Bradford headteacher puts city’s education on the world stage at major Chinese conference

A headteacher from a Bradford primary school has helped to put the city on the global education map as she appeared as a keynote speaker at a major education conference held in China.

Gill Edge, co- headteacher of Killinghall Primary School, was invited by the Chinese National Institute of Education Sciences to speak at their fourth China Future Schools Conference.

She spoke about how technology is used to assess, support and improve teaching at her school in Bradford, which has recently been rated as Good by Ofsted inspectors.

She told the conference in China how software is used to provide feedback and assessment to her staff to help with their professional development and to raise standards at the school.

The conference was attended by more than 1,000 delegates from across China and other international speakers who were attending as members of the Future School Laboratory.

Membership is based on meeting entry criteria and then being regularly re-assessed and only the best performing schools in China qualify. The Future School Laboratory was established by the Chinese Government to identify how to improve curriculum, learning spaces, educational technology and assessment. Its role is to support the government in its decision making and provide practical solutions for schools in China.
Gill gave her perspective as head of Killinghall Primary to demonstrate how the effective use of education technology in the UK has helped to identify strengths and weaknesses in the teaching in school and how working together with her staff they have been able to make rapid improvements.
She said: “It was a massive event and I was talking to an audience of more than 1,000 people. I was very proud to represent Bradford as I feel we are often not recognised for the excellent work that goes on in our schools across the district.

“There are currently no established teaching standards in China. I was able to explain how teaching standards are used nationally in the UK and how supporting and challenging teachers through appraisal has improved the quality of teaching and learning in our schools.”

She also took part in a roundtable discussion with leading educators from Finland, Hong Kong and China to discuss individualised learning and how it was implemented in each of their countries. She said that “individualised learning is well developed in Bradford where education is about the whole child – we aim to build resilience and empathy as well as ensuring children are competent in basic skills. Being ready for the world of work and prepared for future employment we may not yet be able to imagine is our aim.”

She was accompanied at the conference by James de Bass, chief executive officer and founder of Educate, the UK company that produces the Standards Tracker software which Killinghall Primary School use.

Congratulations to the winners of the Foster Carer Awards 2017

Bradford foster carers have been recognised and awarded for the selfless work they do looking after some of the city’s most vulnerable children, at a special awards ceremony organised by Bradford Council.

The awards are the Fostering Service’s opportunity to thank its carers and celebrate their achievements in supporting Bradford’s most vulnerable children. The ceremony was held on Monday 10 July 2017 in City Hall and celebrated the long service, commitment and dedication of Bradford’s foster carers.

Three inspirational fostering families in Bradford were also celebrated as exceptional carers at the Awards ceremony, alongside recognition and commendation of all the fostering families who have achieved long service milestones of between 10 and 35 years.

Cllr Val Smith said:

“Bradford’s foster carers dedication and commitment to the most vulnerable children in our city is amazing. It has been humbling and very moving to hear all their wonderful stories of love and care. It was fantastic to see them receive their awards from the Lord Mayor and to share this special moment with them.”

Michael Jameson, Strategic Director Children’s Services opened the ceremony with a speech about the importance of the work that carers do in keeping making a fantastic difference to  our children’s lives.

Jim Hopkinson, Deputy Director Children’s Services, announced each carer receiving a long service award. The Lord Mayor, Cllr Abid Hussain, presented each carer with a certificate of appreciation. Carers who had reached 15 years or more also received a bouquet of flowers and those carers who had achieved 20, 25, 30 and 35 years also received an engraved crystal award in recognition of their long service.

For the new Exceptional Carer Award, social workers in the fostering service were asked to nominate carers who had shown exceptional service over the past year – 21 carers were put forward, which reflects the scale of the number of Bradford’s foster carers who will go above and beyond what is required of them to support and care for a child in need.

The winners and runners up of the Exceptional Carer of the Year Award were selected by a panel made up of the fostering team managers.

