Teaching School News and Key Information for Principals and Headteachers in the Cabot Learning Federation and Wider Alliance 1. Teaching School Partnership Group The first meeting of the TSPG took place on Tuesday 1 st November. The group is made up of representatives from the CLF academies, the CLF primary partnership hub and our external alliance partners who are: Bradley Stoke Community School Bridge Learning Campus Ashley Down Infants and Juniors Corsham Primary South Gloucestershire LA Bristol City Council CLF board member UWE The focus of the discussion was around the vision for the national teaching school network, how this would work in practice and the role and remit of the group. TSPG reps have been asked to feedback the teaching school action plan and key points to their academy principals and SLTs. The next meeting is December 7 th 4-6pm at Bristol Brunel Academy. 2. Teaching School Administrator Nicola Cleave has been appointed to the post of teaching school administrator. She is based in the teaching school office in Federation House. Her hours are 92pm, flexible 4 days per week depending on teaching school priorities and events. Nicola can be contacted on 0117 976 3000 extension 1118 and her e-mail address is Nicola_cleave@clf.cabot.ac.uk 3. Specialist Leaders in Education As part of our remit as a national teaching school we have responsibility for designating 23 SLEs from across our alliance and beyond. We are also working with John Kyrle school in Herefordshire who are a national support school and an SLE outpost as there are currently no teaching schools in this area of the country. Your help is needed with reviewing SLE applications and the interview process
(a) Selecting SLEs for interview The deadline for SLE applications is Friday the 25 th November. The National College will do an initial sift of all applications based on the published criteria. They will then forward applications to teaching schools. We then have between Monday 5th December and Friday 9th December to select those SLEs that we would like to take forward and to invite them to interview. I have set aside Monday 5th December and Wednesday 7th December to do this. Please could you look at the matrix below and let me know which blocks of time you would be able to come to Federation House and help myself, David and Brigid Allen (principal at Bristol Brunel Academy) with this task as I would very much welcome your input and expertise. This must be at principal/headteacher level due to the importance of these appointments. Monday 5th December Who is involved
9am -11am
12-2pm
4-6pm
Wednesday 7th December Who is involved
Brigid Allen Claire Carter 9am-11am
Brigid Allen Claire Carter
David Carter Brigid Allen Claire Carter 4-6pm
David Carter Brigid Allen Claire Carter
David Carter Brigid Allen Claire Carter
David Carter Claire Carter
12-2pm
The college have provided a scoring matrix for the assessment of applications but in the event that we have a number of strong applications then decisions around who to invite to interview will be made on the basis of our priorities as an alliance. This will ensure that designated SLEs will be deployed as their skills will address areas of school improvement that are seen as a priority by principals in the alliance. Action: David Carter will send round a school improvement matrix the week beginning 14 November to get insight into Alliance academy/school priorities for support. This is an important part of the Teaching School development as we understand more about how best to support our partnership schools. (b) Interviewing SLEs
The window for interviewing SLEs is from the 12 December to 13 January. Given the fact that we will need to communicate this to applicants, draw up the timetable for interviews and the 12-16 December is the last week of term, we have made the decision to hold the interviews on the following days: Thursday 5th January Friday 6th January Wednesday 11th January Thursday 12th January
The interview process will consist of an individual presentation to the panel and an observed group discussion. I will work out the logistics of this once we are aware of numbers but at this stage could I ask you to allocate any times you
can give in the following blocks. Again, this ideally should be at Principal/headteacher level. Date Thursday 5th January
Friday 6th January Wednesday 11th January Thursday 12th January
Time 101pm 101pm 101pm 101pm
Who Claire Carter Brigid Allen David Carter Claire Carter David Carter Claire Carter David Carter Claire Carter David Carter
Time 2-5pm 2-5pm 2-5pm 2-5pm
Who Claire Carter Brigid Allen David Carter Claire Carter David Carter Claire Carter David Carter Claire Carter David Carter
(C) Training SLEs We are one of the 10 national teaching schools from cohort 1 who have been selected to deliver training for SLEs. To do this we will be working with Broadstone First School/Montacute teaching school in Dorset. Once the SLEs have been appointed we will be delivering training to SLEs across the South West. Jayne Crosby, Chris Baker, Richard Rees and Claire Carter will be attending a train the trainer event in Leicester on the 22/23 November run by Ashton Mersey school, a pilot school for SLEs, to find out more about the delivery model. SLEs will select their training centre between 23 January and 3 February and SLE core training will begin from March 1 2012 onwards.
4. Research and Development
We have been awarded lead school status for developing a ‘kit bag’ of effective approaches to R and D. This will be published by NCL and is recognition of all the outstanding work that our alliance has done. Our brief in a nutshell is to: (a) Write up case studies of R and D from the teaching school and alliance partners (b) Co-ordinate input from 6 other teaching schools across the country in terms of further case studies and approaches to R and D (c) Review approaches to R and D in schools and develop guidance for other teaching schools as to how they might approach R and D. Jayne Crosby and Isobel Clark have undertaken to talk to key staff about their R and D work. Please note this is low key and will not impact on staff time in any significant way. If you would like to contribute please let me know-my contact details are at the end of this newsletter. 5. Lead School Status We applied for lead schools status in 5 areas and have been awarded this in 4- a significant achievement. The areas we have been successful in are:
i.
ii. iii. iv.
Early years provision thanks to our partnership with Ashley Down Infants who will lead Federations-David Carter to lead Behaviour and attendance thanks to our partnership with Bradley Stoke Community School who will lead School to school support This means that we will be asked by the DFE to advise in these key areas and we will offer mini conferences to schools in the South West who want to find out more.
6. Key Information Form Thanks to all of you who uploaded this onto the Virtual Teaching School. This information has now been collated and is now with the TDA and NCL.
7. Virtual Teaching School Thanks to Chris Baker this is developing at a pace and all members of the alliance have a log in. Anyone on a teaching school programme has access to all the materials from the programmes and this will be the place to go for information on CPD offered by the alliance and for information on the teaching school.
8. ITT The implementation plan ‘Training our Next Generation of Outstanding Teachers’ has now been released and is on the DFE website. I have also attached the document to this e-mail. Lynn Raphael Reed has attended a TDA conference to look at this paper and David Carter is meeting with the CEO of the TDA, Michael Day, next week to discuss ITT in the future. This is very much a development year and we will be working with our PGCE students, NQTs, professional school leader and HEI providers to review provision and share ideas for future models. And finally
Thank you for all your support to date and in the future. I am very much enjoying working with you all. I am meeting with alliance partners this term and welcome suggestions for how we can work together in the future. My contact details are Claire_carter@clf.cabot.ac.uk Mobile number: 07557 851613