New partnership aims to help Northumberland parents get back to business after pandemic

3rd March 2021Leanne Tonks

As part of a new project to improve access to high-quality careers guidance, Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust (NCEAT) has teamed up with not-for-profit organisation, Smart Works Newcastle, to provide one-to-one support for the parents and carers of its pupils.

The free to access service, which will initially be delivered by the in-house careers team at Duke’s Secondary School (part of NCEAT), will be available to parents and carers of children across the NCEA Trust who might be looking to change career, retrain or get back into work following an extended period of absence.

Following an initial consultation with a careers advisor, service users can be signposted to a number of different outlets, including Smart Works Newcastle, where they can explore routes back into education, the workplace or even a new market sector.

An exclusive service for women, Smart Works is a national organisation which supports women of all ages and backgrounds to build their confidence and skills to help them secure work.

Offering a wide range of services including CV writing, interview coaching and general careers advice as well as providing free work appropriate clothing to those who have confirmed job interviews. Smart Works has supported thousands of women across the UK into successful employment.

In becoming a referral partner to Smart Works’ Employment Support service, NCEAT will be able to signpost mums, sisters, aunties and carers to the service, where they can receive additional support.

Helen Boyd, Service Delivery Lead at Smart Works Newcastle, commented:

“One of the few benefits of the pandemic is taking our Smart Works Newcastle service virtual, meaning we can support more women across the North East. We want to help as many women as we can to build confidence in their skills and abilities and gain sustainable employment. Our amazing coaches can support at any stage of the job search from first roles out of school to those returning to the workplace. We are really looking forward to working with the Trust and their families.”

The partnership announcement comes as NCEA Trust schools have been celebrating National Careers Week (1-6 March).

The annual event, which celebrates careers guidance and free resources in education to help young people make informed choices about their futures has been a little different this year in light of the ongoing pandemic, with the majority of sessions for learners being held remotely. Within the campaign messaging however, there has also been an embedded sense of urgency to ensure that young people leaving school or college at the end of this academic year are as prepared as they can be for the world of work amidst a backdrop of high unemployment and labour market shifts.

While it is imperative that we support our young people to make sure they don’t fall through the gap between leaving full-time education and entering the workplace, we feel that it is just as important to provide the same level of support to parents and carers.

Natalie Cain, Careers Advisor at NCEAT, commented:

“We’re really excited about the launch of our new careers service. There is more emphasis on careers education in schools than there has ever been, and while it’s wonderful to see our pupils benefitting from this, we strongly felt that this could have a wider impact in the local community if we were to roll it out to parents and carers – especially in the current economic climate with so many people being furloughed or made redundant.

“Working together with Smart Works Newcastle on the project is really exciting – the work they do with women across the country is incredible and I look forward to seeing some of our own parents and carers across the Trust benefit from their expertise.

“While Smart Works Newcastle is exclusively a service for women, that doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten the gentlemen out there who might also need some additional support! Our in-house careers service is available to all and we hope to expand our range of partnerships as the project progresses.”

Watch this space for further details coming soon!

Careers guidance appointments for parents and carers are available every Friday afternoon between 2-4pm. If you have any questions or to make an appointment, email careers@dukes.ncea.org.uk.

For more information about Smart Works Newcastle, visit: smartworks.org.uk/newcastle-smart-works.

Northumberland primary school scoops pioneering mental health award

26th February 2021Leanne Tonks

A Northumberland primary school has achieved the School Mental Health Award which is delivered by the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools. NCEA Warkworth C of E Primary School has become one of just five schools across the UK to be awarded a Gold standard for its outstanding mental health and wellbeing provision.

Warkworth Primary School provides a wide range of activities to boost the wellbeing of pupils and staff, including mindfulness clubs, yoga and relaxation activities, character education and regular ‘pupil voice’ surveys to assess the happiness of its pupils. The school has also built mental health and wellbeing awareness into its PSHE and RSE curriculum and has made mental health first aid training available to all staff to support them in their roles.

However, it was Warkworth Primary School’s work to support not only its staff and pupils, but the local community too during lockdown that commended the school to the independent assessor from the Carnegie Centre of Excellence to receive the Gold standard award.

