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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
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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