VALLEY VIEW PRIMARY SCHOOL

This afternoon I visited Valley View Primary School...




It was brilliant to visit the school again and see what Sarah Griggs, the headteacher, and her team have achieved. They have transformed the school and built something extra-ordinary. The children were an amazing advert for this great school; positive, polite, respectful and well-behaved. The atmosphere and learning environment is fantastic; relationships are wonderful and the learning is simply amazing! I had my portrait painted by children in the early years and I was made a wonderfully magic tie by children in Year 3 and I was interviewed about my job by children in Years 5 and 6.

As someone who is always learning, I always ask myself questions after visiting schools like Valley View Primary School, whose learning journey has been simply amazing. What are Sarah and her team doing to release such magic? What is it that makes this little school so fantastic? What can we learn from what is happening here? The answers...

• Sarah's passionate and committed leadership;
• an inclusive learning culture within a highly focused and consistent system;
• a great teaching and learning team;
• clear values and beliefs driving all the work of the school;
• a focus on excellence, high standards and positive behaviour;
• outstanding teaching and learning;
• a positive, attractive and stimulating learning environment;
• high expectations and hard work!

This is a brilliant school with a great team led by a wonderful headteacher. Sarah Griggs and her learning team are doing an incredible job and have built something really amazing at Valley View Primary School .
Chris

WESTBROOK LANE PRIMARY SCHOOL

I visited Westbrook Lane Primary School this morning...

This is another outstanding little primary school where Joan Kay, headteacher, and her talented team are doing great things and releasing a very special magic. As someone who is always learning, I always ask myself after visiting schools like Westbrook Lane Primary School, what is it that makes this little school such a brilliant learning place and what can we learn from what Joan and her team are doing 

The answers...

• Joan's outstanding, focused and passionate leadership;
• an inclusive learning culture within a highly focused and consistent system;
• a great teaching and learning team;
• clear values and beliefs driving all the work of the school;
• a focus on excellence, high standards and positive behaviour;
• outstanding teaching;
• an attractive and stimulating learning environment;
• high expectations and hard work!

This is a brilliant school with a great team led by a great headteacher. Joan Kay and her learning team are doing an incredible job and have built something really wonderful at Westbrook Lane Primary School .
Chris

I have spent ten wonderful years here in Leeds and we have achieved extra-ordinary things together...

My last ten years have been incredible and wherever you look together we have transformed the learning landscape and achieved brilliant outcomes. I am deeply proud of what we have achieved; grateful for your support, encouragement and feedback and blessed to have been part of an experiment that has achieved so much. With the Education Leeds contract coming to an end, I have decided to leave Education Leeds at Christmas and my last working day will be 17 December.


THANK YOU
Chris

In case anyone out there missed it, Stephen Parkinson PhD, Professor Emeritus and Chairman of the Education Leeds Board, sent this message out yesterday...


"Dear Colleagues, Chris Edwards, Chief Executive of Education Leeds will be leaving the company on 31st December 2010. Chris has made an outstanding contribution to the work of Education Leeds in transforming the learning experience of young people in Leeds and the Board is very grateful for his visionary leadership and commitment over the years. Between now and the end of December there will be several opportunities to fully record our appreciation before Chris leaves. For now, many thanks Chris for a brilliant job, well done! Stephen Parkinson."

My colleague Richard Boughey who is our Transformation Programme Manager here at Education Leeds sent me this e-mail about our recent visitors from Stckholm...


"Hello Chris, Last week teachers from five schools in Sweden spent two days working with their partner schools in Leeds as part of a Comenius Regio project into the use of ICT to support learning outcomes. I had the privilege to sit into their collective working session on the last day of their visit and I’ve recorded just some of the amazing things I heard;

“I am gobsmacked, as you would say, ICT is a such a big part of the British curriculum and Sweden prides itself on being with companies such as Sony Erickson and yet children are left to their own devices. We can’t reach all the children like we saw in the school and I hope that somebody sees the light soon enough and changes it and included it in the national curriculum in Sweden”
“My strong impression is how dedicated the teachers are, I was really impressed by that, they worked hard and were so dedicated. This school is a safe haven, many didn’t want to leave school when is was over and wanted to stay.”
 “Lovely inspiration from everything we saw. It was fun all the time between teacher and student, very relaxed, they were both warm, soft and hard at the same time.”

