Author: blcadmin

Last week we had our first teacher training day for our new project In My Own Words, funded by Laurel Trust. This is an exciting action-research project we are taking part in, in partnership with the Windmill cluster. 12 teachers are working together with Cath Greenwood from the Unicorn Theatre and storyteller and writer Steven Camden. This project is looking at how teachers can create an inclusive environment for creative writing encouraging those usually reluctant to write, or perceived as having less experiences to draw upon to use in their writing. The training session was an immersive experience. As a group we made a story setting, drawing it out on a long piece of paper on the floor, We then took parts of the story setting and worked in partners to think about the characters who might live in the various spaces in our environment, using drama and art to illustrate our thoughts and sharing them together. As the time went on, plots naturally developed and by lunchtime we had created a number of stories that linked together. Teachers commented they were eager to go back into the class and try some of the activities with their children. Our artist team will then visit the teachers in school and work together with their classes before the Christmas break. Thanks to everyone who took part in this really inspiring day. It was great to work with such a creative and enthusiastic group of talented teachers, who worked so well together. This is going to be a really interesting and dynamic project.

We are delighted to have started another series of Royal Institution Maths Masterclasses this term, hosted by St Gabriel’s College. We have had bumper numbers of children engaging this term with 35 year 5 children on the register across 7 local primaries. Last week’s master class focussed on Codes and Ciphers, led by Debo Gbakinro, an engineer with Network Rail and former pupil of one of our primaries, St John Divine. Debo led a great session, with children exploring a range of codes and ciphers used in a range of day to day situations. Our next session will be about Maths in the Solar System. Thanks to all the staff in school, and our excellent masterclass leaders for giving this opportunity to the children.

This term teachers from years 1 through to 6 have met together from our primary schools. These start of year meetings are designed to allow teachers to get to know each other, have initial discussions about children’s learning and share experiences. We often start the meetings by asking teachers to introduce themselves and say how many years they have been working in the particular Key Stage – we frequently have over 70 years of experience in the room! Teachers have given some great feedback about what they’ve taken from these meetings: comparing different approaches to writing and the variety of maths approaches, discussing behaviour management, getting ideas for differentiation, seeing how colleagues include visuals and photographs of learning in children’s books, seeing teachers giving Maths challenges at the end of lessons, different methods of marking. Over 60 teachers have taken part in these meetings this term – many thanks to all of them for taking the time to share with other schools.

Our new Ogden Trust Partnership has enabled over 40 teachers from our schools to received training so far this term. Our Primary CPD day was for year 3, year 5 and Science Leads on Forces, and our Ogden Co-ordinator Carole Kendrick took teachers through a wealth of practical investigations to do in the classroom. All primaries and our secondary Special School The Michael Tippett School, have received class resource boxes to accompany the work, with several hundred pounds worth of equipment to use. Our EYFS teachers also enjoyed a day of specialist practical training with an Ogden specialist and received a resource for weekly investigations for children throughout the year. Teachers’ feedback from the sessions was very positive and we shall now be ensuring that the training becomes meaningful learning for pupils in our schools.

14 teams from across the borough came together for our first girls primary football tournament of the year – a fantastic turn out with over 120 girls on the site of Vauxhall Powerleague pitches. This was a partnership event between BLC, Oval Cluster, Girls United FA and The Black Prince Trust. A busy schedule of games took place with teams playing at least 3 times and those not through to the semis and the final doing additional skills activities with the staff from Powerleague and The Black Prince Trust. There were medals for best team player, best attitude to play and bravest player as well as for places in the tournament and congratulations to all the girls for a great afternoon’s display of skills and team spirit.

We were delighted that Senior leaders from our participating schools were able to join other projects funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Teacher Development Fund from across England, to discuss how our Confident Creator project, embedding arts in the curriculum, is moving on in its second year. It has been very encouraging to see several schools now using Music, Drama and Art more regularly in their teaching. At our local Senior Leaders meeting, staff took part in a practical workshop with our artists and enjoyed mark-making, doing a 5-step Music warm up and making a story using the story square activity.

Our exciting new partnership with Ogden Trust has meant a busy term of Science this term. Just before half term, 24 young Scientists from Stockwell, Jessop, St Saviour’s and Loughborough Primaries, all Spanish speaking, met a group of Spanish speaking scientists from a range of professions, all working in London including the field of Astrophysics and Medicine. The scientists worked with the children on a range of investigations and told them more about their own work. The unique feature of this workshop was that it was all delivered in Spanish. The room was full of lively chat, questioning and problem solving. At the end of the session children unanimously agreed they had enjoyed and learnt more about Science. We hope to run more of these workshops with Native Scientists, in other home languages. Thanks to Stockwell Primary for hosting this brilliant event.

Its been a busy first few weeks of term at BLC with projects starting up, training and teacher meetings.

Our Headteachers met in the first week of term, sharing the great work they have planned for their school communities this year. Whilst there is no doubt there are challenging times ahead for our schools, what shone through was the wealth of expertise and skills in our cluster from our leadership teams that find solutions to make sure our children and young people thrive in our community.

Our steering group of Deputy Heads met up at the South Bank Centre this week, where in addition to their agenda of actions for the cluster, they toured the South Bank site and signed up for opportunities for staff and pupils in Music, Literature and Art on offer to Lambeth schools. Our growing partnership with South Bank Centre is benefitting many children in our area.

We have also already done training for our second year of our Confident Creators programme and there are now some excellent examples of our schools embedding the arts into the curriculum and using the arts to develop a growth mindset in pupils.

Our Science Leads have met and planned a busy year of training, support and events in Science and in particular in Physics, to support teaching and learning. We are grateful to the Ogden Trust for their funding as we begin a 4 year partnership with them.

In the next few weeks we are planning cross-cluster year group teacher meetings, a girls football tournament in partnership with The Black Prince Trust and Girls United FA and a new research project starting up with the Laurel Trust. More news on the blog to follow!

Lots of activities for families this weekend.

3. Low Cost No Cost 28th & 29th Sep (1).docx