Bradford launches campaign to find teachers who can make a difference

The Bradford for Teaching campaign is the latest step being taken in Bradford to boost teacher recruitment and retention.

A new website has been created, www.bradfordteaching.org  which allows people to find out more about the opportunities to train and work in Bradford’s schools.

There will also be a major social media campaign through Facebook, Twitter and You Tube.

Ten inspirational teachers and school leaders from the district have been chosen to be Bradford for Teaching Ambassadors. They will share their stories on social media about the impact their work is having  in order to help promote Bradford to teachers outside the district.

The new campaign follows on from the success of the Bradford bus tours which the council has organised to bring teacher training students into the district’ schools to see their work for themselves.

The Bradford for Teaching ambassadors have been chosen from schools across the district to champion Bradford and the rewards of teaching here.

One of those ambassadors is Luke Sparkes, the executive principal of Dixons Trinity Academy.

He said: “Bradford is an exceptional community: diverse, ambitious and culturally rich; it is a city which deserves teachers who are truly values driven and want to make a difference.  There is a strong current of educational innovation in Bradford with two secondary schools placing in the top 30 nationally for progress in summer 2017.

Ambassador Aamir Hassan, an assistant faculty leader and English teacher at Beckfoot School in Bingley said: “Teaching in Bradford is rewarding, extraordinary and what I live to do. I am inspired everyday by the students and we all learn from one another. Working with young people is an enriching experience and I wouldn’t want that experience anywhere else- Bradford is truly the place to be for teaching.”

Coun Imran Khan, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Education, Employment and Skills said: “Bradford for Teaching is a vitally important campaign for the district.

“We are determined to provide the best possible education for all our young people. We know that the quality of our teachers is vital in turning this ambition into a reality. Bradford is a vibrant and diverse district.

“Our schools offer a variety of different opportunities and challenges, with the chance to work in different settings from urban and inner city schools to those serving rural communities. But we are all united by a shared commitment to ensure our young people achieve their potential. I hope the Bradford for Teaching campaign will inspire more teachers to join us on this journey.”

The campaign will involve a partnership of schools across the Bradford district. It is being funded by Bradford Council and co-ordinated by the Northern Lights Teaching School Alliance.

Bradford already leads the way in innovative work to recruit and retain the best teachers.

Bradford Council committed to investing £660,000 on teacher recruitment over a three year period. Since then the authority has run the highly successful bus tours taking teacher training students into Bradford schools to see the work they do for themselves.

It has also set up a Talent Bank which is used by school leaders to fill their vacancies with the best suited candidates. This has helped to recruit around 200 new teachers to Bradford schools over the past two years.

Now partners in Bradford are keen to build on this success with a campaign which celebrates and promotes the district more widely as a place where teachers at any stage of their career can make a difference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Hzbby2JMqM&feature=youtu.be

Introduction to Directing – Taster Sessions for 18-25 year olds

Are you aged 18 -25 and living in Bradford? Are you creatively curious and have something to say to the world? Ever thought about directing for theatre?

Sign up for a taster session to our second Introduction to Directing Course!

This November, West Yorkshire Playhouse and Common Wealth will lead a course exploring what directing is and can be. Sessions will be led by West Yorkshire Playhouse’s Associate Artist, Mark Rosenblatt, and Common Wealth’s Co-Artistic Director, Evie Manning. Over five days, we want you to come and be curious with us; 11,12, 23, 25 & 26 Nov. The course is free and there will be some small stipends to cover travel expenses.

There will be a FREE taster session on Tue 17 Oct from 6pm – 8pm at Speakers Corner, Ivegate, Bradford BD1 1SA.

Email jenny.sullivan@wyp.org.uk for more information or to book for the taster session.

If you can’t make the taster, don’t worry – you can introduce yourself however you’d like. Send us a blog, a video or an email to jenny.sullivan@wyp.org.uk by Wed, 25 Oct.

@WYPlayhouse

Titus Salt School pupils’ progress is sustained for six years

Pupils at Titus Salt School are priding themselves on sustained progress for the last six years.

