CookIt! 2007: A Licence to Bake!
Do you know anyone aged between 8 and 14 are loves to bake? Then they can enter this year’s national cooking competition! To enter the Guild of Food Writers CookIt! competition, come up with a two course menu of main course and dessert. This year’s competition aims to encourage children to bake and one of the dishes on the menu must be an oven-baked dish, either savoury or sweet, such as a pastry pie, flan or cake.
Send in your recipes by Thursday 12 April 2007 for your chance to win fabulous prizes.
Six talented finalists will be chosen from the entrants of this nationwide competition to come to London on Thursday 24 May to prepare their meals in front of the judges in the BBC Good Food Magazine test kitchen. This year’s judges include celebrity chef Marcus Wareing (BBC Two’s Great British Menu), cookery writer Sophie Grigson, chef Mark Hix (Executive Chef, Caprice Holdings) and BBC Good Food Magazine’s Food Director Sara Buenfeld. Expenses are paid for the six finalists and an accompanying adult to attend the final judging in London.
The schools attended by each of the finalists this year will be invited to join the ‘Chefs Adopt a School’ scheme run by the Academy of Culinary Arts. Under the scheme, members of the Academy ‘adopt’ a school and teach primary and secondary school pupils at that school about food, where it comes from, how to taste and how to cook it.For further information go to www.gfw.co.uk/campaigns/cookit_main.html.
Chris

I had this message from Carol Stagg, who is Area Manager for the North West and is based at the Derek Fatchett CLC...

"I have been following your blog as I am a keen blogger but at present my blogs are for what I do outside of work. However, I have been interested to see who in education makes use of blogs. We need to help young people use them safely and creatively. I recently found this website when I was researching some information I needed. Interestingly, I noted it for three reasons: firstly the head concerned is the head where I went to school and is the high school I went to, although it was a girls school and had a different name; secondly he has a blog (English Blog), thirdly he taught at Garforth; thirdly, he also taught at Huntington School so you possibly knew him? His teacher resources are pretty extensive and not just about English. He also has some interesting hobbies and some very interesting and useful resources. The site is http://www.geoffbarton.co.uk. His brilliant blog can be accessed from this site."

Carol also added...
"You asked for comments on your site – content - a great record, but my thoughts are that it would benefit from some design support that would make it easier to view and more visibly attractive. Whilst this may not be a priority it does encourage readership."

I'll work on Carol's suggestions for improving the blog and would welcome other feedback, suggestions and helpful hints.
Chris

They say that strong, dynamic and proactive communication lies at the heart of an effective organisation...

I am told that only 7% of the messages we receive are the things we say. The other 93% is wrapped up in our body language, our tone of voice and our expressions. In a people organisation like ours we need to understand and practice the 93% rule. It’s really important that we understand how to communicate with our colleagues, with our schools and with our partners.

Here are a few practical tips you might like to consider:
¨ Smile;
¨ Listen and pay attention;
¨ Don’t interrupt or dismiss concerns;
¨ Use names;
¨ Focus and concentrate;
¨ Encourage;
¨ Give genuine praise;
¨ Take a personal interest;
¨ Spend time;
¨ Learn.

Simply be your brilliant best.
Chris

What a difference a day makes ...

110,000 children and young people in Leeds schools
18,000 colleagues in schools and Education Leeds
One hospice in Yorkshire for children and young people with life limiting conditions
250 children and young people across the county who benefit from Martin House’s care
£500 per week to offer care, support and accommodation for a young person at Martin House

How can you help...
20p from every child and young person in Leeds schools...
plus
50p from every adult working in education in Leeds...
equals
£30,000 for Martin House.

You’ve already helped us to show that a little thing makes a big difference. Huge thanks to all those schools who have helped us raise our first £10,000 for this very worthwhile cause. We hope many more of you will join us in another big push to raise more.

What a difference a day makes ...
Chris

One of our greatest challenges here in Leeds is to improve the health and well-being of our children and young people...

The Be Healthy! 2007 campaign represents a truly city-wide push to build on all the excellent work which is being done to make Leeds a healthier place, including our Leeds Healthy Schools Standard, and Be Healthy! 2006. Be Healthy! 2007 was launched on Friday... children and young people from schools in Leeds were joined by Leeds Rhino star, Nick Scruton for the launch which also let schools know how they can take part in Be Healthy! 2007 - an initiative encouraging children and young people to devise and take their own challenge to either increase physical activity, eat more healthily or improve their emotional wellbeing.

Last year over 135 schools and 40,000 children and young people took part in the Be Healthy! Challenge. The initiative encouraged various activities across the city aimed at improving health such as sports events, telling a joke a day, swapping crisps for healthy snacks and taking part in a laugh-a-thon, crunch-a-thon or skip-a-thon. Being healthy is a choice - like swapping fatty snacks for an apple - and we’re working together with our partners across the city to make it an easy one for young people to make. We want all our children and young people to be happy, healthy, safe and successful.

Our wonderful schools and their brilliant School Councils are central to this work, and we're hoping to build on last year's 135 schools and 40,000 young people that took on their own "Be Healthy!" challenge and make this year's new campaign even more successful.

