I started the day at Little London Community Primary School for the Education Leeds Board Meeting...
It was great to be able to visit the school for the Board Meeting and to be able to show Board Members around the school with Jill Wood, headteacher. This little school is doing something extraordinary at the heart of the Little London community and everyone was deeply impressed at what we saw; the learning environment is brilliant, the children are wonderful, the school colleagues were fantastic and Jill was just Jill!
Chris
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Christmas Party!
Sadly, Christmas has been cancelled due to a lack of interest...
We have had to cancel this year's Education Leeds Christmas Party. Thanks to those colleagues who have worked so hard to organise and arrange for us to have a Christmas Party. Sorry to everyone who was hoping to come and have a great time. Maybe next year!Chris
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
I attended another of our induction sessions this lunchtime at the Derek Fatchett Centre...
These sessions always inspire me as I meet some great new colleagues who bring creativity, imagination, ideas and experience. They are some of our most positive, committed and enthusiastic colleagues since they have recently made the choice to join the 'A' team. The group were young, talented and gorgeous and were everything you would want in new colleagues.
Everyone of us, along with our children and young people, needs to be happy, healthy and safe to be increasingly successful. We need to continue to develop strong and highly effective leadership and a 'can do anything' culture that releases their potential, their magic, their passion and targets their hard work to make a real difference for our children and young people. We all need to coach, support and work with these new colleagues to release their potential and magic.
Chris
These sessions always inspire me as I meet some great new colleagues who bring creativity, imagination, ideas and experience. They are some of our most positive, committed and enthusiastic colleagues since they have recently made the choice to join the 'A' team. The group were young, talented and gorgeous and were everything you would want in new colleagues.
Everyone of us, along with our children and young people, needs to be happy, healthy and safe to be increasingly successful. We need to continue to develop strong and highly effective leadership and a 'can do anything' culture that releases their potential, their magic, their passion and targets their hard work to make a real difference for our children and young people. We all need to coach, support and work with these new colleagues to release their potential and magic.
Chris
Remember that each of you is unique!
A friend sent me this fantastic quote to cheer me up while we struggle with the OFSTED inspection of safeguarding and looked-after children's services here in Leeds...
"We have every reason to look forward into the future with hope and excitement. Fear nothing and no one. Work honestly. Be good, be happy. And remember that each of you is unique, your soul your own, irreplaceable, and individual in the miracle of your mortal frame."
"We have every reason to look forward into the future with hope and excitement. Fear nothing and no one. Work honestly. Be good, be happy. And remember that each of you is unique, your soul your own, irreplaceable, and individual in the miracle of your mortal frame."
Pearl S. Buck (Walsh): 1892-1973; Nobel Prize Laureate
The truth is that whatever this week brings we will all be here next week, working with and for our children, their families and their communities to ensure that they are happy, healthy, safe and increasingly successful... whatever it takes!
Chris
My colleague Helen Gibson Davies sent me this last night...
"Hello again Chris. We at Calverley Parkside are still singing and having fun with our music! We joined thousands of other children at Sheffield Arena on the 24th Nov to take part in the Young Voices concert. I took 38, Y5 and 6 children and four staff and we had a fantastic experience. Lots of parents made the journey and enjoyed every moment with us. This was a once in a lifetime experience for the children and one that will linger in their memories long after SATS results have faded! I love my job, I love being with the children, I love singing and making music with them and I sometimes despair of the political football that education is! But we all battle on trying our best and really caring about the children in our care. That is why we have so many children who return to visit us when they have moved on; they miss us they say!All I need is happy children who love to come to school and parents who think our school is great! Helen."
Helen is right all our primary schools should be magical places full of the WOW factor; places where every child should sing, dance, read, count, play and create. Keep up the great work Helen.
Chris
"Hello again Chris. We at Calverley Parkside are still singing and having fun with our music! We joined thousands of other children at Sheffield Arena on the 24th Nov to take part in the Young Voices concert. I took 38, Y5 and 6 children and four staff and we had a fantastic experience. Lots of parents made the journey and enjoyed every moment with us. This was a once in a lifetime experience for the children and one that will linger in their memories long after SATS results have faded! I love my job, I love being with the children, I love singing and making music with them and I sometimes despair of the political football that education is! But we all battle on trying our best and really caring about the children in our care. That is why we have so many children who return to visit us when they have moved on; they miss us they say!All I need is happy children who love to come to school and parents who think our school is great! Helen."
Helen is right all our primary schools should be magical places full of the WOW factor; places where every child should sing, dance, read, count, play and create. Keep up the great work Helen.
Chris
Monday, 30 November 2009
I picked up a copy of 'We Are The People We've Been Waiting For' in the Guardian on Saturday. I managed to watch it this evening...
