Subject: Head Teachers - Weekly news
update 29
This week.....send your pupils to a
local museum! With the celebration of International Museum Day (18-19 May) and
the
grand opening of the Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle
this Saturday, what better time to plan a school trip to one
of the North East’s museums or galleries.
As if to give you more reason to do so....Last week saw the launch
of the IPPR (Institute for Public Policy Research)
publication on the educational role of museums. ‘Learning to Live: Museums, Young People and Education highlights the
importance of museums and galleries in education and makes a series of recommendations
including :
·
the development of a Charter of Cultural Rights for Children
·
the establishment of a link between schools and local museums
through Children’s Services departments
·
increasing the role of museum in helping to shape the curriculum
through working with QCA.
-
For lots of useful information on the region’s museums, curriculum resources,
learning visits and archived collections go to - http://www.wellinever.info/
- Resources for
International Museum Day can be found at: www.tes.co.uk/resourcecalendar.aspx?nbday=0&nbmth=5&nbyr=2009&evcode=1995
-
To read Learning to Live: Museums, Young People and Education, go to - www.ippr.org.uk/pressreleases/?id=3499
-
To listen to the BBC's Today programme segment on "ultimate kids'
museum" broadcast last week, go to - news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8044000/8044675.stm
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News and Events
Northern Architecture – Education Workshop Programme
The latest programme of workshops from Northern Architecture aim
to encourage pupils to understand and explore their built
Environment. Through activities including
‘The A factor’ where students become architects for the day (KS2/3/4), ‘Architexture’
which
sees pupils work together to build their own miniature town or
village (KS ½) and ‘Architexts’, a creative writing challenge (KS2/3), pupils
will be challenged to think about the places in which they live now
and how they might change in the future.
The full day workshops are for classes of up to 30 pupils and
cost £200 inclusive of materials.
For more information go to – www.northernacrchitecture.com/education,
or call Emma Kench – 0191 2602191.
FAO: Secondary and special
schools
Leadership in the community
The NCSL brings you an event
which looks at how local secondary and special schools have addressed the issue
of leadership
within the community. You will
have the opportunity to network with local schools and share practical
solutions.
The event is free for all
school leaders and there are two sessions to choose from:
Date: Tuesday 9 June from
10am-2.30pm at Stockton Education Development Centre
Date: Tuesday 16 June from
10am-2.30pm at the Dryden Centre, Gateshead
To reserve a place call – 0115
872 3857. If this will be the first Leadership Network event you
have attended, complete the online registration
form - https://www.ncsl.org.uk/session-timeout?urlParams=servid=35
FAO: Secondary schools
North East Solar Car Challenge runs again
Year 6 pupils in the region will soon be racing for pole position
for the fifth year at the North East Solar Car Challenge. Schools
across the North East are now invited to enter teams of four at
the popular event held at Nissan Sports and Social Club in
Sunderland on Thursday 9 July. Each participating school is given
two solar car kits and pupils taking part will gain valuable
experience in engineering, science and graphic design. The
challenge also aims to promote renewable energy, sustainability,
and wider environmental issues in schools. There are exciting
prizes for first, second and third places in both competition
categories – speed and design. This year’s event is being
sponsored by One North East and supported by a partnership involving
the Energy Saving Trust, Nissan, Hartlepool Borough Council and
the North East Strategic Partnership for Sustainable Schools.
Any schools interested in taking part should contact k.stonehouse@schoolsnortheast.com
Learn ‘The How Of Happiness’
Build Resilience & Optimism in the North East
Join Sonja Lyubomirsky, Professor of Psychology at the University of
California for the next in the series of Master Classes aimed
at building optimism and
resilience in children, young adults and their families. The
workshops, aim to help practitioners develop
positive thinking
strategies in order to promote resilient thinking and future optimism.
They have been developed by Gateshead and
Newcastle City councils
and sponsored by GONE and Northumbria University. Schools from North Tyneside
and South Tyneside
and Northumbria will be
showcasing their work.
The workshop cost £99 and will
be held on Monday 1 June at Newcastle Business School @
Northumbria University, the closing
date for applications is 18 May
2009.
For more information or to sign
up, contact Helen Walker - helen.walker@newcastle.gov.uk, 0191
2115391.
