Plymouth Secondary Strategy Newsletter 2

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Newsletter 2 - September 2020

Dear Colleagues

A massive thank you for your time in responding to various requests and communications so early into term. We are very aware how busy you are and will try to ensure our work is streamlined to ensure maximum efficiency and impact.

This week saw our first webinar of the academic year with Joe Ambrose. Thank you to all those that found the time to attend. There was a brilliant professional dialogue around “live issues” and how school improvement still becomes a priority in this reactive and unpredictable time. Some of the key topics for conversation included…

Driving improvement through the Greenshaw Principles of Teaching in a “Covid world.”
How to baseline Year 7 without SATS…and linked conversations around target setting and parental communication (parent consultation evenings).
Approaches to Homework (Bedrock Learning, Hegarty Maths, Tassomi)
The Greenshaw approach to remote learning and what has been learned about ensuring high engagement.

It was a fascinating conversation and all the resources signposted have been shared and can be found on the Portal here. On Friday we have our first EDTech Introduction Webinar as the Commission seeks to bring high quality national providers to Plymouth to support your work. I hope you find what is set out below useful.

With thanks and best wishes.

Communications Strategy:

Plymouth Secondary Strategy Portal - 9 out of the 19 Plymouth Secondary Schools have now subscribed to the Portal. The remaining schools to sign up to the Plymouth Secondary Strategy Portal are:

All Saints Academy, Combe Dean, Marine Academy, Millbay Academy, Notredame School, Plympton Academy, Plymstock School, St. Bonifaces, Stoke Damerel and UTC Plymouth.

The Portal will be central to how we communicate with you and your colleagues. It will also be important as a delivery tool to organise CPD events and drive collaborative school improvement.

If your school hasn't already subscribed, please subscribe your school here. We will be sharing news regarding the Portal's wider roll-out and how its collaboration functionality will support the Plymouth Commission in the coming weeks.

Our Twitter account following is gaining momentum with colleagues from almost all schools now following us. It would be great if all HTs with accounts and SLT members can follow us so they are up to speed with regular signposting/updates. @PLSecondStrat. Please share this Twitter Stream.

The Plymouth Secondary Strategy update:

Strand 1: Individual School Support

Each Headteacher has now received their bespoke Plymouth ‘RAF’ (recommended action form’) and self-audit tool based on 2020 CAGs, part of which will need to be completed in advance of the virtual SIP visits that Tony and Chrysta are now booking in for September/Oct. Of the 19 secondary schools in the commission plan, have now responded and been booked in for those first SIPs.

Following the webinar with Joe Ambrose from Greenshaw Learning Trust, you can now access the templates he shared via the Plymouth Portal Documents page which has been established as a mechanism for sharing exemplars from within and beyond Plymouth. We encourage you to make use of this function and please do continue to share your own templates with us for wider sharing on this platform.

Matthew Corrigan kindly got the ball rolling this week, sharing his covid year group closure templates on the Portal here:

https://www.plymouthstrategy.org/documents?folder=Covid%20Guidance/Shared%20Templates

We have since added some further templates into the Covid Guidance Folder that Cabot Learning Foundation have kindly shared (although please note that the DfE Guidance changed again on Sept 16after these templates were created!)'

For those Heads unable to attend the webinar, you can access a recording on the Portal: https://www.plymouthstrategy.org/documents?folder=Webinar%20Recordings

Actions for Heads

Remaining schools to submit data to TSSW as soon as possible.
Ensure that Tony/Chrysta receive your completed RAF at least 48 hours prior to the calendared meeting.
Ensure your school has subscribed to the Plymouth Secondary Strategy Portal. Subscribe here.
Please encourage all Governors/Senior Leaders and Teachers to sign up to this newsletter here and ask them to follow us on Twitter: @PLSecondStrat

Strand 2: CPD offer

We have been working very closely with the National STEM network, the EdTech Demo regional lead schools and the NCETM to develop funded bespoke offers for Plymouth secondaries and we are delighted with the commitment shown so far from regional leads to make this happen, and from your Curriculum leads in school in responding to requests for information. The intention is to form professional learning communities around these specialist subjects which will be facilitated by the Portal ‘Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)’ function.

