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If you have information to be included in the next issue of the PEP bulletin, please send your text, image and link by Tuesday at 12pm to pep@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.
Early years |
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Revised EYFS
Don’t forget that the first event for schools on the revised EYFS is on Thursday 6 May from 4pm - 5.30pm at the EYFS managers in schools cluster. Head teachers and EYFS leads are invited to attend together to hear about the revisions. To join the virtual cluster please book your place by visiting the Early Years and Childcare website.
The full list of training opportunities for the revised EYFS was sent out last week and can be accessed again by emailing Ella.Harbut@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.
Assessment support for the EYFS
To support you in making your 'best endeavours' to complete the EYFS profile this year, you can access support from the EYFS moderation team.
Contact Ella.Harbut@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.
Leadership, recruitment and retention |
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 Do you have staff looking to step up into a teaching role?
Teach Portsmouth is inviting colleagues to attend an upcoming webinar on career progression in teaching on Wednesday 26 May from 4pm.
Two Portsmouth based teachers, Lloyd O'Neil, head of science at Admiral Lord Nelson School and Jemma Clark, head teacher at Southsea Infant School will be joining host: Debbie Anderson, head of school improvement and early years at Portsmouth City Council to share their experiences in the profession.
If you have school staff looking to step up from a support role into teaching, this webinar is for them. Those who attend can also ask questions during a live Q&A too.
Last chance to register for webinar on LA school and nursery teaching apprenticeships
A new webinar for local authority schools and nurseries that explores teaching apprenticeships is now open for registrations. Colleagues are reminded that the webinar is taking place on Tuesday 4 May from 4pm - 5pm.
The webinar looks at how the apprenticeship offer can fund teacher QTS and more. Those interested can register by emailing apprenticeships@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.
The agenda will cover the following areas:
- the changes to primary DfE funding for teacher training in 2021/2022
- apprenticeship funding for teacher QTS
- development opportunities for existing staff to include apprenticeships with National Professional Qualification certificates
- pay incentive of £2,100 available to local authority nursery & schools for each new apprentice recruited from 1 April to 30 September 2021
Portsmouth Teaching School Alliance's past trainees seize career progression opportunities
There are plenty of progression opportunities in teaching and Portsmouth Teaching School Alliance's school direct trainees have seized that chance since graduating. Ex-trainees are either mentors to future teachers or have progressed to subject leads and heads of departments. Mentors have at least three years’ experience as well as being a highly successful practitioner themselves. They also have the skills and personal qualities to motivate and develop the next generation of teachers.
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Amy Webber, qualified SEND primary teacher and ITT mentor at Cliffdale Academy, always shone. She is a great role model whose commitment, strong communication skills and sensitivity has been well received by her mentee.
Amy spoke of her experience as a mentor:
“It has been a very rewarding experience being a mentor. I really enjoy being able to pass on my own experiences and work together with the trainee sharing ideas that help us both to develop our teaching practices.”
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There are a range of national professional qualifications (NPQs) accredited by the DfE to develop aspiring school leaders.
Curriculum and CPD |
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Free online panel event on translation outreach in schools
The Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing and the Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism at the University of Reading, in partnership with Outside in World, are holding a free online panel event on translation outreach in schools. The event will take place on Wednesday 5 May from 6pm - 7.30pm and is free and open to all.
This event is aimed at teachers of languages across primary and secondary schools, covering both modern foreign languages and work with learners who have English as an additional language.
Participants will learn about some of the major initiatives being led in schools to promote multilingualism and intercultural awareness, and discuss this with some of the leading translators and organisations currently working on translation for/with children.
Teaching languages in primary schools: putting research into practice
Discover engaging, age-appropriate teaching methods and ideas to enhance your foreign languages teaching skills for children with this free online course. You’ll learn practical teaching methods for teaching language and discover engaging tasks and projects for primary school students.
The course lasts three weeks and begins on Monday 10 May 2021.
