1. education
2. school

Alliance Newsletter April 2015
Now 54 schools
… and counting
Dates for your diary (further details in this
newsletter or in our prospectus) :
Universal Offer :

SEN Governor Training (8th July or 14th Oct or 20th
Jan (2016) Riverside House 6.30pm– 8.30pm

Annual Primary Headteacher Conference 11th +
12th June

Outstanding Teacher Programme 8 week course
(not consecutive weeks) starts April 28th

Inclusion Network Meetings 5th May (Saints)+ 7th
May (Kettering Conference Centre: 30th June (KCC)
+ 2nd July (Saints) 4.00pm-6.00pm

Annual Inclusion Conference “The Science of Learning” : 13th November
In this Edition…
New
Net work Groups for Subject Coordinators led by Specialist Leaders in Education
MATHS NETWORK GROUP
LITERACY NETWORK
GROUP
Exclusive and free to Alliance Schools :

New Maths Network Group : 23rd April 4.00pm
Billing Brook

New English Network Group : 4th June 4.00pm5.30pm Billing Brook

Life without Levels Network Group (next meeting)
4th June Upton Meadows School 4.15pm—5.45pm

Dyslexia Special Interest Group : 17th June 4.00pm
- 6.00pm : University of Northampton Sulgrave
Building

ASD Special Interest Group : 18th May 1.30pm :
Billing Brook School
COMPUTING NETWORK
GROUP
SPECIAL FEATURES IN THIS EDITION...

Newly Qualified Teacher Programme 20152016 : Mainstream Programme and … (new
for next year) Special School Programme

SENCO Accreditation 2015-2016

“Your most Challenging Learners” : 21st May or
25th June 4.00pm-5.45pm : Fairfields School


Supporting struggling learners in theclassroom (not
in the corridor) 20th May or 23rd June or 16th
Sept 1.00pm –3.00pm : Bangladeshi Centre
News from the SEN Data Development
Group

Early Years TA Network Group

Annual Inclusion Conference—tremendous
national speakers

“What comes before reading?” 28th April, or 3rd
June 4.00pm-5.45pm

Constructing/refining your provision map : 8th
June or 24th June or 9th July 1.00pm-3.00pm Sunley Conference Centre

Teaching and Learning Seminars— still time to sign
up with Sally Manz.
… and much much more … read on!!!
Editor’s notes.
Recent joiners
We now have 54 schools in our Alliance—a huge welcome indeed to Denfield Park, East Hunsbury, Collingtree and Brooklands Farm—our most recent joiners.
We are sure you will enjoy great benefits from being
members.
Response to Prospectus
Firstly, thank you for all the positive feedback following the publication of our March-September prospectus. I was pleased that schools who had made suggestions recognised the results of their requests in the programme. One school said “you really do mean it when you say we can ask for things”.
In that spirit, there has been a call for network groups for English, maths and computing coordinators.
We have moved very quickly on this. Enormous thanks to our SLEs for Literacy, Maths and Computing
for organising and facilitating these. Details are in this newsletter.
Coming Up
There is a great deal going on! In the next couple of weeks we look forward to the start of our Outstanding Teacher Programme and particular thanks are due to Mark Thomas and Katie Hickling at
Woodland View Primary for working in partnership with us to get this off the ground. Also, our
“What Comes before Reading”, “Supporting Struggling Learners” and “Constructing your Provision
Map Training” all take place over the next few weeks. Please note the change of venue for
“Supporting Struggling Learners” : Bangladeshi Centre, not Gateway. (We outgrew the venue, which
can only be a good thing!)
Key Conferences
Arrangements for our two major conferences this year are firming up. There is an additional speaker
on the second day of the Primary Headteacher conference : Bart O’Shea will be speaking on the new
National Excellence Standards for Headteachers. We are also delighted to have nationally recognised
keynote speakers for our Annual Inclusion Conference “The Science of Learning” in November when
Sally Goddard Blythe MSc. International Director of The Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology in
Chester and author of books on child development will speak on “Physical Foundations for Learning”
and Ben Kingston-Hughes (Inspired Children Organisation) promises us a lively session (and even livelier afternoon work shop : “Playful Brains – The Neuroscience of Play”.
Exciting professional development opportunity
From September we are taking greater responsibility for the taught element of our School Direct PGCE
Programme. Therefore, we are asking our Alliance Schools to offer us subject specialists to teach
some aspects of the course (usually a 3 hour session at some point in the year). Derby University provide a starter pack of slides and activities for the speaker(s) to adapt, edit and augment with their own
material—so there is no need to start with a blank powerpoint slide. We are looking for contributions
to the course on Computer Science, Music, RE, EAL, Art, PE and PSHE. Interested teachers from our
Alliance Schools should contact me on the email address below. (I will also be nobbling!)
One last thing .. Don’t forget, if you would like to train a School Direct student in 2016-2017, particularly on salaried route, we would love to hear from you. We bid for places in June.
Enjoy our newsletter.
Michael Thompson (Teaching School Manager) teachingschool@fairfields.northants.sch.uk
Exclusive and free to Alliance Members
Our new subject network groups
Literacy Network Group
First Meeting
The first session of our Literacy Network Group will
be held on …
Maths Network
Group
First Meeting
The first session of our Literacy Network Group will
be held on …
Thursday 4th June 2015 4.00-5.30pm at Billing Brook
School.
Our Literacy SLEs Sharon Pancoust (Kingsthorpe
Grove Primary School) and Nicola Parker (Billing
Brook School) will facilitate.
The agenda is as follows:
Thursday 23rd April 4.00pm-5.30pm at Billing Brook
School

