‘ Easter 2015 Issue 95 As Easter draws near, it is time to look back on a busy term, celebrate the successes and achievements, and look forward to a refreshing break prior to preparing for the term ahead. Many of you will know that the Diocese has begun work on a vision and strategy to take the Ely Diocese forward to 2025. Parishes, organisations and the population at large are invited to contribute to the strategy and are encouraged to complete the consultation document which is on the Diocesan website. Schools are at the heart of the strategy and have an important role to play since there are 14,000 pupils registered in Church schools across the Diocese. The children’s voice will also be heard. Your views, too, are important so please do consider filling in the consultation document and where it asks what is your role, please do mention that you are connected with education. The closing date for responses is Easter Day. The analysis of all the responses then begins. As always, the education team is pleased to meet you in your schools and is there to support you. Rachel Beeson has assembled an excellent central professional development programme for heads and staff so please do look at it and see whether you are interested in finding out more or registering for any of the courses and training progammes. One of the joys of working in the Diocesan Office is now seeing so many teachers, headteachers, teaching assistants, school bursars coming into the Office for a training event. The Diocesan Office has therefore become visible as a training hub for staff in schools. The Diocese of Ely Multi-Academy Trust continues to expand and to date there are 16 schools which have converted to academies within the Trust. Another two academy orders have been granted and another two schools have submitted applications. Hence, by September 21015, there are likely to be 20 academies in the Trust. Already, the DfE informs us that we are the largest sponsor of academies in the East Anglia and North East London region. Hence, we cannot afford to be complacent as the DfE rightly holds us to account for standards and the quality of education in the academies in the Trust. We are well aware of the challenges and risks. One of the quotes I picked up at an Ely Cathedral Business Group lecture and have used so often is this: “If you take a risk, there is a chance of success. If you never take a risk, you can guarantee failure.” Taking a calculated risk, however, implies that you have done your homework first by evaluating your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Tuesday 17th March saw the launch of a quality assurance framework and risk management guidance for Diocesan multi-academy trusts based upon the Hargreaves maturity model in his paper on Leading a self improving school system. If you have not read the paper, I recommend it to you as Hargreaves defines four stages for evaluating a school’s progress towards shared goals: beginning, developing, embedding and leading. At the launch, Bishop Stephen, as Chair of the Council of the National Society, gave a keynote speech on the theme: “Does Education Matter?” A subsidiary question might be “What difference does it make?” These questions provide good food for thought. In his speech, Bishop Stephen gave plenty of examples as to why education does matter. A good education opens doors, transforms life chances, leads to fulfilment and is a gateway to opportunity but life without spiritual input is lacking. Church Schools should be places where the spiritual dimension permeates the curriculum and enriches the lives of young people in an increasingly secular world. What happens in our homes, in school, in the playground, with friends, shapes our lives, develops our character and prepares us to live in our multidimensional society and to contribute to it. “Plan for the known and expect the unexpected.” I feel sure that many of you can identify with that statement. We are living in a time of uncertainty at the moment with an election looming but what is certain is that there will be children in our schools on May 8th just as keen to learn as they were on May 7th. The education team join me in wishing you a very Happy Easter. Tricia Pritchard Diocesan Director of Education In this issue Page 1: Page 2: Page 3: Page 4: Page 5: Jottings; New Buildings and Projects officer; Governor training, ALM Chaplaincy in schools RE; leading assemblies Vellore trip 2015; Cathedral Days; Leavers’ gifts The Back Page From The Schools’ Team New Buildings and Projects Officer Cathedral Days 7th, 8th, 14th, 15th October The cathedral days are starting to fill up, but there are still places. If you want to book, please check availability and download a booking form from the stir up website: stir-up.org.uk. This year is the fortieth anniversary of the Cathedral Days, and the theme is local history from the Saxons to the present day. Subscribing If you would like to subscribe to this bulletin please contact Cathy at the address on the back page. News from YOUR School Have you got an interesting story about your school to share with us? Quotations and pictures of happy ch i l d ren are al ways particularly welcome. We will on ly in clude photographs which we have permission to use. We will be including photographs and stories from as many of our schools as possible in our summer bulletin in July Items for inclusion in the bulletin can be sent to Cathy Priestley. Welcome to Julie Robinson-Judd, who has recently replaced Richard Bircham as Buildings and Projects Officer. Before joining us, Julie worked as Mission