Newsletter Edition 10

Liverpool Secondary Schools’ Partnership Newsletter

Edition 3

Liverpool Archdiocese Secondary Schools’ Partnership Newsletter

We would like to wish all of our schools and colleges a Happy New Year and a warm welcome to the third edition of the Liverpool Archdiocese Secondary Schools’ Partnership newsletter (Spring 2016).

This edition highlights the many events that continue to take place across the Archdiocese and the upcoming opportunities to share good practice among our schools.

Features include the 2015/16 ‘Student Photographic Competition’, GCSE conferences focusing upon the new specifications from each examination board, GCSE ‘Preparing to teach’ events and Pastoral Leaders Programme.

Upcoming events are also listed on the last page of the newsletter, but you 2015 can have Newsletter—Edition 1 Winter an up to date view of the calendar and current news from the website by visiting www.lassp.co.uk or clicking here This will include:

Research and Development A half day Leadership Seminar for Headteachers has been organised by Archdiocesan Adviser Kim Grice, and is taking place at St John Bosco on 26th January 2016 (morning or afternoon session). Research and development is a strand within the Strategic Plan and is an area of work that has been identified as a key development within our Partnership.

Sir Kevan Collins, Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation, will present an overview of the work of the Foundation in addition to which there will be a choice of workshop provided by a number of primary and secondary schools across the Archdiocese.

10 steps to effective Research and Development (St John Bosco Arts College, Liverpool) Research and development - a learning journey (Maricourt HS on behalf of Holy Rosary Teaching School Alliance)

Research Mindedness (Our Lady Bishop Eton i2i Teaching School, Liverpool) Maths Mastery in the Primary School (Yarrow Teaching School Alliance, Lancashire) Following this conference we hope to bring together some interested colleagues to work across schools on similar projects and share experiences and outcomes. Any notable outcomes will be disseminated throughout the Partnership for schools to consider whether to incorporate any findings into their own schools. Topics will be decided upon by Headteachers and Senior Leaders and I am sure will include the following research areas:- teaching and learning, transition, behaviour modification, working with parents etc.

Our plan is to pilot Research and Development groups of interested teachers and for colleagues across schools to share approaches and methods for their action research.

Studies have shown that the most effective way to develop new knowledge is through partnership with others who are equally interested in the process of learning. We will be looking to establish groups late in the spring/early summer term with a view to commencing the Action Research in the late Summer/Autumn 2016 but this will depend on the focus of the groups involved.

Further information will be available from CPD leads in February, 2016.

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Liverpool Secondary Schools’ Partnership Newsletter

New Specifi-

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cation GCSE Conferences

In June we announced a series of conferences to address the new GCSE specifications that will be ready for teaching in September 2016. The purpose was to support Heads of Department in making their decision as to the most appropriate choice of board for their students and schools. It also gave colleagues an opportunity to consider all the new specifications from AQA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC/Eduqas, together with the support on offer and any resources produced by the examination boards. The Examination Boards were very keen to work with us as we have enormous strength given the number of schools we have in our Partnership (36 schools and 2 sixth form colleges).

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In the Autumn term we held 10 conferences, attended by over 200 colleagues. The strengths and commitment to our Partnership was particularly transparent when considering the variety of venues where the conferences took place – St Bede’s Ormskirk, Archbishop Beck Liverpool, Saints Peter and Paul Widnes, Hope Academy Newton-le-Willows, Bellerive Liverpool, St Edmund Arrowsmith Wigan, St Peter’s Orrell and St John Bosco, Liverpool. Our schools and colleges were able to raise questions with the exam board representatives, network with colleagues and examine which board was right for their school. Comments from colleagues included: ‘Very useful, I have a much better understanding of the requirement’ ‘Fantastic to be informed and network with other colleagues’ ‘Although we have decided on an exam board, this has confirmed that our decision is right’ ‘It was really useful to have all exam board information over one day to contrast and compare’ Following these very successful events, we are now beginning a series of twilights and in some cases ‘Preparing to teach’ events to allow individual exam boards to take colleagues through the requirements of the specification, share ideas and demonstrate different approaches to the tasks. Our ‘upcoming events’ page lists those sessions now available and further information will be distributed to your CPD coordinator. The Partnership Director will look to hold ‘Preparing to teach’ events in subjects were we have more than 12 schools wishing to follow an exam board and are committed to attending the event. A recent conference at St Bede’s saved the school a considerable amount of money as we were able to source the event for free and invite other schools to attend with no costs incurred. Please visit our website for up to date information.

