Dear Colleagues
I hope those of you who had some time away enjoyed your breaks and feel refreshed with batteries recharged.
It has been a hectic summer for the Partnership. I have been busy meeting with voluntary sector colleagues to design and develop new services and training opportunities for the Partnership. Here are some of the opportunities and services now available to schools and agencies.
Counselling – we will now have counselling services available through Partnership Based Review both at the very early intervention level with ARC and Fegans and at the higher need and crisis level through Time to Talk. We have re-commissioned Time to Talk with some additional provision to reduce the current waiting list. ARC and Fegans will also deliver Talk Time group sessions in schools from September. These need to be booked and are recommended for groups of children who may have very early well being issues due to family break up, low self esteem, bullying or other family crises. Please let me know if you would be interested in running a suite of sessions in your school.
Peer Mediation – we have also commissioned West Kent Mediation to deliver peer mediation training to Year 5 pupils in 6 schools in the Partnership this year and 6 next year. The idea will be that in the third year, there will be a refresher course within Angley and Mascalls for those pupils that have moved into Year 7 to enhance their skills for secondary. This will furnish our pupils with some key life skills and will support the restorative justice approach within schools. Two schools have already requested to have the training so I am looking for another 4 schools for this year.
Loss and Attachment Training – we identified a growing need for training in the area of loss and attachment for professionals working with vulnerable children within schools. With the increase in family break up, detachment issues present themselves more frequently than ever in the classroom. This training also supports a better understanding of Looked After Children and provides skills in supporting bereavement. We will start with primaries in the Autumn offering a 5 day course run at 4 weekly intervals aimed at SENCOs, TAs or pastoral managers. Supply cover will be provided for 2.5 of these days by the Partnership. We hope schools will release 1 member of staff for the duration of this course and part fund the additional supply cover. The course will be run by Time to Train and previous participants in the Sevenoaks area described it as “life-changing” and the “best course they had ever attended”. The course will probably run on a Friday and dates will be distributed shortly. We expect to run a similar course for secondaries inviting about 3 participants from each school in the Spring.
Personal Safety Courses for Young Women – we have co-funded 2 courses in partnership with the Community Safety Partnership and NHS to enable YWCA to run a course in Cranbrook from October to December 2009 and a course in Paddock Wood from January to March 2010 for vulnerable girls aged 15-18, in or out of school. The course will cover safe relationship management, SRE, drugs and alcohol, safety in and out of the home, e-safety and safety on the road and in cars. I am accepting referrals now from schools, Youth Service, YISP, Police, school nurses, Connexions and other sources. If you know of young women who have preponderance for risky behaviour please let me have their details. Each course will have spaces for 12 girls. The courses run for 10 weeks for one half day or less if full days are offered. Girls in school will need permission to attend. The course is accredited and certificates are awarded on completion of the full course.
Youth Activities – To complement the work of the Youth Service we are in the process of commissioning some additional youth work in Hawkhurst and rural villages to engage young people who cannot usually access youth provision. We hope to operate a 24 week youth club from January to June in Hawkhurst We also plan to deliver some roadshows in the rural villages this Autumn during half term to engage young people and their families. In addition to that, we will also be developing a young people’s voice DVD in liaison with the Youth Service and young people in the Cranbrook area to find out what it is like to be a young person living in a rural location and what will success look like for them; what are their aspirations and hopes for the future if they intend to stay and live in the area. This will provide us with an evidence base for lobbying our rural issues and a good focus for our Rural Conference in the Autumn.
2012 Olympics– The 2012 Olympic steering group met early in September to draw up an action plan for the 20 in 12 events programme for the Partnership. I am pleased to announce that after nominating Mascalls as a school to participate in the launch of the Kent Cultural Baton 2012, it has been accepted and will receive a funded support programme with Future Creative during the Autumn term culminating in the 3 December 2009 Cultural Baton celebrations which will be televised. I hope many of their young people will benefit from this involvement and it will certainly raise awareness in our area to inspire young people.
Connexions – I had a very interesting meeting with the Connexions team in Tonbridge in July. The Connexions team does some excellent work within schools to support young people to make their future career and education choices. In the current climate it is more important than ever that they are aware of all the options. The team is also very involved with out of school young people including the homeless and those who are NEETs, (not in employment, education or training), so they play a key role in re-engaging some of our most vulnerable and disaffected young people.
