Newsletter Autumn 2015

Fylde Coast Teaching School Alliance Partnership to promote excellence in teaching, learning and leadership

NEWSLETTER - AUTUMN 2015 Welcome to the fourth edition of the Fylde Coast Teaching School Newsletter. This newsletter keeps you updated on our activities.

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The Teaching School approaches the new academic year and all the challenges it brings with renewed vigour and enthusiasm. Requests for support from our SLEs are being received and we are updating our portfolio of high quality SLEs to ensure that we continue to deliver a top class service.

Joint practice development visits will be a big focus for the coming term. Through collaboration between our Alliance partners, a unique opportunity will be given to our recently qualified teachers to experience and share good and outstanding practice across the Teaching School.

The development of leadership at all levels continues to be a key focus of the Teaching School through twilights, taught courses, SLE deployments and leadership secondments. Our commitment to developing and retaining outstanding leaders on the Fylde Coast remains paramount in order to ensure that our young people secure the best possible outcomes.

Our extremely popular twilight programme offers sessions across all phases and disciplines and is delivered by outstanding practitioners. Many of the sessions are in such demand that we have had to double up on them to accommodate everyone. So far we have received 910 bookings for the coming year and we expect this number to increase significantly so book now to avoid disappointment.

Our SCITT was launched successfully, thank you to those of you who have welcomed our trainees into your schools. We are offering a very personalised training programme to meet their individual needs and this year they will have the opportunity to visit an extended range of providers incl. Pupil Referral Units and a local independent school to further their breadth of experience. Please continue to promote our teacher training with your friends and family.

The teaching school approaches the new academic year and all the challenges it brings with renewed vigour and enthusiasm.

Roseacre Primary Academy

Working towards a school-led system Fylde Coast Teaching School was designated in 2011 by the National College to act as hub for local initiatives to help raise standards in teaching and learning across the Fylde Coast and Lancashire. We comprise two central institutions – the Blackpool Sixth Form College and Hodgson Academy and alliance members, all good and oustanding schools :

The Blackpool Sixth Form College

Hodgson Academy

Millfield Science & Norbreck Performing Arts Primary Academy College

Breck Primary School

Red Marsh Special School

Flakefleet Garstang Primary School Community Academy

Roseacre Primary Academy

Hambleton Primary Academy

St George’s School

Highfurlong Special School

Lytham Hall Park Primary School

St Mary’s Catholic Academy

University of Cumbria

Mereside Primary School

Westcliff Primary School

Our newest partner is Red Marsh Special School. We are very delighted to welcome this outstanding special school to our Alliance: Red Marsh School is situated in Lancashire near to the town centre of Thornton. The large centre of Fleetwood is nearby as is the Wyre estuary and surrounding country side. Red Marsh School is an outstanding special school for pupils aged 2-19. Pupils have a wide range of needs including pupils with Moderate Learning difficulties (MLD), pupils with Severe Learning Difficulties (PMLD), pupils with Autism (ASD) and pupils with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD). All pupils attending school have a Statement of Special Educational Need or an Education Health and Care Plan (EHEC).

Red Marsh School prides itself on being a school where each individual is valued and encouraged to meet their full potential. All children are supported by a dedicated and experienced staff team who ensure individual learning needs are met in a total inclusive learning environment. The team employ a wide range of teaching and learning approaches to inspire learning across the curriculum. The school creates an environment where all our learners are made to feel safe and secure allowing learners to develop, as appropriate, their freedom and independence. In our school, learners have the opportunity to meet, make friends and learn with their peers.

We hope that being part of the Fylde Coast Teaching Alliance will enable us to create working partnerships with schools across the Alliance in order to continually drive improvements for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, within our own school and wider community.

“Red Marsh is a very happy school where staff and pupils all feel valued, respected and exceptionally well supported to be able to give of their best.

