Devasted that Luljeta Nuzi has died after a long fight with cancer. An incredible, dynamic, fierce woman whose optimism and passion for equality for all, in education, as women, as members of refugee and global majority communities will remain an inspiration for those who met her. I first met Luljeta in 2009 when she came […]
Family First Nights 2018
Family First Nights 2018
June 13 @ 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Send your families to the theatre for only £6 a ticket!
23 July – 27 August
Family First Nights is a unique family theatre access programme celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. We want to invite you and your families to be a part of it!
To register as a partner organisation, simply complete this short registration form and we’ll get back to you to with next steps.
We’re holding partner ambassador meeting on 13th June, from 5.00 pm to 6.30 pm at The Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church, where you can find out more about the events programme and collect brochures to distribute to your families.
After the meeting attendees can go on to see Motown The Musical at Shaftesbury Theatre afterwards, at a special discounted rate of £15 per ticket (2 tickets per organization)
Register on the Moustrap Website
Any questions?
Contact: Elaine Grant at Mousetrap Theatre Projects
Tel: 020 632 4116
Email: elaine@mousetrap.org.uk
Data protection in supplementary schools
What are you doing to ensure the personal data you hold about staff, volunteers, pupils and parents is safe?
Here are some Data Protection DOs and DONTs – GDPR update to get you started, or to reassure you that you are doing the right thing.
I have spent much time looking to produce advice for community-led supplementary schools and other community organisations with exceedingly limited funds on essential action to take re. the GDPR coming in to force on 25th May. Regrettably, I have not been able to get any free advice or any law firm to provide a simple template for supplementary schools. But for £50 Bates, Wells & Braithwaite will produce a data protection policy for you when you fill in an online form.
You have to do this and you have to get it done by the end of the week so I recommend you go online and use their form if you haven’t already sorted this out.
Want to find out more about how to ensure you are meeting best practice and following the law? Why not book onto our Good Management Course at the end of June 2018.
The purpose of this acclaimed three-day course is to help supplementary schools (teaching core-curriculum, language, faith or a combination of these) to prepare a School Management Pack consisting of
- A Welcome Pack for Parents
- Staff and Volunteer Handbook
- Management Committee Guide
- Safeguarding Policies and Procedures for all
Over the three days of the course you will be provided with template policies and procedures, guidance on how to adapt these to suit your own organisation, opportunity to share experience with other supplementary schools. All schools completing the course and their own school management documents will be eligible for a school visit to assess the quality of their provision. Developed this year, the course has already been well received in Brent, Barnet, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harrow, Kensington & Chelsea and Sheffield. It will be running in Ipswich later this year.
We are running the 3-day course at Resource for London for individual bookings, 25, 26 June and 3 July 2018. Special offer – book for all three days and bring a colleague for free! Check our events calendar or get in touch for more information or book here.
Full course for 6-10 schools (10-20 individual participants) – £1,350 (3 days @£450 per day, incl. school visits on course completion for all schools having completed their Good Management pack and seeking to seeking to develop the quality of their provision through the NRCSE Quality Mark scheme. We may need to charge travel expenses.)
Congratulations RBKC supplementary schools!
Azza Supplementary School, Al Amaana School MCWG,
Baraka Community Association, Dalgarno Supplementary School
You have successfully completed 360o quality assurance of your supplementary school. This quality assurance includes:
- governance training and revision of all the school’s policies and procedures to ensure that provision is both safe and effective;
- observational visits of classes in action by a professional supplementary schools’ mentor and conversations with pupils, staff, parents and management committee members;
- a witness report detailing the learning environment, teaching taking place, assessment of the school’s planning, including evaluation and community engagement;
- preparation and presentation of a portfolio of evidence which has been scrutinised by experts in the fields of education and community sector management.
Eight more schools in the Partnership of Supplementary Schools in Kensington & Chelsea are currently working on their portfolios and preparing for Quality Recognition Meetings in June and July.
Government drops plans to regulate all out-of-school settings
The Department for Education consulted on the regulation of supplementary schools and other forms of out-of-school education over the winter of 2015/16. Many of you responded to this consultation and NRCSE responded also on your behalf.
The results of that consultation have just been published. Over 3,000 organisations and individuals responded directly through the online consultation, a further 15,000 additional responses were received via other methods including emails, letters and online petitions. Of the 3,082 responses to the full consultation document, 1,687 were from faith groups, 604 were from parents and 212 were from out-of-school settings.
We will be summarising the response here but in the meantime if you would like to download it and read through yourself follow this link – DfE consultation on out-of-school settings
There was overwhelming rejection of the proposal to regulate all settings operating 6-8 hours per week.
- Only 4.5% of people had any concerns about any out-of-school education settings they knew of and “Of those respondents who raised concerns, most expressed them in broad terms about out-of-school settings as a whole or the potential for there to be concerns about activities taking place in such settings, while others took the opportunity to express concerns about the impact of the proposed policy to regulate out-of-school settings” (consultation question 13, p6).
- Only 14.4% agreed that the definition of “intensive education” should be six to eight hours a week – the threshold at which it was proposed to register and inspect (consultation question 17, p8).
- Only 14.8% agreed that Oftsed should be able to investigate out-of-school settings that met the government threshold, with 74.6% giving an “No” (consultation question 20).
- In response to the question “What impact do you think the proposed system for registration and inspection will have on out-of-school settings?” (consultation question 21, p11), the published consultation summary states: “Many respondents felt that the impact of the proposed system would limit religious freedoms and have a disproportionately negative effect on faith groups.”
The Department for Education has set aside £3million to run a pilot scheme in 16 local authorities to check the minority of providers that they believe ‘could undermine British values’ and to provide guidance for parents to support them in making informed choices when considering out-of-school settings for their children.
Of course the choices that parents make are informed by the range of supplementary classes available to them. As local authority funding for community organisations continues to be cut, or in many cases has entirely stopped, it is becoming increasingly difficult for community organisations to afford to rent the most appropriate venues, to provide quality training and development opportunities for staff, to employ administrative support, to select diverse teaching resources, etc.
NRCSE will contact all those local authorities to encourage them to use the monies allocated to this pilot to offer training and support to supplementary schools as a positive way of helping communities to deliver specific educational activities that enhance and develop children’s cultural awareness and language skills, build their confidence and academic attainment, support them to be resilient to acts of hate, violence and discrimination.
NRCSE has developed and delivered quality assurance tools over the last 12 years, over 1,000 providers of out-of-school activities from across England have used those tools to evaluate and improve the safety and efficacy of their service. 488 organisations have gone on to obtain an NRCSE Quality Mark (previously Bronze, Silver, Gold or Special Distinction Quality Framework Award). We have unrivaled expertise in this area and have always worked closely with community organisations, supplementary schools, local authorities, the Department for Education and funders to ensure that our quality assurance tools are rigorous and developmental. If you would like to complete our 3-day Good Management course and/or obtain a NRCSE Quality Mark please tell your local authority to get in touch with us.