Gareth Flemyng, Fostering Service Manager for Bradford Council, invited the three nominees’ champions to explain to the audience of foster carers, social workers, and senior Children’s Services staff, why their carers had been nominated. All three nominees were presented with awards and certificates in recognition of the service they had provided.

The winning foster carers for Exceptional Carer Award of 2017 were:

Evelyn and Raymond Harrison – Mainstream Foster Carers

Evelyn and Raymond’s commitment and dedication to Natty throughout his short life was exceptional. Natty came to them when he was 9 weeks old and he was 12 years old when he passed away. From the very beginning of his life with them, Evelyn and Raymond fully embraced his complexities and loved him like he was their own son. Their whole family life orbited around Natty and his needs.

Natty was born with drugs in his bloodstream and he struggled with a wide range of disabilities and complex health needs due to his mother’s drug addictions during her pregnancy and his difficult birth. These had profound effects on Natty for his whole life – he had significant global developmental delay, severe irritability, microcephaly, severe birth asphyxia and neonatal abstinence syndrome. He was gastrostomy fed and had an ileostomy.

Little Natty was always uncomfortable laying down and would have frequent epileptic fits, which would twist his little body in to painful shapes, so Evelyn spent a lot of his life holding him and carrying him in her arms to give him the comfort and support he needed.

Caring for Natty on a day-to-day basis would have been a huge challenge for any carer, yet throughout the 12 years of his life, Evelyn and Raymond were constant in their commitment and love for him and are slowly coming to terms with his death. They are sensitive and compassionate people who gave Natty an exceptionally good life.

The runners up were:

Mark Smith – Support Care

Mark was nominated because of the support and dedication he has shown since 2015 to a teenage boy. The young man has been through several massive upheavals in his personal life but Mark has remained steadfast providing a trusting, supportive relationship and a safe space for the teenager to be himself and have time away from his stressful home environment and the uncertainties surrounding his future.

As a support carer, Mark provides planned short respite breaks for children after school and a couple of overnight stays over the weekends twice a month, but during this young man’s most stressful period of life when he had nowhere to stay, Mark offered for him to come and stay full time until a permanent home could be found. Mark continues to provide a respite placement for the child and remains the only consistent male role model in his life.

Mary Thompson Lister – Connected Person (Family & Friends Carer)

Mary was nominated for her devotion and commitment to providing a loving and stable family home for her grandchildren. Mary currently looks after her two youngest grandchildren, but she also cared for their older brother and sister, who are now adults. The two younger children have complex needs including ADHD and FASD, along with autistic traits so, through no fault of their own, can be a handful to care for and are constantly on the go from the moment they wake until they fall asleep at night.

Mary has attended lots of training over the years to help her better understand and meet the children’s needs. She is also an outstanding advocate for the children at their school, working with the school to make sure their individual needs are met. She has engaged the children in their wider community and has helped them become involved in the local Royal Legion. Mary has helped the children experience the wider world by taking them on holidays both home and abroad – they are regular visitors at Butlins and have their own red coats.

Young swimmers qualify for World Masters Championships

Two Bradford City swimmers have qualified for the World Masters Championships.

Brendan Watson and Omar Hussain represented the City Of Bradford Swimming Club at the British Masters Championship Aberdeen meet held at the sports village in Aberdeen.

The cities swimmers competed against top clubs including Guilford City, Barnet Coptall, Carlisle, Crawley, Coventry, Oxford, Luton, Birmingham, Norwich and Kilkenny (Ireland).
Both swimmers excelled. Watson won a gold medal in the 25-29 years age group and third place for the 200 metres backstroke.

Hussain also had a great competition in the 30-34 years age group. Hussain made top seven finishes in the 50 metres freestyle, 50 metres butterfly and the 200 and 100 metres freestyle.

City’s swimmers were chasing qualifying times for the World masters championships to be held in Budapest, Hungary in August 2017.

Both swimmers train with Bradford Aquatics Competition Programme under the guidance of Senior Coach Andy Pearce and Development Coach Sarah Fisher.

The City of Bradford Swimming Club works alongside Bradford Council’s Sport and Culture Competitive Scheme for Swimming and Diving which delivers training session’s from Grassroots to Elite swimmers.

