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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.
Inclusion
Developing decision-making skills: programme for year 6-7 pupils and teachers |
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Using creative approaches, this innovative new programme designed by Artswork in partnership with BearFace Theatre and funded by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Violence
Reduction Unit will support young people and their teachers to explore some of the challenges they might face growing up, empowering them to make healthy decisions.
The programme will specifically examine the risks and impact of knife crime, the
dangers of exploitation and other violence and will support them to find their own solutions, enabling them to build positive, healthy relationships and respond appropriately to potentially risky or challenging situations throughout their lives.
The programme will run from April 2023 to July 2025 and support schools in their statutory duty to deliver RSHE which enables informed decision making, particularly when faced with risks, challenges and complex situations (DfE, 2021).
This project is funded by Hampshire and Isle of Wight VRU and therefore the whole programme is free to schools.
For more information and to book in delivery dates, please contact Angela Goswell at angelagoswell@artswork.org.uk.
Prevent newsletter and training |
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The latest regional Prevent newsletter includes new national training opportunities, advice on responding to the Israel/Hamas conflict and Prevent duty guidance amongst other support.
In terms of Prevent training, we recommend all frontline staff undertake training every three years which can be completed online.
For those with additional safeguarding responsibilities, we recommend staff attend a facilitated online session every two years. The dates for 2024 are:
- Tuesday 19 March 2024, 10am - 12pm
- Thursday 20 June 2024, 1pm - 3pm
- Tuesday 24 September 2024, 10am - 12pm
- Thursday 5 December 2024, 10am - 12pm
To reserve a place, please email the Learning and Development team at: LearningandDevelopment@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.
Introducing the new 'Supporting service children and families in Portsmouth' toolkit |
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Portsmouth is a proud naval city where 58 out of 60 schools receive Service Pupil Premium for children in their schools. Unlike many other local authorities, our service children are not concentrated in a small number of schools but are spread throughout the city's schools. A poll carried out by the Portsmouth Parent Board highlighted a lack of awareness about what service children experience, what they need and how they can be best supported.
This, combined with the new statutory duty that compels schools to demonstrate due regard to the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant led to the development of the Toolkit for schools: supporting service children and families in Portsmouth.
Put together by Caron Wallace (Chair Portsmouth Parent Board) and Caitriona Scully (Senior Educational Psychologist), the toolkit provides a 'one-stop shop' for schools to help them understand what service children experience and why service children need support. It outlines how to support service children in schools and make best use of Service Pupil Premium funding. It details useful information about good practice locally, organisations, resources and support available.
We are delighted that this toolkit is being funded with support from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust’s Armed Forces Families Service Pupils Support Programme. All schools will receive copies of the toolkit and toolkit workshops will be available to school staff in 2024.
For further information or any queries, please email Caitriona.Scully@portsmouth.gov.uk.
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School improvement
Let's get families to recognise their school superheroes! |
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 Teach Portsmouth are encouraging families to send a special thank you to staff in schools who have gone above and beyond the call of duty. To help promote this initiative, Teach Portsmouth are asking schools to share this information with parents and carers directly, inside email newsletters and on social media, to increase engagement and the number of thank you messages.
There is no restriction on who can be thanked (as long as the individual still works at the school - so the message can reach them). To say thank you, families visit the Teach Portsmouth website and complete an online form where their message will be sent directly to the team. The deadline for thank you messages is Wednesday 14 February 2024.
Thank you messages will be shared with schools in June 2024, on a printed document alongside other goodies. Please share this information with your families and help us recognise school superheroes in the city.
Exhibit at the Teach Portsmouth Jobs and Opportunities Fair 2024 |
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The city's largest recruitment fair for education jobs returns to Portsmouth Guildhall on Monday 26 February 2024 from 10am - 2pm. Over 24 exhibitors will promote jobs, training and volunteering opportunities in schools and colleges across the city.
We would welcome early interest from schools looking to promote teaching, learning assistant and wider support vacancies. Over 200 people came through the bronze doors of Guildhall last year. For more information on exhibiting, please visit the Portsmouth Education Partnership website today!
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Fully funded National Professional Qualifications for your school staff |
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Applications are now open for Education Development Trust’s (EDT) and Best Practice Network (BPN) National Professional Qualifications (NPQ) February 2024 cohorts.
The Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Southampton and Portsmouth (HISP) Teaching School Hub is your local Teaching School Hub offering high quality professional development opportunities to the full range of the teaching workforce. In addition to offering Appropriate Body Services and delivering the Early Career Framework to support schools in meeting the statutory requirements for the induction of early career teachers, we are a local delivery partner of the fully reformed suite of National Professional Qualifications (NPQs).
NPQs are specialist and leadership professional development qualifications for teachers, school leaders and aspiring school leaders that will support the professional development of your staff and empower them to create positive change in your setting.
HISP Teaching School Hub is pleased to be continuing in partnership with Education Development Trust (EDT) to deliver the full suite of NPQs, including the new NPQ in Leading Primary Mathematics.