It is primarily designed for primary school teachers who teach children foreign languages. However, it will also provide useful content for language teacher educators, as well as school subject leads and leadership teams.
Primary music co-ordinator's meeting
Portsmouth Music Hub are hosting a primary music co-ordinators meeting on Wednesday 12 May at 4.15pm. The meeting will be held on Zoom.
At this term's meeting, we will be looking at the New Model Curriculum for Music and the implications for you and your school. Please bring any thoughts and questions you have about the document.
If you would like to attend please email portsmouthmusichub@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.
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Free Primary RE termly network meeting
The summer term session for RE subject leader colleagues across Portsmouth led by Justine Ball (Primary RE HIAS Adviser) is planned for Monday 7 June from 3.30pm - 5pm.
There will be a focus on sharing best practice of what works well in RE and assessment in RE with discussion on how pieces of work have been assessed. Please each send one piece of RE work to Justine (Justine.Ball@hants.gov.uk) prior to the session.
Please book your place on the Portsmouth Learning Gateway (course code SCH/21/24) and a joining link will be sent to you.
Free RSHE training for primary and secondary schools
South Farnham Teaching School is working with the Department of Education to offer a free package of RSHE training and support to primary and secondary schools in the south east.
The training is being repeated one final time and all sessions are delivered virtually as one hour twilights using Zoom. Click the links below to register.
These introductory sessions will cover:
- Key legislation and guidelines for effective RSHE
- Assessing the need in your school (audits of your RSHE readiness and your curriculum)
- What needs to go into an RSHE policy?
- RSHE curriculum overview (Relationships Education and Health education)
- Supporting staff (difficult questions)
- Safeguarding
- Right to withdraw
- Monitoring RSHE
- Inclusion
- Engaging parents
Full training and resources for all 13 modules will follow these sessions.
Please contact rshe@sfet.org.uk for further information and assistance.
Land and water-based activities at ASC Portsmouth
ASC Portsmouth delivers a wide range of land and water based activities and challenges to suit all ages and abilities. They can offer school visits for small and large groups. A bespoke programme of activities to suit the needs of your pupils can be put together easily.
Activities include stand-up paddle boarding, kayaking, canoeing, raft building, sailing, windsurfing, archery, climbing, high ropes and team games and challenges. Whether you would like to purely give your pupils a high energy and fun day out, or would like them to learn skills and gain NGB certificates – ASC Portsmouth has something for everyone!
Call 02392 663873 or email portsmouth@andrewsimpsoncentres.org to discuss options for your school or group. You can also watch a promotional video about the centre.
Charitable programmes
As a not-for-profit centre supporting the work of the Andrew Simpson Foundation, free or heavily subsidised activities are also offered for targeted groups of young people. The Andrew Simpson Foundation aims to transform the lives of young people through sailing and water sports.
ASC Portsmouth is one of a network of UK and worldwide centres, all serving their local communities by providing opportunities for young people who would not otherwise have access to sailing, water sports and adventure – and all the benefits that it brings. Their impact framework ensures that programmes are benefitting the young people in the best way possible, and provide evidence of the transforming effect of water sports to increase confidence, resilience as well as mental and physical health and wellbeing.
Watch a video about one of the charitable programmes here.
Open day (Sunday 2 May)
An open day for the general public is taking place on Sunday 2 May where all ages and abilities can try out a variety of activities on offer. Further information and a link to book activities can be found on Facebook.
Portsmouth Arts Network Windows of Hope showcase
The Portsmouth Arts Network would like to invite Portsmouth schools to take part in a summer arts initiative, called Windows of Hope. The theme embraces what we see growing in the garden, who we see through our windows as well as what we hope for in the future, so the theme is very flexible and we hope this will enable you to engage your students easily. Students can create pieces of art, photography, dance, drama or music exploring this theme. |
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Pieces can be submitted until Monday 28 June.
The Windows of Hope showcase will premier live on YouTube and Facebook Live on Monday 19 July at 6.30pm.