Introduction and explanation of what we want
to achieve.
Our maths SLEs Hayley Ilsley (Billing Brook School)
and Tracy Elder (The Gateway School) will facilitate.

Input from Sharon and Nicola on poetry in KS1
and KS2.
Please send your maths leads or any other teacher
interested in the group

Open forum to discuss current practice and
what co-ordinators, middle leaders want to
Computing Network Group
First Meeting
Will be facilitated by our computing SLE Gary Avery (Spring Lane) and
Daniel McGill (Wooton Primary School). Date and time to follow by email
Network Group for Early Years TAs
Exclusive and free to Alliance Schools
Following the two training sessions for Early Years TAs in March,
the new network group which has arisen from that will meet on
Thursday 9th July 9.30am-11.30am at Fairfields School. The
group will be chaired by Lesley Elder (Fairfields School) and
Rachael Linnell (East Hunsbury Primary School).
We hope that the school to school visits which were arranged at
the training were beneficial to all and you will have the opportunity to discuss those at the meeting.
New joiners welcome—please do come!
ASD Special Interest Group
Dyslexia Special Interest
Group
Next Meeting
Monday 18th May 1.30pm
Billing Brook School
Main topics . Communication Approaches +
transition
+ tour of the school.
Next meeting
17th June 4.00pm - 6.00pm
New joiners from our Alliance Schools extremely welcome
Please contact Alison Dolan at Kingsthorpe Grove Primary School if you feel that you would like to join the group
and visit Billing Brook Primary in March
Contact details:
Since the last newsletter, we have held the
first of our Dyslexia Special Interest Groups
and our thanks are particularly due to Mary
Doveston and Lesley Tobin for making that
such a success. Feedback was excellent.
University of Northampton
Sulgrave Building
Confirmed Dates of Inclusion Network Meetings 2015-2016
30th Sept : Kettering Conference Centre
senco@kgps.northants-ecl.gov.uk
2nd Oct : Fairfields School
1st Dec : Fairfields School
01604 714674.
3rd Dec : Kettering Conference Centre
2nd Feb : Kettering Conference Centre
Please note— from September 2015
onwards—the Northampton version of
the Inclusion Network meetings will be
at Fairfields School, not Saints.
4th Feb : Fairfields School
3rd May: Fairfields School
5th May: Kettering Conference Centre
5th July: Kettering Conference Centre
7th July: Fairfields School
Inclusion Network Meetings in May : Agenda
Northampton Saints 5th May 4.00pm-6.00pm
Kettering Conference Centre 7th May 4.00pm -6.00pm
4.00pm 4.10pm
4.10pm –
4.30pm
4.40pm –
5.40pm
5.40pm –
6.00pm
Introductions and news
Smoother transitions for
pupils with ASD
Supporting pupils with
medical needs in mainstream schools.
Medical Needs Policies
Sexual exploitation resource materials
Lesley Elder : Fairfields School (Saints)
Michael Thompson (Kettering)
NCC Autism Outreach team
Cath Kitchen, Brenda Hunt
Hospital and Outreach Education
Cath Kitchen, Brenda Hunt
Hospital and Outreach Education
SOME STATISTICS

