A team of young entrepreneurs from Dixons Kings Academy has won the regional final of an enterprise contest.
The pupils won the Yorkshire Final of the 2017 Enterprise Challenge competition for the second year in a row.
It is run by Mosaic, The Prince of Wales’ mentoring charity, and part of The Prince’s Trust.
Team ‘ElektroFit’ beat competition from other school teams across West Yorkshire with their idea for a sustainable business that promotes student fitness, and converting that energy into electricity.
The competing teams pitched their ideas in a Dragons’ Den-style event to a prestigious panel of judges including Martin Richardson, Director of Operations at Leeds Building Society.
ElektroFit will now progress to the Grand Final in London on May 17 where they will compete against winning schools from the North West, South East, London, West Midlands and Scotland for the chance to become national champions.
The winning team will win a prize of £2,500 for their school and a further £500 to invest in developing their business idea and making it a commercial reality.
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.
Welcome to the fourteenth edition of Educate Positive, a regular publication which highlights the educational excellence in education and across the district’s schools and settings. In this edition we look at the impact being made on young people’s literacy, two teachers from Steeton Primary who have been learning about the education system in Italy, as well as a Titus Salt student achieving the highest score in the country in Chemistry.
Titus Salt student receives top award
This publication has previously reported about the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) provision and success at Titus Salt School.
Another example of how this provision impacts on its students is the success of Year 12 student, Nicole Mitchell, (pictured) who not only received the highest possible award in the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge, but also achieved the highest score in the country!
The Cambridge Chemistry Challenge aims to stretch and challenge students interested in chemistry. The challenge takes students significantly beyond the syllabus and encourages them to think about science in the way they would at university. Nicole’s first rate performance enabled her to attend a residential Chemistry camp at the University of Cambridge during the summer holidays. Well done Nicole.
Quality Mark awarded to Visual Impairment Team
Bradford Council’s Visual Impairment Team which is part of the sensory service was awarded a quality mark for the work they do in supporting children and young people with visual impairment across the Bradford District.
The award is made by regional heads of visual impairment services across Yorkshire and the Humber. It follows a lengthy assessment process which includes self evaluation and a whole day assessment by four external assessors.
There are 39 visual impairment staff working across the District. Pupils with the severest vision loss attend two special centres which have additional resources at primary and secondary level. The team works with 179 children on the active caseload. The team also supports children and young people whose vision is less severely affected. Pictured above is the Visual Impairment Team.
For further information please contact Anne Lomas, T 01274 439266.
Impact of the National Literacy Hub in Bradford
Standards in literacy are on the up says the National Literacy Trust, the charity behind the National Literacy Trust Hub in Bradford.
Bradford is one of three hubs set up with the National Literacy Trust to provide coordinated literacy provision at a local level to drive up literacy levels in order to increase educational attainment, employability skills and improve health and wellbeing outcomes for our young people.
A report published by the charity shows that more of the Bradford district’s young people wrote either on a daily basis or a few times a week outside of the school day, which is higher than pupils regionally and nationally:
The National Literacy Trust Hub in Bradford has engaged with the media on a number of elements showcasing the work being done to improve literacy across the district. The involvement with the media is an opportunity to increase awareness about the importance of literacy and to engage parents in their children’s literacy development. High profile figures in the district including the Chief Executive of Bradford Bulls, a Bradford City player and a local boxer have all played their part in communicating the importance of improving children’s reading and writing skills.
Some of the Teen Reading Group with authors at last year’s Ilkley Literature Festival.
For almost nine years teenagers in Bradford have been able to improve their reading skills thanks to the Bradford Libraries Teen Reading Group which was started back in December 2007. The scheme was as a result of the Fulfilling their Potential (FtP) Project, which looked at ways to engage young people in libraries. At the time there was no other such reading group targeted specifically at teenagers (12 – 14 year olds) and certainly none that brought together teenagers from various backgrounds and age groups. Adult book groups had proved to be very successful and the need for teenagers to have their own book groups became apparent, through consultation work undertaken with teenagers in five secondary schools in Bradford since June 2005.
Reading helps young people to cope with the pressures of life, feel better about themselves and boosts confidence – all of which the Teen Reading Group can offer. This group has proved to be a success story for Bradford Libraries. It has met regularly every month since 2007, maintaining a core group of between 6 to 9 teenagers, meeting on a monthly basis. The initial cohort did fit the age group of 12 to 14 years but then many of the group wanted to continue. It was decided to open up the age range to older teenagers and now the group is open to 12 to 18 year olds. Both this and the fact it offers a reading group for teens from all over the district and from different backgrounds has increased its popularity and success.