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Liverpool Secondary Schools’ Partnership Newsletter

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NPQH Catholic Leadership Programme

National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) Incorporating the Catholic Leadership Programme (CLP) We are currently working with the Outstanding Leaders Partnership (Accredited Licensee’s by the National College and the DfE for Leadership at all levels) to create a NPQH that incorporates many aspects of the CLP programme and is flexible and modular to enable trainee heads to develop the knowledge, Newsletter—Edition 1 Winter 2015 skills and confidence required to become highly effective Catholic Headteachers. The qualification will be assessed and accredited by the National College for Teaching and Leadership (and the Liverpool Archdiocese/Salford Diocese).

The Outstanding Leaders Partnership Delivery Model includes: 7 face-to-face sessions spread over 12 months 3 facilitated online short courses 3 assessed tasks: one in own school, one in placement school and a presentation/interview 2 360° Leadership Diagnostic Reports 1-2 residentials focused upon Spiritual Reflection 1 school placement with location, phase and specialism chosen by trainee (9 days) & termly face-to-face and online support from a dedicated personal coach Colleagues on the course will benefit from: ■ Leadership provision rated ‘Gold’ by the National College – “Outstanding and a benchmark for performance. A source of learning and inspiration for others.”

■ Facilitation and support from serving Catholic school leaders in outstanding schools ■ Purpose built virtual learning environment enabled for mobiles and tablets ■ Delivery of the programme at local venues There will be an opportunity to attend a meeting to support the writing of applications sometime in January/February 2016. Further information will be available very soon via your CPD Leads.

Our thanks go to the following Headteachers who have supported the re-writing of the NPQH modules; Jonathan Smart (Our Lady Queen of Peace, Skelmersdale and St John Fisher), Chris Horrocks (St Bede’s), Frances Harrison (Notre Dame and Savio Salesian), Alan Williams (Emmaus Primary), Debbie Bostock (Our Lady’s Bishop Eton) and Leo Conley from Salford Archdiocese.

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Pastoral Leaders Programme of Sharing Good Practice

The Leaders of Pastoral Support in the Central Cluster have been meeting since September to share good practice and their approaches to challenges faced on a daily basis.

To date, the programme has covered: 

Extremism and schools and colleges responses to this key1 feature the Ofsted inspection.

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Safeguarding and key aspects that all middle leaders need to be aware of.

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Transition from KS2-3, 3-4 and 4-5. Colleagues discussed their transition plans and what worked well.

Our thanks goes to Alison Woodcock (Carmel College, Extremism), Sally Jones (Hope Academy, Safeguarding) and Peter Westbury (Holy Family, Transition) who have led the first three sessions.

Future meetings include supporting our most vulnerable young people, how SMSC is delivered in schools and the role of the Form Tutor. This programme will be reviewed at the end of the year, but to date 44 colleagues attended the first three sessions and feedback has been very positive indeed.

A similar programme is being considered in the other two clusters.

Leading an Outstanding Department Programme

This course, currently open to Central Cluster schools, has been designed to further support the development of our middle leaders and to provide support and development for new and experienced Heads of Department. The programme will focus on key elements of being a successful Head of Department, including what it means to be a middle leader in a Catholic school, analysis and use of performance data, providing the evidence for Ofsted, Accountability and Performance Management and raising standards in the classroom.

The most recent session gave those attending the opportunity to take advantage of an outstanding speaker who led a session on 'Managing difficult conversations with staff'. The focus of the session was upon providing effective feedback and how to deal with difficult colleagues. The session concluded by considering approaches to take when things don’t improve and how to negotiate the way forward.

This is a pilot programme and will be reviewed as to its success at the end of the year.

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The Department for Education acknowledgement of our Student British Values Conference Please find below a letter received from the office of Nicky Morgan, The Secretary of State for Education, with regard to our student British Values Conference held at the end of the summer term. This recognises the excellent work of the Partnership in addressing this subject. Thanks again to all those involved in making it such a great success.

Dear Mr Greenall I am writing on behalf of the Secretary of State to thank you for your email of 21 October, about the Liverpool Archdiocese Secondary Schools’ Partnership’s British Values Newsletter—Edition Conference.

1 Winter 2015 The Secretary of State would like me to take this opportunity to thank you for bringing to her attention the article written by students from Christ the King Catholic High School. The work that has been carried out by the Liverpool Archdiocese Secondary Partnership to raise the awareness of British values for your students has been recognised as contributing significantly to the extended curriculum of your schools in addressing such an important issue.

Article written by students from Christ The King: Tuesday 30th June was marked down as a momentous day as thirty-eight Catholic Secondary Schools and Sixth Form Colleges came together to offer one voice on the subject of British values. Attendees ranged from different cultural and religious backgrounds to attend at the home of St Helens Rugby Football Club in Langtree Park to develop teaching and learning resources based on British Values that would be implemented in schools across the region.

One of the biggest questions currently on the minds of hundreds of students is, just what are British values?