Emotional health and wellbeing |
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Ministry of Defence (MOD) Education Support Fund for schools with service children: accepting applications for 2022
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is providing the Education Support Fund (ESF) to help mitigate the effects of significant mobility and/or deployment of service communities.
Schools are a critical part of supporting our service families. Children may have to change school when a service parent is posted or the school may support a pupil when a parent is absent for long periods of time. This fund is available to support schools in embedding practices that can benefit the service children and their school.
The fund is different from the Armed Forces Community Covenant Grant Scheme which is open to a wider variety of organisations and seeks to forge closer ties between Military and local communities. It is also different to the Service Pupil Premium, which is provided to schools in England by the Department for Education in respect of children of serving members of the armed forces.
Eligible applicants:
- Maintained schools
- Academies
- Free school
- 6th form colleges
- Groups of any schools described above (referred to as ‘cluster bids’ - these are strongly encouraged)
- Local authorities on behalf of the publicly funded schools in their area.
If applying as a cluster an individual school can also submit their own separate bid, provided it is for a different initiative.
The 2022 ESF is now open to applications until the deadline of 30 September 2021.
Project Orpheus and Prevent update
The latest Project Orpheus and Prevent update is now available. It includes information on:
- Project Orpheus workshops with Highbury College
- Advice for schools and colleges to support their approach to harmful online challenges and online hoaxes
- Out of schools settings (OOSS) training for professionals
- Prevent statistics and emerging trends
- Influencers – anti-radicalisation board game for Portsmouth secondary schools
- Reporting prejudicial language and behaviour
- Change of UK threat level
- Training
'Space from Covid' mental health support
SilverCloud's 'Space from Covid' programme is made up of six modules, each addressing issues people may be experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Each module provides clinically-backed support for trouble sleeping, coping with stress, developing mindfulness, financial worries and experiencing grief and loss.
This service is completely free of charge and for anyone to use. The average module takes 30 minutes to complete and is accessible 24/7 from a smartphone, tablet or computer.
Stress awareness toolkits for primary and secondary schools
In recognition of April being Stress Awareness Month, Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families has produced a stress awareness toolkit for both primary and secondary schools.
The toolkits collect together a number of resources for pupils and staff, to help you and the young people you teach manage and cope when stress becomes overwhelming.
Whole city Mental Health Support Team (MHST) offer
MHST has been offering consultation, training, and intervention to the 32 schools in the first wave. Now, with the first two teams trainees reaching the end of their training year and recruitment into a third team, we are excited to begin the next phase of our service development. This will extend the MHST offer to all schools and colleges in Portsmouth.
For schools and colleges who do not yet have MHST, we will be in a position to book your initial clinical consultation sessions at the end of May/early June. This is in preparation for the final half term of the academic year, when we will open up referrals to all schools from 7 June 2021.
We continue to ask that, prior to making referrals, schools bring cases to discuss in consultation as per our MHST referral pathway.
Loss and bereavement
A twilight session has been scheduled on the topic of 'An introduction to supporting loss and bereavement'. The workshop will be delivered remotely on Thursday 6 May 2021 by Simon Says, the child bereavement support charity.
This is open to all staff in Portsmouth schools, colleges and settings. Spaces should be booked via the Portsmouth Learning Gateway (course code: SCH/21/21).
Beware of Lurking Trolls campaign
Beware of Lurking Trolls has been Portsmouth Safeguarding Children Partnership's campaign to protect children from online bullying, grooming and exploitation for the past five years. This June the award winning campaign is rebooting and relaunching with a whole host of treacherous new trolls in an all new version 'Peril of the Possessed Pets'.
The campaign is rolling out to primary schools in the week commencing 14 June. In that week each school will receive enough copies of the book 'Peril of the Possessed Pets' so that every pupil in year 4 can have one.
The steering group has helped to design resource packs for schools that give suggested lesson plans for how the Trolls can be integrated in the curriculum across topics throughout the school year. PDFs of these will be sent to schools during the launch, and copies will also be available to download from the Lurking Trolls website.
