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As part of the PEP Bulletin a regular blog from senior leaders across the city will be included. This month's Blog comes from Sophie Venables, Director of the Portsmouth Teaching School Alliance
Subject networks - strength in numbers
As a Head of English (many years ago!) I was fortunate enough to work with a local English advisor who supported the department and who ran a network to share ideas with professionals from other schools. I found the experience invaluable and when I joined the Portsmouth TSA as Director in 2016, one of my key objectives was to give subject leads and other educationalists in the city the opportunity to develop and support each other and share great practice to enhance the experience of learning for all Portsmouth pupils. We now run seven separate networks attended by 184 teachers across the city, from all phases and specialisms. These networks are run free of charge and are part of the vision of the Portsmouth Education Partnership for a self-improving system as many of them are run by Specialist Leaders of Education (SLEs). We are now at the exciting point of developing our networks even further so that we meet the needs of the network members, from delivering training, running peer reviews or collaborating more widely with other partners inside Portsmouth and beyond. I am immensely proud of these exciting and motivated groups of professionals and know that the work they are currently doing will have a long-term positive impact for the young people of Portsmouth. Details of these networks and other subject networks that operate in the city are highlighted in the bulletin.
Early Years |
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Early Years Training & Development - Infant Year R & Year 1
February
EYFS Managers in Schools : 7 February 2019 : 4 - 5 pm
Talk Talk Talk (Year R only) : 11 February 2019 : 1 - 3.30 pm
Spring Term 2019 new or returning to Year R : 26 February 2019 : 4 - 5.30 pm
Believe in your Behaviour Strategies : 27 February 2019 : 9.30 am - 12 pm
March
Eager to write (YEAR R Teachers only) : 13 March 2019 : 1 - 3.30 pm
Delving into Sustained Shared Thinking : 26 March 2019 : 6.30 - 8.30 pm
Seminar on alternative ways to teach reading
Date: Monday 25th March 2019
Presented by Victoria Devonshire - University of Portsmouth
Time: 10am-12 noon
Venue: Conference Room A, Civic Offices
Did you know that only 56% of words can be spelt using phonic rules? How do we support children to spell the remaining words? This seminar will explore the elements of phonology, morphology, etymology and form rules to support our understanding of how children learn to read.
Audience: For experienced Early Years Practitioners and Year R teachers
Early bird booking from 4th Feb - 28th Feb
Non-members £40 per person
Members £35 per person
From 1st March- Full price applies
Non-members £60 per person
Members £55 per person
Conference News!
The Power of Play - Saturday 29th June 2019
Portsmouth Grammar School
9:00am-4:00pm
OFSTED will be delivering our afternoon keynote about the new inspection framework.
Remember to book your place as soon as possible to ensure you get your first choice of workshops.
For further information on any early training and development opportunities and to book, please log onto the Portsmouth Traded Services Network website. Enquiries to EYWorkforce@portsmouthcc.gov.uk
Early Years Bulletins
Available to view here
Leadership, recruitment and retention |
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Teacher Recruitment & Retention Strategy
The DfE has recently published a teacher recruitment and retention strategy which acknowledges the scale and complexity of the problem facing sector. The strategy sets out four key priorities:
- Helping to create the right climate for headteachers and other school leaders to establish supportive school cultures.
- Transforming support for early career teachers, introducing the most significant reform to teaching since it became a graduate only profession – backed by substantial extra investment.
- Building on the foundation of the Early Career Framework to support teachers – whatever their expertise or circumstances – to pursue the right career opportunities for them.
- Radically simplify the process for becoming a teacher, introducing new digital systems designed to make application much easier and more user-friendly.
The Portsmouth Education Partnership Teacher and Retention Group will be reviewing the strategy as part of the PEP's concerted efforts to improve the recruitment and retention of teachers in the city. A copy of the government's strategy, including a one page summary for schools can be found here.
Survey of supply agency staff in Portsmouth schools
The council is currently undertaking a survey about the current expenditure on supply agency staff in Portsmouth's schools. This is already generating some potentially useful information about the range of prices schools are currently paying for teachers, and how some schools have reduced or eliminated their spend on supply cover.
It would, however, be extremely useful to have feedback from a larger number of schools, whether or not you currently use supply agencies, to make a decision about whether we should be pursuing some sort of Portsmouth-wide solution. The typical survey completion time is just 4 minutes. You can access the survey by going to: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/7K5XDV2
All responses received by midday on Thursday 7th February will be collated and shared with the PEP Teacher Recruitment and Retention Group to inform the next steps of this work.
Governor vacancy advertising and governor recruitment campaign in 2019
Following a governor vacancy survey of all schools, the city council, through Portsmouth Together, will be providing a governor vacancy advertising service whereby any current or future governor vacancies can be posted on the Portsmouth Together website. Alison Critchley can provide a template advert and help with posting current vacancies. (The website can also be used to seek other volunteers to work in your school).
The council has commenced a governor recruitment campaign which will include encouraging staff cross Portsmouth City Council and other partner organisations to consider volunteering as school governors, pointing them towards the vacancies advertised on the Portsmouth Together site.