Schools, Academies and Colleges from the Liverpool Archdiocese Secondary School’s Partnership selected students from Years 10 and 12 from its eight Local Authorities to participate in a conference, all aiming to tackle this complex question and to find an answer. Paul Greenall, Partnership Director, organised the event, getting young people to think about what it means to be British. This encouraged them to take part in several activities based on a survey conducted by Christ the King Catholic High School’s Head of Science, Dave Hemsley, by which thousands of students across the region completed with great success.

The range of views expressed by the survey further gave credence to the importance of education of British values within our schools. Tim Warren, Archdiocesan Director of Education and James Lancaster, Head Teacher of Christ the King Catholic High School were the keynote speakers and they further served to add weight to the proceedings in shaping young people’s understanding of how Catholic values, personal values and British values are all interlinked, as Lord Nash, Department for Education, has stated: ‘We want every school to promote the basic British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs.’

It is safe to say that the conference at Langtree Park has galvanised all thirty-eight participating Secondary Schools and Sixth Form Colleges in wanting to continue to collaborate in future years to come.

Article by Gabriella Smith, Harriet McCoombe and Olivia Pearce

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Liverpool Secondary Schools’ Partnership Newsletter

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‘Spirituality within our School’ (Year of Mercy) Photographic Competition

Following a successful Student Conference on British Values last summer, this year’s student activity will take the form of a photographic competition. Schools are invited to submit two entries, one from students in Years 7 to 9, and the other for older students in Years 10 to 11, or 13 if the school/college1 has a sixth form. There will be prizes for those judged to Newsletter—Edition Winter 2015 be in the top three for each category.

The theme is ‘Spirituality within our School’ with an optional key focus upon the Year of Mercy. Any photograph chosen to represent the school’s entry should be accompanied by some descriptive text not exceeding 150 words. Each school should be prepared to submit two entries that will then be displayed in a number of locations across the Archdiocese, including the Cathedral.

The press office of the Archdiocese will contact local media companies within the areas that the exhibitions take place, so that we are able to raise the profile of some of the work taking place within our schools.

All pieces of work, clearly labelled, should be ready for collection by Friday 29th April, 2016. Details can be found on our website www.lassp.co.uk, but if you require any further information please contact Paul Greenall, Partnership Director at p.greenall@rcaol.co.uk Good luck!

Website Resources On the website, www.lassp.co.uk, there is a Resources Box that is located within the Partnership icon.

Once you click on Resources, you will find information from the Student Conference with regard to teaching British Values, all the information from the Pastoral Leaders Programme and the New GCSE Specification Conferences.

We intend to build upon this Resources Box in the future so that further documents are available to all teachers, whatever stage of their career.

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Liverpool Secondary Schools’ Partnership Newsletter

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UPCOMING EVENTS Headteacher West Cluster Meeting Tuesday 12 January (Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School) Computer Science GCSE Twilight Session (subject to accreditation of specification) Thursday 14 January at St John Bosco Arts College Headteacher East Cluster Meeting Tuesday 19th January (venue to be confirmed) Leadership Conference - Research and Development (Headteachers all clusters) Tuesday 26th January at St John Bosco Arts College Central Pastoral CPD Programme of Sharing Good Practice (Our vulnerable young people) Tuesday 26 January at St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School Leading an Outstanding Department Programme Wednesday 27 January at Maricourt Catholic High School Headteacher Central1Cluster Meeting Newsletter—Edition Winter 2015 Friday 29 January at All Saints Catholic High School West Cluster CPD Leads Meeting Tuesday 2 February at St Julie’s Catholic High School Post 16 Meeting Wednesday 3 February at Cardinal Heenan / Broughton Hall Sixth Form Centre East Cluster CPD Meeting Thursday 4 February at St Peter’s Catholic High School Central Cluster CPD Meeting Tuesday 9th February-venue to be confirmed Physical Education ‘Preparing to Teach’ OCR Event Thursday 11 February at St Edmund Arrowsmith, Wigan Partnership Board Meeting (Headteachers only) Friday 26 February at St Peter’s Catholic High School East Cluster Pastoral Leaders Meeting ‘Sharing Transition Plans’ Wednesday 9th March at St Peter’s Orrell Secondary Schools Partnership (all Headteachers) Friday 11 March at Wrightington Hotel Central Pastoral Leaders - Sharing Good Practice (SMSC) Tuesday 15 March at Hope Academy (to be confirmed) Dance GCSE and ‘Preparing to Teach’ AQA Event Wednesday 16 March at St Peter’s Catholic High School Central Cluster—Leading an Outstanding Department Programme Tuesday 22 March at St Cuthbert’s Catholic Community College

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Liverpool Secondary Schools’ Partnership Newsletter

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Newsletter—Edition 1 Winter 2015

If you have any comments or observations about this newsletter then we would welcome them. Please forward those comments to Paul Greenall, Partnership Director p.greenall@rcaol.co.uk All dates are correct at the time of printing, but can be subject to change.

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