resources; inspirational programmes, lesson plans,
worksheets, and related
video content from Teachers TV.
In addition, take part in one (or both) of the following competitions:
·
Think-piece competition
Teachers and all those working in education are invited to research and submit a
short (1500 word) think-piece/essay on teaching
and the role of the teacher in the future. The winner will
receive a £250 Amazon voucher and four runners up will receive £100
worth of Amazon vouchers each. All winners will be selected by a
distinguished panel of judges.
·
Classroom competition
To enter you need to run a lesson or activity (or a series of lessons) linked
to the theme of Tomorrow's Teacher and send us three
examples of the best of your student's work on the subject. You
could win up £250 of Amazon vouchers for your school, and have
the opportunity to be filmed for a special Teachers TV
programme. To support you Teachers TV has developed a fantastic set of
resources for Key Stages 1, 2, 3 and 4, to help you deliver an
engaging cross-curricular lesson on the future of teaching, with links
to the National Curriculum in Science.
Go to - www.teachers.tv/tomorrow
for more information.
Bring the world to your
classrooms....
Visit the British Council
website and discover funding opportunities and free support, resources and CPD
to help you bring the international
dimension alive in your school
and classrooms. The British Council manage a wide range of schemes including
the DCSF Global gateway
and International School Award
which can put you in touch with schools around the world in and international
school partnership, and provide
you with the tools you need to
develop global links and provide new and exciting dimensions to teaching and
learning.
Go to – www.britishcouncil.org/learning
or www.globalgateways.org/schools
to find out more.
Tracking
pupil progress
Download
materials from the DCSF website for guidance on using the Management
Information Systems (MIS) to track pupil
performance
and ensure that teachers’ planning is informed by up-to-date assessment
information. The material provides support
on
improving assessment practice, using core tracking processes and using MIS to
share information.
Go
to – www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/nationalstrategies
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Wise words
There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which
it treats its children.
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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