As a result pupils’ achievement is outstanding .” Ofsted, January 2015

Red Marsh Special School Holly Road Thornton-Cleveleys Lancashire FY5 4HH www.redmarsh.lancs.sch.uk

Catherine Dellow Headteacher

Joining the Alliance The Fylde Coast Teaching School Alliance shares excellent teaching practices, delivers bespoke highly professional training, offers tailored school to school support and develops leadership potential.

Four of our Partners have been awarded Teaching School status by the National College for Teaching and Leadership.

Our team of experienced facilitators includes outstanding headteachers and school leaders, across all phases (primary, secondary, sixth form and special) throughout the Fylde Coast.

We welcome schools who wish to join our Alliance. Membership is available to all those wishing to contribute and benefit from the work of our schools.

By joining the Fylde Coast Teaching School Alliance opportunities for networking and establishing high quality shared CPD will be increased. Our Teaching School Alliance is an excellent way to share best practice and continue to develop and contribute to the wider educational system.

Phil Birch from Garstang Community Academy on being an alliance partner : “Go west where the skies are blue.”

It seems incredible to think that almost four years have passed since Garstang Community Academy was given the opportunity to join the Fylde Coast Teaching School as a Alliance Partner. We thought long and hard, OK – for a brief moment – before thinking: “Let’s do this! Let’s Go West!” and the rest, as they say, is history, or a famous song by the Pet Shop Boys.

Looking back, it is very evident that there have been some very tangible benefits stemming from this joining of forces. At Garstang, we jumped at the chance to provide a more diverse CPD offer to develop further our fabulous staff. Our teachers have really enjoyed the cross-phase dimension of Teaching School, and have learned so much from rubbing shoulders with their primary, tertiary and special school colleagues on the various twilight courses and residentials they have attended. Not to mention the comfort and understanding they have drawn from their secondary brothers and sisters!

Our prospective and serving leaders have participated enthusiastically in a plethora of hugely influential leadership development programmes, like MLDP, NPQML, Middle Leaders Short Course, Introductions to Leadership twilights, NPQSL & Leadership Placements, and have emerged from these experiences as more confident, more reflective and more impactful professionals who have grown a steely belief in their potential, inspired to make a difference to all the people (young and old) in their home – and future schools.

I am convinced that these opportunities have helped us here at Garstang transform GCA into the kind of school where we would all unhesitatingly want to send our children. However, rather immodestly, I also feel that our Teaching School partners may have derived some benefits from their contact with us country folk, whose positivity, pride and passion are notoriously infectious, and whose cakes famously pack in the calories like nowhere else.

So, over the next 4 years, I hope to see us continuing to look forward, outward, and westward, thinking collaboratively, enjoying our success on shared projects and adventures as a close-knit family of schools, continuing to grow our teachers, support staff and leaders and, ultimately, becoming world class!

(TOGETHER) “That’s what we’re gonna do!”

Phil Birch Headteacher Garstang Community Academy Garstang Community Academy students have achieved the best GCSE results in their school’s history, with 66% of GCA students gaining 5 A*-C grades including English and Maths.

Working towards a school-led system Continuing Professional Development Our CPD Vision

At the Fylde Coast Teaching School we are fully committed to providing high quality, personalised CPD for leaders, teachers and support staff in order to raise student achievement on the Fylde Coast.

Fylde Coast Teaching School Alliance offers a unique and exciting opportunity for staff to collaborate and share the very best practice from across the Fylde Coast.

This year’s Twilight Programme has built on last year’s success of over a 1000 attendances and offers 60 sessions developed by the Alliance for our local schools. We also offer a range of courses from TA Skills Enhancement to leadership training. This is the best and most comprehensive programme we have ever offered and it really does provide something for everyone!

Tim Freeman, Director of FCTSA

For our full CPD programme, please look at our website at

www.fctsa.co.uk

What our partners say: Our teaching and support staff all choose at least 3 inset twilights throughout the year which relate to areas of specific individual interest as well as appraisal targets. Most staff do more than 3 and many have been involved in the delivery of these inset sessions too. As participants they have increased in expertise as practitioners as well as exploring areas of teaching, learning and leadership which are out of their comfort zones and are helping to prepare them for the next steps along their career paths.