The school in Baildon also has no students who have become NEET (Not in Education, Employment and Training), which means that every pupil in Year 11 or in the sixth form has a placement in education or employment/training when leaving school.

Zero percentage of NEET students is one indicator of how well a school prepares its pupils for further learning, work and training.

All pupils have progressed to a high quality destination, with the number of students going to a Russell Group University doubling the national average figure in 2016.

Each Titus Salt School pupil has a personalised programme of careers education, advice and guidance including opportunities for work experience, studying local enterprises as part of coursework and case studies and partnership work with employers to develop their skills, qualities and talents e.g. interview practice with Laing O’Rourke, CV building and drafting personal statements with University of Newcastle.

The school works with Prospects to ensure pupils receive impartial and high quality careers advice.  Recent developments include sponsorship from Costain plc to extend our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) provision and also the involvement of Leeds Ahead who support the delivery of enterprise education and skills.

Picture show students Matthew Mackereth-Hamilton and Hetty Pickles

Zootropolis – Easter holiday film screening

Children on their Easter holidays are invited to a special screening of the 2016 Disney film Zootropolis at Cartwright Hall in Bradford on Thursday 13 April from 11am to 1pm.

In the film the enthusiastically optimistic rookie cop Judy Hopps discovers that being a the first bunny on a police force of big, tough animals isn’t so easy. Determined to prove herself, she jumps at the opportunity to crack a case, even if it means partnering with a fast-talking fox.

The Walt Disney Animation Studios’ film is a comedy-adventure directed by Tangled’s, Byron Howard and Wreck-It Ralph’s, Rich Moore.

Children are invited to come dressed up as their favourite animals to enjoy the film which has genuine cross-generational appeal and is funny with likeable characters.

The film has a PG certificate and tickets are £3 in advance or £5 on the day, spaces are limited to book call 01274 431212.

While at Cartwright Hall visitors can also enjoy the ‘Animal Craft’ exhibition with animal art by UK designers and makers and they can try out artist Rachel Barron’s stamp table to create their own animal art.

Following the film, why not picnic in Lister Park and join the free Animal Crackers family drop-in workshop between 1pm and 3pm? Children can also pick up an Animal Trail at the front desk to find out about the animals in the exhibitions and grounds of Cartwright Hall.

Follow Bradford Museums on Twitter – @BradfordMuseums

Bus tours hailed a success as hundreds of trainee teachers visit Bradford schools

Bus tours have taken hundreds of teacher training students around schools in Bradford this year as part of a successful project to attract the best people to work in the district’s classrooms.

The tours, organised by Bradford Council, give those training to be teachers an insight into what life is like in the district’s schools to get them to consider beginning their careers here.

The most recent bus tour took students who are training with the Bradford Birth to 19  School Centred Initial Teacher Training.  Four busses toured 12 schools around the Bradford district.

Tours have also taken place for students from Leeds Beckett and Leeds Trinity Universities and there is another planned next month for students from Bradford College. In total around 400 students will tour the district’s schools this academic year.

They have been organised as part of Bradford Council’s drive to recruit and retain the best teachers in the district. The authority is investing £660,000 over three years on work to help achieve this.

The bus tours are followed by a Journey to Your First Teaching Post workshop where candidates are given advice about applying for jobs, writing personal statements and  preparing for their job interviews.

The newly qualified teachers are then invited to apply to a talent bank which has been set up by Bradford Council to allow the district’s schools to find the best candidates for their vacancies.

The talent bank is the first of its kind in the country. It has allowed the Council to use local expertise to match newly qualified teachers to suitable jobs which they can then apply for.

Bradford Council’s Recruitment and Retention Strategy manager Sara Rawnsley said: “The first year of the bus tours and talent bank has been hugely successful.  It was launched in nursery and primary schools in its first year and is now being extended into secondary schools.

“The talent bank benefits both new teachers and schools. It provides teachers with preparation for their job interviews and gets them to think about the type of school they would like to work in and it has provided our schools with access to a pool of talented newly qualified teachers.

