Schools celebrating success

Congratulations to the following primary schools for receiving congratulatory letters from the Department for Education based on their 2016 Key Stage 2 results:

• Bishopton Primary – top 10% progress
• St Edward’s Catholic Primary and Tysoe CE Primary – 100% in reading
• Brailes CE Primary and Lapworth CE Primary – 100% in writing
• St Anthony’s Catholic Primary – 100% in mathematics
• St Peter’s Catholic Primary – 100% in reading and maths
• Temple Grafton CE Primary – 100% in reading, writing and maths

Southam College have also been recognised after being ranked in the top 5% of schools in England for Progress 8.

Ofsted

Congratulations to everyone at St James' C of E Academy for their hard work to move the school from special measures to good.

Well done also to the following schools who have moved from requires improvement to good this academic year:

• Abbots Farm Infant School
• Cubbington C of E Primary School
• Etone College
• Queens C of E Academy
• St Andrew's Benn C of E Primary School
• Stockton Primary School

Warwickshire schools have also been performing well in short inspections, and so far this academic year the following schools have all maintained their good judgement following a short inspection:

• Alveston C of E Primary School
• Bawnmore Community Infant School
• Boughton Leigh Infant School
• English Martyrs Catholic Primary School
• Hampton Lucy C of E Primary School
• Kineton High School
• Our Lady's Catholic Primary School, Princethorpe
• Park Hill Junior School
• Quinton Primary School
• Shustoke C of E Primary School
• St Margaret's C of E Junior School
• The Revel C of E (Aided) Primary School
• Thorns Community Infant School
• Trinity Catholic School
• Tudor Grange Primary Academy, Haselor
• Wootton Wawen C of E Primary School

 And finally a special congratulations to Kenilworth Nursery School for continuing to offer outstanding provision.

Headteachers' Briefings

It was pleasing to see many of you at the primary and secondary headteachers' briefings held at the end of March. We were also pleased to have a number of headteachers contributing to the agenda as we know how much you value being able to hear from colleagues about their successes and experiences. Thank you to all those who contributed.

The spring term briefings provided key updates on the following:

• Key messages in relation to Ofsted, Closing the Gap, the Apprenticeship Levy etc.
• Local Authority Multi-Academy Trust (MAT)
• The National Funding Formula and Early Years Funding
• School Improvement Developments and the role of the Education Challenge Board / consortia chairs
• Early Help Arrangements
• Area Behaviour Partnerships (secondary)
• SEND provision developments and AET (Primary).

Secondary colleagues also heard from fellow headteachers: Phil Kelly from Higham Lane School about how his school is successfully helping to 'Close the Gap', and Siona Robson, Kineton High School on her recent Ofsted inspection that resulted in the school retaining its good judgement. 

Suzanne O'Farrell, from the Association of School and College Leaders and Peter Kent presented an overview of the impact of curriculum, GCSE and other qualification changes for secondary school leaders.

All of the slides and additional papers are now available. The link will be circulated after the Easter holidays but if anyone would like the slides before then please contact Ruth Waterman on 01926 742075   email ruthwaterman@warwickshire.gov.uk

The briefings are a valuable opportunity to be able to update schools on the key messages from central government and from the LA, as well providing headteachers with the chance to share good practice and to network with colleagues. 

SUMMER TERM BRIEFINGS

Primary briefings: Tuesday 13th June at Warwick Racecourse and Wednesday 14th June at TechnoCentre, Coventry

Secondary briefing: Thursday 29th June, Warwick Racecourse

All morning sessions, exact timings to be confirmed.

Sound Training discounted offer for Warwickshire schools

As part of the Closing the Gap project a Sound Training Pilot was run at George Eliot School in spring 2016. The results were impressive with Year 10 SEND and Pupil Premium pupils gaining on average 30 months in reading after 6 one hour sessions.

Following the success of the pilot, the Local Authority has negotiated a discount for Warwickshire schools who wish to sign up to the Sound Training programme, subject to the number of schools taking part. Although the costs are high there are significant benefits. The costs vary from £50-£75 per pupil depending on the model. Alternatively schools may wish to consider a collaborative model which would allow them to purchase a one-year licence. For example, six people could be trained to use Sound Training from KS2 - KS5 at a cost of £14,200 for the first year, which could be split across 2 or 3 schools.

We have arranged a session for you to hear more about the programme from Sound Training on:

Monday 15^th May, 2.00-4.00

The Pound Lane Learning Centre,

Leamington Spa

CV32 7RT

To book a place please email sophiethompson@warwickshire.gov.uk or telephone 01926 746961.

Sound Training is the acclaimed, fast, focused fun literacy programme for ages 9-18. Perfect use of Pupil Premium funding and ideal for all but the very weakest students. Delivered by our teachers or your own trained staff, dramatic improvements in comprehension, decoding, spelling and vocabulary raise achievement across the curriculum.

Proud to be SSAT’s leading literacy partner and to work in partnership with over 500 schools across England and Wales, including a number of MATs and alternative education providers. We raise reading ages by an average of 27 months in 6 weeks, with case studies available on our website www.soundtraining.co.uk

Warwickshire Youth Parliament ‘One Voice’ Public Speaking Competition 2017

As part of their campaign to tackle racism and religious discrimination Warwickshire Youth Parliament organised a public speaking event at Shire Hall on 22 March 2017. 

The event was supported and sponsored by the Police and Crime Commissioner, Philip Seccombe. Councillor Les Caborn chaired the judging panel.