As facilitators, our staff have grown in professional confidence. All Inset twilights offer staff the opportunity for professional dialogue with colleagues from other schools, phases and sectors and to share good practice and develop understanding and respect of the different jobs we do. Because these inset sessions have been designed by all the partner schools, they are taylor made to meet the development needs of all our schools as well as addressing current issues in education.

The impact is seen not only in outstanding classroom practice and school leadership, but also in an ebullient confidence to face the challenges not only of the job, but of our educational times.

Pamela Birch BA (Hons), MA, PGCE, NLE Headteacher Hambleton Primary Academy

“The NPQSL offered me a great opportunity to improve my practice and develop my leadership skills. I was able to undertake projects that would benefit my organisation as well as enrich my personal understanding of management theory.”

Estelle Bellamy, The Blackpool Sixth Form College “Maybe the most interesting and thought provoking twilight I’ve been on in 18 years as a secondary teacher!”

Twilight attendee, 2015 (Improving pupil response for inference and deduction in reading)

“Great session. It really made me think and revaluate my own classroom expectations.”

Twilight attendee, 2015 (Achieving an undisrupted learning experience)

“I found the Middle Leadership Course with the Fylde Coast Teaching School very valuable. It inspired me to do more leader training. I am now completing the NPQML in middle leadership.”

Sarah Oxley, St Teresa’s Catholic Primary School

Working towards a school-led system

Developing Teaching & Learning Two Separate Courses Delivered by experienced and fully qualified facilitators, this exciting and rewarding programme provides you with time to share ideas and improve your practice. Hosted across different institutions within our Alliance, you will get the opportunity to work with teachers from different subject areas and sectors.

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Aspirational Teaching and Learning

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Audience: Teachers who need to improve their teaching practice and refresh their pedagogy.

Outcomes: Delegates will return to pedagogy, exploring new theories to make their practice more evidence-based.

Delegates will build their confidence using relevant psychological tools and techniques.

Delegates will receive a new ‘teaching toolkit’ to enhance their practice in the classroom.

Delegates will visit other institutions in the Alliance to witness best practice.

Teaching for the Future

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Audience: Teachers who want to deliver consistently Outstanding lessons.

Outcomes: Delegates will be challenged via collaborative investigation into a variety of innovative approaches to teaching and learning.

Delegates will enhance their ‘teaching toolkit’ to embed their practice in the classroom.

Delegates will visit other institutions in the Alliance to evaluate best practice.

Delegates will explore how the changes to the Ofsted framework will impact on how we meet the needs of individual learners.

Delegates will receive training on how to be a Coach from Roy Blake, so they can encourage their colleagues on their return.

Delegates will be expected to complete post-session tasks each week, and to bring evidence of their new classroom practice to show the group.

Each course costs £450 per delegate

Each course is the equivalent of 4 full days in training Schools are invited to complete a SWOT analysis with their teachers beforehand so the training can target their specific needs.

To book, or for further information email: info@fctsa.co.uk or call: 01253 356271 ext 169 For more information about any courses please visit: www.fctsa.co.uk

Schools enrolling more than one delegate can also benefit from a visit from a DTL facilitator after the course to conduct home school coaching observations.

Norbreck Primary Academy Primary Academy

Norbreck Primary Academy Choir Norbreck Primary Academy’s choir, comprising 36 year 4, 5 and 6 pupils, have had an amazing year so far. This talented choir led by Headteacher Karen McCarter, won the Big Sing singing competition at Rossall School in July and were Runners-up at the Last Choir Singing Final at King George’s Hall in Blackburn.

They were also chosen from 350 choirs nationally to perform and compete at the Royal Festival Hall, London in the Barnardo’s National Choir of the Year competition.

This month the Choir will perform on live TV on the night of the BBC Children in Need, as they did last year.

Well done to our Alliance School!

