I started the day at the David Young Community Academy...
We were at the Academy for the Education Leeds Board Meeting and for the opportunity for members of the Board to look around the new Academy. Ros McMullen, the Principal of the David Young Community Academy, showed us around her fantastic building. The atmosphere, the culture and ethos, the discipline, the management, the team and the students were impressive to say the least. Attendance is improving, exclusions are coming down and the results are fantastic. The Academy is a brilliant addition to the learning landscape in East Leeds! On the basis of this visit who wouldn't want more Academies in Leeds!
Chris
Wednesday, 8 October 2008
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
I met the Swedish group again this evening,,,
We had arranged a Civic Reception for the group at the Civic Hall with the Lord Mayor which Cllr Richard Harker also managed to attend. The group had a great day and were bowled over by the workshops and the visits to Notre Dame Sixth Form College and Park Spring Primary School. This is a very talented group of Swedish politicians and educators who are really interested in our work on Healthy Schools, Inclusion Chartermark, Stephen Lawrence and ICT and I hope that the relationship with Sollentuna will continue to develop.
Chris
We had arranged a Civic Reception for the group at the Civic Hall with the Lord Mayor which Cllr Richard Harker also managed to attend. The group had a great day and were bowled over by the workshops and the visits to Notre Dame Sixth Form College and Park Spring Primary School. This is a very talented group of Swedish politicians and educators who are really interested in our work on Healthy Schools, Inclusion Chartermark, Stephen Lawrence and ICT and I hope that the relationship with Sollentuna will continue to develop.
Chris
I went to the official opening of the new building at Great Preston CE Primary School...
The ceremony was another opportunity for Bishop James, Bishop of Knaresborough to celebrate this little school coming together on one site and now in its new early years building. The 'ribbon' was cut by Mareea Yeomans former headteacher at Great Preston CE Infant School. It has taken three years and there is still some work to do to finish off the building but the new building is fantastic and I was delighted to see the bright new classrooms, new toilets, new staffroom and the nursery provision!
Well done to everyone involved.
Chris
The ceremony was another opportunity for Bishop James, Bishop of Knaresborough to celebrate this little school coming together on one site and now in its new early years building. The 'ribbon' was cut by Mareea Yeomans former headteacher at Great Preston CE Infant School. It has taken three years and there is still some work to do to finish off the building but the new building is fantastic and I was delighted to see the bright new classrooms, new toilets, new staffroom and the nursery provision!
Well done to everyone involved.
Chris
I started the day at the Carriageworks with a group of colleagues from Sollentuna in Sweden...
My colleague Allyn Pazienza has organised a brilliant couple of days for our guests: with workshop sessions covering inclusion, equality, health, ICT, and leadership and visits to Notre Dame Sixth Form College, Park Spring Primary School, Derek Fatchett City Learning Centre, Carr Manor Primary School and Carr Manor High School. I'll let you know what they think.
Chris
My colleague Allyn Pazienza has organised a brilliant couple of days for our guests: with workshop sessions covering inclusion, equality, health, ICT, and leadership and visits to Notre Dame Sixth Form College, Park Spring Primary School, Derek Fatchett City Learning Centre, Carr Manor Primary School and Carr Manor High School. I'll let you know what they think.
Chris
Another week, another country...
Finland gets some of the best results in the world and the best results in Europe so I spent three days in Helsinki at the beginning of last week searching for the magic ingredient, only to discover that it isn't there. What I discovered and of course what I already knew is that the magic is already here - it's just unevenly distributed.
On my two days back in Leeds at the end of last week I had breakfast with some great colleagues, visited Wykebeck Primary School, heard about the West Oak Partnership's innovation award, heard about Dinneka Smillie's success at the National Aimhigher Awards and visited the Elmete and Blenheim Centres.
So what is the answer? What builds brilliant? Of course it's brilliant people... colleagues like Peter Harris, Georgina Winterburn, Jane Fisher, Andrew Hodkinson, Jenny Millington, Richard Boughey, Ken Campbell and many more... colleagues whose leadership, passion, enthusiasm, energy, persistence, determination and hard work are transforming learning and our learning places.
What are you doing to build brilliant and release the magic?
Chris
Finland gets some of the best results in the world and the best results in Europe so I spent three days in Helsinki at the beginning of last week searching for the magic ingredient, only to discover that it isn't there. What I discovered and of course what I already knew is that the magic is already here - it's just unevenly distributed.
On my two days back in Leeds at the end of last week I had breakfast with some great colleagues, visited Wykebeck Primary School, heard about the West Oak Partnership's innovation award, heard about Dinneka Smillie's success at the National Aimhigher Awards and visited the Elmete and Blenheim Centres.
