|
|
Your Council supporting learning for you and your family
|
Council's pledge for Hull schools
The team running Hull's secondary schools has pledged to make major improvements
As director of Children and Young People's Services at Hull City Council, Nigel Richardson heads up a team that oversees Hull's 14 secondary schools, as well as the city's 71 primaries, six special schools, and a whole range of other services which affect the lives of Hull's 57,000 children and young people.
Needless to say he's a busy man.
But it's in secondary schools where he sees his biggest challenge, and it's here that he and his team have pledged their support to help schools make major improvements by 2012.
"It's no secret that Hull secondary schools are at the bottom of national league tables when it comes to GCSE results," says Nigel.
"We need to take action to ensure that every child receives the best possible education available to them and that no child is left behind."
Nigel, together with the council's head of learning, leisure and achievement, Judith Harwood, are calling on the whole city to play its part in the transformation of education by signing up to these pledges.
They are appealing to local organisations and businesses to make this their number one priority.
Eight pledges
The eight pledges are that, by 2012:
- the majority of young people will leave school with five A*- C GCSEs including English and maths
- every young person will leave school (including special schools) with a qualification or certificate of use to them in the future
- every school will have more than 30% of its students achieving five A*-C GCSEs including English and maths
- every young person of school age will either be in school or engaged in some form of learning
- every school will be fully staffed with well trained teaching and support staff
- every school will have an achievable plan towards becoming recognised as an 'outstanding' school
- the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme will be well on the way to helping ensure that young people in Hull have the best teachers teaching in the best learning environments
- we will have shown year-on-year improvement – measured in particular by increases in the proportion of young people leaving school with five A*-C GCSEs
Achieving success
These pledges will underpin the 'Hull Challenge' which is being led by one of the country's leading education experts, Sir Tim Brighouse, who has come out of retirement to work in Hull.
The Hull Challenge board brings together a wide range of partners, from experts in social services and parenting to representatives from the NHS and University of Hull.
The aim of the board is to come up with new ideas and fresh perspectives on tackling problems.
Leading the way in education
Other measures under Hull Challenge include the appointment of National Leaders in Education, who will oversee and support the progress of schools in their areas, and will have the power to take control from head teachers in schools which are not making sufficient progress.
Each school will also receive support from a government education expert known as a 'National Challenge advisor' who will visit on selected days throughout the year.
The advisor will work with the school's leadership team to develop action plans to improve teaching and learning, particularly in English and maths, and to help solve problems with behaviour and attendance.
Top teachers
A campaign is also in place to increase the number of talented and experienced teachers working in Hull schools.
The 'Hull Offer' promises incentive and retention packages to teachers and aims to raise awareness among teachers throughout the country about the benefits of living and teaching in Hull.
"Hull schools are some of the most exciting places in the country to work as they are at the forefront of many innovative projects," says Judith Harwood.
"All the recent and ongoing investment in regeneration in the city has provided a new air of optimism and confidence that offers a fantastic range of things to do and an excellent standard of living." Specifically, the Hull Offer aims to recruit 12 advanced skills teachers in English and maths, who will be employed centrally and deployed into schools according to need.
There will also be the opportunity for teachers of other subjects to take conversion courses, in partnership with Hull University, to become English and maths teachers.
Building Schools for the Future
Hull's £400m Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme will transform all of Hull's secondary and special schools in order to provide the very best opportunities for pupils.
The project will rebuild or remodel the schools by 2016 to transform learning and improve pupil achievement.
Following two years of planning, the project was given the green light by the Government last August.
| 