By end of June, 18 of our Alliance schools will have accessed our innovative “Teaching and
Learning Seminars” facilitated by Sally Manz and many of these schools will have had individual follow-up visits. The feedback from this collaborative approach to school improvement
has been fantastic. The seminars round starts again in September. Don’t miss out! Book
your Autumn Term Teaching and Learning Seminar now through ...
sally.manz@integritaslearning.co.uk.

A quick stock-take reveals that our Leading SENcos have supported 35 different schools in a
wide variety of ways since September (and some of those schools over repeated visits). We
now deploy 10 Leading SENCos. Congratulations and welcome to Karen Jeffs (Croyland Primary) and Adam Drake (Parker E-Act) who have joined this amazing team since the last
newsletter.

Out of our 20 School Direct PGCE Students, 16 have already secured jobs for September
(and it’s only April. Thank you to all those Alliance Schools who have trained those students
so well this year and have given such commitment to the programme. (And thank you in
advance to all those schools who are having students next year or who have already expressed interest for 2016-2017).

We are very selective for our School Direct Programme. With one interview round still to go
(in May) we have had 42 applications, interviewed 25 and selected 13 students for next
year’s programme. We are so very aware that we are potentially putting these prospective
teachers in front of children for the next 30 years. We have to get it right.

Highest attendance figure for our Inclusion Network meetings since April 2014 (across the
two venues each time) has been 205 (for the SEN Code of Practice event in September).
Lowest attendance figure has been 141. These meetings remain hugely important channel of
information for our SENcos across the County. Please see dates for next year and, from September, a venue change for the Northampton meetings—later in this newsletter.