“But the talent bank is not just restricted to newly qualified teachers. I am keen to hear from experienced teachers, especially out of Bradford district, who would like the opportunity to come and work in our vibrant, diverse city – there is something for everyone here – from small rural schools to large inner city successful schools.

“The aim of our work is to get people who are thinking about going into teaching to think about Bradford and to see for themselves what life is like inside our schools. “We also want people in Bradford to think about teaching. We want to make sure that we recruit and retain the best teachers possible. We know this approach is working with 90 teachers starting their careers in the district this year after having come on our bus tours.”

Among those was Olivia Rawson, 21, from Wakefield, who has started working at Bowling Park Primary in Bradford, having visited it during a tour.

She said: “Had I never visited Bowling Park on the bus tour, I may have never applied. The bus tour gave me an opportunity to look at a variety of schools in an area that I would probably have never thought about. The wide range of schools we toured helped me to address any misconceptions about Bradford I may have had.”

“Before the bus tour my perception of Bradford was very uncertain. I was unsure of what to expect from schools in the Bradford area or if I would be suited to the challenge of working there. However, the environment schools create in the Bradford area and the inspirational work that goes on to build aspirations for each individual quickly met the challenge I was looking for in a school.

“I would definitely recommend teaching in Bradford. It has such a diverse culture and environment that brings along new challenges each day. The children in Bradford are brilliant as they want to and deserve to come to school. I believe that by working in Bradford, you can have a much bigger impact on the children as they deserve to have the opportunities to learn and enjoy school. I think many people may have the wrong perception on Bradford – it provides excellent opportunities for teachers, children and the whole community.”

Coun Imran Khan, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Education, Employment and Skills said: “It is great to see the success of our investment to attract more teachers to the district.

“Our work on teacher recruitment and retention has made a real difference to Bradford schools with 90 teachers in post thanks to the bus tours and talent bank. We know that teaching in Bradford schools can be very rewarding and we are keen to hear from newly qualified and experienced teachers who are up for the challenge of making a difference to the lives of children in our district.”

Free arts and entertainment to be held in city centre

A series of free events is coming to Bradford city centre this spring, including parades, talent shows and live entertainment.

The Creative Streets programme features colourful costumed parades, a quirky talent quest, an innovative indoor ‘art and performance park’ and an entertaining and interactive treasure hunt.

Bradford city centre will come alive with Bhangra, Bollywood and African drumming dance acts, cycling activities and a range of creative costume-making workshops.

Bradford’s cutting edge arts company, The Brick Box, will stage a follow-up production of their highly successful, Wild Woods ‘indoor woodland’ and performance space.

The Wild Woods in Bloom will put the spring back into Darley St and celebrate the new season with colourful and interactive installations, live performances from a host of exciting local talent, amazing workshops, family fun and games, and delicious food.

Local master mask and puppet makers, Cecil Green Arts whose workshop was destroyed in the Drummond Mill fire, will run a flamboyant Puppet Parade featuring huge colourful papier mâché pieces created by local people at special workshops.

The vibrant Puppet Parade will celebrate everything about Bradford and be accompanied by local musicians from Punjabi Roots Academy and Moseke Music.

There will be opportunities for budding cyclists to take part in Spring Flower and Shamrock Cycle Parades, and special workshops will be held to help people make costumes and decorate their bikes.

There will be chances for people to try out a range of ingenious and innovative adaptive bikes designed to cater for all ages and abilities and compete in various Tour de Yorkshire inspired activities at Bradford Capital of Cycling.

Shipley-based arts company, Q20, is teaching local school children costume design and construction, and street theatre skills so they can perform at a colourful Pirate Parade, complete with a mobile galleon.

Hundreds of young recruits will join local artists, John and Charlotte Lambert and Scott Vipond-Clarke, to rampage through Bradford city centre’s streets showing off their newly acquired buccaneering skills at a Pirate Parade.

The Pirate Pirade finishes with a swashbuckling picnic at Oaster Square.