A useful leaflet which provides further details about the initiative can be found here.
School Improvement |
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Ofsted Inspection - Court Lane Junior Academy
Congratulations to Court Lane Junior Academy for maintaining their 'Good' Ofsted status, following their two day Section 5 inspection on 4th and 5th December 2018. Inspectors confirmed:
'Leaders work with steadfast determination. They have improved the school quickly since its conversion to an academy in 2016. Pupils receive a good education'
See the full report
Education inspection framework : draft for consultation
The draft education inspection framework for 2019 sets out how Ofsted proposes to inspect schools, further education and skills provision and registered early years settings. Details of the new framework can be found here.
Ofsted will be running up to two workshops later this term for primary and secondary schools in Portsmouth to provide more details about the new framework and to share findings from recent inspections in Portsmouth and how these align with the school improvement priorities identified by the Portsmouth Education Partnership. Further details to follow shortly.
Federation of the Wimborne Schools
Following a six week consultation process, the two Governing Boards of Wimborne Infant and Junior Schools approved the decision to formally join together as a Hard Federation which will come into effect on 23rd April 2019.
Curriculum and CPD |
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Subject Networks in Portsmouth
Since the launch of the Portsmouth Education Partnership back in November 2016 a variety of subject networks have been developed across the city, many of which have been established by the Portsmouth Teaching School Alliance. Some of these networks are flourishing, but others are still in development. Below is a brief summary of them. More details can be found by going to the PEP website or to the Portsmouth TSA website.
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The English Networks have been the longest-standing and have a regular and committed attendance of English leads. The Primary Network has been working to develop training with a wide range of foci such as: Spelling; Greater Depth in Writing; Curriculum Planning; EYFS Reading; and P4C. The Secondary Network has a shared resources Google Drive; working partnerships with EMAS and the Libraries Service; GCSE Curriculum Planning; and University of Portsmouth English Lecture series attended by 150 pupils each year.
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KS2 Science network is currently working on Portsmouth context resources to support the 'Journey' theme for Science Week 2019. The group meet once per term for free RAEng resources and projects. In the summer term, schools will be invited to attend a free STEM festival at Winchester Science Centre. New members are always welcome to attend and join the group. This group also works together with PASTA.
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The STEM network is open to KS2-KS5 and each school who attends receives a free box of STEM curriculum linked resources from RAEng. The network has access to guest speakers from STEM organisations and opportunities to access other STEM related projects. The group meet once per term for free RAEng resources and projects. In the summer term, schools will be invited to attend a free STEM festival at Winchester Science Centre. Resources can be accessed here as free PDFs from RAEng
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Maths networks are co-ordinated by the Solent Maths Hub. There is a Secondary Head of Maths meeting that happens once a term. Dates and venue for the next meeting (next half term) are yet to be confirmed. The Primary and Early Years Networks are to re-established.
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The Arts Network is brand new network but is already hoping to develop a cross-phase Arts project based around the theme of “Difference” with a celebration event at the Guildhall at the end of the year or early next year depending on funding.
- A Primary Modern Foreign Languages Hub has been established by the University of Portsmouth with expertise from Cottage Grove Primary School. Secondary CPD is also being made available through the University and language upskilling is available through TSST (teacher subject specialist training) which is being run by the Portsmouth Teaching School Alliance in conjunction with the University of Southampton.
- A Secondary RE Network meeting takes place at Horndean Technology College every term, bringing together Secondary RE leads in Portsmouth as well as in the South East area of Hampshire. A Primary RE Network also runs in Portsmouth providing sessions that are designed to enable RE managers to explore, share and develop good practice in RE in their schools. The sessions will focus on helping other staff to understand the cycle of enquiry, know the range of concepts in the Living Difference III syllabus, create and amend planning for RE and help understand assessment issues across the school.
An investigation into how to assess the quality of education through curriculum intent, implementation and impact
This report outlines what Ofsted has done in Phase 3 of their research into the quality of curriculum in schools.
See the report
Funding for Disadvantaged Pupils
The DFE and the British Council have recently announced a new fund to enable secondary schools to take disadvantaged pupils on school trips abroad, with a focus on trips to "partner schools". You can register your interest on the British Council website to receive more information in due course."
Pathway to Discovery
The Solent LEP has invited bids for an award of up to £5,000 for a "Pathway to Discovery" programme of projects that promote STEM education, careers, and links to local industry to children aged 7-11. They have identified marine/maritime, advanced manufacturing, engineering/construction and digital/technology as the types of business that they would like to see schools linking up with. They are looking to support one Portsmouth school (and have made clear that although the website refers to "junior schools" they would welcome applications from primary schools), and the deadline for applications is Thursday 7 February. If you have plans or ideas in this area to consider putting in a bid. Alison.Critcley@portsmouthcc.gov.uk would be happy to give informal feedback on draft bids.
Primary Hub Meeting
The next Primary Hub Meeting is on Monday 18 March at 1600 at Cottage Grove Primary School. They will be sharing ideas on how to integrate language learning into the primary curriculum. The primary learning environment is perfect for this approach. Please do try and attend and tell any colleagues who may be interested
A flyer and further information about the Hub Meeting can be found here.
