News

As part of Priority 1 in our delivery plan (strengthening school leadership and the quality of teaching), the Opportunity Area invested in support for primary literacy in 31 Bradford schools.

Methodology

Schools were prioritised using a data-driven methodology. Each school was given a score in 8 equally weighted literacy metrics, which were:

1. Proportion of students eligible for pupil premium funding in each school.
2. Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) score for each school. This gives a percentage score based on the level of deprivation for a school’s postcode.
3. Early Years Communication and Language scores, averaged over three years.
4. Early Years Literacy scores, averaged over three years.
5. Key Stage 1 scores in reading and writing, averaged over three years.
6. Phonics scores (proportion of children passing the phonics check in Year 1) averaged over three years.
7. Average progress scores in reading and writing at Key Stage Two, averaged over three years.
8. Average attainment scores in reading and writing at Key Stage Two, averaged over three years.

For each metric, each school receives a priority score out of 1, based on how highly they score in this area. The priority scores for each metric are added up, to give an overall score out of 8 for each school. Schools did not have to score highly in every metric to be prioritised for support.

Schools that are already receiving (or were due to receive) funded OA school-to-school support* are removed from the list of prioritised schools. They are then replaced by the next-placed schools on the list.

The chart below demonstrates how the methodology works in order to prioritise schools.

*The Opportunity Area also intends to publish the full list of schools receiving in OA-funded school-to-school support, and will do so in the coming months.

List of participating schools

• All Saints Church of England Primary School
• Beckfoot Allerton Primary School
• Beckfoot Nessfield
• Bowling Park Primary School
• Brackenhill Primary School
• Crossley Hall Primary School
• Dixons Manningham Academy
• Fagley Primary School
• Farfield Primary and Nursery School
• Farnham Primary School
• Frizinghall Primary School
• Grove House Primary School
• Holybrook Primary School
• Keighley St Andrew’s CofE Primary School and Nursery
• Laycock Primary School
• Lidget Green Primary School
• Lower Fields Primary School
• Miriam Lord Community Primary School
• Our Lady of Victories Catholic School
• Princeville Primary School
• St Anne’s Catholic Primary School
• St Clare’s Catholic Primary School
• St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School (Bradford)
• St Mary’s & St Peter’s Catholic Primary School
• St Matthew’s Catholic Primary School
• St Oswald’s Church of England Primary Academy
• St Philip’s CofE Primary School
• St Stephen’s CofE Primary School
• St William’s Catholic Primary School
• Victoria Primary School
• Whetley Academy

The deadline for schools to submit applications for Essential Life Skills funding has now passed. No further applications will be accepted.

Funding for activities has been delivered to all 206 schools and colleges in Bradford Opportunity Area.

We thank schools for all their hard work in developing proposals, making applications and delivering activities for their pupils. We would like to ask that schools continue to complete monitoring returns as per the requirements of their grant agreements(https://bradfordopportunityarea.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/els-mi-template-final-220518-bradford.xlsx).

Any unclaimed funds will be utilised by the Opportunity Area to deliver a number of additional Essential Life Skills activities, including grants for young people (launching soon), a young entrepreneurs programme and STEM aspiration centres. More details to follow.

As part of the Opportunity Area’s Primary Careers programme, in collaboration with Bradford Pathways, the first of four networking events between primary headteachers/teachers and employers will be held on the 29th March 2019 at Bradford City Football Club.

The events are designed and developed in collaboration with primary school headteachers in order to support them build relationships with employers, and embed career awareness and aspirational activity in their curricula.

The Primary Careers programme will help tackle career stereotyping in primary school aged children (as identified by studies such as Drawing the Future) to help raise aspiration and enable greater access to rewarding careers.

All primary schools in the Opportunity Area are eligible to send up to two representatives to the event. There will be a further event in Keighley this academic year and two more next academic year.

To register for a place visit Eventbrite through the following link, Primary Careers Networking Event.

Every school in the Opportunity Area has received funding to deliver Essential Life Skills activities to their pupils. Each term, in order to evaluate impact, we ask as part of each schools’ grant agreement that you return the following monitoring return to OpportunityAreas.BRADFORD@education.gov.uk.

A blank monitoring return can be found here.

 

This programme has been developed to tackle equality and diversity challenges and is for BME leaders aspiring to their next stage promoted leadership roles.  Participants will learn from each other and develop their effectiveness as leaders on a programme where they are in the majority. It explores the challenges and refines the existing tools of school leadership and school improvement to address issues of inequality. The programme also offers the opportunity for BME aspiring leaders to network, work collaboratively and receive peer support, guided by an outstanding regional team of Black leaders who are cognisant of the barriers to promotion that exist for BME professionals.

This is a positive action programme targeted at teachers are from BME background and:

• who have been in teaching for at least 3 years
• who are looking to move into leadership role in the next few years

COST: The Diverse Leaders for Tomorrow is funded by the DfE Leadership Equality and Diversity Fund (L&WY)

Download application form from: www.yorksleadership.co.uk

There is further information available here: diverse leaders for tomorrow.

Closing date for applications 28^th January 2019

The Department for Education has recently launched the Teaching Vacancies website. This is a free teaching vacancy listing service for schools, and is intended to tackle the significant costs that schools face when recruiting and advertising for staff. Instead of paying for adverts, schools can list available jobs on the site for free.

The service is available here: https://teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/.

The site is being rolled out in geographical phases and is due to be rolled out in Bradford in the week commencing January 14^th. We want to make sure that schools in Bradford are all able to access the system as soon as it goes live.