Summer Activities – Many of the Partnership team were active during the summer engaging families, children and young people in activities. There were a number of days planned in Paddock Wood following requests from the Parents’ Forum that engaged children and their parents and carers in a range of activities including cookery lessons, arts and crafts and sport. Well done to Richard Cowell and Louise Rodrigues for organizing such interesting and popular events. See Richard's blog for more information on extended services http://kenttrustweb.org.uk/CS/community/cranbrook%5Fpw%5Fextended%5Fschools/.
The Children’s Centre was also a hive of activity with a series of teddy bears picnics throughout the summer weeks and a multi-agency day for parents at the end of July.
SPARK Transition Project - well done to the SPARK Transition team who worked very hard at the end of last term and during the holiday, running events to support vulnerable children moving across into secondary. We look forward to hearing many successful transition stories in the next few weeks and well done to Sarah Jackson, Suzanne Boyle and all the PSAs and SENCOs that supported the project.
Partnership Bus – As you know we are always bemoaning the fact that we have transportation difficulties in the Partnership. As a result of our “moaning” we have been asked to pilot a Partnership lease scheme through Kent Fleet which would give us a dedicated 9 seater. Not the answer to all our problems but certainly a flexible option to resolve some problems of access on a small scale together with the other resources we have developed.
Rural Case Studies – Headteachers and Partnership Board Members will know that I am currently collating a bank of case studies to inform the Kent Rural Evidence Base of barriers facing children and families in rural areas in relation to learning, activities and access to key services. The more illustrative information I have on this the better for improving access to funding and negotiating with key partners. Please take some time to write me a few short case studies to illustrate the key problems that poor transport, fragmented services, rehousing and isolation amongst other things have on the children, young people and their parents and carers.
CAF – we held our first CAF SPA (Single Point of Access) meeting at the end of last term and set two teams around the child in motion. Dates will be set for regular SPA meetings from September ( the first is on the morning of 17 Sept) and I am pleased to announce that we now have the relevant staff to support the process. Elizabeth Bull will start as CAF Coordinator from 7 September 2009 and Tracy Bradley who previously supported our Specialist Teachers will start as CAF Administrator on 21st September. I feel confident that we have made excellent appointments and you will all feel well supported as and when you become involved in the process.
Partnership Schools Conference – We have had our Partnership rollover funding confirmed which means that we can go ahead with our plans for the Schools Conference on 22 February 2010 to be held in Cranbrook School. Headteachers, please remember to return your attendance slips to Penny as soon as possible as we need to confirm numbers in order to arrange the correct number of workshops, catering arrangements etc. Guy Claxton is confirmed as the keynote speaker for Building Learning Power and then we have confirmed workshops for Staff Well Being, Pupil Voice, Restorative Justice, Nurture and Communication in the early years, Recognising Self Harm and Depression, Using Whiteboards, Extended Schools, E-Safety, First Aid and plan to run a few more depending on numbers.
Early Years Project – Following on from the success of our Communication Friendly Spaces project last year which involved pre-school settings and primary schools. I am pleased to announce that we have been successful in our bid for further funding of £20000 to roll out the programme to all remaining pre-school settings and primaries. We will also be able to run a Conference to promote and celebrate the success to date and launch the next stage of the programme. The project has had widespread impact both on the confidence of staff in settings, the cross fertilization of good practice, the use of resources, the response and support of parents but most of all the impact on children, literally unlocking the voice of some that were previously non communicative. Thank you to Barbara Hall for her continuing work in bringing this all together.
The Horizon Project – The new alternative curriculum provision offering vocational training on the Angley School site will start next week. The facility has been kitted out with carpentry equipment with the help of set up costs from the Partnership. This will really help to engage disaffected young people who previously had to travel quite a distance for alternative curriculum provision and longer term it will provide a facility for introducing and enhancing skills in the local community.
Aiming High – Our Aiming High programme to provide short breaks for disabled children and young people is now under way. With the help of VSU, we are about to set up two after school clubs at Angley and Mascalls which will include children and young people with disability. More information to follow as plans are finalised.
Well I could go on with information on the SEAL event, Families First planning, extended schools activities etc but I think I have already verged into information overload and I don’t want to deplete your batteries again!
I do hope you find this blog useful – hopefully there is something for everyone within it. If you have anything exciting to share I have reviewed my distribution list over the summer and have captured a wide children’s services workforce to share Partnership information with, so by all means feed in your news, so we all know the range of opportunities and developments in the Partnership.
Best wishes
Julie
Local Children’s Services Partnership Manager
Cranbrook and Paddock Wood