How are you going to get involved?
Chris

I missed a very important session on Saturday which my colleague Rehana Minhas covered for me. Rehana sent me this message this morning...

"We had a very successful conference and launch of the extended services toolkit on Saturday 7th March at Weetwood Hall. The event was attended by representatives from the Governors' and Headteachers' Forum. The contributions from colleagues, as well as the quality and level of debate, were energising and focused on the next steps. Congratulations to Mark Hopkins, Malcolm Lister, Angela Cox and Graham Septhon for their vision and motivating many other colleagues to contribute to the excellent toolkit. Paul Hudson's work in making the electronic toolkit user friendly was greatly appreciated by all at the event."

Thanks to Rehana and everyone involved for delivering what sounds like an excellent event.
Chris

I have been reflecting on the challenges we face, the rapidly changing landscape and the lack of certainty or clarity about the future...

To drive way the dark clouds we must simply remember what have achieved together over the last six years… something unique and very special… an education service that is delivering better and better outcomes for children and young people. Together we have changed the learning landscape here in this wonderful city and made a real difference. However, we can’t be complacent in this rapidly changing world and we must continue to raise the bar, to step up and to always strive to be brilliant in everything we do. We must be positive, confident, optimistic and creative… and practise, practise, practise!

Our key job over the next few months must be to ensure that we are pragmatic and focused on outcomes… we must get things done in the time available and process the things that need to be done as fast as possible. Always remember the 80:20 rule because there are always more important things to do and perfection simply isn’t achievable.

We must all be in touch with what is going on… we must listen more, get out and about and see what is happening. We must be brave and remember that it’s not just what you do, it’s the way that you do it that matters… and we must above all continue to talk team and retain our sense of humour.

We must work with positive people whenever we can… pick out the optimists and those who love life and join their teams. We must, wherever possible, avoid people who are cynical and depressing to be with. And we must never be defensive about our mistakes and failures… the only people who don’t make mistakes are those who do nothing, say nothing and are nothing.

And remember to…
¨ Focus but also remember to relax;
¨ Smile and laugh at life;
¨ Read and learn;
¨ Hug a friend;
¨ Celebrate real excellence and always say thank you;
¨ Share your experiences and your successes;
¨ Search for ways to have fun;
¨ Work hard but wear comfortable shoes!
¨ Breathe deeply when the going gets tough.
¨ Stretch and exercise regularly.
¨ Get cross and stamp your feet.
¨ Dance and sing;
¨ Touch your toes.
¨ Get enough sleep.
¨ Regularly take a break.
¨ Clean up the clutter.
¨ Get some sunshine.
¨ Count your blessings.
¨ Don’t dwell on the negatives.
¨ Never lie about anything important.

Always remember that you are here to learn.
Write it on your T-shirt!
Chris

“Never underestimate the power of ONE or the power of TEAM!”

We need to remember that we are creative individuals and talented learners with enormous potential and that wherever we are in this organisation we are part of a brilliant team. We must continue to build and support brilliant learning places for all our children and young people. We must come together to do this working across teams, across communities and across cultures. We must strike a spark that releases the passion and produces a special kind of magic… whatever it takes. Interestingly, I heard on the grapevine that the STEPS courses are going down really well...

I heard that the course facilitated by Anne Pennington George and Claire Norris was awesome and the feedback from colleagues attending the courses has been fantastic. The programme's success critically depends on the facilitators who I know are passionate advocates of STEPS and Investment in Excellence. I am graetful to the team of colleagues who are working on this great programme and particularly the following colleagues who have stepped in during the absence of a key colleague... Frances Bernstein, Brian Hogg, Joan Haines, Til Wright and Marcia Harding.

We must never underestimate what we can achieve as individuals… the power of one... and together as teams. There are hundreds of things you can do to make a difference. Here’s my list…

• Accept invitations and requests;
• Celebrate the positives;
• Learn from mistakes;
• Hug friends;
• Smile at strangers;
• Always say thank you;
• Share successes;
• Run, dance and sing;
• Recycle good ideas;
• Find ways to have fun.

Why not make your own list and send it to me.

Keep the faith...
Chris

I went to Fountain Primary School on Friday...

In February, Leeds Learning Network ran an Internet Safety Poster Competition in support of International Safer Internet Day 2007. They had a tremendous response from students across the city with over 300 entries. The winner was eight year old Sarah Caton from Fountain Primary School. Sarah won a copy of the Microsoft Student software for every member of her class and her poster has been printed and sent to all 450 education and learning centres which form part of the Leeds Learning Network. Sarah received her prize at a special assembly at the school on Friday afternoon.... and the poster is simply brilliant!
Chris

I am a strong supporter of Fairtrade and I was delighted to hear from Corinne Latham, Deputy Headteacher and Year 6 teacher at All Saints CE Primary School in Otley. Corinne wanted me to know that the school had been awarded the prize for Outstanding Achievement in the Leeds Schools Fairtrade Fortnight Competition. Well done to everyone in Year 6!
Chris
P.S. If you want to find out more about fairtrade in Leeds visit http://www.fairtradeleeds.org/