We are hoping to hear next week whether the Plymouth STEM CPD proposal has been given the green light and from the NCETM team as to the detail of the offer.

Please find here the STEM CPD Needs Analysis that Plymouth Science Leads completed last week (despite a very quick turnaround!) which has helped inform those offers.

The EdTech introductory webinar was held on Friday 18th Sept with nominated EdTech/Remote Learning leads across Plymouth learning more about the range of national and regional support that is available to support the development of your contingency models for remote/blended learning. Schools should have submitted an EOI form via the ngfl website which will help shape the Autumn Term offer being provided by Balcarras and National Star.

Actions for Heads

If your remote learning lead was not able to attend the webinar, it is not too late for them to be involved. Ensure your EdTech lead has completed their EOI and have noted that their 'Preferred Demonstrator' is 'Balcarras and National Star'. In response to 'What support would you like from the programme? They should respond with 'Plymouth Offer'. And ask that they drop Chrysta a line so that their contact details are added to any EdTech comms.
Whilst we await details of the STEM Plymouth offer, Heads should share the national remote CPD offer for STEM secondary specialists with your relevant colleagues in school: https://www.stem.org.uk/online-cpd/teaching - online Science CPD free through the national STEM network and Future Learn

The STEM remote learning offer provides a range of secondary Science training across Maths, Computing and Science: https://www.stem.org.uk/remote-courses-for-secondary-teachers

Strand 3: Tackling barriers to improvement

1. To reduce student mobility across the city.

PLT Board has approved the new Fair Access Protocol, including the ambition to develop a cluster-based model for inclusion. The vision for the inclusion clusters is to develop collaborative approaches, across 5-6 schools, to engaging pupils and their families with schools. We hope that this will increase the number of pupils remaining in one mainstream school throughout their secondary education. If it is deemed in the best interests of an individual pupil to move schools, we hope that the new ways of working will improve communication between all stakeholders and increase the success of such transitions.

2. To tackle disadvantage at scale with a focus on literacy.

Actions for Heads

Please complete the very short questionnaire, via MS Teams, so that we can move forward with the inclusion cluster model

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=rwUIpu2VnUWK77ZZk-259aiWY-0i6bZKvO-zrNPhrHNUOTU4REozNFVLR0dFN0RITTk5VzRGM1Y5Uy4u )

Recent Announcements and Updates:

Read Hannah Woodhouse’s latest newsletter for the SW here: https://www.cpdportal-sw.org/news/rsc-south-west-newsletter-september-2020
Please also do look at the anonymised account of a HSE Covid spot check so that your colleagues are informed about how this process works:https://www.plymouthstrategy.org/documents?folder=Covid%20Guidance
Governing in unprecedented times: This report from Ofsted and the National Governance Association looks at school governance during the COVID-19 pandemic: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/governing-in-unprecedented-times
Whole School SEND have provided a SW update which signposts useful SEND CPD resources, publications and events: https://www.cpdportal-sw.org/news/whole-school-send-september-2020-update-for-the-south-west
CST survey - COVID-19 testing. Have your concerns heard via this CST survey to inform Leora Cruddas’ conversations with ministers about the impact of Covid on schools: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/SFHV2WX
Case studies and practical handbook on schools’ evolution of remote learning provision during closure: https://www.advantageschools.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Redacted-Remote-Teaching-Handbook-V3.pdf

This Week’s Interesting Read:

Top Performing Secondary Schools with High Progress 8 scores for disadvantaged students.

WeAreinBeta have explored the most successful schools in the country to understand what remarkable practice can be shared that all schools can learn from. You can find this blog post here.

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