Coun Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Environment, Sport and Culture, said: “I’m pleased all the hard work has paid off for Omar and Brendan, and qualification for the World Masters in Budapest is a tremendous result.”
For further information please contact Bradford Aquatics on 01274 438791.

 

Duke of Edinburgh Awards presented by the Lord Mayor of Bradford

Adventurous pupils from schools from across the district were presented with their Duke of Edinburgh Awards by the Lord Mayor of Bradford at a ceremony to celebrate their achievements at City Hall last week.

The pupils who have all completed either their Bronze or Silver awards were invited to the presentation afternoon, along with their parents, to celebrate and congratulate the students on their commitment and contribution to their local communities whilst developing their own skills and talents as part of the awards.

Around 70 young people attended the event from Carlton Bolling College, Beckfoot Oakbank, Beckfoot Thornton, Beckfoot School and Parkside School.

The Lord Mayor of Bradford Coun Geoff Reid, said: “I am looking forward to meeting these young people who have all worked so hard and put in so much of their spare time and energy in to working towards these awards.”

Headteacher of Carlton Bolling College, Adrian Kneeshaw said: “The afternoon is a culmination of the hard work and tremendous commitment put in to achieve the award. I would like to congratulate all of our young people on such a phenomenal achievement.”

Winners revealed at the Bradford School Awards

Hundreds of teachers, support staff and representatives of the district’s schools attended the Telegraph & Argus School Awards Ceremony to celebrate the stars of Bradford education and the good work being done in Bradford’s schools.

The Leadership Award went to the late Gareth Dawkins, who passed away last year. Mr Dawkins had worked as principal of Bradford Academy since 2007 and previously led Challenge College in the city. The award was presented to his two sons and Bradford Academy’s current principal Tehmina Hashmi who paid tribute to him.

 The Secondary Teacher of the Year was awarded to Zaheer Jaffary, a PE teacher at Carlton Bolling College.  Zaheer was nominated for his work with its girls’ cricket team in the school. Since he set up the team three years ago, it has achieved numerous awards, as well as breaking cultural stereotypes.

The Primary Teacher of the Year was awarded to Elizabeta Butkovic, of St John’s CE Primary in Bierley.  Mrs Butkovic fled her home during the Balkan crisis in the 1980s, ending up in Bradford. A teacher in her home country, she dreamed of once again teaching, and learned English, gaining qualifications and securing a job at St John’s 18 years ago.

Elizabeta Butkovic, who fled Balkan crisis in the 1980s, wins Primary school teacher award

The Community Involvement Award, which recognises the work schools do to create stronger links with the wider community was awarded to  The Syrian Action Team, pupils and staff at Dixons City Academy who organised events for refugees living in Bradford.

The School Improvement Award went to Farnham Primary School, an inner city school where many pupils start not being able to speak English, after being ranked as “outstanding” by Ofsted inspectors last year.

The Achievement Award went to Horton Park Primary School, which has become one of the best performing primary schools in the district for the progress its pupils make.

Horton Park Primary wins achievement award at #bfdschoolawards

The Newcomer of the Year Award went to Naomi Simpson, who works at Hazelbeck Special School in Bingley and is in her first year of teaching.

The Support Staff Member of the Year was awarded to Lynne Dobson, who has been teaching the children of Peel Park Primary School art for years.

The Voluntary Contribution Award went to Lesley Matthews, a Beanstalk reading volunteer at Atlas Primary School.  Lesley said she hoped to encourage other people to become volunteers.

The Business in Schools Category was awarded to The Business Friends of Haworth Primary School, a project that sees the school working with local businesses to give children real world business experience at an early age.

The Science and Technology Award went to Joe Ryan and Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College for the work being done to boost Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths at the school

Finally, the Governor of the Year Award went to Jackie Walters, who has been on the governing body at Newby Primary School for over 25 years.

#bfdschoolawards

Friendly St Matthew’s

Pupils and staff at St Matthew’s Catholic Primary School in Allerton have been recognised for their commitment to supporting the speech, language and communications development of every child.