So what is the answer? What builds brilliant? Of course it's brilliant people... colleagues like Peter Harris, Georgina Winterburn, Jane Fisher, Andrew Hodkinson, Jenny Millington, Richard Boughey, Ken Campbell and many more... colleagues whose leadership, passion, enthusiasm, energy, persistence, determination and hard work are transforming learning and our learning places.
What are you doing to build brilliant and release the magic?
Chris
My colleague Geoff Roberts sent me this wonderful piece of news...
"Hi Chris, hope all is well with you. I just wonder if anyone has let you know that the NW SILC, specifically the Penny Field site, is into the final 8 for the Yorkshire allocation of Peoples Million from TheBigLottery Fund. I only just found this out and I am Vice-Chair, so I suspect that the great news is not out there yet. Even if we don’t win, it is great news to have simply got this far and I know that it has got the staff buzzing already. Best Wishes, Geoff"
This is wonderful for the NW SILC. Let's all hope that we win!
Chris
"Hi Chris, hope all is well with you. I just wonder if anyone has let you know that the NW SILC, specifically the Penny Field site, is into the final 8 for the Yorkshire allocation of Peoples Million from TheBigLottery Fund. I only just found this out and I am Vice-Chair, so I suspect that the great news is not out there yet. Even if we don’t win, it is great news to have simply got this far and I know that it has got the staff buzzing already. Best Wishes, Geoff"
This is wonderful for the NW SILC. Let's all hope that we win!
Chris
Monday, 6 October 2008
Perhaps it's me, but after another day and another National Strategies meeting I sometimes wonder if I am living on the same planet as everyone else...
We had a meeting this afternoon where nineteen Leeds colleagues and six National Strategies colleagues watched by Government Office spent three hours to reach the conclusion that we need to continue to address standards in the Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4.
Perhaps it's simply accountability. For me it's about trust and respect. Surely we can accept and understand that everyone in that room wants to improve outcomes for all our children. Surely we can recognise the talent and the ability sitting in that room and the difference these colleagues are making... most of them are doing it day-in and day-out in some of the most challenging contexts and communities. Surely we don't have to constantly go over the issues with a group of people who don't really understand our context, our culture and our challenges.
Perhaps it's me but I simply can't bear to work out what the meeting cost and I daren't ask myself what difference it made to provision in schools here in Leeds because I already know the answer!
Chris
We had a meeting this afternoon where nineteen Leeds colleagues and six National Strategies colleagues watched by Government Office spent three hours to reach the conclusion that we need to continue to address standards in the Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4.
Perhaps it's simply accountability. For me it's about trust and respect. Surely we can accept and understand that everyone in that room wants to improve outcomes for all our children. Surely we can recognise the talent and the ability sitting in that room and the difference these colleagues are making... most of them are doing it day-in and day-out in some of the most challenging contexts and communities. Surely we don't have to constantly go over the issues with a group of people who don't really understand our context, our culture and our challenges.
Perhaps it's me but I simply can't bear to work out what the meeting cost and I daren't ask myself what difference it made to provision in schools here in Leeds because I already know the answer!
Chris
Sunday, 5 October 2008
My colleague Shelagh Dixon, our Active Schools Development Officer, showed me her latest work to promote happy, healthy active lunchtimes...
The materials details the support, resources and courses for schools covering aspects from anti-bullying to first aid and Heartstart, from emotional health and well-being to TimetoPlay, from peer mentoring to play area organisation. The materials are supported by a fantastic register of exemplar schools willing to share their effective practice.
Shelagh and her colleagues have produced a really powerful toolkit that will help every school develop happy, healthy, active lunchtimes. For more information go to InfoBase quick code D1702.
Chris
The materials details the support, resources and courses for schools covering aspects from anti-bullying to first aid and Heartstart, from emotional health and well-being to TimetoPlay, from peer mentoring to play area organisation. The materials are supported by a fantastic register of exemplar schools willing to share their effective practice.
Shelagh and her colleagues have produced a really powerful toolkit that will help every school develop happy, healthy, active lunchtimes. For more information go to InfoBase quick code D1702.
Chris
Young people from across Leeds are just back from Los Angeles where they've been rubbing shoulders with Nobel Peace laureates at the international 'Peace Jam'...
The 'Peace Jam' initiative enables young people from across the world to meet with and learn from Nobel Peace laureates, then be mentored to become peace-builders in their communities. This year forty students from six schools – South Leeds High School, Abbey Grange CE High School, Brigshaw High School, Garforth Community College, Otley Prince Henry's Grammar School and Intake High School and Arts College - attended the event.
If you want to find out more visit the Together for Peace website at www. togetherforpeace.co.uk.
Chris
The 'Peace Jam' initiative enables young people from across the world to meet with and learn from Nobel Peace laureates, then be mentored to become peace-builders in their communities. This year forty students from six schools – South Leeds High School, Abbey Grange CE High School, Brigshaw High School, Garforth Community College, Otley Prince Henry's Grammar School and Intake High School and Arts College - attended the event.