The Blackpool Sixth Form College

The Blackpool Sixth Form College

Working towards a school-led system Initial Teacher Training Our SCITT launched on September 7th - welcoming 23 new recruits to start their teacher training on the Fylde Coast.

After a week's preparatory training and an extreme team building challenge, they started at their Placement A school with a mixture of excitement and nerves.

Throughout September they were completing their 'Challenges' against the Teachers' Standards, attending twilight sessions, adding to their toolkits and delivering starter activities.

Some have visited primary schools to explore the differences in phase - our Biologist Adam Mason completely embraced his day at Westcliff and volunteered to dress up as the Big Bad Wolf for role playing with the children! Some spent a day at Sixth Form to test their subject knowledge at A Level. Others visited Highfurlong and felt very privileged to have spent time with the happy young people there.

Thank you to all of our partner schools for hosting our trainees and making them feel so welcome.

Working towards a school-led system A year in the life of two of our SCITT Trainees Dorian Ransome and Emily Tomkinson will keep us informed about their experiences in their training year.

The school based training offers the opportunity to observe and work in different settings across the Fylde Coast.

Throughout my career I have strived to develop individuals and teams to reach their potential and achieve their aspirations through support, direction and leadership. I have 25 years’ experience working in healthcare from National Pharmaceutical Manager to NHS CEO and most recently five fantastic years working as a General Manager in Reproductive Medicine. These roles have enabled me to combine my love of science with leading and managing people within exceptional companies.

The Alliance aims to develop teachers who will act as change agents and have individual qualities that are transferable into the teaching setting. The school based training offers the opportunity to observe and work in different settings across the Fylde Coast.

I have always known I would like to teach English in a secondary school. However, I thought it would never be possible due to having two young children, financial commitments and an established career at Blackpool Victoria Hospital. I researched the options available for teacher training, and I realised that the Fylde Coast Teaching School Alliance was definitely the best option for me. This is because I knew I would be doing placements in schools across the Fylde Coast and would not have to travel huge distances to a university site, as the theoretical part of the course is also taught in Fylde Coast schools.

Conversely, I have also been working alongside the teacher of some Y7 classes, and introducing the students to different structural features used in non-fiction writing.

Leaving my job was not a decision I took lightly. I had worked in this role for thirteen years and although it was daunting, I can honestly say I have made the right decision to pursue my dream of a career in teaching. I am almost three weeks into my training and I am beginning to get a taste of the hard work, commitment and enthusiasm required to work as a teacher. I have also seen how rewarding and satisfying it is to work with children from the age of eleven to eighteen.

I feel passionate about playing a role in the lives of children and young people across the Fylde Coast. I truly believe that Blackpool is a great place to live and work which is why I chose the Fylde Coast Teaching School Alliance as my teacher training provider. I’m confident that it will provide me with all the skills, knowledge and experience I need to become an outstanding teacher.

There is an expectation that you have strong subject knowledge. The placements offer classroom experience, development of practical skills within high performing schools in the area alongside excellent teachers and I am lucky to be able to have been given the opportunity to inspirational headteachers. undertake my teacher training which to some may appear to be a complete career change, however teaching has I am currently doing my first placement at one of the been intrinsic to all I have done throughout my career. The member schools. The school and staff are both supportive training offered by Fylde Coast Teaching School Alliance and encouraging and reflect the direction and values of enables me to further develop my skills with support from Fylde Coast Teaching School Alliance. I look forward to likeminded people, who also are inspirational, organised, completing the training and becoming an inspirational offer good leadership and genuinely care about their teacher working within Blackpool and across the Fylde students becoming motivational teachers.

Coast making a difference to children’s education and aspirations.

I chose Fylde Coast Teaching School Alliance because I Dorian Ransome believe this offers me the opportunity to train in a centre of SCITT Trainee 2015-2016 excellence, which is child focused, where every child is (Biology) offered the chance to reach their full potential.

