Summer update

Dear Colleagues

As usual lots going on so I hope I don't overwhelm you all.

We were visited by our new Managing Director for CFE, Rosalind Turner on 1 June 2009 in Cranbrook where she heard about the establishment of the Children’s Centre, the extended schools provision, parent fora and our Early Years Foundation Stage project Communicating Friendly Spaces.

The Cranbrook and Paddock Wood Local Children’s Services Partnership Plan is now complete and is published on Kent Trust Web together with a summary and a cross reference to national indicators and the Kent CYPP. Thank you to all of you who contributed so positively. Please take time to look at it at the following link http://www.kenttrustweb.org.uk/Clusters2/cl_cranbrookpw_LCYP_plans.cfm

You may also be interested in looking at the data relating to our Partnership at the following link.

http://www.kenttrustweb.org.uk/Children/kct_toolkit_index.cfm

We have 6 steering groups under each of the key themes moving the plan forward and if you have a particular interest then please contact me to join one of them. In addition we have separate project groups running such as SEAL, 2012 and CAF. As a cross cutting group we also share a Rural Alliance partnership with Ashford Rural to tackle the more strategic barriers within our area such as transport, access and facilities.

I am pleased to say that following our last headteacher meeting, Cranbrook School has agreed to host the joint INSET event on 22 February 2010. Even more pleasing is that our preferred keynote speaker, Guy Claxton, has been booked for the day. For those headteachers who were not able to attend the meeting, can you let me know at your earliest convenience if you want your school staff to participate.  We have a planning meeting this evening and if you would like to part of future meetings let me know.

This is Drugs Awareness week and there was an event held in Cranbrook on 6^th June by our multi-agency partners to raise the issues of Drugs and Alcohol with young people and parents. The event was well received and one of the early indicators is that our young people are not sufficiently aware of the change in law regarding cannabis use. A second event will take place in Paddock Wood on 13^th June 2009 this weekend and a survey will be carried out to assess the situation there. Photos are available on the events part of our website.

The Early Years staff and multi-agency partners enjoyed a very engaging evening on 2 June with Penny Tassoni who talked about the importance of Positive Relationships for young children, promoting strong attachment and good speaking and listening skills. This tied in very well with our Communicating Friendly Spaces project across the EYFS. Thank you to Goudhurst School for letting us use their hall.

There is a lot of training on offer through the Partnership at the moment which makes it a very busy few months.

Please don’t forget that the CAF essential update training for headteachers and managers is taking place on 18 June in the morning at the Ramada Jarvis hotel to be followed by a briefing on the Your Choice funding suitable for headteachers and PSAs/FLOs in particular.

We embarked on our multi-agency training course in Solution Focused Training on Monday and I was very heartened by the number of staff and partner agencies who participated. The follow on session will take place at Salomons on 24 June in the morning followed by the final session that afternoon particularly for those who want to join the Families First team, our proposed early intervention and support service for families.

I met yesterday with a small group to plan a SEAL event which will take place from 12.30 – 4.00pm on 13 July 2009 at the Hop Farm. We decided the key words for this event were valuing, nurturing, celebrating and supporting – an opportunity to thank staff for their involvement in SEAL so far, sharing best practice with one another and setting up a support network to take it forward and ensure it is fully embedded in school practices. There will be a treat for all staff who attend so think about who would benefit from an afternoon of nurturing. Don’t all run at once….. the event will also be open to some of our partners to find out more about linking in with SEAL.

We have now had formal notification of our award from the Local Area Agreement monies. Cranbrook and Paddock Wood are due to receive £10000 for having made the biggest improvement with primary attendance out of all the Partnerships. CPW raised attendance from 94.7% in 06/07 to 95.1% in 07/08. Alas I can’t take any of the credit but well done to headteachers, EWOs and parents for improving attendance in our area and giving a boost to our funds this year.

I met with 17 of our voluntary sector partners yesterday in an 8 hour but extremely interesting marathon to see what each organisation felt they could offer to the delivery of our Local CYPP. It is fascinating to know what expertise is out there and we now need to streamline the way we work with our partners to ensure the best outcomes for children and young people. I will share my ideas more widely at the LCSP and steering groups. Congratulations goes to 121 Befriending who have just heard that they have received the Queens Award for their work and well deserved.

And finally a quick note to congratulate Benenden C of E Primary School on their 400^th Centenary celebrations. Their pageant will take place on the evening of 8^th July at 6pm and I’m sure the school and the children would welcome your attendance.

Some staffing news -  we have 3 fairly new members of staff who have joined us.

Sarah Jackson joined us before Easter as the new partnership PSA based in Mascalls School and has been working on the SPARK transition project and some early years transition work.

