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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
National ELSA Quality Mark once again achieved by Portsmouth for 2024 |
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We are pleased to announce that the ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) project in Portsmouth has once again been awarded the ELSA Quality Mark for 2024.
This recognises the high standard the Educational Psychology team provide in the planning, delivery and evaluation of ELSA training and supervision.
ELSA has been particularly relevant in Portsmouth schools post-Covid and continues to be so, enabling children and young people to manage their emotions and move forward with confidence. The team has also had excellent feedback from ELSAs themselves about the supportiveness and helpfulness of their supervision sessions.
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Challenging racism in our schools |
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Colleagues will be aware of the anti-racism toolkit.
We are delivering training to support anti-racism work in schools. This will be an opportunity to develop awareness, consider curriculum input and how to respond to unplanned incidents.
Schools are invited to send one or more delegates to these sessions. As well as delivering the content we will share the materials and resources so that attendees can cascade the training in school.
The training will take place on Friday 12 July 2024 at the Civic Offices:
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9am - 11.30am for primary delegates
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1pm - 3.30pm for secondary delegates
Please sign up to join either of these sessions using the online form.
School improvement
An opportunity to perform with the Cathedral choir |
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A new song is in the process of being written for the Cathedral choir and there is an opportunity for a small number primary aged singers to join the performance.
Places will be subject to audition, all rehearsals will need to be attended at the Cathedral and singers will need to be available during the day on Wednesday 5 June 2024.
The song will need to be learnt from memory in a very short space of time and all singers will require full media consent.
Please contact David Price at Portsmouth Cathedral for further details by Friday 26 April 2024 if you would like any of your children to be considered: David.Price@portsmouthcathedral.org.uk
Please note that schools will be responsible for travel costs and providing a DBS-checked staff member to supervise. We apologise for the short notice.
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Computing training for new primary computing leads and non-specialist teachers/TAs in secondary |
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Following a range of requests from schools, two additional training sessions will be held in summer term 2 to help prepare for the next academic year.
Leading the primary computing curriculum | Monday 10 June 2024, 9.30am - 3.30pm
Hosted by Nicci Sawdy at St Paul's Catholic Primary School, this course has been designed for those teachers who are new to leading the primary computing curriculum.
This course will help new primary computing leaders to clarify their role and develop and implement a broad and balanced curriculum. You will learn how best to lead the improvement of computing teaching and learning, and to ensure assessment and monitoring is consistent across your school.
Computing for non-specialist teachers at secondary | Monday 8 July 2024, 9am - 3pm
Hosted by Ryan Gibson at UTC Portsmouth, this course has been designed for those teachers and TAs who are new to teaching computing at KS3. It may also be suitable for any maths or science teachers who are keen to teach the subject or develop their expertise.
For key stage 3 computing teachers who are new or existing to the subject. This CPD covers the key subject knowledge topics required to teach the computing key stage 3 programme of study.
Courses are offered free of charge with subsidies available.
Please register your place using the online form by Friday 23 May 2024.
Outdoor learning update from Hampshire Outdoors |
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The latest Hampshire Outdoors newsletter is now available. This edition focuses on delivering your curriculum outdoors. Outdoor Classroom Day on Thursday 23 May 2024 provides a great opportunity for the whole school to get outdoors for learning.
There are plenty of free outdoor learning curriculum resources available on the Trailblazer website. It is easy to search by curriculum subject and/or key stage.
With curriculum outdoor learning in mind, save the date for the Hampshire Outdoors’ 2024 Outdoor Learning Conference which will be on Wednesday 6 November 2024. It will be held at King Edward VI Preparatory School, Romsey, SO51 9ZH. As usual, it will be packed with practical workshops and ideas to support you using your outdoor space for teaching and learning and to ‘Make every school day an outdoor day’! More details and booking information will follow soon.
Another date for your diary is the next Hampshire Outdoor Learning Group meeting which will be taking place on Tuesday 11 June 2024 at Knightwood Primary School in Chandler’s Ford, SO53 4HW. Please contact Tara Kennard at t.kennard@knightwood.hants.sch.uk if you would like to attend and/or showcase an activity.
Exhibitors hail Teach Portsmouth Support and Teaching Assistant Jobs Fair a success |
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Schools, academies, training providers and council services hailed the Teach Portsmouth Support and Teaching Assistant Jobs Fair a success with over 100 people attending the event at Central Library on Tuesday 23 April 2024.
Those who attended watched short presentations on how to become a teaching assistant. The Learning Place, HSDC and the City of Portsmouth College also showcased functional skills, level two and level three qualifications to support those into the classroom.