Q20 will also stage a quirky talent quest, Top of Town’s Got Talent on 1 April.

Local people are being encouraged to ‘make an April fool of themselves’ by showcasing their special talents which could include anything from acrobatics, poetry, plate spinning, clog dancing to ear wiggling.

The fun continues with the April Fools’ Wacky Cycle Challenges where families can try out a range of unusual bicycles including reverse bikes which go backwards when you pedal forwards, tiny ‘monkey bikes’, tall ‘over-sized’ and companion bikes.

People can also try hand-cranked and recumbent cycle challenges.

Families will enjoy an interactive and dramatized treasure hunt where they will meet some larger than life characters, performed by Bradford Adept artists, Shanaz Gulzar and Steve Manthorp.

Participants of the In for a Penny Treasure Hunt will solve a series of clues to win a specially minted ‘Yorkshire Penny’ which can be kept or exchanged for discounts in selected  Bradford stores.

Lovers of Bollywood and Bhangra will enjoy an explosive performance from Bradford’s South Asian arts school, Punjabi Roots Academy in Balle!! Balle!

Punjabi Roots Academy will stage, The B3ats, a pioneering fusion music event featuring eastern and western instruments and a professional DJ.

The Academy will also run drumming workshops along with African drummer, Moses Ekebuisi.

Creative Streets runs from 11 March to 30 April in the ‘top of town’ area of Bradford including Darley Street, North Parade, Kirkgate Market and Oastler Market.

All events and workshops are free of charge.

Coun Alex Ross-Shaw, Portfolio Holder for Regeneration, Planning and Transport, said: “Creative Streets will be lots of fun and we’re inviting everyone to come into Bradford to enjoy the free workshops and entertainment.

“This project is part of our on-going support designed to attract more people into the ‘top of town’ area of Bradford city centre and support the businesses in that area.”

For further information visit: www.facebook.com/CreativeStreetsBd

 

 

Parkside School teenagers host birthday tea for 90-year-old villager

Sixth form students from Parkside School laid on afternoon tea for Jeffrey Roberts, one of Cullingworth village’s oldest residents to celebrate his 90th birthday.

A few days before the event the students assisted Jeffrey’s wife, Audrey, with the preparations for the celebration which was held at Cullingworth Thursday Club.

The students involved in the preparations were Cameron Allatt, Sophie Tankard, Charlotte Burton and Sophie Wood.

Parkside School sixth form has a long connection with the village’s club for senior citizens, and took over responsibility for running it when it was threatened with closure after 50 years. Students volunteer their time each week to help run sessions.

Follow us on Twitter:   @ParksideCulling

 

Working together to improve education

Headteachers, businesses and community leaders from across the district met at a special breakfast conference this week to look at practical ways of working to together to raise education attainment.

The conference focused on Bradford’s Education Covenant, which looks at how everyone in our community can work together to help drive up education standards across the District.

The covenant sets out what the Council needs to do to raise education achievement, and where the community can help. The covenant’s education ‘ask’ wants schools, pupils, parents, governors and businesses to see how they can help in supporting children and young people’s education.

The conference looked at practical steps that businesses, schools and the community can take to make a difference, whether it’s providing work placements or helping with volunteering.

Coun Imran Khan, Portfolio Holder for education, employment and skills, said: “We’ve made good progress on many areas of our education covenant and the Government has recently recognised Bradford as a place of educational opportunity. We need to live up to this expectation and this conference is about bringing together sectors of our community to look at practical steps we can all take to help raise education standards. We have a young and vibrant district with huge potential and whole of Bradford needs to come together to realise that potential and play a part in the districts education success.”

Michael Jameson, Strategic Director of Children’s Services, said: “Learning starts at birth and continues for life, both inside and outside the classroom. The covenant is a way in which we can make sure we have a joined up approach to the whole range of education our children receive.  It takes a community to raise a child and everyone has a role to play.”