“Went to visit the Grafton Learning Centre and I was personally very impressed with that as we don’t have anything like it in Sweden and then visited the hospital school which was even more impressive.”


“We took part in a pancake race and we saw this teacher who was so dedicated in what she was doing with those children and it was so much fun. They raced in their wheelchairs the assistant helping them flip the pancake, it was fantastic. We had a great time and met so many dedicated teachers and saw pupils that are so different from ours, but yet not.”

“The dedication of the teachers, wonderful pupils who were very curious about Sweden and interested in the projects. Everything is planned in so much detail, how do you think outside the box, but you obviously do.”


“The children were so polite and very curious about our Swedish kids and we are really looking forward to getting going on the project.”


As you know, projects like this are not easy to set up and occasions like this are truly inspirational because the hard work to get them going is repaid hundreds of times over by the enthusiasm of the participants, the excitement and the knowledge that so many young people in two countries will benefit. Thanks, Richard"


Visits like this remind us all that what really, really matters is the quality of the teams we build around our children and young people. We need trusted, empowered and talented colleagues to release the magic! We need to get out of this viscious spiral of negativity, of it's not good enough so let's do something else, let's create another intiative, let's get more academies when we really need to reflect, think and get back to basics so that every child attends a great school with  compelling vision, positive behaviour and discipline, a relentless focus on outcomes, passionate learning, strong engagement of parents and carers, great relationships between young people and their learning team and inspirational and distributed leadership. Let us nurture and support our learning teams to ensure that they deliver for our children and young people and let's take the best of what we do here in Leeds and learn from the best practice nationally and from Reggio Emilia, and from Sweden and Finland and Denmark and anywhere that will help us to build brilliant local provision.
Chris

MORE RECOGNITION!

I told you last week about the award Jo Speak at Cookridge Primary School received to celebrate excellence and innovation in international schools partnerships... 

These awards are organised by the British Council and supported by HSBC Global Education Trust  and when I visited the web-site today I discovered that Karen Kershaw from Bramley Primary School was also recognised. She was highly commended for her work as an international coordinator.


Karen is another brilliant colleague whose passion, enthusiasm, commitment and hard work shines through everything she does and I am delighted that she has also received this fantastic recognition.
Chris

The Kwik Fit Insurance Lollipop Person of the Year

Alec Shelbrooke MP sent me details about the Kwik Fit Insurance Lollipop Person of the Year campaign, which is open to all primary schools in the UK, which aims to find Britain’s favourite lollipop person...



The campaign, which attracted more than 19,000 entries last year, highlights the importance of having adequate supervision for children who have to cross roads on the way to school. A UK-wide survey of schoolchildren, commissioned by Kwik Fit Insurance also highlights the dangers children face on their daily journey to and from school. The research revealed that 40 per cent of kids between the age of seven and 14, or 2.2million children, are risking their lives running across the road without looking, and even more concerning was the fact that 1.1m, or half again admitted to running across the road without checking for traffic all the time.


According to the most recent Government figures, 1,660 child pedestrians were killed or seriously injured in road accidents in 2009, a drop of seven percent on the previous year’s figures. Brendan Devine, group managing director of Kwik Fit Financial Services, added: “We are determined to help further improve the UK’s road safety record for children. There’s some great work going on throughout the country by government road safety bodies and national charities such as Brake, but our findings show there is still work to be done. We think the Lollipop Person of the Year campaign is a good way of raising awareness to both children and motorists alike.

