Fenland and East Cambridgeshire Opportunity Area

Schools Newsletter 29 October 2018

Message from our Chair

I hope you all had a restful half-term break. I am delighted to update you on our offer to schools, early years providers and professionals within the education sector, and to remind you that we are here to help you to access the projects we are running this term.

In addition to the activities that are already in progress, we are working with key stakeholders, including some of you, to design some large-scale projects linked to the four priorities in the delivery plan. We will be sharing more details about this work in the coming weeks.

If you have any suggestions or would like to have more details about the Opportunity Area programme, please contact the team on OpportunityAreas.EAST@education.gov.uk They would be delighted to arrange a phone call or a visit to your school. You are also warmly invited to our next stakeholder meeting on 23rd November- more details below.

Tricia Pritchard

Local Reading Scheme development

We are working with Creative Education to develop new ways of improving literacy for early years and primary pupils in Fenland and East Cambridgeshire. We know the importance of taking into account your views and experiences, to ensure that any recommended approach is one that will work for your school, your staff, and most importantly your pupils. Therefore, Creative Education are offering a number of ways for you to share your views and contribute your ideas.

All primary schools are invited to complete the survey on the following link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdMU4tI6omU4Y0gclQkODqwGSJ7KoHQQF__bX6KCjwAF5k5yg/viewform

Creative Education are also offering focus groups where you can share your views. The details of these are:
Glebelands Primary School- Thursday 1st November, 1.30pm
Mepal and Witcham Primary School- Friday 2nd November, 9.45am and 1.30pm

Please contact Kevin.Piper@creativeeducation.co.uk if you would like to attend one of these focus groups.

Recruitment Incentives Grant

We know that recruiting teachers can be a challenge, and that recruiting the right people to vacant posts is of huge importance to your schools. Our recruitment incentives grant is available to schools in the Opportunity Area who are struggling to recruit to vacant posts.

The grant is for up to £10,000 to be spent on a range of incentives for new teachers. These incentives include CPD (including Masters courses), learning visits to other schools (including in other parts of Europe), driving lessons, childcare vouchers and cover for personal days. You can mention the incentives in your job adverts. Schools who have already benefited from this grant have reported that these incentives have helped to attract applicants who otherwise would not have applied to the school.

If you would like more information or to request this grant, please contact Briony.Davies@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

Funded Parental Engagement Sessions

The Fenland and East Cambridgeshire Opportunity Area is funding Contact (https://contact.org.uk/) to run sessions for parents throughout the Opportunity Area to give them information about accessing support for children and young people with special educational needs and/or mental health concerns.

The timetable for these sessions is as follows:

Wednesday 31st October- Wisbech, 9.30am-11am
Wednesday 7th November- Swaffham Bulbeck Primary School, 9am-11am
Thursday 8th November- Ely High Barns, 10am-12pm
Thursday 15th November- Ely
Tuesday 27th November- March
Friday 30th November- Chatteris

Please do advertise these sessions to parents, particularly those who may be struggling with accessing support for their children's special educational needs or mental health concerns.

For more information, please contact Dawn.Stilwell@contact.org.uk

Youth Challenge

We are asking all our secondary schools to enter teams of their pupils to win a share of £50k of funding for ideas to improve social mobility in Fenland and East Cambridgeshire. Proposals could be for a one-off event, a programme of activity or something in between. They could target pupils/students or parents, and address any issue your young people are concerned creates a barrier to their social mobility. We anticipate funding up to 5 projects up to a maximum of £10k each.

This project is similar to a project which has previously been run in the Norwich Opportunity Area, where two projects are being funded- one to arrange domestic cultural exchanges for young people to visit their peers in an area very different from Norwich, and one to support parents for whom English is a second language. These projects have attracted significant praise and attention, and some of the younger people involved have met the Secretary of State to discuss their work. We are keen to replicate this success for the children and young people of Fenland and East Cambridgeshire.

The basic pack you will need to develop the ideas is attached here. We would be happy to arrange for a member of the Opportunity Area team to do a session with your young people to help kick off the process of coming up with ideas. Please contact Briony.Davies@cambridgeshire.gov.uk to arrange this, or to let us know that you will be entering the competition.

We are hoping to get all of the entries in before 17th November but can be flexible on this deadline if we are told in advance.

Evidence Based Fund

As you will know, we have previously run two rounds of our Evidence Based Fund. This fund enables schools, or clusters of schools, to apply to up to £25k of funding to implement evidence-based projects to support our Opportunity Area Priority One (language, communication and literacy) or Priority Two (SEND and mental health).

We have been delighted with the response to this programme so far, with 51 schools currently involved and implementing projects which will be of real benefit to children and young people in Fenland and East Cambridgeshire. We want all schools to be able to benefit from this programme, so we will be running a third round this term specifically for schools who have not yet participated in the Evidence Based Fund. If this applies to your school, please look out for emails in the coming weeks with more details. If you would like more information about this, please email OpportunityAreas.EAST@education.gov.uk

If you are currently running a project through the Evidence Based Fund, please look out for guidance which will be coming shortly on how to complete your interim and final reports.