Resources Manager for the national Methodist Church, and is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor. She has previously worked for both Peterborough City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council in asset management, Project Management and other roles. Julie has already visited a number of our schools, and is getting to know people around the Diocese. A different kind of governor training… On 2nd June we are offering a different style of workshop for governors on Church school distinctiveness. Foundation governors have a particular monitoring role when it comes to Church school ethos, collective worship and RE, but it is not always clear what is the best or most productive way of doing this. The session will be an opportunity to try out some monitoring activities using Governor network "Please join us for a Governor network evening on Bri sh Values in a Church School, 14th May, 7.30pm, Hotel Felix, Hunngdon Road, Cambridge. You may remember our excellent event on recons tuon of governing bodies last October, this me we are tackling Bri sh Values. Our speaker is Hazel Bryan, the Head of Research for the Faculty of Educa on at Canterbury Christ Church University, home real school examples and, we hope, include plenty of time to discuss and share what does, or doesn’t, work at your school. Interested? Please contact Cathy on [email protected] to book. Tuesday 2nd June, 7.00- 9.00 p.m., Diocesan Office, Ely CB7 4DX. The session is free to all schools which have signed up for the Diocesan SLA. of the Na onal Ins tute of Chris an Educa on Research. Hazel has been conduc ng research into "Bri sh Values", both what it means and how it applies prac cally in schools. Please sign up by going to the Church Schools of Cambridge website and clicking on the link at the bo om of the home page. www.csoc.org.uk " Lay Chaplaincy in schools: new ALM specialism This new ALM specialism is designed to fulfil the urgent need to build up the Church's ministry in schools. Working with schools is a vital part of the outreach of most churches, yet the size of the task can make a deep level of engagement seem impossible. The urgency for all Church of England schools to be at the heart of their parish is particularly acute. However, your local school can be a source of energy and motivation for the parish. We are calling on lay people to get trained up, and be part of amplifying God’s work in school communities. A vocation to Lay Chaplaincy needn't be a call to work with children. The Lay Chaplain could be focused on pastoral care or evangelism to teachers, parents or governors. We ask you to think and pray if any of your congregation might be called to this ministry and to get in touch. The diocese is working with the Church Schools of Cambridge to deliver this course. See their website for details: http:// csoc.org.uk/events/lay-chaplaincy-in-schools/. Easter 2015 page 2 RE Group meetings Leavers’ crosses There will be a number of sessions on Teaching World Views in RE during the summer term, all starting at 4.00pm: 2nd June Cambridge—venue TBA 3rd June Huntingdon —venue TBA 9th June March All Saints 10th June William de Yaxley There will also be a session on Buddhism at St Martin at Shouldham on 30th April at 4.15pm Cambridgeshire schools should book through the local Authority as usual as usual, Norfolk schools through Shirley. All sessions are free to schools subscribing to the Diocesan or local Authority Service Level Agreements. Kevin Baldwin (Crowns Trust) has managed to source wooden crosses, which can be engraved with a school name, and provide a lovely gift for school leavers as they go on to their next stage of education. Kevin can be contacted on baldwin@coun esuk.org. Key Stage 2 RE on the BBC Lat Blaylock, RE Today Adviser, has been working over the last few months with the BBC on five new RE programmes for 7-11s. These will be aired on BBC Two and will be useful across KS2 and for Year 7s. Although you will probably have missed them by the time you read this, they will all be available through the BBC website and be free to stream. Transmission will be as following: Islam, 25 March, 05:00am Christianity, 25 March, 05:30am Sikhism 26 March, 05:00am Judaism 26 March, 05:30am Hinduism 27 March, 05:30am Leading Assemblies—training Venue: Ridley Hall, Cambridge Date: Thursday 18th June 2015 Time: 10.30am to 4.30pm Booking fee: £10 per person Cambridge Youthwork Collective and Assemblies.org.uk are offering a training day which aims to enable and encourage those who lead assemblies and collective worship in schools. It will allow you to share ideas with other practitioners, and learn how to create and deliver engaging and innovative assemblies for primary and secondary schools. In addition, the training will also cover understanding and applying the law and OFSTED criteria. Booking is through the Ridley Hall website: http://www.ridley.cam.ac.uk/ Easter 2015 page 3 Kevin is also arranging a trip to the Holy Land in August 2015. He says that “This trip is ideal for teachers as it combines both history and faith”. Kevin has led trips to the Holy land previously, the last one in August 2014. Please contact Kevin for more details. If you have missed any previous editions of the Bulletin, our archive can be found at: http:// www.ely.anglican.org/ education/schools/ schools_bulletin.html Christian Values – this term’s Liaison Groups Vellore Trip 2015 The Real Easter Egg Schools will know that Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Council and the Diocese of Ely have long standing links with the Diocese of