“The implementation of the third national lockdown seemed to affect everybody’s mental health and wellbeing in a big way,” said Laura Ritson, Head Teacher at NCEA Warkworth C of E Primary School.

“While our school remained open to vulnerable children and the children of key workers, the majority of our pupils reverted to remote learning. To help maintain a sense of ‘togetherness’ while we had to stay apart, we organised a community heart campaign where our children designed and delivered a series of paper hearts to residents for them to display in their windows. As part of Children’s Mental Health Week in February, we then completed a ‘walk to wellbeing’ around the village to see how many of our hearts we could find.

“We also sent wellbeing bags containing activities and resources home with pupils to help support them and their families, as well as organised a series of live virtual wellbeing sessions to provide a safe space for pupils and their parents to discuss their thoughts and feelings during lockdown.

“I am extremely proud of what our staff and pupils have achieved and to see their hard work rewarded through the School Mental Health Award scheme is absolutely fantastic. Our vision now is to roll our wellbeing strategy out to other schools within the Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust to support their activities and ensure that our pupils feel supported as they progress through the Academy.”

The School Mental Health Award was established in 2017 by the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools – part of Leeds Beckett University – and social enterprise Minds Ahead.
The Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools aims to strengthen pupils’ mental health by supporting schools to make a positive change at all levels of the UK’s education system, improving students’ outcomes and life chances.

Professor Damien Page, Dean of Leeds Beckett’s Carnegie School of Education, said:

“Achieving this award is not just recognition of a whole-school approach to mental health, it’s a recognition of the school’s commitment to improving the life chances of children. We’re truly proud to have worked with Warkworth Primary School in this vital work and look forward to further collaboration.”

Nationally, more than 800 schools have signed up to take part in the mental health award.

Dean Johnstone, founder and CEO of Minds Ahead said: “This award shines a light on the excellent work schools are doing to promote mental health for their community of children and adults.

“It is thrilling and humbling to learn about Warkworth Primary School and the many other schools engaged in the quality award process. I’d like to offer my congratulations on this deserved recognition.”

For more information about Warkworth Primary School, visit www.warkworth.ncea.org.uk.

PHOTO CAPTION: Pupils at Warkworth Primary School with their wellbeing bags.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Government announces school reopening date

22nd February 2021Leanne Tonks

An important notice for parents and carers of pupils at NCEA Trust schools:

In a statement this afternoon, Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, outlined his ‘roadmap’ for easing the UK’s lockdown restrictions, beginning with the reopening of schools to all pupils by Monday 8 March.

We are currently working on a plan to ensure that we can comply with the government’s guidelines while maintaining the health and safety of all of our staff and pupils. We will communicate more information regarding specific school and campus reopening procedures to parents and carers in due course. Please continue to monitor our website and social media channels for further details.

Helping our children thrive through good mental health

4th February 2021Leanne Tonks

Date: 04/02/21
By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.

It’s a very long time since I was a pupil, but I can’t ever remember a time at school when anyone spoke about the idea of mental health. At that time, there was a complete stigma around mental illness and it wasn’t a topic of conversation at school or home. Even when starting my teaching career in the early 1990s, mental health didn’t seem to feature highly on the agenda during my PGCE or in school CPD.

Since then, I believe that the quality of our education system has improved significantly. Arguably, this has been mainly internally driven by the profession itself. One key change is the raised profile of mental health and wellbeing amongst school communities. While we can and must do more to support this; there has certainly been a sea change in attitudes towards mental health in schools.

All of us can drift from good mental health to illness along a continuum, in the same way we do so with our physical health. Pressures and stresses in our lives can act as catalysts for these movements and in a ‘normal’ school year we are aware of some the potential trigger points here, such as exams or transition. Some of the underlying pressures on mental health are structural within our current education system. I could write an entire blog on how all or nothing terminal exams and the high stakes accountability system have an incredibly negative impact on pupils and staff. If we add the impact of Covid-19 then we face an unprecedented pressure on our mental health.