In that week, every school will be sent a registration email centrally from the DfE team. You can sign up using that email, when it arrives. However, emails don’t always reach 100% of schools, as emails often go into school spam folders.

Therefore, if you want to sign up for the service in advance, you just need to complete the attached table and send it through to teachingjobs@digital.education.gov.uk and thomas.jackson@education.gov.uk. The DfE team will then create an account for the school, allowing them to log into the service and list vacancies.

Each school simply needs to add in the details of the staff member(s) requiring access. Schools can have up to 10 log-in slots each. If anyone wants to have access across multiple schools (for example, a colleague working across a MAT, SCITT or TSA), they just need to put their name against each school. Colleagues can also use the spreadsheet to sign up multiple schools at once. There is also an example tab included for reference.

There will be an advertising campaign for Teaching Vacancies starting shortly, aiming to raise the profile of the service and to make it the first calling point for teachers looking for a new teaching role.

If you have any questions on the service, please get in touch with joseph.rigby@education.gov.uk (in the Bradford OA team) or with Thomas Jackson (thomas.jackson@education.gov.uk), who works in the team developing the website.

The Bradford Opportunity Area Team

As a secondary school or college in Bradford Opportunity Area you are eligible for funding of £1900 to enable you to take the Quality in Careers Standard, also known as the Careers, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) Award. A further bursary of £500 to contribute towards any additional costs incurred is also available.

In Bradford Opportunity Area’s plan we committed to support schools to improve aspirations and access to rewarding careers for young people in Bradford. We see this as an important and productive step in doing so.

This funding is intended to help schools and colleges in the Opportunity Area to build upon the funded Careers Leader Training available to all schools and colleges in Opportunity Areas. To access funding for the Quality in Careers Standard your school/college must have a Careers Leader who is trained or registered for training through the Careers and Enterprise (CEC) website.

The Quality in Careers Standard is now fully aligned with the Gatsby Benchmarks. In contracting one of the certified providers you will receive consultancy support, independent assessment and certification to help you meet the Gatsby Benchmarks.

Through the Careers Strategy 2017 DfE, “strongly recommend that all schools and colleges work towards the updated Quality in Careers Standard, incorporating Compass, to support the development of a world-class careers programme for all their young people.”

We will be promoting this offer with our partners in Bradford; the Careers and Enterprise Company, Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP), Bradford Pathways and the Industrial Centres of Excellence, as we work together with schools to support and improve careers education in Bradford.

Further information about the Quality in Careers Standard:

The Quality in Careers Standard is the national quality award for careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) in schools, colleges and work-based learning. It is fully aligned with the eight Gatsby Benchmarks for “Good Career Guidance” and fully complies with the Department for Education’s ‘statutory guidance’.

Find out more at the Quality in Careers Standard website.

To discuss this opportunity further please contact your Enterprise Advisor or email Bradford Opportunity Area, OpportunityAreas.BRADFORD@education.gov.uk

To apply for the funding please complete and email this CEIAG award funding application.

In case you haven’t heard about Accelerate yet, this exciting  new professional development programme is being led by Education Development Trust in partnership with the Chartered College of Teaching and is fully funded by the Department for Education.

The programme has been specifically designed for teachers in the first five years of their career to help-fast track their teaching skills, improve pupil attainment and keep talented teachers in the profession. It is free for teachers in eligible schools in the local area; those that are Ofsted graded 3 or 4 or are in a DfE identified ‘opportunity’ or ‘priority’ area.

With recruitment well underway it’s advisable to register for the programme as soon as possible – places are limited and are allocated on a first come first served basis after eligibility.  Applications are being accepted throughout December and into the new year. To register for the programme now and discover more information about Accelerate   please visit the Accelerate Website  accelerate-teaching.co.uk

 

Click here to find more information regarding a free, DfE funded training opportunity for non-specialist teachers of Maths in secondary schools.

Trinity Teaching School Alliance is offering funded support for non-specialist teachers (e.g. those who have a degree in a different subject) who currently teach Maths (or may be interested in doing so in the future). Schools taking advantage of this training may be better placed to respond to subject shortages.

There is no cost involved for schools, though they must commit to release the teacher for 4 workshops and a half day school based task.

If there is a group of schools/teachers in your area who wish to get together for the training, Trinity can also arrange for this to be delivered in a bespoke local ‘pod’/’pods’ to reduce the burden of travelling.

There is more information here about other funded Subject Specialist Training in:
•Secondary Maths
•Core Maths
•Physics
•Modern Foreign Languages

There are 2,500 children in Bradford who need glasses but either haven’t got any or aren’t wearing them in school. This is affecting literacy attainment.

30% of children identified as needing glasses through in-school vision screening tests do not attend a further detailed eye examination, whilst 50% of those who do fail to wear their corrective glasses.

For every line on the vision chart a child’s vision is reduced by their literacy score drops by 1.5%.

Bradford Opportunity Area is supporting a Born in Bradford study to get free glasses for children that need them to improve literacy attainment.

If your school wants to be a part of this study to improve literacy attainment please contact:

Dr. Alison Bruce, alison.bruce@bthft.nhs.uk

Key information:

• The study will be aimed at 4-5 year old children.
• Vision screening assessments in reception will be conducted in all participating schools.
• 50% of participating schools; 2 pairs of corrective glasses will be issued to children who need them (one pair to be kept in school).
• 50% of schools to act as a comparator.
• At the end of the study Born in Bradford aim to provide a pair of school glasses for children in all participating schools.