My host school has a sixth form attached to it and this week I have been able to participate in some of the A-level English Literature classes, which involved debating two opposing opinions about characters in a novel the students have been studying.

I feel strongly supported by my subject mentor at my host school and because I am not from a teaching background, I am able to take my training at my own pace. I also feel extremely reassured that I am being trained to be a teacher by experts who have vast amounts of teaching experience, and are knowledgeable in all aspects of teaching and teacher-training.

I feel passionate about playing a role in the lives of children across the Fylde Coast.

Emily Tomkinson SCITT Trainee 2015-2016 (English)

Working towards a school-led system The UCAS portal opens for applications 27 October.

Our ITT allocations for the 2016-2017 academic year are as follows: - 20 School Direct Primary Places - 34 SCITT Secondary places

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Have you ever thought about being a teacher?

Train to teach with us on the Fylde Coast

We are recruiting now We are offering secondary courses in the following subjects: Mathematics, English, Computer Science, Geography, History, MFL (French & Spanish), Biology, Chemistry , Physics, Art & Design, Drama, RE, Music, Design & Technology (Product Design)

For further information please contact us info@fctsa.co.uk

www.fctsa.co.uk

01253 356271 (ext 169)

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@fyldecoastTS

School to School Support The founding principle of the Teaching School is to support any schools to raise standards for students. This commitment transcends competition between schools and supports the community in giving the best possible opportunities to young people. We offer highly tailored sessions for schools who strive to reach outstanding levels of teaching and learning consistently and work with schools on specific areas for improvement .

One of our SLEs, Bea Tingey, shares her school to school support experience : One thing has always remained uppermost in my vision and beliefs: all children deserve the best education, the best teaching and learning - no matter what their postcode.

As times have changed, so has the demand for the best education. Parents, rightly so, are more persistent as the dynamics of accountability have shifted. Adapting to change is crucial in this profession; being in a position to support colleagues was, and still is, my driving force into successfully becoming a SLE. This wasn’t about me, it was about those I could really support and guide.

Describing the role of a SLE is certainly not an easy one – even by an English specialist! Not only do you possess those skills and expertise that others ask for, there are other skills that are essential that make your SLE role so successful. This was apparent when I recently supported a department in a large school in Lancashire. After being contacted by the Principal, it was clear that my SLE support wasn’t just for academic results. This was about building confidence, providing a safe environment to take teaching and learning risks as well as to develop pedagogy.

Over a few weeks, the results were incredible. The progression in confidence, as well as in teaching and learning, was clearly noticeable. Students were responding positively and the growing confidence with teaching and learning ideas and routines began to recreate the self-belief in the colleague I was supporting.

More than that, the department was beginning to see the difference and feel the impact.

Hodgson Academy

It’s a joy to see people flourish, to find that piece of pedagogy that was missing or lost; to reinvigorate a demanding career and swim in the sea of change. How many times do we feel like we’re drowning?

Facilitating ‘The Developing Teaching and Learning Programme’ for Fylde Coast Teaching School Alliance in my role as a SLE has also supported so many colleagues across the Fylde Coast, many of whom have since gained promotion and reached goals they never thought possible.

They have become stronger and more successful in their chosen career paths. However, getting back to where we started, getting back to what really matters, those colleagues are giving stronger and more successful educational paths to the young people that really need it across the whole of the Fylde Coast.

Over a few weeks, the results were incredible.

Bea Tingey Hodgson Academy SLE, Lead PractitionerTeaching and Learning.

Outstanding Facilitator: Developing Teacher Programme

Westcliff Primary School

St George’s School

Governance Governance in a modern world, a Personal View - John Boyle NLG The modern world of school governance is quite different to the traditional role of the past. Whether it be a maintained school, an academy or a college, good, robust, governance is a requirement of OFSTED and of the Department for Education and its funding agencies.

The practices once confined to the Corporate Boardroom are regarded as best practice for Academies and Colleges, and are also now statutory requirements for governors of maintained schools.