The school has been awarded the “Friendly School Status”, by the ELKLAN Group a specialist in speech and language.

In order to gain the accreditation, four staff gained formal qualifications in supporting speech, language and communication needs.  The training was then disseminated to all teachers and teaching assistants at St Matthew’s, enabling them to support pupils both in the classroom and the playground.

For further information on the work of Communication Friendly Schools contact St Matthew’s via email admin.office@stmatthews.ngfl.ac.uk

School looks forward to bright future after Ofsted report success

Staff and pupils at Hothfield Junior School, in Silsden, are celebrating after receiving an Ofsted report praising it for being good in all areas.

The glowing report praises the school’s headteacher, teachers, pupils and governors for Hothfield’s success.

The school’s leadership and management, quality of teaching and learning, pupils’ results and the personal development, behaviour and welfare of pupils are all rated as good.

Pupils are said to be engaged in lessons and respond well to their teachers. Ofsted said their positive attitude to learning helped pupils to make good progress.

The Ofsted report highlights the teaching of maths as a strength of the school and also praises its use of the Reading Challenge Initiative which is said to have  been hugely successful in motivating pupils to read for pleasure.

Inspectors praise children at Hothfield for their behaviour. The report says they are polite and go out of their way to greet visitors or hold the doors open for others.

The school’s Headteacher James Procter said: “I am proud of the school’s pupils, parents and staff who make this school very special for the Silsden community.

“I am particularly pleased that the teaching of the maths has been highlighted as a strength of the school as we are aiming to become a centre of excellence in teaching the subject.”

Later this year Hothfield Junior School and Aire View Infants School, in Silsden, are to merge to become Silsden Primary School.

Mr Procter said: “Aire View Infants School has been inspected by Ofsted recently and was also found to be good. Later this year, our two good schools can come together to form one great primary school for Silsden.”

Coun Imran Khan, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Education, Employment and Skills said: “Hothfield Junior School’s Ofsted report makes great reading. It is positive about the work of the school and the pupils across the board. Huge credit goes to everyone involved in receiving such a good inspection report.”

Two Bradford nursery schools celebrate being outstanding for 10 years

Staff at two nursery schools in Bradford are celebrating being given a top grade by Ofsted for the fourth inspection in a row – meaning they have been rated as outstanding for ten years.

Lilycroft Nursery School and Midland Road Nursery School have both been judged to be outstanding in new reports praising the quality of early years education they provide.

For both nursery schools it is the fourth consecutive time they have achieved this – having first been rated as outstanding back in 2007 in their first inspections after this top grade was created by Ofsted.

Ofsted inspectors praise Midland Road  for using its funding innovatively “through dance and outdoor play and teachers have woven the areas of learning skilfully into these session”.

The school employs a dance specialist and a  forest school specialist to deliver these sessions and was able to demonstrate the significant impact on children’s learning and progress.

Parents say the nursery school is “brilliant” and staff are “excellent at treating children as individuals, developing their interest and helping them to make progress.”

Headteacher Sharon Hogan said: “I was delighted that the inspector recognised that the staff team is a strength of the school. We have a great mixture of experienced and younger colleagues who together ensure that Midland Road not only continues to be outstanding after so many years but has also been able to grow and expand the work that it does.”

Lilycroft Nursery School is also given glowing praise in its new report published today. Inspectors say the school provides high quality teaching and provision for three and four-year-olds.

The report says Lilycroft staff have created “a safe, warm and exciting place for children to be. Parents say how excited their children are about coming to school.”

It adds: “Teachers plan effectively to offer open-ended activities which allow children to take their learning as far as they are able, and children have the confidence to do this.”

It also praises the school for working hard to involve parents in their child’s reading and supporting them to do this effectively. Inspectors say parents have valued this support and comment on how well their children are progressing, particularly with language development.

The two inspection reports mean that more than half of the nursery schools in the Bradford district are judged to be outstanding with the others all judged to be good.