Who
Do We Think We Are? Week
Who
Do We Think We Are? Week runs from Monday 22 June to Friday 28 June
2009 and aims to engage primary and secondary
school teachers in the exploration of issues relating to identity,
diversity and citizenship with their pupils, in their schools, local
communities and beyond. The initiative, launched following Sir Keith Ajegbo’s Curriculum
Review on Diversity and Citizenship explores
the themes of:
- School and community
- Relationships, belonging and
faith
- History and settlement
- Britishness, national
identity/values and the 2012 Games
Teachers
can access starter
activities, case studies, tool kits, guidance and ideas on how
they can take part at - www.wdwtwa.org.uk
Get prepared! Global Entrepreneurship Week
It may be six months away but we all know how time flies and
it’s always good to be well prepared! Global Entrepreneurship week
(previously known as Enterprise Week) will be held from
Monday 16 November until Sunday 22 November. Millions of people all
over the world will be encouraged to unleash their enterprising talents and turning their ideas into
reality. Keep an eye on the
Global
Entrepreneurship Week UK website for latest news. Events throughout
the week include:
·
Make
Your Mark Challenge - Mon 16 Nov
·
Women’s
Enterprise Day – Wed 18 Nov
·
Social
Enterprise Day – Thurs 19 Nov
·
Home
Enterprise Day – Fri 20 Nov
For more information on Global Entrepreneurship Week or to
download the new logo, go to
- www.makeyourmark.org.uk
Interested in Next Generation Learning?
Cramlington Learning Village invites you to sign-up for the Next
Generation Learning conference, a day of engaging workshops
that aim to offer insight, tips, strategies and materials for
next Generation Learning. You will have the opportunity to question
practitioners with hands-on, proven experience of enquiry based
learning, personalised learning, working in flexible learning
spaces, and the innovative use of ICT to support and enhance
learning. Delegates are asked to create their own agenda by
signing-up for workshops that are split into four areas:
·
Next Generation Learning
·
Next Generation Learning Environments
·
Next Generation Learning Technology
·
Next Generation Learning Support
Date: Friday 26 June at Cramlington Learning Village,
Northumberland from 8.30am-3.45pm. For more information on the
Conference or to reserve your place, go to – www.cramlingtonlv.co.uk/nextgen
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News round-up
Local news
·
Winning
bidder gets full marks in Middlesbrough secondary school competition (The
Northern Echo)
·
Durham
Primary school will be rebuilt on same site in £6.7m scheme (Northern
Echo)
·
Matthew
Bates praises St David's School fundraisers (Gazette Live)
·
Lowick
First School invite villagers to lunch (Journal Live)
·
Parents
praise ‘wonderful’ Blyth academy (Journal Live)
·
Poetry
in motion for Durham pupils (Journal Live)
·
Teacher's
fears over job at new academy (News Post Leader)
·
Thumbs-up
from MP for new city school (Sunderland Echo)
·
New
citizens welcomed in civic ceremony at Darlington Education Village (Northern
Echo)
·
Ashington
school's 'transition unit' expansion approved (News
Post Leader)
·
North
East to tackle language barrier in schools (Bdaily)
Infant class sizes
·
More
infant class sizes break limit (Journal
Live)
·
More
than 300 infant classes break Labour's 30-pupil limit (Independent)
·
England infant class
size rises (BBC News)
·
Baby
boom forcing primary schools to 'break the law' (Guardian)
·
Infant
classes biggest in a decade due to school closures and surge in pupils
(Daily Mail)
Excluded pupils
·
'Schools
letting unruly pupils back too soon' (Independent)
·
No
suitable education for excluded pupils (Times)
·
Excluded pupils not
being given alternative education (Children and Young People Now)
Exams
·
Pushy
parents 'fuelling rise in exam appeals' (Daily Telegraph)
·
Exam
grades 'should be scrapped' (Daily
Telegraph)
·
Why
Ed Balls should keep tests and tables (Independent)
Private schools
·
Private
schools start to feel the pain as struggling parents retreat to state sector (Times)
·
Private
school grief: how the credit crunch is closing down schools
(Daily Telegraph)
Primary schools
·
Business
managers improve efficiency for primary heads (Children
and Young People Now)
·
Primary
schools closing at the rate of 100 a year (Daily Telegraph)
Other educational news
·
Schools switching to
clip-on ties (BBC News)
·
School
lessons in self-control 'are as important as numeracy’ (Times Online)
·
Lord
Puttnam in curriculum drive (BBC News)
·
14 to 19