Five schools and colleges participated: King Edward VI College, Nuneaton; Kings High School, Warwick; Stratford Girls’ Grammar School, Stratford- Upon- Avon; The Polesworth School, North Warwickshire; and Trinity Catholic School, Leamington Spa.

Each team consisted of three young people, who undertook the following roles: Chairperson, Main Speaker and one person who concluded their speeches delivering a vote of thanks.  The schools and colleges all spoke for seven minutes  about ‘ Tackling Racism and Religious Discrimination’   All of the speeches were excellent, thought-provoking and well-delivered giving the judging team a hard decision.  After much deliberation  the team of Catherine Tormey, Quincy Sproul, & Maddy Bevan from Trinity School, Leamington  were announced the winners and received the ‘One Voice’ Trophy.

Salyha Mughal, from Youth Parliament, the co-ordinator of the event thanked everyone for their involvement and support.

Warwickshire Youth Parliament is supported by Targeted Support for Young People (TS4YP). For more information please contact cheryljones@warwickshire.gov.uk

Warwickshire Youth Parliament ‘One Voice’ Event planning team with the Police and Crime Commissioner, Philip Seccombe and Cllr Les Caborn

 One Voice Winner team from Trinity School, Leamington

Warwick the bear launches road safety campaign

Do you know the Code?

From September the Warwickshire Road Safety Club is launching a new look road safety programme for primary schools in Warwickshire.

Featuring Warwick Bear and his friends, the Club offers a range of engaging classroom and playground sessions based around the Road Safety Club Code, for Reception through to Year six children. 

New to the scheme for 2017 is access to your own dedicated Road Safety Officer, colourful resources and an annual programme of activities, using memorable teaching methods.  By playing, exploring and being creative, children are more likely to remember key road safety messages and ultimately change their behaviour. The Club provides teachers with a framework and tools to help road safety become an integral part of school life and wider community.

As members of the Club, schools will also receive added benefits including support with sustainable and healthy travel initiatives, free theatre in education (when available) Bikeability priority booking and special Club activities and events.

The annual, not-for-profit membership fees are:

• £210 for infant schools
• £360 for junior schools
• £510 for primary schools

Existing members have told us that they believe the Club represents great value for money, and are keen to sign up year-on-year. For those schools on a tight budget, some of our members have benefited from sponsorship via PTA’S or local businesses and the Road Safety Team are always happy to follow up local sponsorship leads.

To sign up for 2017/18 or for more information please contact the Road Safety Team on roadsafetyeducation@warwickshire.gov.uk or call 01926 418062

Road Safety Club Code:

THINK about roads

STOP at the kerb and wait

LOOK and LISTEN for traffic

THINK about what to do

CROSS the road safety, looking and listening all the time

Exhibition celebrating children and young people with Down Syndrome

Schools Gearing Up for the Women's Tour 2017

Schools across Warwickshire have been sent a school pack as the county prepares itself for the Women's Cycling Tour coming to Warwickshire on Friday 9 June.

Warwickshire is hosting the third leg of the tour which first came to the county last year and was viewed by an estimated 75,000 spectators who lined the roads and braved the elements to cheer the cyclists on.

This year, the cyclists will start at Atherstone and cycle 160km along Warwickshire's roads before finishing on The Parade in Royal Leamington Spa.

The riders from 2016 have spoken about the experience of riding through Warwickshire last year and what they identified as the highlight was the 'wall of noise' that greeted them as they rode.

This came largely from Warwickshire school children.  It may come as little surprise to those who teach them that our children created a cacophony of sound that is still living in the memories of those that heard it.

And the riders have said that a repeat performance this year would be perfect so the partners involved in the tour have created the school pack to ensure that schools take the chance to get involved in the tour, plan their spot from which to cheer the riders on and look at activities that the children can do that are related to cycling.

The pack gives schools the chance to become part of the race with children in the north being invited to design the start flag which will be used to get the cyclists moving in Atherstone.  Children in the south of the county are being invited to design the stage trophy that will be awarded to the winner of the Warwickshire stage of the Tour.

Race organisers are looking for schools to also use their influence on social media to increase awareness of the Tour.  Schools can follow #WT2017 or #ThisGirlCan on twitter.  Or, if schools would like to post messages and share with facebook friends, these can be supplied.  Email haydenwright@warwickshire.gov.uk to be included on a database of recipients for Facebook ready messages.

Calling all aspiring poets...!

As part of an initiative to promote Warwickshire as a location for film and TV projects, Film Warwickshire are looking to create a promotional video which can be shown to UK and International film and TV producers as well as other media and tourism agencies. To accompany the video, rather than have a soundtrack they would like to use the spoken word and this is where they are looking to schools.

Film Warwickshire would like to invite schools to write a poem that promotes the creativity of the county by showcasing its emerging literary talent. They would also like the content of the poem to refer to Warwickshire’s leading playwrights and authors and make reference to some of the county’s landscapes and iconic locations.

The poem should inspire people to look more closely at what the county has to offer, and highlight its literary heritage and connections to Shakespeare, George Eliot, Jane Austen and JR Tolkein.  

The winning poem will be voiced by a professional actor and included in the promotional video and published on the Film Warwickshire website. The winning author will also receive a £100 theatre or cinema voucher.

Entries to be submitted by email to jane@space-2.com by 31st May 2017”. (www.filmwarwickshire.com)

*This competition is being run independently of Warwickshire County Council