Bradford schools helping pupils become ambassadors for Anne Frank exhibition

Bradford secondary schools are being encouraged to take part in a programme which allows young people to train to become ambassadors for an exhibition honouring the life of the famous Jewish diarist Anne Frank.

The work encourages young people to engage in challenging issues such as human rights, prejudice, discrimination, extremism, and to look at what history tells us about the consequences of intolerance, hatred and division.

The Anne Frank History for Today is a touring exhibition which introduces young people to the lives of Anne Frank’s Jewish family in Nazi Germany, and looks at both the rise of institutional anti-semitism and the tragedy of the Holocaust.

Through Bradford Council’s Stand up, Speak out, Make a Difference programme schools can choose to host both the Anne Frank History for Today and an exhibit called Remembering Srebrenica, which has been developed by the council honouring the Bosnian Muslims killed in a massacre in 1995.

At each school up to 20 young people will be trained, by members of the Council’s Diversity and Cohesion staff, to be ambassadors who will explain the significance of these events to their peers and to pupils from visiting primary schools.

These ambassadors are also given further training with the Anne Frank Trust to allow them to act as guides for a major national touring exhibition Anne Frank and You which will be hosted in Bradford during March this year at Kala Sangam.

Geraldine Cooper, Bradford Council’s  Acting Head of Diversity and Cohesion said: “The programme uses the exhibitions as a stimulus to allow young people to take part in workshop discussions about difficult issues around prejudice, hate crime and modern day genocide.

“It is a powerful education programme because it is peer led. Young people are helping other pupils to learn about history and to challenge intolerance in a way that is relevant to them. A strength of the programme is that there is no criteria for who should take part.

“Schools decide themselves which pupils should become ambassadors. Pupils can be put forward for a number of reasons and we know it can have a real impact on their confidence and the rest of their education.

“There is still some availability to have the Anne Frank History for Today exhibition come out to Bradford secondary schools this year and we would strongly recommend getting involved.”

Coun Imran Khan, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Education, Employment and Skills said: “We can be proud of the way this programme allows our young people to learn about challenging issues around intolerance and helps pupils to educate their peers about the importance of rejecting hatred.

“This programme not only allows pupils to learn important lessons from history but also helps to develop their confidence and maturity and gets them to consider the importance of the society they grow up in.”

There is limited availability for further secondary schools in the Bradford district to participate in Stand up, Speak out, Make a Difference 2017.

Byron Primary School gets good judgement from Ofsted

Byron Primary School is celebrating the recognition that pupils are getting a good education according to its latest Ofsted inspection, as is the case with other schools in the locality.

The Bradford Council school in the BD3 area of Bradford, (primarily Barkerend and Bradford Moor) was judged to be good in all areas, which is a leap from its previous judgement of Requires Improvement when it was last inspected in 2014.

In a glowing report, the inspectors, spoke of the “strong leadership” and ambitious Governors who know the school’s strengths and priorities for improvement and provide good levels of support and challenge.

“Pupils’ outcomes are improving strongly and have risen significantly since the last inspection.”

The complimentary report says: “Parents are positive about the school.  They say how well adults care for their children and that they are safe at all times.”

“The curriculum is well planned to meet pupils’ needs, especially those at an early stage of learning English.”

Headteacher, Richard O’Sullivan, said:  “We are delighted with Ofsted’s findings and it is clear they see the school as we do.

“This is another example of the good leadership and effectiveness of primary schools within the BD3 area, with several other schools in our locality also being judged to be Good.  This is testimony to the improvements being made in our area.”

Coun Imran Khan, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Education, Employment and Skills, said: “This positive outcome is excellent news for all those at Byron Primary and all those who have worked so hard to bring about this achievement”

“It is pleasing to know that thousands of our young people have access to a Good education in our district.”

Schools in the BD3 LAP (Local Achievement Partnership)
Byron Primary, Lapage Primary, St Mary’s and St Peter’s Catholic Primary, Killinghall Primary, Dixons Marchbank Academy, Feversham Primary Academy, Westminster Primary, Barkerend Academy, Peel Park Primary and Westminster Primary Academy.