Excluding the four newest joiners, only 3 of our 54 Alliance Schools have not, so far, accessed
any of our prospectus offer this academic year.
Life without Levels
Our Life without Levels Network Group will reconvene on ..
Thursday 4th June 4.15pm-5.45pm
Upton Meadows Primary School NN5 4EZ
Please come and share what your school is thinking/developing.
New joiners from our Alliance Schools extremely welcome.
ANNUAL INCLUSION CONFERENCE 2015
FRIDAY 13th NOVEMBER 2015
Marriott Hotel : Northampton 9.00am – 3.30pm
The Science of Learning
“If teaching is an art, then learning is a Science”
What is happening when we learn?
How do our brains develop learning habits?
What is the physiology of learning … and not learning?
Keynote Speakers :
Sally Goddard Blythe MSc. International Director of The Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology in Chester and author of books on child development : “Physical Foundations for Learning”
Ben Kingston-Hughes (Inspired Children Organisation) “Playful Brains –
The Neuroscience of Play” (will also run an optional afternoon workshop)
There will be a carousel of other workshops, all connected to “The Science of Learning.”
£220.00 per delegate.
To book : Email lgssowd@northamptonshire.gov.uk
Or use this link : Annual Inclusion Conference - LGSS (control + click to follow link)
Course Code : ISO3N/15
Still some places left
YOUR MOST CHALLENGING LEARNERS
TA TRAINING
Thursday 21st May 2015 4.00pm-5.45pm or
Thursday 25th June 2015 4.00pm-5.45pm
SUPPORTING STRUGGLING LEARNERS IN THE
CLASSROOM (NOT IN THE CORRIDOR)
Venue : Fairfields School, Northampton
Wednesday 20th May 2015 1.00pm—3.00pm or
Exclusive and free to Alliance members
Tuesday 23rd June 2015 1.00pm—3.00pm or
Wednesday 16th September 2015 1.00pm-3.00pm
You know that pupil in your school who is significantly
more challenging than any other pupil … the one who
maybe parents, governors (and even your staff) are
pushing you to exclude … the one who may be saddled
with that perjorative label ADHD …
What do you do with them?
Book via : Donnekyh@fairfields.northants.sch.uk
Venue : The Bangladeshi Centre, Northampton
Exclusive and free to Alliance members
Our Leading SENCos take your TAs through some
strategies for engaging pupils in small group teaching,
mixed ability and otherwise, including quick and easy
Assessment for Learning
Book via : Donnekyh@fairfields.northants.sch.uk
01604 777890
WHAT COMES BEFORE READING?
Tuesday 28th April 2015 4.00pm-5.45pm or
Wednesday 3rd June 2015 4.00pm-5.45pm
By popular request ...
HANDS-ON WORKSHOPS : CONSTRUCTING
OR REFINING YOUR PROVISION MAP
Venue : Fairfields School, Northampton
Monday 8th June 2015 1.00pm—3.00pm or
Exclusive and free to Alliance members
Wednesday 24th June 2015 1.00pm—3.00pm or
Thursday 9th July 2015 1.00pm-3.00pm
There are 13 pre-requisite cognitive skills which pupils
need in order to learn to read (or count). Beneath
these, there are a multitude of earlier developmental
skills which build towards these cognitive skills (pre-pre
-skills, if you like!) Most children develop these prerequisite cognitive skills in early years (that is what the
EYFS curriculum is for) … but what if they don’t?
Book via : Donnekyh@fairfields.northants.sch.uk
Venue : Sunley Conference Centre Northampton
Exclusive and free to Alliance members
Bring your provision map on your laptop. Our expert
team of Leading SENcos will lead you through the mysteries of hyperlinking and costing your map for High
Needs Funding applications. Limited to 12 places per
session.
Book via : Donnekyh@fairfields.northants.sch.uk
01604 777890
“Outstanding Teacher Programme”
8 week course (not consecutive weeks) Starts 28th April 2015
£615.00 for full course
Contact the email address below for further details, including Northampton venues.
Led by Lesley Elder (Fairfields) and Katie Hicklin (Woodland View) – both of whom are Olevi-trained OTP coaches.
Please book through : Elderl@fairfields.northants.sch.uk
NOW INCLUDES AN ADDITIONAL
SPEAKER ON THE FRIDAY SESSION : BART O’SHEA : THE NEW
EXCELENCE STANDARDS FOR
HEADTEACHERS
NQT Programmes next academic year
We will be offering two NQT programmes next academic year

In partnership with Northampton School for Boys and SWAN Teaching School Alliance we will once
again be running a mainstream NQT programme for NQTs in our Alliance Schools. This has been a
very successful programme this year and is taught across the three venues. Our Alliance Schools
have one free place—if you have more than one NQT next year, the cost is likely to be around
£190.00 for the six session course.