Louise Rodrigues has joined as a Childcare Development Officer working with pre-schools at the Paddock Wood end of the Partnership and looking at after school club provision and development.

Alex Devlin joined us on 1 June as the new Specialist Teacher for Communication and Interaction replacing Sheryl Bunyard.

We will shortly be advertising for a CAF Coordinator and CAF Administrator across Tunbridge Wells and Cranbrook and Paddock Wood. Both posts will be 3 days per week to support the Common Assessment Framework operations for the Partnerships.

I look forward to seeing Headteachers again on 1 July 2009 at Mascalls School. 9-10.00am  - separate secondary and primary meetings; 10-12.30pm joint meeting; 1.00pm-3.00pm training. And I look forward to seeing key partners at the Local Children Services Partnership Board on 9 July at The Swattenden Centre from 1.00pm – 4.00pm. We will not be providing lunch on this occasion.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any queries about the work we are engaged in or if you feel you would like to get involved in any aspect of our work. We are very inclusive in Cranbrook and Paddock Wood!

Regards

Julie

Opportunities in Term 6

Dear Colleagues

It was good to meet with most of you at the Headteachers Meeting the other day and have some lively debate!

As with all our meetings there is always so much to say and not enough time to say it and inevitably not enough time to cover all current opportunities and developments. I would just like therefore to give you some dates and events which I hope you or other members of your staff will be able to attend and participate in.

1 June 2009 - Rosalind Turner, the new Managing Director will be visiting Cranbrook to find out about the Children's Centre development and Early YEars projects. Unfortunately there will not now be enough time on her itinerary to meet with a group of headteachers but I know opportunities will be plentiful in the coming year.

8 June 2009 - Solution Focused Training (Part 1) - This training is suitable for all members of staff working with children and families to deliver very early support in resolving their problems by acknowleding their strengths and opportunities. Particularly relevant for Parent Support Advisers, FLOs and pastoral managers/leaders. There are still places available 9.00am-12.30pm, Ramada Jarvis- Pembury.

18 June 2009 (am) - CAF (Common Assessment Framework) UPDATED Training for Managers and Headteachers - 9.00am - 12.30pm at Ramada Jarvis - Pembury - As we prepare to go live with CAF in July, we would like to invite all headteachers and multi-agency managers to attend this morning briefing to go through some case studies and understand the process, lead professional responsibilities and the impact on children and their families. This is not the same training as you had about 18 months ago. Lessons have been learned and CAF is operating successfully in may parts of the County. Lunch will be provided for those staying on for the afternoon Your Choice session (see below).

18 June 2009 (pm) - "Your Choice" Disadvantage Subsidy briefing - we discussed this new stream of funding that will be transferred to school budgets in June. The TDA are offering us an afternoon briefing together with Tunbridge Wells to understand more about the way the funding should be used and to give some helpful tips about engaging in families and monitoring the impact. This session will follow on from the CAF training in the morning. It will run from 1pm to 3pm at the Ramada Jarvis, Pembury and will be suitable for headteachers and their PSAs, FLOs and pastoral managers.

24 June 2009 - Solution Focused Training (Part 2, am) and Families First Training (pm) - 9.00am - 4pm - Salomons Centre, Tunbridge Wells - This is the second part of the solution focused approach and culminates in the afternoon with training for parctitioners and school staff who would like to be part of the Families First team providing 3 sessions of support for targeted families once every 6 weeks or so as part of an early support multi-agency team. This would be suitable for PSAs, FLOs and Pastoral managers/workers within schools. Families First has been running successfully in Ashford and Maidstone for 2 years now with some wonderful results.

25 June 2009 - Cranbrook School with their new status of Language College are hosting a PMFL market event to view resources to support PMFL in the classroom. The Partnership still have quite a lot of funding to spend before the end of August so please send 1 or 2 representatives along to see what the MFL team are recommending. Please contact Wendy Young Min for more information. Youngminw@cranbrook.kent.sch.uk

29 June 2009 - CAF Training for Practitioners and School Staff - 9.00am - 12.30pm - Ramada Jarvis , Pembury - This is an updated briefing with practical examples for those who may need to take on the role of Lead Professional for a child or be part of the team around the child. It will help them to understand the processes and the support that is in place locally to assist them in carrying out and supporting this role. This is essential training to ensure CAF has effective outcomes.

1 July 2009 - Headteacher's Meeting - venue still to be confirmed but I suggest the same format as the last meeting.KLZ has been raised as something we need to discuss and agree upon. Any further suggestions, please forward to me so I can discuss with Phil Morris, the Chair.