education reforms will cause confusion, says ALP chair (Children and Young People Now)
·
Tories
will boost heads' powers to observe lessons (TES)
·
'Ofsted
inspections are means of state control' (TES)
·
Nearly
a third of teaching assistants verbally abused, says union (TES)
·
Exam
boards say league tables drag down standards (TES)
·
Plea
to keep PE off the sidelines (TES)
·
Schools
urged to sign charter to help asylum-seekers settle in (TES)
·
School
children help FirstGroup to get its arithmetic right (Times)
·
Web
children 'living in prisons' (BBC News Online)
·
We
ignored warnings about college building fiasco, admits quango head (Guardian)
·
Extended
project for all call (BBC News)
·
Government
calls for increase in Safer School Partnerships (Children
and Young People Now)
·
Architects
to vet new school designs (Guardian)
·
Enemies of creationism may be hindering science teachers
(Guardian)
·
Interview
with Chris Woodhead (Guardian)
·
Teachers,
parents and experts come up with their own big idea (Guardian)
·
Now
Shakespeare is no longer compulsory for Sats, theatre groups have been hit hard
(Guardian)
·
Good
ideas about governance - but they may be too late (Guardian)
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Star pupil
Lowick
First School
This small rural
school near Berwick, Northumberland is inviting elderly members of the community to join pupils for lunch as
part in an initiative
to become more sustainable. The school is offering
meals to local pensioners and other services in an
attempt to make it
more viable and a bigger part of the community. With reports that the pupils and pensioners are enjoying and
benefitting from each
other’s company, we are sure their
success will encourage other schools to say ‘come dine with us!’
Could do better
Infant
class sizes
The recession, rising birth rates and school closures are
being blamed for the dramatic rise in large infant class sizes. Figures
published last week show that the number of state school pupils
taught illegally in classes of over 30 has more than doubled
since 2007 and
academics are predicting that the problem will get worse in the next few years.
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Head to Head
Dame Dela Smith has been Executive Director of Darlington
Education Village since February 2006, taking up Headship of all
three schools (Springfield Primary School, Haughton Community
School and Arts College and Beaumont Hill Technology
College, Vocational College and Training School) in the
September of that year. Previously Dame Dela worked as part time
‘interim Executive Director’ for the Education Village in order
to take the development of the Village forward. At the time, Dame
Dela was still substantive Head Teacher of Beaumont Hill special
school, and was appointed to that post in 1992. The Education
Village is her third Headship role.
Last week was an excellent example of the diversity my job
brings, never a dull moment! To give you a flavour of the main
events: Monday was one of those days where you go from one
wonderful experience to another! Having three schools in the Village,
all different but all vibrant in their own ways, brings variety,
and Monday was such a day! The morning started with our post 16
students taking the weekly bacon butty orders, always too good
to resist! Then we had a wonderful assembly in our primary school
where David Heaton representing Age Concern, presented us with a
certificate for the Education Village to thank us for our
involvement in the ‘1,0000 good turns week’. Next on to an
intensive Executive Leadership team meeting and finally, a ‘Citizenship
ceremony’ we were hosting at the Village in order to welcome the
new citizens formally into the town. What a privilege this was!
Tuesday morning was taken up by a 14-19 Partnership meeting
(very productive, and involved more bacon butties) then I met with
some of my Y11 mentees to check all was on target for their
forthcoming exams. Wednesday morning saw me at a ‘marathon’
secondary heads meeting,(and more bacon butties) followed by
more meetings with mentees ,a meeting with the secondary schools
National Challenge Adviser, followed by the ‘RAP ’ Group -then
30 visitors to view the school, some from as far afeild as Peterborough!
Next, emails and catching up!!! Thursday’s main event was a
visit from our MP, Alan Milburn, and Friday, attendance at the Children’s
Trust Board followed by visits from our Lead Member for
Children’s Services and also a visit from the Mayor to present certificates to
our post 16 catering students from Beaumont Hill.