In partnership with Maplefields, 5 Wells Teaching School Alliance and The University of Northampton we will be running a special school NQT programme for any NQTs in special schools across our
County and in neighbouring counties (Ie not just in those special schools in our Alliance).
Details of both these programmes to follow shortly on a yellow flyer and in the next edition of this newsletter in June.
SENCo Accreditation
The SEN Code of Practice states “A newly appointed SENCo must be a qualified teacher and, where
they have not previously been a SENCo at that or
any other relevant school for a total period of
more than twelve months, they must achieve a
National Award in Special Educational Needs Coordination within three years of appointment. A National Award must be a postgraduate course (60
credits) accredited by a recognised higher education provider.
Once again, in 2015-2016, we will be working in
partnership with NCC and the University of Northampton to offer this one year accreditation programme.
The programme includes :
 Two modules each worth 30 Level 7 credits at
Master’s Level
Face-to-face taught sessions (7 days in total
spread across the academic year 2015-2016)
Online support – discussion groups, networking
Access to university support and services
Mentor support
The cost of the course which starts October 2015
is £1,750.
Closing date for applications is Monday 28 September 2015. For more information, please contact:
SENCO@northampton.ac.uk to apply or telephone
Admissions on 01604 892042. For frequently
asked questions go to www.northampton.ac.uk/
education
Life without Levels : Special Schools
Our very active SEN Data Development Group, which has representation from 22 different special
schools/units (wider than Alliance schools) is very actively working to solve the conundrum of “what
happens after P levels when there is no NC levels … do pupils just float off into space!” They are exploring a local solution of creating a P9, P10, P11 etc for core subject strands at least. There is a working morning on this at Greenfields School on Thursday 21st May and we will be able to report further
about this in the next newsletter.
We are working well together as a family of schools, helping and supporting each other.
Over the last few weeks, particular thanks are due to ...
Spring Lane Primary,
Guilsborough School,
NSB and Wootton Primary for teaching on
our School Direct Programme
Billing Brook, The
Gateway School,
Rothwell Infants
School, Rockingham
Primary, Greenfields
Special School, The
Gateway School and
Northgate School for
hosting events and
groups
East Hunsbury Primary
School for contributing
their Downs Syndrome
support group to our
prospectus
Wootton Primary and Guilsborough Primary
whose Local Leaders in Education are overseeing
the work of our Specialist Leaders in Education.
Preston Hedges Primary,
Kingsthorpe Grove Primary,
Billing Brook School , Ringstead Primary, West Haddon Primary for helping us
select and interview next
year’s School Direct Students (we’re getting there!)
The Bliss Charity
School and Kings
Meadow School for
contributing to our
Newly Appointed
Heads programme
Bob Payne at NCC
for Special School
RAISE Online training
Woodland View Primary, in partnership with
whom we have been
able to get our Outstanding Teacher Programme up and running.
Juli Sims, NSB and
Sponne School for contributing teaching to
our NQT Programme
Billing Brook,
Kingsthorpe Grove and
The Gateway School
whose SLEs heard vivas
from our School Direct
students
This is just a few examples of how our schools are contributing to our
Alliance—I am sure I have missed stuff (apologies if so).
This is all very much appreciated.
Michael Thompson (Teaching School Manager)
Little Harrowden Primary School
Lyncrest Primary School
Old Stratford Primary School
Pattishall Primary School
Roade Primary School
FAIRFIELDS TEACHING SCHOOL ALLIANCE.
Rothwell Infant School
Spring Lane Primary School
Strategic Partners
The Good Shepherd Primary School
Billing Brook School
Thrapston Primary School
Bliss Charity School
Upton Meadows Primary School
Greenfields Specialist School for Communication
Whitehills Primary School
Preston Hedges Primary School
Whitehills Nursery School
The Gateway School
Wootton Primary School
West Haddon Primary School
Alliance Members : Secondary Schools
The Parker E-Act Academy
Alliance Members—Primary Schools
Alliance Members : Special Schools
Abbey Primary School
Hospital and Outreach Education
All Saints Primary School
Kings Meadow School
Blisworth Primary School
Maplefields Academy
Brooklands Farm Primary School
Northgate School
Bugbrooke Primary School
Peterborough Diocese Academy Trust Academies
Byfeld Primary School
Barby Church of England Primary School
Chiltern Primary School
Braunston Church of England Primary School
Clipston and Creaton Primary School
Great Addington Church of England Primary School
Collingtree CEVA School
Loddington Church of England Primary School
Cosgrove Primary School
Milton Parochial Primary School
Cottingham Primary School
Ringstead Church of England Primary School
Croyland Primary School
Ryhall Church of England Academy
Denfield Park Primary School
St Andrews Church of England Primary School (Kettering)
East Hunsbury Primary School
St Barnabas Church of England School
Guilsborough Primary School
St James Church of England Primary School
Hazel Leys Primary School
Staverton Church of England Primary School
Headlands Primary School
Kingsthorpe Grove Primary School
Kislingbury Primary School