13 July 2009 - SEAL event - 12.30pm (for lunch) - 3.30pm, The Hop Farm - an opportunity to share best practice, explore ways of developing and embedding SEAL in schools and settings. As SEAL is recognised more and more as a core element of supporting a school's ethos and values we would like to invite 2 or 3 representatives from each Partnership school to join us in a celebration and shared practice event.

I hope you will be able to support some of these events.

Have a well deserved break and I will see you all in Term 6.

 Regards

Julie

Introduction from Julie Stones - LCSP Manager

I have thoroughly enjoyed coming to see you all and thank you all for your time – I am aware I still have around 50% of schools to visit and various partners to meet and to those schools and partners I apologise for taking so long but there simply haven’t been enough hours in the day. The familiarisation process is necessary and has giving me a real sense of what works well in the Partnership, what can be improved and where the real Partnership issues exist. I still don’t know what I don’t know so bear with me whilst I find my way!

The Partnership Board and Local Children and Young People’s Plan

Raising Our Voices Together – Cluster Singing Day

Cluster Headteachers’ Board Meeting

Headteachers will be pleased to note that there will still be opportunities to make collaborative decisions and discuss the more schools focused area of the Partnership agenda in more detail. The first meeting this Academic Year will be taking place on 15 October 2008 at The Queens Hotel, Hawkhurst from 12.30pm (for lunch). An agenda will be issued later this week so please let me know if you would like anything tabled.

Opportunities for Children and Young People

I have been asked to flag up an opportunity for schools and youth groups to get children and students involved in Local Democracy Week on 13-17 October. With the growing support for Pupil Voice within schools and community forums this looks like a good opportunity to raise awareness of local democracy.. If you have an event planned , please let me know . If not and you would like to then there are opportunities to go online to see the County Council meeting on 16 October or if you are able to, to take some students to County Hall to sit in the gallery. Members are keen to meet with young people so I’m sure any visits would be met very positively. Don’t forget too that the Kent County Youth Parliament elections will be taking place again soon in November. The experience a young person gains from electioneering, public speaking and then if successful representing their local area is invaluable. Please see link for more information.

www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/democracy-and-elections/kycc/

And a note for your Secondary Schools’ Heads of Art. SEGRO (a property development and investment company) are currently working in conjunction with Creative Junction to inspire young people to develop talent and celebrate art. They are looking for 10 secondary schools to work with a professional artist for 5 days during Spring and Summer 2009 with a “World of Work” theme. Applications deadline is 24 October 2009 and application form and further details can be found on www.creativejunction.org.uk/Pages/SEGRO.html

Our Hands on Support Team have been very busy at work preparing for the Weather Watch Poetry day on 9 October. An e-mail will have gone out to school ICT co-ordinators this week explaining the project. I hope you are all able to participate.

Primary Schools will have been informed by Anna Moore of yet another pot of capital funding this year to support extended schools services in primaries. This has to be spent by 31 March next year so your plans will need to be ready to go but I’m hoping that it will stretch to support a few projects across the Partnership area. If you have a plan, please submit it to Anna as soon as possible.

Many of you will already have met Alex Hann who has joined our Partnership Team as the Charlton Athletic Coordinator working with individual children and groups on programmes which support inclusion and self esteem. I’m hoping that Alex will be able to deliver a very accessible service into your schools.

Yesterday, we appointed another new member of the team to the post of Extended Schools Coordinator. His name is Richard Cowell and he should be joining us before Christmas.

Anna and I are working with Partnership with Parents to set up parent forums in three areas in the Partnership to support Partnership consultation and development– Cranbrook, Hawkhurst and Paddock Wood. There will be a launch in each area during November/December and Anna will be contacting each school and partnership organisation soon to ask you to promote the opportunity within your school/organisation.

I am thrilled to see that the Cranbrook Children’s Centre is now open for business. It is still in its initial set up phase but under the management of Pam Holmes whom many of you will have known through Safe Schools, I am sure it will soon be a thriving centre of activity. We are hoping too that a second children’s centre site will be identified and be “feasible” by the end of October. I understand the challenge of the rural access to services and will be focussing on this with a rural “think tank” for these and other services in the coming months.

Services in the new centre will include Job Centre Plus, Health Visitors, Community Midwives, new Mums group, a wide range of training opportunities and a creche.

Kent Trust Web site is being further developed to be more accessible to partners and I will be inviting you “into” the various pages by sending you the relevant links over the next few months to help you find your way around as the site develops. Unfortunately it was not  “live” for me to post my blog hence the e-mail but next time we will be moving into the 21^st Century. The Cranbrook and Paddock Wood “colour” is green which I felt represented a fresh approach, nurturing environment and rural aspect. I hope you agree!

Yours sincerely

Cranbrook and Paddock Wood