The two best things that happened in school last week were: a) My wonderful PA
bought me a rather large, but divine strawberry
tart. b) The Citizenship ceremony - not particularly in that order!
The biggest disappointment of last week was hearing that one of
my very best staff is moving on - all for good reasons but
disappointing nevertheless.
The funniest thing that happened at school last week was the 14 year old who
came to see me about a problem she had with
her ‘floppy tubes’ and I said to her ‘could you possibly mean
fallopian tubes….? And then there was the special needs student
with
speech difficulties who came into the office asking for his
printing from the ‘Lazy get’ (laser jet printer….get it?) needless to say the
office staff weren’t impressed.
One thing would make your job easier last week would have been not
having a bad back!!!!
Top of your to do list for this week is preparing for my
on-line conference with NCSL on models of leadership for 21st
Century schools.
My hero of last week was my husband for putting up with me and my bad back!
My villain of last week was whichever bright spark decided to change the CVA measure without
any consultation?
The person who has been the greatest influence on my career is the Head Teacher of
the first school I taught in for ten happy
years, Howell Morgan, who is sadly no longer alive. His belief
in me inspired me to dream…
My question for next week’s Head is: If you could do
it all again, what would you do differently?
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: Rural schools
Get funded to get sporty!
The Rural Communities Themed round of funding from Sport England
offers your school the opportunity to develop and deliver
new and innovative projects to overcome barriers to both
participation and supply of sporting opportunities. Successful bids will
make significant contributions to two of Sport England’s
strategic outcomes: growing participation in grassroots sport and sustaining
participation by improving the quality of people’s sporting
experience. The minimum grant available is £10,000, but in order to
maximise the positive effect on sport in rural areas, Sport
England is explicitly encouraging high value, high impact projects. The
closing date for applications is the 30 June 2009.
To read the application
guidelines, go to http://funding.sportengland.org/funding_programmes/rural_communities1.aspx
More on sports funding.....
Schools throughout the UK are benefiting from Sportsmatch
awards, a project funded by Sport England to support the development
of grassroots sport in England. It makes awards to organisations
running projects aimed at increasing participation in sports at community
level by matching on a £ for £ basis eligible funding invested
in community sport.
For more information, go to - http://funding.sportengland.org/funding_programmes/sportsmatch.aspx
FAO: Tees Valley Schools
Get your pupils having fun with fitness!
Book a visit to your school from the Streetlife Youth Fitness’
mobile health club, and inspire your pupils to get fit and lead healthy
lifestyles.
This mobile learning programme aims to encourage healthy living
through physical fitness, reduce obesity rates and educate children and
young people on the body, healthy eating and overall wellness. A
qualified fitness professional hosts the sessions which can be made part
of your school PE lessons or your after-school provisions.
Streetlife Youth Fitness programmes also follow the National Curriculum,
helping to meet the criteria for Active Mark.
To get your school involved, email
– schools@streetlifeyouthfitness.co.uk
or go to - www.streetlifeyouthfitness.co.uk
Community Sustainable Energy Programme
Schools are now being invited to apply for funding to install
renewable energy technologies (such as wind turbines and solar panels)
and energy saving measures (such as roof and cavity wall
insulation). Under the new Community Sustainable Energy programme
£8 million will be available for the installation of
microgeneration technologies and energy efficiency measures (Capital grants)
and
£1 million for project development grants. The funding programme
is being managed by the Building Research Establishment on behalf
of the Big Lottery Fund's "Changing Spaces" Programme.
The next application deadline is the 7 August 2009.
To take part in the programme,
go to - www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Public-engagement/Grants/Arts-Awards/index.htm
UNICEF Teachers resources
Get your students and your staff onto the UNICEF website for a
wide range of resources and activities on children’s rights and the
international community of children. The website includes
Teacherzone for curriculum and assembly ideas and an e-newsletter.
Educational resources and information on campaigns including the
‘Day for Change for schools’ and the ‘Rights Respecting School
Award’ are also available. A website for young people includes
country guides and World Explorers activities.
To access the site, go to - www.unicef.org.uk/resources/index.asp
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Wise words
"Be like a postage
stamp—stick to one thing until you get there."
Margaret Carty
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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