Two other Bradford nursery schools have been rated as outstanding by Ofsted. Canterbury Nursery and Centre for Children and Families, was given this rating earlier this year and St Edmunds’s Nursery School and Children’s Centre was rated as outstanding at its inspection last year – for the third time in a row.

Anne-Marie Merifield, who is executive head at both Lilycroft and  St Edmund’s said: “Our successful Ofsted reports show the impact nursery schools can have. For us it shows the importance of having qualified teachers working with children to give them a good grounding so that they are able to make the most of school when  they start their formal education.”

Coun Imran Khan, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Education, Employment and Skills said: “These reports are a credit to everyone involved at Lilycroft and Midland Road Nursery Schools.  It is great to see that all of the nursery schools in the Bradford district are rated as good or outstanding giving us a great foundation to build upon.”

First Bus puts poetry in motion with the National Literacy Trust Hub in Bradford

Winner of the Love Bradford poetry competition Caiomhe Richards, 11, with her winning entry which is framed inside a Bradford bus!

The winners of a poetry competition who penned verse about life in Bradford now have their entries on display inside 100 local First West Yorkshire buses.

More than 100 budding bards across Bradford entered the ‘Love Bradford’ poetry competition run by the National Literacy Trust Hub in Bradford in partnership with First West Yorkshire, the Telegraph & Argus and the Kirkgate Shopping Centre. The competition aimed to inspire and motivate reluctant writers, especially boys, to do more creative writing.

The winning poems were judged by local poet, Joolz Denby and National Literacy Trust Hub in Bradford Manager, Imran Hafeez and are now on display as posters inside 100 First Buses, across Bradford. There were two categories, one for entrants in Year 3 to Year 5 and the other for pupils in Year 6 to Year 8.

The winners are Caiomhe Richards, aged 11, for her poem ‘Memories’, and Suma Abdulla, aged 10, for her poem ‘Big Beautiful Bradford.’ They also won vouchers to spend at Kirkgate Shopping Centre and had their poems published in the Telegraph & Argus.

Colin Brushwood, Operations Manager at First Bradford, comments: “At First Bus we strive to support our local community, and we were inspired to get behind the competition by the National Literacy Trust Hub in Bradford to celebrate the talents of young poets across the region. It’s a privilege to have Caiomhe and Suma’s work on display on 100 of our buses, and we’re sure they’ll bring a smile to our passengers in Bradford.”

Imran Hafeez, Manager of the National Literacy Trust Hub in Bradford said: “The National Literacy Trust Hub in Bradford is all about providing fun ways to improve literacy skills across the area. Poetry is a powerful way for young people to express themselves which is why we are working with children and families through events, programmes and campaigns to inspire them to give creative writing a go. We hope that seeing their poems published for passengers to read on their journeys will encourage Caiomhe and Suma to continue writing for enjoyment.”

The National Literacy Trust Hub in Bradford is a local solution to intergenerational low literacy in the district, working with Bradford Council to forge innovative partnerships with a range of sectors including business, sport, culture and health as well as voluntary and faith groups. The long-term initiative harnesses community assets to address poverty and unemployment through campaigning and targeted interventions to address priority areas. For more information, see here.

Gold joy for Ghyll Royd swimmer

A Year 5 pupil from Ghyll Royd School has scooped gold at the 2015 ISA Schools national swimming final in London at the Olympic Park.

Hermione Roe, who was representing Ghyll Royd and the North of England ISA team, swam an impressive individual 50m breaststroke to take first place. Hermione’s performance also saw her beat her personal best in an amazing 44.73 seconds, a time that secures her the number one position in the ASA Great British rankings.

Hermione also swam the anchor leg of the 4x50m relay, pulling the team back three places to secure bronze, narrowly missing silver by 0.2 of a second.

David Martin, the head teacher of the school in Burley-in-Wharfedale, said: “Many congratulations to Hermione.

“The whole school is tremendously proud of her achievement. Hermione is an extremely talented swimmer and trains exceptionally hard to maintain her performance. Who knows, we could be fortunate enough to be teaching a future Olympian. Let’s hope so.”