With 2 months to go until Teaching School South West’s (TSSW) Literacy Conference SW 2019, delegates now have the chance to choose from a number of inspiring workshops to take part in on the day! In addition to 3 keynote speeches from Ruth Miskin CBE, Daisy Christodoulou and Lindsay Skinner – 16 workshops have been arranged from regional and national literacy experts. More details below: Keynotes Ruth Miskin CBE | Ruth Miskin Training ‘Every child can read’ Daisy Christodoulou | No More Marking ‘Seven Myths About Education: Why Knowledge Matters’ Lindsay Skinner | Author / PiXL Associate / Headteacher ‘Crafting Brilliant Sentences’ Workshops Lindsay Skinner | Author/PiXL Associate/Head Teacher ‘Knowledge & Vocabulary’ Daisy Christodoulou | Director of Education No More Marking/Author ‘No More Marking – A Comparative Judgement Approach’ Dr Annabel Watson |Senior Lecturer at University of Exeter ‘Beyond Acronyms: Arguing Outside A Forest And Forgetting To PEE’ Donna Briggs | Deputy Director of Plymouth Teaching School Alliance ‘The Plymouth Oracy Project: Oracy At The Heart’ David Baker | Curriculum Manager for AQA ‘Writing For GCSE English Language Paper 1 & 2’ Julie Fossey & Claire Palmer | Deputy Head and Key Stage Leader at West Exe School, part of the Ted Wragg Multi Academy Trust ‘Improving Literacy Across The Curriculum’
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Stress can impact our mental health and can mean we struggle at work and don't feel able to cope with everyday life. There are things we can do to improve our mental wellbeing, and Able Futures can help mental health at work by providing advice, information and support. If you live with mental health difficulties, you know there are good days and bad days. You also know the bad days can affect you at work. You probably find it hard to focus or perform at your best. The aim of Able Futures is to help you enjoy more good days. With support, signposting and information from a qualified mental health professional, you could learn more about your mental health, understand how you can access treatment for any mental health problems and connect with other people and support organisations who know what it's like to live with a mental health problem. The service is fast, flexible and, best of all, there is no charge to use this service. Enjoy more good days Able Futures can help you manage your mental health at work so you can enjoy more good days. Call Able Futures free on 0800 321 3137 from 8am to 10.30pm, Monday to Friday or apply online. Able Futures delivers the Access to Work Mental Health Support Service on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions. It could be available to you if you are you aged 16 or over, are in work or about to start work, live in Great Britain and have mental health difficulties that impact upon your work. Click on the Able Futures logo below for more information.  Summary
Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) are the biggest area of special educational need for children in primary schools. Long term, persistent SLCN, including Developmental Language Disorder, affect around 10% of children in the UK (talkingpoint.org.uk). In areas of social disadvantage, this number can rise to 50% of children starting school without the communication skills they need to fulfil their potential (Talking about a Generation, The Communication Trust 2017). Nationally, Headteachers are citing SLCN and children starting school with poor language skills as one of their biggest area of concerns. In response to this the government has begun to fund projects to close the word gap and has just launched ‘Hungry Little Minds’ a project to develop communication skills in the under 5s. To add a local context, our school data (October 2018) showed that 85% of the children assessed in the ‘Talk More’ screening for 2 year olds failed to meet the expected standard and 39% of pupils failed the Speech and Language Link screening of understanding on school entry. On further data analysis, school leaders found that children with SLCN struggle to close the attainment gap and continue to achieve significantly below the expected standards throughout their primary education. In light of research findings that “vocabulary by the age 4 is the best predictor of achievement at age 16 out of all measures yet studied.” (Roulstone et al 2011), three Exeter primary schools undertook this action research project with Talk Matters South West. The aim was to train staff in effective talk strategies and embed a systematic approach to developing language skills to improve the outcomes of children who start school with SLCN. To begin to meet these significant needs, our action research project has focused on:
School leaders in each school setting tracked the impact of these strategies, on children’s communication skills in each of the early year’s settings. This project intended to raise awareness and improve professional skills amongst school staff in order that they can better support children with SLCN in their schools. The year has started with a bang for our Primary trainees and we are thrilled to have 33 engaged and knowledgeable students join the programme. We have a great mix of people from a range of backgrounds, many of whom have considerable school experience and others who have useful skills from other careers. All have shown a great enthusiasm and engagement with our induction days prior to the start of their school placements this week. We have shared our origin stories in a snowball fight which broke the ice (pun intended), and in doing so have learned what gave each trainee the bug to teach. We have unpicked what we mean by ‘deliberate practice’ and applied it to learning the latest playground craze ‘The Triangle Dance’. Well, we need to send the trainees into school able to impress in the playground as well as the classroom… Friendships and connections have been forged which we believe are key to having a productive year. Alongside the team building and laughter, we have also faced some important and sometimes challenging subjects in order to prepare these new trainee teachers for their time in school. At the heart of all we do is the wellbeing and safety of pupils. We were fortunate to have excellent Safeguarding training delivered by one of our partner headteachers, Alice Purcell from Ide School, who covered all the key elements of safeguarding and child protection clearly and sensitively. We also enjoyed a classroom safari, looking at how the school make a small village site and a Victorian building work for their pupils. We were blown away by the creativity at the school and especially the Take One project which they are hoping might be displayed at the National Gallery. The trainees are now settling into their schools for a full week immersed within the school setting and are carrying out a task designed to support them when they are NQTs in their own classes next year. They’re on the start of an incredible journey, and we are thrilled to be supporting them through it. Best of luck, Class of 2020! Thank you so much for a fantastic couple of days. I found them very worthwhile and valuable (and a really good giggle at points!) and am now very much looking forward to going into school next week. - Jacqui I really enjoyed the last two days and am really excited to get started in class next week. - Kirsty We are excited to see what this academic year (our 4th year of operation) has in store. 18/19 was busy with new schools joining us and we covered our highest number of supply bookings to date, 4,854 (an additional 2,204 bookings since our first year!). It has been a great summer recruiting more teachers and teaching assistants to join our existing fantastic team. We had a very successful recruitment day and in total have welcomed 38 new team members. This takes our total number of supply teachers and teaching assistants to 125. We are working on some exciting new plans, including:
We already have some key events in this year’s diary including the DAPH Conference, University of Exeter Recruitment Fair and Marjon University Teacher Employability Fair. We are looking forward to attending them all. Our key targets for this year are:
It’s shaping up to be another busy year!  |
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