Vellore in South India, and that this link now features in one of the core units of the Cambridgeshire Agreed Syllabus. For two weeks spanning the February Half Term a group of seventeen people visited Vellore; ten of the group had the opportunity of immersing themselves in the lives of Indian Church Schools for a week and teaching English to a variety of classes. Here are some of their comments on the visit: Andrea and Alison from Buckden School managed to send a message back to their own school from India, telling the children how they had met the Bishop of Vellore, gone to church, where they had read the lesson and the prayers (fortunately in English not Tamil), visited a school for children with cerebal palsy and gone to an Indian (Christian) wedding. At their school placement in Ranipet they had been teaching large classes of children – 85 children in one class with 2 teachers and 118 children in another class also with two teachers. Marika from St Martins at Shouldham visited Sherman Girls School in Chittoor she writes: “…I was able to observe and contribute to some lessons – including teaching some girls and teachers the hokey-cokey!... The classes ranged in size from 12 pupils – boys and girls – to 90 girls in one Standard 10 class. In this class, and most of the others, the only furniture was a chair for the teacher with the girls working on the floor using an A3 board as a desk top. Some of the girls learn four languages – Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and English – and their results in the government’s tests for all standard 10 pupils show the school to be achieving results ranging from 93% to 100% in these languages!.... We also had the long - awaited opportunity to visit the school that our pupils had raised funds to rebuild (Ariyur).” The group also had an opportunity to be tourists, visiting Vellore’s Golden Temple (where the pavement was so hot in the sun they feared for their bare feet!) and some of the famous sites of Chennai, including the place where the Apostle Thomas is reputed to have been martyred. Shopping for Indian artefacts was also high on people’s agendas and all suitcases were crammed tight on the journey home! Special thanks are owed to Canon Fiona Brampton at the Cambridgeshire end and Pastor Jared at the Vellore end for all their hard work and great patience in making the visit such a success. Wannakam! All our schools were sent a disc of RE materials with text and images showing life in Vellore. Two years on, some schools have mislaid those materials. If this applies to you, we suggest you check first to see whether they have been shelved with your geography resources, but we do have a limited number of discs available at £6.00 (including postage), please contact Cathy. Easter 2015 page 4 The meaningful Chocolate Company have this year produced a rang of Real Easter Eggs, which are being sold on line and through the major supermarkets. All the chocolate for the eggs is Fairtrade, and the boxes include a book of the Easter story. Springs Dance Company This year’s new offering from Springs Dance Company is The Green Project, which allows children to explore creation and the world around them through the medium of dance. Details of this and other projects are available through t h e i r w e b s i t e : www.springsdancecompany. org.uk, or telephone 07775 628 442. The back page Washday at Holme School Contact the Schools Team The Schools located at : Team is The Diocesan Office Bishop Woodford House Barton Road Ely CB7 4DX 01353 652724 Director of Education Tricia Pritchard [email protected] Deputy Director of Education (School Effectiveness) Rachel Beeson [email protected] Assistant Director of Education Dr Shirley Hall [email protected] Buildings and Projects Officer Julie Robinson-Judd [email protected] Academies Business Manager Joanne Patterson [email protected] Education Finance Assistant Ming Wisbey Children at Holme school joined in with the Washday initiative as part of their Lent Challenge. They washed bikes and scooters, and even traffic cones as a way of giving to the community. This has been described as “spring cleaning for the soul”, and is a fun way for people of all ages to serve your community and make the world a better place. More photos of the event at Holme can be found on our facebook page : https:/ /ww w. fa cebook. com/ elydiocese For Clerks and Governors Gt Wilbraham: Patricia Deller Holme: Jonathan Papworth Oakington: Ann Webster Petersfield: Katie Reid St Michael’s, Cardea: Hugh McGill Buckden: Ann Carter, David Riley Stilton: Rachel Maltman (substitute ex Cambridge St Pauls: Andrew Thompson officio) Cheveley: Jane Rabagliati Teversham: Karen Wells Denver: Nicola Lipscombe, Syringa Fox William Marshall, Welney: Clare Freer Dry Drayton: Revd Dr Mandy Maxwell Elton: Christopher Edis We welcome the following who have recently agreed to serve as Foundation Governors or to serve for a further term of office: Farewell after long service St Andrew’s, Soham: Brenda Rose has retired from her role as school administrator after 25 years service to St Andrew’s & Joy Pederson is taking up a new teaching post at Rackham school after almost 29 years service to St Andrew’s. Cheveley: Rosemary Tullock is retiring as School Administrator and Clerk to the Governors at Cheveley. Best wishes to them and anyone else moving into retirement or on to a new role. [email protected] Schools Administrator/ PA to Director of Education Cathy Priestley [email protected] A Happy Easter to all our readers Easter 2015 page 5
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