Taster sessions were also offered, giving people the chance to build their experience and confidence before applying for a job. Attendees found the event useful with many using it as an opportunity to find out more information about careers in the classroom.
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Year 6 to 7 transition - information sharing |
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In order to streamline the requests that are sent to primary and junior schools and increase the consistency of information received by secondary schools, we are trialling a centralised system for this academic year. This was discussed at secondary heads and heads briefing and there was full agreement in principle.
We ask that all Portsmouth schools support this trial and we welcome your feedback on how effective it is.
Primary and junior schools have received (via SSE) a spreadsheet with information on year 6 pupils and which secondary school we are expecting them to transfer to in September. Secondary schools will also receive the information on the pupils that have been allocated spaces with them for year 7.
The columns highlighted in yellow are currently blank. These are for information on expected attainment levels, learning behaviours, interaction, social skills etc. There is a tab with level descriptors around SEMH needs, these have been taken from the SEN Profile of Need and should help to give more consistency on the descriptions used.
Primary colleagues are asked to complete the columns highlighted in yellow, and upload to the completed sheet to SSE by Friday 10 May 2024 and email Erin.Blanford@portsmouthcc.gov.uk to let us know when this has been completed.
We will then centrally collate and distribute the information to each of the secondary schools including the information provided by the primary schools.
For pupils with EHCPs and those on the vulnerable children tracking lists, please continue to provide all of the additional support and liaison needed to facilitate their transition to secondary schools.
Secondary colleagues are asked to hold off contacting primary schools directly for information on the majority of children until they have received this centralised data, which will be with them by the end of May at the latest.
We are still planning to hold "speed networking" events on the 6 and 13 June. Further information on these will be shared as soon as we have finalised which secondary schools are available to attend each of these dates.
For any questions, please contact Sarah.Christopher@portsmouthcc.gov.uk, Amanda.Percy@portsmouthcc.gov.uk or Neil.Stevenson@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.
Green grants for schools |
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Thank you to all who responded to our school grounds and climate change questionnaire. We are responding to all schools individually. A number of teachers were interested in sources of funding.
The Green and Healthy City Team will be visiting schools who indicated they were looking for support with an assessment of their grounds. Please don’t hesitate to email Felicity.Harris@portsmouthcc.gov.uk should you require further information.
Youth advisor and summer play worker opportunities |
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The Play and Youth Service are looking for:
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Casual youth advisors - Are you friendly and approachable, with the ability to make and maintain effective relationships with young people? Want to make a valuable difference? This is a casual position working as and when required supporting young people aged between 11 -19 years and up to 25 for SEND.
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Summer play workers - We are looking for enthusiastic, fun and friendly people who have the ability to engage with children and their families to join us as summer play workers this year! This is a really rewarding role where you will be supporting activities for children ages 6-13 over the summer holidays at council run adventure playgrounds.
The closing date is Monday 13 May 2024. Please share these opportunities with anyone who might be interested.
Household Support Fund April-September 2024 |
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The Government is providing a further six months of Household Support Fund grant, for the council to provide local welfare support between April and September 2024. In Portsmouth we fund a range of support, including advice on the cost of living, help from the voluntary sector including food banks and community pantries, and schemes that some families will be able to apply to.
We're really grateful to Portsmouth schools for distributing supermarket voucher codes to families of children eligible for free school meals, and we would like to again provide a voucher during the summer term 2024. These vouchers will be worth £60 per eligible child, and are intended to help families manage increasing food costs, and the impact this has on household budgets. Further information on distributing these vouchers will be sent to schools in June.
More information on Household Support Fund and how families can access support will be published on the Portsmouth City Council website. Anyone living in Portsmouth can find information and advice to help with the cost of living on the Cost of living hub. Anyone not able to access information online or needing additional support can ring the cost of living helpline, available 9am - 5pm weekdays (closes 4.30pm Fridays), on 023 9284 1047.
Foster Care Fortnight |
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To mark Foster Care Fortnight (13 - 26 May), Foster Portsmouth will be lighting up the city's iconic buildings once again with our brand colours and flying our flag outside Portsmouth City Council's Civic Offices.
We'll also be holding a drop-in foster carer recruitment event on Saturday 18 May 2024 at the Holiday Inn Express – Portsmouth North at Farlington from 10am - 1pm where you can learn more about the positive impact you could make to the lives of Portsmouth's vulnerable children and young people, and to talk directly to existing foster carers about the rewards fostering can bring.
There’s no need to book, simply drop-in between 10am - 1pm.
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