The Governors Handbook (DfE) reminds all Governors that it is their duty to : “conduct the school with a view to promoting high standards of educational achievement at the school 1. In all types of schools, governing bodies should have a strong focus on three core strategic functions: a. Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction; b. Holding the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils, and the performance management of staff; and c. Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

These functions are reflected in regulations for 2 maintained schools and in the criteria Ofsted inspectors use to judge the effectiveness of governance in both maintained schools and academies. They are also discussed further in departmental advice on the Roles, Procedures and Allowances Regulations 2013.”

Those of you who have seen my presentations will know that I constantly return to these core functions and I make no apology for doing so again, because they are so important. In my opinion, if your governing body is doing something that cannot be classified in one of the above responsibilities, then it should not be doing it. Maintained schools have recently been obliged to re-constitute their governing bodies to ensure that, collectively, they have the skills necessary to deliver the three core functions.

The recruiting mantra is ‘Skills not Representation’. Those of us in Academies have the added responsibilities of Corporate Directorships and Charitable Trustees, roles which can not be taken lightly and under which there attaches personal responsibility.

Finding the right candidates can be difficult and so FCAT runs an ongoing recruitment campaign to attract individuals who may be able to fulfil the role of Governor or Director in our partner Colleges, Schools and Academies and this facility is open to FCTSA partners as well. Please contact our Governor Services Department to know more.

1 s21(2) Education Act 2002.

2 The School Governance (Roles, Procedures and Allowances) (England) Regulations 2013.

Governance Services: Kath Buddle (Governance Administrator) Email: kathryn.buddle@fcat.org.uk Phone: 01253 356271

John Boyle JP CAifs, DiPFS, NLG, A Vice Chair of the Fylde Coast Academy Trust, Chair of the Fylde Coast Teaching School Ltd and Chair of the Blackpool Sixth Form College John’s initial career was in a Clearing Bank, coming to the Fylde Coast 28 years ago as an Area Manager. John has much experience in Finance, Accounting and Commercial Legal matters and of Corporate Governance. John has been a governor of the Blackpool Sixth Form College for 12 years, latterly acting as Chair. He is a chartered Associate of the Institute of Financial Services, a Justice of the Peace and a National Leader of Governance Advocate.

St Mary’s Catholic Academy

Middle Leadership Short Course

Middle Leadership Short Course The Middle Leadership Short Course focuses on essential leadership skills to support developing and aspiring leaders. The course blends an operational focus with consideration of current thinking on what makes an outstanding leader.

Audience Anyone new to leadership or aspiring to be a future middle leader will find the course useful.

What will be covered?

Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4 Session 5 Session 6

- Difference between leading and managing - Leading improvements in teaching and learning - Developing a change culture - Working effectively with data - Developing an effective team - Evaluating and presenting outcomes

How will impact be measured?

- Participants will apply the skills learned to their school improvement plans.

- The final session will assess their impact via a presentation, evaluated against the skills developed throughout the course.

How long is the course?

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2-hour sessions over 6 weeks

Start date: January 2016

Cost: ÂŁ350 per delegate To book, or for further information email: info@fctsa.co.uk or call: 01253 356271 ext 169 For more information about any courses please visit: www.fctsa.co.uk

Fylde Coast Teaching School Alliance c/o Montgomery High School All Hallows Road Blackpool FY2 0AZ

WHO IS WHO at the Fylde Coast Teaching School?

Sarah Hetherington Director of Teaching School s.hetherington@hodgson.lancs.sch.uk Tim Freeman Director of Teaching School tim.freeman@blackpoolsixth.ac.uk Aly Spencer Head of Initial Teacher Training aly.spencer@fctsa.co.uk Lill Johansen Parker Commercial Manager lill.parker@fctsa.co.uk Kate French Teaching School Administrator kfrench@fctsa.co.uk

Norbreck Primary Academy: Runners-up at the Last Choir Singing Final 2015

Fylde Coast Teaching School Alliance Partnership to promote excellence in teaching, learning and leadership