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Date: 21/01/21
By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.
In the week with ‘Blue Monday’, supposedly the most depressing day of the year, it would be easy to write another gloomy article this week. However, instead of writing about more frustrating U-turns by the Department for Education, I’m going to match the theme of this week’s edition by writing something positive instead.
Firstly, despite all of the challenges posed by online learning, it has been great to see some of the fantastic work being produced by pupils across our schools and campuses. For example, the work produced by pupils at Grace Darling Juniors and Josephine Butler for Martin Luther King Day on the theme of ‘I have a dream’. I also enjoyed some amazing art work by Duke’s pupils and seeing pupils get involved in the NCEAT Weekly Wellbeing Challenge, particularly some of the challenges undertaken by pupils from Castle School.
I’ve been impressed by the work of some of the pupils who are still attending school. The Year 5 and 6 pupils at James Knott looked as if they were having great fun making pizzas and I’m sure that they enjoyed eating the finished product afterwards!
I’m also cheered by the progress on the construction of the new modular early years, nursery and reception building at NCEA Warkworth C of E Primary School. This is due to be completed by Easter, creating more spaces for nursery and two year olds, with both 15 and 30-hour care packages. We are also looking at whether it is possible for us to expand our provision at James Knott to offer two year old provision, as this is the only campus which is currently without this provision.
As I mentioned last week, the Secretary of State for Education encouraged parents who are unhappy with a school’s remote learning to complain to OFSTED, if they felt that the school hadn’t resolved their complaint. It has been a big morale boost for school staff across England to find out that instead, OFSTED has been inundated with emails from parents and carers praising their school for the quality of remote education. OFSTED has now received 13,000 emails praising schools since Gavin Williamson urged parents to flag remote education concerns, but only around 260 complaints.
In recent weeks, I’ve expressed my frustration with the Department for Education (DfE) at times. However, this has never been my default position and I will also give praise where it is due. This week DfE have published for consultation their plans to reform vocational education and training for post-16 students. This document definitely seems to be a step in the right direction, with recognition that the 50% who don’t go on to university need access to better funding for training and qualifications. There is also a promise that employers will have a much greater influence on vocational qualifications, with a strong link to the needs of the local jobs market.
While there is a lot of the detail to be worked out, this does seem like a positive set of proposals. Let’s hope what will be fully in place by 2030 offers new and exciting opportunities for our pupils who are currently in early years and Key Stage 1.
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.
Date: 14/07/21
By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT
There is no doubt that switching to remote learning brings challenges for all of us. For pupils, it is engaging with a new style of learning in a different environment. For parents and carers, it may be about balancing working from home with the demands of home learning and trying to support your child with their work. For teachers, it is delivering lessons in a different way to normal and trying to find new ways of giving effective feedback to pupils to help them learn.
For all of us, we have no choice but to make it work as effectively as possible. The consequences of not doing so are unthinkable. Our pupils have missed so much school already and there is no guarantee of a return by February half term, so we have to maximise the opportunities that remote learning can bring.
This week OFSTED published a report on remote learning, based on looking at what schools have done since last March. What was very clear from the report is that there is no approach better than another when it comes to remote teaching and learning, with recorded lessons being just as effective as live lessons for example and clear support for using books and worksheets as well as online learning. What matters most is that we try to keep the content of the remote learning as close as possible to what our pupils would be completing in their classrooms.
All of our schools have slightly different approaches to how remote learning is delivered, based on the age of their pupils and the facilities available for pupils to work at home. However all of them are following the same principle of trying to deliver as much of our normal curriculum as possible at home.
There is no doubt that ‘home school’ can be really difficult for parents and carers, and we are really grateful for all of the effort that has gone into supporting our pupils with their remote learning. For those of you who aren’t sure about how best you can support your child, the key is encouraging them to engage as much as possible with the work being set by their teachers. I understand why some pupils find it difficult to engage with a new way of learning, perhaps feeling overwhelmed at times, and some pupils will also be struggling with missing seeing their friends. However it is absolutely vital to their long term chances of success that they engage with remote learning.
This is particularly important for those in the GCSE, BTEC and A level exam year groups. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the Government’s handling of education since March was the failure to create a contingency plan for this year’s exams. Once again our pupils are left with great uncertainty over how their exam results will be calculated. We are promised that a plan for consultation will be published by the end of the week, so hopefully I will be able to explain more about this in the next edition of LIGHThouse.
I understand the anxiety of pupils and their families about how grades will be awarded, and as a parent of a Year 10 pupil myself, I know that it is not just Years 11 and 13 pupils who are worried about the impact of lockdown on the chances of success in exams in 2021 and beyond. What we do know is that the 2021 grades will be centre assessed, as they were in 2020. The best advice we can give our pupils is not to worry, to keep working as hard as they can and to complete as many assessment tasks as they can which their teacher can use as evidence that they are capable of achieving a particular grade. We will provide extra support and materials for this once we have details of how centre assessed grades will be calculated.
Remote learning may not be the ideal form of learning, but for pupils who fully engage with it and try their best, it will make a huge difference to their chances of success when we can all get back to school again. In the words of Zig Ziglar “If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.”
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.
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).
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.
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.
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..
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.
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.
NCEAT schools and offices are now closed for Christmas until 5th January 2021.
While the majority of our staff are on holiday at this time, if you have an urgent query, you can contact us via email at admin.mat@ncea.org.uk or safeguarding@ncea.org.uk.
These addresses will be checked intermittently and someone will respond to you ASAP. Alternatively, you can find answers to some of our most frequently asked questions below:
What date does my child go back to school?
The Spring term will commence on Tuesday 5th January 2021 for all schools within the NCEA Trust (Bishop’s Primary, NCEA Warkworth Primary, Duke’s Secondary and Castle School).
I’m worried about the safety of my child or one of their school friends, what do I do?
You can find out of hours safeguarding information, including 24/7 contact details, on our Safeguarding pages. The advice on these pages cover a range of topics from cyber crime to mental health and wellbeing.
How do I contact my child(ren)’s teachers during the Christmas break?
Across the Trust, our staff have worked incredibly hard this term to make the festive period as fun and enjoyable as they can for our pupils under what were at times very trying circumstances. With this in mind, we would like our staff to enjoy their well-earned rest and would advise that all enquiries for teachers at Bishop’s, Duke’s or Castle Schools either be kept until the New Year, or in case of an emergency, directed to the Trust via email at admin.mat@ncea.org.uk.
Parents of pupils at NCEA Warkworth C of E Primary School may contact Laura Ritson via Class Dojo for all school-related queries.
What happens if my child contracts Covid-19 during the Christmas holidays?
In the instance that your child tests positive for Covid-19, please follow the Government guidelines and self-isolate for 10-14 days from the date of infection or last contact with another person who has tested positive for Covid-19. If this self-isolation period will overlap when your child is due to return to school, please notify the school via telephone at the earliest opportunity when we reopen on 5th January 2021.
I’m having issues with my free school meals vouchers, what should I do?
For all enquiries relating to free school meals, please contact margaret.hall@ncea.org.uk.