If you want to find out more visit the Together for Peace website at www. togetherforpeace.co.uk.
Chris
My colleague Peter Harris, headteacher at Farsley Farfield Primary School sent me this over the weekend...
"Dear Chris, I had a meeting with Richard Boughey yesterday and it was a thoroughly inspiring and interesting 75 minutes. Such meetings are rare. It probably helped that we seemed to share a wider interest in energy efficiency/greener ways of working. We were also both very concerned about the 'digital divide' and we are committed to finally addressing this.
I do think that we have lacked leadership as regards ICT for a number of years - I'm not sure that primary school head teachers generally understand what Education Leeds' vision for the future is. The structure for ICT leadership and dissemination of information is vague and relatively ineffective I think. The funding for INSET in ICT compares very, very unfavourably with the level of input into other National Strategies initiatives that will see most teachers getting a couple of days training in maths and literacy over the next two terms with supply cover included. With this in mind, it seems sad that my head teacher colleagues have insisted that the Harnessing Technology grant is devolved almost entirely to schools. That will probably just shift a few more boxes at RM or PC World - where is the innovation? Where is the reflection? What was your line on this? I know that you like to avoid controversial subjects like this on your blog, but you do have influence!
As regards my own school, I continue to be delighted by the huge efforts of my teachers every week to summarise the content of their lessons and set homework on the (under-funded) learning platform. Feedback from parents is very good. We regularly link to video resources, online games and class photo galleries. We have subscribed ourselves to Education City, including the Homework Module, and each child has taken home their own Pass Card. We are also using Lexia Reading online at home with selected children. I shall use my share of the Harnessing Technology grant to buy a few laptops with 3G internet connection to lend to my poorest families whilst we wait for Family IT vouchers to hopefully gallop over the horizon next financial year. I also disagree with my headteacher colleague about email - I find it very quick to use, especially with the new email client from LLN that has recent recipients in the left hand pane. I like to see what my colleagues are receiving - perhaps I am a control freak? Deleting and forwarding email is very quick. Best wishes, Peter"
I think Peter is right and he lays down a challenge to all of us. I know Richard Boughey and colleagues are working to develop ownership and engagement with headteachers around the development of ICT across Leeds. But, perhaps we haven't had enough leadership in this critical area which has the potential to transform learning and learning outcomes and is massively under-resourced by all of us; in terms of development, training and investment. And, you are right that the answer isn't to divide up the funding so that everyone can buy another couple of laptops. So how do we tackle this and drive the development of ICT for learning across Leeds?
Chris
"Dear Chris, I had a meeting with Richard Boughey yesterday and it was a thoroughly inspiring and interesting 75 minutes. Such meetings are rare. It probably helped that we seemed to share a wider interest in energy efficiency/greener ways of working. We were also both very concerned about the 'digital divide' and we are committed to finally addressing this.
I do think that we have lacked leadership as regards ICT for a number of years - I'm not sure that primary school head teachers generally understand what Education Leeds' vision for the future is. The structure for ICT leadership and dissemination of information is vague and relatively ineffective I think. The funding for INSET in ICT compares very, very unfavourably with the level of input into other National Strategies initiatives that will see most teachers getting a couple of days training in maths and literacy over the next two terms with supply cover included. With this in mind, it seems sad that my head teacher colleagues have insisted that the Harnessing Technology grant is devolved almost entirely to schools. That will probably just shift a few more boxes at RM or PC World - where is the innovation? Where is the reflection? What was your line on this? I know that you like to avoid controversial subjects like this on your blog, but you do have influence!
As regards my own school, I continue to be delighted by the huge efforts of my teachers every week to summarise the content of their lessons and set homework on the (under-funded) learning platform. Feedback from parents is very good. We regularly link to video resources, online games and class photo galleries. We have subscribed ourselves to Education City, including the Homework Module, and each child has taken home their own Pass Card. We are also using Lexia Reading online at home with selected children. I shall use my share of the Harnessing Technology grant to buy a few laptops with 3G internet connection to lend to my poorest families whilst we wait for Family IT vouchers to hopefully gallop over the horizon next financial year. I also disagree with my headteacher colleague about email - I find it very quick to use, especially with the new email client from LLN that has recent recipients in the left hand pane. I like to see what my colleagues are receiving - perhaps I am a control freak? Deleting and forwarding email is very quick. Best wishes, Peter"
I think Peter is right and he lays down a challenge to all of us. I know Richard Boughey and colleagues are working to develop ownership and engagement with headteachers around the development of ICT across Leeds. But, perhaps we haven't had enough leadership in this critical area which has the potential to transform learning and learning outcomes and is massively under-resourced by all of us; in terms of development, training and investment. And, you are right that the answer isn't to divide up the funding so that everyone can buy another couple of laptops. So how do we tackle this and drive the development of ICT for learning across Leeds?
Chris
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