How do we tackle this? Firstly, let’s avoid the narrative in some parts of the media that the last 12 months have utterly destroyed the education of a generation of children. When the previous lockdown ended I was proud of the resilience shown by our pupils and their desire to make up for lost time. Staff have worked incredibly hard to support them with this. As a profession, the progress made on remote learning, without clear direction from above, has been immense. Most pupils are completing more and better quality work. If we recognise and build upon the positives we’ve achieved since last March, we significantly reduce the chances of the negativity becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

There are many improvements schools could make to mental health support if only we had sufficient resources. I would love each school have its own counsellor to support pupils in need. However in a post-Covid environment it seems unlikely that schools will be given the resources we need to achieve this. What we definitely can do is to focus on low cost, high impact solutions and generating the right culture so that we can talk openly about issues, identify problems and find the best ways to tackle them.

As someone who has spent most of their career in secondary education, moving to an all-through trust has convinced me that we need to ensure the key building blocks for good mental health are in put in place in primary school. At NCEAT, the investment we’ve made in Thrive training for our staff to help support the social and emotional development of our children has been crucial to helping our pupils become more emotionally resilient. In a catchment with high levels of disadvantage, taking a more trauma sensitive approach to meeting the social and emotional needs of our children is reaping rewards.

Our NCEA Warkworth C of E Primary School is working towards Silver Mental Health and Wellbeing Awards with Leeds Beckett University and the Silver Better Health at Work, focusing on making sure that the culture of promoting good mental health for all of their community is at the heart of all that they do.

I’m in no doubt that, as a trust, we are still in the early stages of our journey to ensure that we support good mental health across our school communities, but we have recognised this as a key priority in our trust five year development plan. As with most journeys, the first steps are the most important and for me that is about creating a culture where our community is comfortable talking, listening and empathising. In the post-Covid world, getting the right culture for mental health may just be the most important step we take as school leaders to support our communities on the road to recovery.

Bishop’s Primary School selected to take part in pioneering diversity project

29th January 2021Leanne Tonks

Despite the fact that 33.5% of the UK’s school aged population come from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities, only 7% of children’s books published in the last three years have featured a minority ethnic character.

As part of a drive to readdress the balance and increase the cultural diversity of the reading material available to its pupils, Bishop’s Primary School has been accepted to take part in a pioneering project with Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books.

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020, the diversity project and fundraising campaign aims to give visibility to works by authors from BAME communities, which feature more diverse characters to help increase understanding and provide a stepping stone for teachers to encourage discussions around race and equality.

Bishop’s Primary School was one of 33 North East primary schools to benefit from the project. Since December, packs containing a range of diverse storybooks suitable for young readers have been delivered to all five of the school’s campuses in South East Northumberland in time for National Storytelling Week (30 Jan – 6 Feb), to the delight of the staff and pupils.

Mr Jack Christophers, Director of Literacy at Bishop’s Primary School, commented:

“At Bishop’s Primary School, we believe that our pupils learn so much through the stories they interact with and this is reflected in the fact that all of our pupils enjoy story time as part of their daily timetable. We also believe that education on matters such as diversity, equality, race and religion should start from a young age.

“Through the project with Seven Stories, we are delighted to be able to combine these two beliefs. By ensuring that we have a culturally diverse supply of stories to share with our children, we can actively support their cultural understanding and personal development.

“On behalf of all of the staff and pupils I’d like to thank Seven Stories for all of their hard work in putting this project together. Our campus libraries are now much truer reflections of the world around us and will benefit our pupils for years to come.”

John Coburn, Creative Director at Seven Stories, commented:

“At Seven Stories we believe that children’s books are a powerful way to open up conversations with children about a range of topics, including diversity, equality and racism. By supporting this fundraiser, we’re helping North East primary schools – including Bishop’s Primary School – to grow the diversity of their book collections and in turn, inspire young minds with new voices and experiences that might otherwise be missing from their bookshelves.”

Serving South East Northumberland with campuses across Ashington, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea and Lynemouth, Bishop’s Primary School (part of Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust) is one of the largest primary academies in the region, with over 1,600 pupils aged 2-11.

For more information about the project, visit www.sevenstories.org.uk/blog/a-fundraiser-for-diverse-books.

Construction begins on new early years provision as demand grows in Northumberland

21st January 2021Leanne Tonks

Following a growth in demand for early years education in rural South East Northumberland, construction on a new modular early years provision has begun at NCEA Warkworth Primary School.

Based in the picturesque village of Warkworth, the new building will house two large classrooms as well as toilet facilities and a dedicated entrance hall for use by the school’s nursery and reception classes.