NPQs can cost up to £4095 each, so make use of the DfE funding (which has only been confirmed for the 2023-24 academic year) while it is available! There is no limit to how many full NPQ scholarships can be awarded to a single school.
If you have any questions or queries regarding NPQs, please email npqs@hisptsh.org.
The Girls' Network |
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The Girls’ Network is an award-winning charity working to inspire and empower girls aged 14-19 from the least advantaged communities, by connecting them with a 1:1 mentor and a network of professional female role models. We partner with schools and colleges across Hampshire to deliver our transformational mentoring programmes, helping girls to grow their confidence, aspirations, motivation, skills and access to opportunities for their futures.
“I would highly recommend The Girls’ Network to any school looking to provide their disadvantaged students with a much-needed boost for their future. I have seen students grow in confidence and doors have been opened that they either hadn’t considered before or had thought were closed to them. Students are given help over a sustained period of time, which results in access to cultural and social capital that they would not receive without it.” (Teacher)
Email Rebecca.Jewitt@thegirlsnetwork.org.uk to find out more.
Register for your free BBC micro:bits for primary schools |
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The BBC micro:bit – the next gen campaign aims to equip children with digital skills and includes free resources and teacher training that's available to primary schools across the UK.
More than 80% of primary schools have already registered for their free classroom set of pocket-sized computers and there’s still time for you to register if you haven’t already done so.
The micro:bits, lesson plans, resources and teacher training sessions are all completely free and very easy to use.
You have until Monday 18 December 2023 to register.
Research project opportunity: Digital Empowerment in Language Teaching |
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Schools are invited to help with a research project conducted by the universities of Reading and Southampton: Digital Empowerment in Language Teaching (DELTEA).
As part of the study, schools are needed who act as “controls”. They are looking specifically for year 5 classes who are learning French or Spanish.
Being a ‘control’ means that teachers in those schools carry on teaching their normal lessons but on two occasions their year 5 class does the same tasks as the children in the intervention schools. The tasks explore learning in: decoding, sounds, reading comprehension, vocabulary, creativity, motivation and empathy. Most of the tasks (apart from creativity) can be completed online via tablets or Chromebooks. The creativity task would involve a pen and paper activity (including drawing) which could then be posted or scanned.
The tasks would take place mid-late January 2024 (pre-test) and June-July 2024 (post-test).
If you join the research as a control school, you will receive £75 in funding for your choice of FL resources for your school. You would also receive free access from June 2024 to all the DELTEA professional development tools and the associated foreign language learning resources in either French, Spanish or both (digital stories with native speaker voiceovers and a phonics app with real-time pronunciation feedback).
If you’re interested in supporting the research by becoming a control school, please complete this short form.
Good Ofsted ratings for Stamshaw Infant Academy and King's Academy Northern Parade (Junior) |
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Congratulations to Stamshaw Infant Academy and King's Academy Northern Parade (Junior) for achieving 'Good' ratings following recent Ofsted inspections.
In their report for Stamshaw Infant Academy, inspectors highlighted:
"Pupils flourish at Stamshaw Infants. The tangible family ethos means that pupils love
coming to school and feel safe. They appreciate the high levels of care staff provide them.
The school values of ‘self-belief, respect, teamwork, creativity and success’ are evident in
pupils’ everyday experiences. Pupils’ conduct is exemplary. They are rightly proud of their school and embody leaders’ high expectations of them."
In their report for King's Academy Northern Parade (Junior), inspectors highlighted:
"Pupils are joyous in this warm, welcoming and inclusive school. Happiness is at the
heart of the school’s excellent work to boost well-being and mental health through
exceptional pastoral care. Many pupils benefit from calming activities and expert
help in the ‘dragon’s den’, supporting issues such as bereavement and anxiety. Pupils
are safe and enjoy warm relationships with staff who truly care about them."
Safety Box training
Portsmouth City Council is offering a Safety Box training session on Thursday 14 December 2023, 10.30am - 5pm at The Boxing Academy, Omega Centre, Omega Street, Somerstown.
Based on a session delivered earlier this year with positive feedback, we are working with the Safety Box team again to upskill our workforce in the city in learning creative and powerful skills to deal with difficult situations when dealing with young people. Using non-violent strategies, professionals will learn how to effectively avoid, control and de-escalate aggression and violent approaches.
This training will cover the following:
- knowing when a young person may become violent
- understanding hormones, fight, flight or freeze
- gross motor functional movement
- control and restraint of minors
- blocking against punches and deflection
- understanding danger zones
- personal safety and mental awareness
- reading body language
- avoiding blunt objects
- conflict resolution
The Safety Box F.A.S.T (Fear, Adrenalised, Stress, Training) defence courses shows participants how the body reacts under severe, adrenaline fuelled encounters and then how to turn that reaction into a positive outcome. The defences are practiced full-on against their padded ‘Bulletmen’!
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