Last year’s winning lollipop man John Foley from Bushes Primary School in Paisley, Scotland, enjoyed a holiday of a lifetime whilst the children and staff of Bushes Primary School created a new community garden with their £3000 prize money. Nominations for the Kwik Fit Insurance Lollipop Person of the Year Awards 2010 will close on Friday, November 19th 2010. More information and entry details can be found at http://www.bestlollipop.co.uk/.

Go on nominate someone. You never know they might win!
Chris

HEADTEACHER FORUM

This afternoon I attended Headteacher Forum with Nigel Richardson, our new Director of Children's Services...

Nigel talked passionately to colleagues about his vision for a 'Child Friendly City' based on the UNICEF Child Friendly City initiative. Which is a city, or more generally a system of local governance, committed to fulfilling children's rights, including their right to:

• Influence decisions about their city
• Express their opinion on the city they want
• Participate in family, community and social life
• Receive basic services such as health care and education
• Drink safe water and have access to proper sanitation
• Be protected from exploitation, violence and abuse
• Walk safely in the streets on their own
• Meet friends and play
• Have green spaces for plants and animals
• Live in an unpolluted environment
• Participate in cultural and social events
• Be an equal citizen of their city with access to every service, regardless of ethnic origin, religion, income, gender or disability

A child friendly city is the embodiment of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child at the local level, which in practice means that children’s rights are reflected in policies, laws, programmes and budgets.

Nigel also talked about simplifying things with a relentless focus on vision, outcomes, priorities and action. He urged us to ask ourselves the 'so what?' question. We need to know what it is like as a child growing up in Leeds and how together we can make it better! He also urged colleagues to ask everyone how they are contributing to making Leeds a great place for children young people and families.
Chris

SOUTH SILC

I moved on to the South SILC Broomfield to see John Fryer, the new principal, who I had met over breakfast earlier this term...

I visited the South SILC in June before John took up his post to see the transformation that had happened at the SILC supported by colleagues from the East SILC whose passion, commitment, determination and hard work had really made an extraordinary difference as evidenced by the OFSTED judgements which identified the South SILC as a good school with outstanding features. I was really impressed by the improvements that have been made to the building and the bright, attractive and stimulating learning environment that the team have created despite the real challenges the building presents which must remain one of our highest priorities.

We must maintain our relentless and uncompromising focus on improving the learning landscape particularly for the very special group of children who attend the SILCs. The new children's services arrangements provide us with an opportunity to re-imagine, re-engineer and remodel our special needs provision around these centres of excellence. We know that we must continue to further develop the SILC estate and connect with provision in mainstream schools based on the outstanding provision we have already established at Windmill Primary School and Rodillian School.

Chris

NEWLY QUALIFIED TEACHERS!

I started the day at the Newly Qualified Primary Teachers Induction  & Welcome Event at The Village Hotel in Headingley...


My colleagues from our Primary Advisory Team, and from our Hunman Resources Team, had worked really hard to set up this day for the 150 talented, brilliant, gorgeous and wonderful teachers who have joined our primary schools and SILCs this year. It was inspiring to be able to talk to so many young colleagues starting their learning journey here in Leeds as members of a simply wonderful primary and special school workforce. I talked about the critical importance of the work we do in the early years where we build the foundations for learning and the importance of programmes like Every Child a Reader and Every Child Counts to ensure that every child is becomes a brilliant little learner by the time they leave their primary school. I talked about the work we are doing with healthy schools, healthy playtimes, PE and school sport, school food, sustainable schools, inclusion and the Stephen Lawrence Education Standard. I talked about the WOW factor and how every school had to continue to strive to be outstanding. The difference between being in a classroom with a great teacher and a classroom with an OK teacher is enormous in terms of achievment and attainment. So eevryone has to be a learner and develop their craft and their practice so that we are constantly learning from each other and learning from the best.

Standing talking to these wonderful colleagues reminds me of being in a school assembly and looking at the talent, the potential and the magic and again you wonder what we can't achieve together here in Leeds. The future is certainly bright for primaary education in Leeds if these colleagues are anything to go by!
Chris