School buildings and school places |
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 Refurbished science and technology block opens at Springfield School
Springfield School was delighted to open its fully refurbished science and technology block at the same time as all students were able to return to school from 8 March. Students and staff were thrilled by the quality of the design and finish of the building, which comprises two state of the art STEM rooms and nine science laboratories. Visitors have commented that it looks as if it is an entirely new building!
Approximately £2.6 million was spent on the project, with all windows and exterior curtain walling also being replaced. Springfield School is part of The De Curci Trust, which was able to lead the renovation with the support of £100k funding from the Wolfson Foundation and ~£1.8 million funding from the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
CEO and Headteacher, Sara Spivey, commented:
"The facilities that Springfield now has in place for the teaching of science and technology are quite honestly the best that I have seen in a secondary school! As a former science teacher myself, I know the positive difference that a well designed laboratory space supported by up to date IT and technological equipment makes to pupils' learning experience. Our students deserve the best, and that's what everyone involved in the project has worked to achieve for them. It has been a joy hearing the students' positive comments and we look forward to them enjoying the facilities for many years to come."
LA updates
Change of management information system (MIS)
If your school is planning to change your management information system (MIS), in addition to informing other teams, please would you inform Education Information Services by emailing education.informationservices@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.
A change of system can affect the way that we receive data from your school. It can impact upon the way that we process the information to import into the pupil database which is used by a wide range of teams in Education. As a result, it can impact upon how those teams such as Admissions, SEN, Free School Meal entitlement or School Attendance can support you.
The sooner you can let us know when you will be changing system and the name of the system that you are moving to, the easier it will be for us to manage the transition "at our end". Please note that if a school is moving from SIMS, you will lose the automatic B2B scheduled transfer into our system (Capita ONE), so you will need to ensure that you have an alternative process to facilitate this.
If you have any questions or require further information, please email: education.informationservices@portsmouthcc.gov.uk and we will do our best to assist you.
FFT 2021 GCSE benchmarking
The FFT will be launching their 2021 GCSE benchmarking service on 30 April 2021.
This is the opportunity to have a range of subject and student based benchmarking reports to support GCSE teacher assessment prior to submission. The FFT are reporting that the service will be even faster this year. You should be able to download your pupils and subjects, upload your teacher assessed GCSE grades and then access your FFT benchmarking reports the following day.
We believe that the majority of Portsmouth secondary schools took advantage of this free service last year and want to remind you that this is available for you to use again this year.
Please remember that if you are sharing data with FFT, your school will need to ensure that this use is recorded in your privacy notices.
If you have are having any issues accessing FFT Aspire, have any questions or require further information, please email: education.informationservices@portsmouthcc.gov.uk and we will do our best to assist you.
Asymptomatic and symptomatic testing leaflet for parents/carers
An updated leaflet for parents about what to do if someone in the household has symptoms of coronavirus is now available. The leaflet now includes simple advice about when and how to do regular asymptomatic testing at home. This emphasises that home testing is not aimed at primary school children or anyone with possible symptoms.
A simple diagrammatic format has been used to make it easier for parents to understand.
 Pharmacies boost testing capacity across the city
This week it got easier for you take up the habit of twice-weekly asymptomatic testing as many local pharmacies began to offer appointments for supervised tests, drop-in services for collecting home test kits or both!
Testing when you don’t have symptoms is freely available to all adults and finds the one in three who get coronavirus but don't show symptoms and so risk spreading it.
The council's test site at Somerstown Central also offers appointments by booking online and a drop-in service for home test kit collection. And from Saturday 1 May, Eldon Road and Northarbour Road sites revert to PCR-only test sites for those with symptoms: 7 days a week, 8am-8pm.
The HR news information is located on the human resources Google homepage and maintained schools and any academy with an HR Traded Services agreement can access it here.
Further information can be obtained by contacting HR.
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