Due for completion by Easter 2021, the opening of the expanded early years provision will create more spaces for nursery and two year olds, providing both 15 and 30-hour care packages.

Mrs Laura Ritson, Head Teacher at NCEA Warkworth Primary School, commented:

“As a village school, we have always prided ourselves on being actively involved in the local community and doing what we can to support the needs of parents and residents.

“For working parents in particular, finding suitable childcare which also supports their child’s educational needs can be challenging, which is why we’re delighted to be expanding our offer. We hope to offer lots of exciting new classes and experiences such as baby massage and sensory toddler sessions for the whole community to enjoy.”

While the increased restrictions introduced as part of the national coronavirus lockdown mean that the majority of pupils at NCEA Warkworth Primary School are currently learning remotely through live teaching, the children who have been in school (key worker and vulnerable children) have been enjoying having the construction team from Transform Building Solutions onsite.

After paying a visit to meet the builders, reception pupils, Flynn and Rudy, both aged 4, said:

“It’s going to be so cool! Look at him digging all that mud.”

“That’s going to be our new classroom!”

“Our pupils are very excited about the build!” Laura added.

“Our reception class in particular is very much looking forward to moving into their new purpose-built classroom.”

NCEA Warkworth Primary School operates as part of Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust (NCEAT), which also includes Bishop’s Primary School, Duke’s Secondary School and Castle School for children with severe and multiple learning disabilities.

For more information, including how to apply for the additional 15 and 30-hour childcare places, visit www.warkworth.ncea.org.uk. You can also find more information about NCEA Warkworth Primary School on Facebook at @warkworthprimary.

How to choose the right primary school for your child in these challenging times

7th January 2021Leanne Tonks

Date: 07/01/2021
By Melanie Hinson, Principal at Bishop’s Primary School (part of the NCEA Trust)

Primary schools play a vital role in a child’s development. From reading their first words and counting to 10 through to the development of key skills such as communication and social interaction, primary school is the foundation stone of a child’s education.

Developing a love for learning from an early age can be crucial to ensuring your child’s future success, which is why choosing the right environment to help shape and nurture your child’s individual talents is crucial, but with so many schools to choose from, where do you start?

We understand that a child starting full time school can be an anxious time for parents. How do you know which school will best suit your child’s needs? Which school has the most interesting curriculum? Where will your child feel happy and cared for? – All perfectly rational questions. Unfortunately, as we enter 2021 still very much in the grip of the Coronavirus pandemic, for this year’s school intake, there is yet more for parents to consider.

How schools are responding to the virus in order to keep pupils safe should be a deciding factor when choosing your child’s prospective school. At Bishop’s Primary School, we continue to follow the guidance issued by the Department for Education closely to ensure the safety of our staff and pupils.

In the instance of a positive Covid case, we have worked in collaboration with staff and parents to quickly isolate the affected bubbles and switch to remote learning so that our pupils’ teaching hours are not affected by the need to self-isolate.

Keeping school as ‘near to normal’ as possible for our children is really important to us as we understand the impact that disruption to a child’s routine can have to their mental and physical health and wellbeing, as well as their personal and academic development.

As part of the Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust (NCEAT), our culture of high support and high expectation is echoed throughout all our schools. All Trust pupils are encouraged to become creative, independent thinkers with a love of learning and a thirst for knowledge, as well as responsible members of their local community. Our strong working relationship with Dukes Secondary creates an organic learning pathway that children can follow from our ‘Two Year Old’ provisions and Nurseries through to Sixth Form.

While the new academic year won’t start until September, the deadline for primary school applications is only just over a week away (15 January for schools in Northumberland).

For more information about the campuses within Bishop’s Primary School and the NCEA Trust specifically, please visit www.ncea.org.uk or contact us on 01670 816111. We will do all we can to support you through this process, by answering any questions or helping you to complete the online application form.

To apply for your child’s place for September 2021 please go to https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/Education/Schools/School-admissions-places-appeals-1/Reception-entry-applications.aspx.

Parent Governor wanted!

7th January 2021Leanne Tonks

We currently have a vacancy for a Parent Governor to join our governing body for Bishop’s Primary School West.