Foundation Teacher Training Programme

We know that there are brilliant teaching assistants in your schools, who would make ideal teachers but face barriers in accessing teacher training programmes. We have partnered with Cambridgeshire County Council's Teach in Cambridgeshire to offer a funded two-year schools-based route into Qualified Teacher Status. This is open to both primary and secondary schools in Fenland and East Cambridgeshire. For more information, please see the attached flyer here

Making Best Use of Teaching Assistants

The East Cambridgeshire and Fenland Research School are running 'Making Best Use of Teaching Assistants' training in the Spring and Summer Terms. Opportunity Area schools can access this training fully funded. The training, which has received extremely positive feedback from its first round, supports school leaders in identifying and implementing sustainable change using the evidence base to make the best decisions for their own context.

For more details, visit the Research School's website where you can also find information about further training, sign up to the Research School newsletter and read about evidence based practice in a range of settings.

Teaching and Leadership Innovation Fund (TLIF)

The Department for Education is funding five programmes in Fenland and East Cambridgeshire through the Teaching and Leadership Innovation Fund. These are free for all Fenland and East Cambridgeshire schools. The programmes are:

Institute of Physics- The Future Physics Leaders Programme provides professional development and support for specialist physics teachers, newly qualified teachers (NQTs) and non-specialist physics teachers. Now recruiting for 2019. Contact Claire.Aspinall@iop.org
Ruth Miskin Training- Literacy CPD in the teaching and leadership of phonics and early reading. Fully subscribed but places may become available. Contact NinaCoglin@ruthmiskin.com
Tom Bennett Training- two courses offered: one for teachers (Running a Room) and one for leaders of all levels (Running a School). These courses rais knowledge and skills for all staff, enabling them to design, build and maintain an optimal culture of positive behaviour. Now recruiting for 2019 and 2020. Contact n.tishauser@tombennetttraining.co.uk
The Geographical Association in Partnership with the Association for Science Education- Development programme Geography Science Teaching, specifically aiming to develop pedagogy that enables teachers to acquire knowledge in science and geography through critical use of evidence and argument that leads to improved engagement and attainment. Further details are available at www.geography.org.uk/projects or by contacting jbeattie@geography.org
Education Development Trust in partnership with the Chartered College of Teaching- Development programme for early career teachers. A sustained professional development programme which provides expert support for newly qualified and early career teachers (in the first five years of their career), accelerating their progress to become an excellent classroom teacher. The programme also includes input for school leaders and existing in-school mentors in the participants' school with the aim to increase in-school capacity for development and support. Further details TBC.

Visit https://tlif.education.gov.uk/ to find out more, or contact OpportunityAreas.EAST@education.gov.uk to discuss further.

National Professional Qualifications (NPQs)

The Department for Education has recently developed a reformed suite of National Professional Qualifications (NPQs). Teachers in Opportunity Areas have exclusive, fully-funded access to these qualifications.

See here for the full list of providers: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-professional-qualifications-npqs-list-of-providers/list-of-national-professional-qualification-npq-providers The following NPQs are available:

National Professional Qualification for Middle Leadership (NPQML)
National Professional Qualification for Senior Leadership (NPQSL)
National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH)
National Professional Qualification for Executive Leadership (NPQEL)

Each provider will have a slightly different approach and curriculum, so please contact your preferred provider for details about their course.If you have any queries about this, please contact OpportunityAreas.EAST@education.gov.uk

Stakeholder Meeting

Our stakeholder meetings are a key forum for us to hear your views on the Opportunity Areas programme and how it is working for you. It's a opportunity for you to suggest ideas to improve the programme and comment on our upcoming projects to ensure that they're implemented in a way that will benefit Fenland and East Cambridgeshire.

Our next stakeholder meeting is on 23rd November at Ely College, 10.30am-12pm. We would be delighted to see you there. Please email OpportunityAreas.EAST@education.gov.uk if you would like more information.

Teaching Jobs Service

The vision for the Teaching Jobs Service is to be a national listing and search for teaching jobs across England for publically funded schools. For jobseekers, this will be an easy way to search and find a teaching role.

The service is being rolled out on a phased basis, by RSC region. As Cambridgeshire was one of the pilot sites, this service is already available for schools in Cambridgeshire. The service is:

Free to use for all state-funded schools in England.
Free to use by all jobseekers looking for teaching jobs in England.
Lets schools publish and amend job listings themselves.

Use the following link to find out more: https://dfedigital.blog.gov.uk/2018/09/21/how-were-rolling-out-our-search-and-listing-service-to-more-schools-to-support-their-teacher-recruitment-needs/

If there is anybody who you think would like to receive this email, please feel free to forward it on. Email Briony.Davies@cambridgeshire.gov.uk to be added to the distribution list.