"The world is changing rapidly but our education system is not keeping pace."
The film is an independent documentary, inspired and guided by Lord Puttnam and Sir Michael Barber, which explores the education system in the UK. The film follows five young people and asks whether our current system provides young people with the opportunity to develop their talents and abilities. Sir Richard Branson, Professor Germaine Greer, Henry Winkler, Bill Bryson and Sir Ken Robinson share their personal experiences in this thought-provoking film which offers us all a unique insight and reveals a very inconvenient truth about education. Everyone who cares about education and learning should watch this film which you can find at http://www.wearethepeoplemovie.com/.
The film argues for a strong investment in teaching and learning where we respect and trust colleagues to inspire young people but also argues for a new pedagogy of learning that values flexibility, creativity and alternative ways of doing things. It argues that we need to re-imagine teaching and learning and to re-invent the curriculum to unlock the potential and magic in each and every learner. We need to consider what is possible and how we reach all our young people through more experimental approaches. We need a new generation of teachers to coach, guide and support our young learners and to make better use of technology to stretch and challenge and connect with young peoples interests.
This is the basis of the Dalton method and the Kunskapsskolan approach where we personalise and customise learning to meet the needs of each and everyone of our unique learners. We will always need great teachers to teach great lessons but these must be surrounded by a sea of opportunities which individual learners can access, adapt and use to reach their personal goals.
Happy to discuss.
Chris
"The world is changing rapidly but our education system is not keeping pace."
The film is an independent documentary, inspired and guided by Lord Puttnam and Sir Michael Barber, which explores the education system in the UK. The film follows five young people and asks whether our current system provides young people with the opportunity to develop their talents and abilities. Sir Richard Branson, Professor Germaine Greer, Henry Winkler, Bill Bryson and Sir Ken Robinson share their personal experiences in this thought-provoking film which offers us all a unique insight and reveals a very inconvenient truth about education. Everyone who cares about education and learning should watch this film which you can find at http://www.wearethepeoplemovie.com/.
The film argues for a strong investment in teaching and learning where we respect and trust colleagues to inspire young people but also argues for a new pedagogy of learning that values flexibility, creativity and alternative ways of doing things. It argues that we need to re-imagine teaching and learning and to re-invent the curriculum to unlock the potential and magic in each and every learner. We need to consider what is possible and how we reach all our young people through more experimental approaches. We need a new generation of teachers to coach, guide and support our young learners and to make better use of technology to stretch and challenge and connect with young peoples interests.
This is the basis of the Dalton method and the Kunskapsskolan approach where we personalise and customise learning to meet the needs of each and everyone of our unique learners. We will always need great teachers to teach great lessons but these must be surrounded by a sea of opportunities which individual learners can access, adapt and use to reach their personal goals.
Happy to discuss.
Chris
This afternoon Ros Vahey, Dirk Gilleard and I met with Margaret Farrow HMI...
Margaret was interviewing us about our contribution to safeguarding and the educational outcomes of our looked after children. Ros, Dirk and I talked about the universal offer we make here in Leeds and its' critical importance to safeguarding. We looked at the range of targeted and focused initiatives we have developed from 'The Power of Me', 'Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month', the 'Stephen Lawrence Education Standard', the 'Inclusion Chartermark', 'Investors in Pupils', Leeds Healthy Schools, 'Stepping Stones', 'Leeds Mentoring' and the 'Virtual School for Looked After Children'.
We also talked about the outcomes we have achieved including a 10% increase for looked after children at the end of Key Stage 2 and a significant improvement for our looked after children at the end of Key Stage 4. We have also seen improvements in attendance and reductions in fixed term exclusions and feedback from our young people indicates that bullying is being reduced and tackled here in Leeds.
Chris
Margaret was interviewing us about our contribution to safeguarding and the educational outcomes of our looked after children. Ros, Dirk and I talked about the universal offer we make here in Leeds and its' critical importance to safeguarding. We looked at the range of targeted and focused initiatives we have developed from 'The Power of Me', 'Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month', the 'Stephen Lawrence Education Standard', the 'Inclusion Chartermark', 'Investors in Pupils', Leeds Healthy Schools, 'Stepping Stones', 'Leeds Mentoring' and the 'Virtual School for Looked After Children'.
We also talked about the outcomes we have achieved including a 10% increase for looked after children at the end of Key Stage 2 and a significant improvement for our looked after children at the end of Key Stage 4. We have also seen improvements in attendance and reductions in fixed term exclusions and feedback from our young people indicates that bullying is being reduced and tackled here in Leeds.
Chris
I sgtrted the day early at a meeting with Health and Safety Executive...