Parent Governors must be elected by the parents of children attending the school and must also have a child on the school roll at the school they are applying to at the time of nomination/election (one of the Bishop’s Primary School West Campuses (Josephine Butler (including EYFS at Robert Stephenson), James Knott or Thomas Bewick).

What do Parent Governors do?

Governors work as a team. They are responsible for making sure the school provides a good quality education for all pupils. Raising educational standards in school is a key priority. This has the best chance of happening when there are high expectations of what pupils can achieve.

Governors promote effective ways of teaching and learning when setting the school aims and policies. They do this together with the Principal, who is responsible for the day-to-day management of the school.

Governing boards are accountable to parents, the local community and the Trustees. The governing board’s main role is to help raise pupils’ standards of achievement.
Governors are at the heart of how a school operates. It’s important they get things right and the right people are sitting around the table. How they do their job effects the interests of pupils, staff and the reputation of the school in the community.

What are we looking for?

The Governors are keen to encourage any parent/carers to apply, who feel they have the skills, time and aptitude to support our children to realise and further their aspirations and ambition.

The governing board particularly requires a diversity of skills in areas such as education, HR, medical, legal, financial/ accountancy and leadership, and parents/carers with these skills are urged to apply.

Find out more

For more information, please view/download the relevant letters and leaflets listed below:

Bishop’s Primary School (West) Parent Governor Information

Letter of Invitation to Apply
Self-Nomination Form
Role and Responsibilities

The closing date for Parent Governor nominations for Bishop’s Primary School (West) is 9am on Thursday 21st January 2021 – THE NOMINATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED..

Lockdown update from our CEO

5th January 2021Leanne Tonks

Dear Parents and Carers,

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement last night, all NCEAT schools are open to key worker children and vulnerable children only. All other pupils will learn by remote learning. These arrangements will continue until at least 15th February, which is the Government’s review date for the current lockdown arrangements.

Like me, I am sure you will have many questions about the details of the lockdown arrangements for schools, especially around things like what will happen with exams. At the moment, the Department for Education (DfE) has not published any detailed guidance following last night’s announcement. We will add information to the new Covid-19 hub on our Trust website as soon as we have any further details from DfE. We will also continue to publish our “Lighthouse” newsletter during lockdown and send out information on our social media channels.

I know that this will be an anxious time for many families. Please be assured that schools have learned a great deal about remote learning since the previous lockdown and are able to support this much more effectively than we could at the start of March 2020. We will also continue to provide as much support as we can for families during the new lockdown, directly if we can or by using our partnerships with other organisations when we can’t do this ourselves.

Best wishes and please stay safe,

Alan Hardie
Chief Executive Officer at NCEAT.

Partial school closures announced

4th January 2021Leanne Tonks

Updated 04/01/2021

We have taken the difficult decision to partially close Bishop’s Primary School, Castle School and NCEA Warkworth Primary School on Tuesday 5th January and Wednesday 6th January. This means that all campuses will only be open to the children of key workers who have no alternative means of childcare (please bring ID) and to vulnerable children.

For Bishop’s Primary campuses, this includes key worker children who access our 30 hours provision and our 2 year old provision. The usual opening times apply and ‘Breakfast club’ is available for children that booked via the online system.

For NCEA Warkworth Primary School, unfortunately we are not able to offer 2 year old sessions at this time. We will let you know when this provision is able to reopen. If you are a critical worker OR your child is a vulnerable pupil, please can you confirm whether he/she will be attending school tomorrow and Wednesday ASAP. We will then be in a position to let you know if we are able to offer breakfast and after school clubs.

The safety and wellbeing of our pupils and staff is always our main priority and this decision has been made on health and safety grounds. Your child will need to continue home learning if they are not attending school and tasks for the next two days will be available via the school website / Tapestry / Class Dojo.

As you will be aware, unions representing both teaching and support staff have advised their members not to support the full reopening of primary and special schools in Tier 4 areas. In addition, clinically extremely vulnerable staff once again have to work from home in Tier 4. Combined with staff absences for other reasons, we do not currently have sufficient staff available to open safely for all pupils.

We are sorry that we’ve had to take this decision, for the very short notice given and for the inconvenience this will cause you. We will review arrangements for the rest of the week and give you as much notice as possible about any further changes.