In addition there is information from the Institut Français about the many offerings they have to support teachers of French, in both primary and secondary schools. There are also details of key Spanish festivals.
PTSA NQT Programme Update
A Happy New Year to everyone and a quick update on the NQT programme as we near the midway point of this academic year...already!
The Early Spring Term workshop has been and gone....and so we look forward to the Late Spring Workshop on March 14th. As requested by mentors and schools alike, the 2 strands are as follows :
Assessment for Learning - principles, planning and practice and
Differentiation - effective planning and teaching for all pupils leading to rapid and sustained progress. Booking procedures follow the same pattern as previously....follow the links on the PTSA website.
June Hutchinson NQT Co-ordinator (023 9289 3702)
PTSA Spring Term 2019 courses - view here
University of Chichester Academy Trust NQT Programme - view here
School Attendance
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 School Attendance Campaign
Our 2-year school attendance publicity campaign is focusing this term on health related absence, co-ordinating with messages being promoted by Public Health.
Please continue to promote school attendance by:
- Adding #MissSchoolMissOut to your emails and letters alongside the logo
- Sharing the social media posts with #MissSchoolMissOut and adding this hashtag to your own relevant posts
- Adding the link to the attendance web-page to your school website
We will continue to update the web-page with resources and materials to support schools in promoting school attendance.
Portsmouth University will be working with us to evaluate the impact of the campaign.
 Aspirations Week - Wimborne Junior School
Primary school pupils have been learning about potential new careers and investigating how to turn their dreams into reality. The initiative is part of Aspirations Week which has been hosted by Wimborne Junior School and linked to the Portsmouth City Council's ongoing 'Miss School, Miss Out' school attendance campaign. The aim has been to inspire children to think about what jobs they would like to have in the future. During the week, pupils carried out activities and workshops looking at their future selves and discussing goal setting, resilience, potential barriers and the support available to help them achieve their potential. You can read more about the week at: https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/education/portsmouth-schoolchildren-reveal-their-dream-jobs-as-part-of-aspirations-week-workshops-1-8786380
The plan is to hold a city wide Aspirations Week next year in January 2020 details of which will be firmed up later this term.
A reminder that resources for the 'Miss School, Miss Out' campaign are available to schools here with the main website page here.
Hashtag on Twitter: #MissSchoolMissOut
Emotional health & wellbeing |
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Landport playpark goes smoke free
Children from St John's Cathedral Catholic Primary School joined Cllr Winnington and Cllr Horton on Tuesday 8 January to unveil signage at Landport playpark asking people not to smoke or vape there. The sign was designed by one of the children. This is the first children's park in the city to go smoke free. If the signage proves effective then it could get used at other parks in the city. Find out more
New sugar reduction campaign launched for children
Change4Life has launched a new campaign that encourages families to cut back on sugar by making a few simple swaps to their everyday food and drinks. Children in England are having more than double the recommended amount of sugar each year, which can lead to various health problems. Families can find out more and use a sugar calculator to see how much they're having each day here.
It would be great if this could be included in any updates that you send parents or in the news section of your website.
If you're part of the fruit and veg scheme you should have received a delivery of sugar swap take home activity packs for children in mid-January. You can find more free resources that you can use in class to teach children about sugar and healthy eating on the Public Health England School Zone.
New video to help children look after their teeth
Portsmouth City Council and the University of Portsmouth Dental Academy have worked with parents to produce an animated video to help young children look after their teeth. It features teeth Isaac, Chloe, Mo and Meg who are under attack from Peter Plaque in the town of Toothville. Superheroes Timmy Toothbrush and Tracey Toothpaste save the day by telling us what we need to do to keep Peter Plaque at bay. Visit www.portsmouth.gov.uk/toothville to watch the video and to get the contact details for Portsmouth University Dental Academy who offer free check-ups and treatment to children under 18. Please feel free to include in any updates that you send parents.
SEND |
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Inclusion Quality Mark and Ordinarily Available Provision (OAP)
We've worked closely with young people, parents, carers and professionals in Portsmouth to agree what inclusion means to people in our city.
Please take a look at the documents below.
Please share this as widely as possible as we are seeking a broad endorsement of this definition of inclusion.
The Inclusion Quality Mark is being piloted by a number of schools as a means of recognising, celebrating and sharing inclusive practice. If you are interested in getting involved in this pilot please contact Sarah Christopher.
Inclusion Quality Mark - standards and their related objectives
Ordinarily Available Provision (OAP)
Update on new school meals contract
We have had an excellent response to the first stage of our work to choose a contractor to deliver school meals across 38 Portsmouth schools from September 2019. Ten companies expressed an interest in taking on this work, from which we have shortlisted five to go to the next stage: Caterlink; Chartwells; Hampshire; ISS; and Pabulum. The Invitation to Tender was issued just before Christmas, and these five companies have until 15 February to submit their tender returns. Evaluation will take place during the second half of this term and we expect to be able to identify the successful bidder at the start of the Summer Term.
Prevent Update
View the January 2019 Prevent Update here
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