In October 2016 the Teen Reading Group is going to Ilkley Literature Festival and also the Alhambra to see “A Tale of Two Cities”, so another busy year is on the horizon. The group will reach its 10th Birthday in December 2017 and we look forward to celebrating ten years of supporting teen reading.
For more information please contact Christinea Donnelly, T 01274 433915.
When in Rome…..
Teachers Diana Linford and Wendy Hardcastle from Steeton Primary School in Rome
Pupils in Steeton are learning about education in Italy following a job-shadowing visit by two of their teachers to a school in Rome.
Teachers Diana Linford and Wendy Hardcastle from Steeton Primary School visited a school in Rome to see what schools in Italy are like. They worked with three Roman schools: IC Ferraironi, Romolo Balzani and Pisacane on a number of international eTwinning projects over the last few years.
Their pupils have studied ‘Farming around Europe’ and the two World Wars together. The teachers received funding for the visit from Erasmus+, which provides money for staff and students to visit other schools in Europe, for education and training.
For further information please contact John Cooper, headteacher, T 01535 653315.
Travelling safely students are awarded
The Lord Mayor visits Beechcliffe Special School
Two students from Beechcliffe Special School are now able to travel alone following training they attended which taught them the tasks and skills associated with travelling independently.
Kieron and Harris, who are both 17 years old, attended the Travel Training at Bradford Council’s Shearbridge Depot.
Travel training is a structured and planned course of training which helps children and young people make their first step towards independence.
The Travel Training Unit works with disabled and non-disabled children and young people who require support, assistance, mentoring and training to plan and use walking routes and all forms of public transport including buses and trains.
The Travel Training Unit supports children and young people on a one-to-one basis or in small groups planning and practising journeys. They also help with learning associated tasks and skills to enable students to travel independently to and from school.
The picture shows Kieron and Harris being presented with a special ‘six months safe’ award by the Lord Mayor of Bradford, Coun Geoff Reid and the Lady Mayoress, Chris Reid. You
The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Bradford presented awards to two young people who have used a special travel training course to support their independence.
Kieron and Harris, who are both 17 years old and attend Beechcliffe Special School, undertook travel training with Travel Training Unit based at Shearbridge and have now been travelling independently for six months.
The Lord Mayor presented Kieron and Harris with a special ‘six months safe’ award at Beechcliffe Special School in Keighley on Tuesday 19 July.
Travel training is a structured and planned course of training which helps children and young people make their first step towards independence.
The Travel Training Unit works with disabled and non-disabled children and young people who require support, assistance, mentoring and training to plan and use walking routes and all forms of public transport including buses and trains.
The Travel Training Unit supports children and young people on a one-to-one basis or in small groups planning and practising journeys. They also help with learning associated tasks and skills to enable students to travel independently to and from school.
The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Coun Geoff Reid, said: “It’s a real privilege to be presenting these awards to Kieron and Harris. They deserve great credit for completing the training and putting into practice what they’ve learnt.”
Debbie, Kieron’s mother, said: “Travel Training has really helped Kieron. His trainer put him at ease and explained things really well. The team work in partnership with parents so they let me know how things were going. All in all it was a great experience.”
Karen, Harris’s mother, said: “Travel training has really paid off. Harris is now able to travel independently getting two buses, going into Keighley bus station and then out to school. He has managed in all sorts of weather and even got to school on a snowy day!”
Coun Val Slater, Deputy Leader of Bradford Council and portfolio holder for health and wellbeing, said: “Congratulations to Kieron and Harris in gaining this award and travelling independently for six months. Travel training is a great way in which we can help young people gain skills that give them independence.”
Bradford City FC Community Foundation are pleased to be hosting their ever-popular football camps this October half term.
Children will need a packed lunch, drinks and to be dressed ready for football and appropriate to whatever the weather is like on the day! All staff are minimum FA Level 2 qualified, trained in emergency aid and hold an advanced CRB check.
Congratulations to Beckfoot School’s under-19 boys’ table tennis team who have recently qualified for the Butterfly National Schools’ Team Championship semi-finals, showing great courage and ambition.
The Beckfoot quartet had a never-say-die attitude and won their first two matches before bowing 5-3 to Worksop’s Outwood Valley Academy, but the Bingley school had already done enough to finish second in their group and therefore qualify for the regional final at Blackburn on Saturday, 21 March – We wish them Good Luck!
Bradford Parents On The Go 