We were discussing what we should do to ensure that every school's construction work is carried out safely and that headteachers are trained and supported with this work. It is vitally important that we remember that headteachers hould be great at what they do best... teaching and learning... and should engage people who are great at project management to oversee and monitor the construction work on school sites. This is to ensure that no Leeds headteacher ends up facing a charge of corporate manslaughter because they failed to follow health and safety legislation.
We'll be letting schools know about the training and the new procedures as soon as possible.
Chris
We were discussing what we should do to ensure that every school's construction work is carried out safely and that headteachers are trained and supported with this work. It is vitally important that we remember that headteachers hould be great at what they do best... teaching and learning... and should engage people who are great at project management to oversee and monitor the construction work on school sites. This is to ensure that no Leeds headteacher ends up facing a charge of corporate manslaughter because they failed to follow health and safety legislation.
We'll be letting schools know about the training and the new procedures as soon as possible.
Chris
We need to continue to reflect, think, focus and stick to the basics... vision, discipline, focus, passion, engagement, creativity, partnerships, relationships and leadership. We must continue to nurture and support our learning teams to ensure that they continue to deliver for our children and young people so that every child is a reader and can count by seven, every child is a brilliant little learner by eleven and every young person is on a pathway to success by sixteen; whatever it takes...
This last week has been non stop; lunch with the OFSTED inspectors followed by the Yorkshire Bank 150th Anniversary Community Awards to present the education awards. Then Children's Services Leadership Team and Corporate Leadership Team before a visit to Yeadon Westfield Infant School and a meeting with Cabinet to look at the agenda for December's Executive Board Meeting before Sir Ken Robinson gave the fifth Education Leeds Annual Lecture at The Royal Armouries. Breakfast with the Seacroft Manston Family of Schools at John Smeaton Community College was followed by a visit to Millfield Primary School and a visit to Cookridge Primary School for their international celebration before I attended the Local Government Yorkshire and Humber Making a Difference Awards 2009. And finally a meeting with Leadership Team before meeting with Hilary Benn MP. What a week!
We need to ensure that we don't end up 'painting by numbers' in a world monitored, policed and controlled by the 'bean' counters and the 'keep within the line' checkers and the 'weigh the pig' consultants and that we avoid being trapped in a viscious spiral of negativity, of 'it's not good enough so let's do something else', of 'let's create another initiative', of 'let's get more consultants' and of 'let's make sure that we find someone to blame'.
Sir Ken Robinson reminded us all that these are dangerous times for those of us who understand that learning is a dynamic and creative process and that the current industrial model of schooling and 'command and control' doesn't work. To achieve transformational outcomes and to release the magic we need to do things differently; we need colleagues in schools facing the greatest challenges to feel trusted, empowered and supported to develop innovative and powerful ways of reaching and engaging learners!
We need to re-imagine learning for a digital age, as Dan Pink said "The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind... computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind - creators and empathisers, pattern recognisers and meaning makers. These people - artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers - will now reap society's richest rewards and share its greatest joys."
We need to continue the conversation and build learning places to deliver this new vision.
Chris
This last week has been non stop; lunch with the OFSTED inspectors followed by the Yorkshire Bank 150th Anniversary Community Awards to present the education awards. Then Children's Services Leadership Team and Corporate Leadership Team before a visit to Yeadon Westfield Infant School and a meeting with Cabinet to look at the agenda for December's Executive Board Meeting before Sir Ken Robinson gave the fifth Education Leeds Annual Lecture at The Royal Armouries. Breakfast with the Seacroft Manston Family of Schools at John Smeaton Community College was followed by a visit to Millfield Primary School and a visit to Cookridge Primary School for their international celebration before I attended the Local Government Yorkshire and Humber Making a Difference Awards 2009. And finally a meeting with Leadership Team before meeting with Hilary Benn MP. What a week!
We need to ensure that we don't end up 'painting by numbers' in a world monitored, policed and controlled by the 'bean' counters and the 'keep within the line' checkers and the 'weigh the pig' consultants and that we avoid being trapped in a viscious spiral of negativity, of 'it's not good enough so let's do something else', of 'let's create another initiative', of 'let's get more consultants' and of 'let's make sure that we find someone to blame'.
Sir Ken Robinson reminded us all that these are dangerous times for those of us who understand that learning is a dynamic and creative process and that the current industrial model of schooling and 'command and control' doesn't work. To achieve transformational outcomes and to release the magic we need to do things differently; we need colleagues in schools facing the greatest challenges to feel trusted, empowered and supported to develop innovative and powerful ways of reaching and engaging learners!
We need to re-imagine learning for a digital age, as Dan Pink said "The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind... computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind - creators and empathisers, pattern recognisers and meaning makers. These people - artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers - will now reap society's richest rewards and share its greatest joys."
We need to continue the conversation and build learning places to deliver this new vision.
Chris
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