Information about The Key Aims and Local Plans

Here is a brief summary to give you a quick snapshot of the Catholic Partnership’s Extended Services local plan.   However, if you would like to know more, you are very welcome to see our local plan submitted to County but … be warned … it is 18 pages long!

Raise the profile of extended services.
Partnership celebrations accessible to all key partners which include;

• Our annual family fun day at Druridge Country Park - ‘NCESP’ Family Fun Day – July 3rd 2010. Last July 2009 attracted 3,000 visitors and this year we are looking at running an ‘enterprise market’ with social enterprises from all partnership schools as well as families and communities.

• the return to the Sage at Gateshead this year was on July 9th 2009 – this time Hall 1! 430 young people, parents and school staff took part in High Hopes and it was a magnificent success. We are now planning for 2010 – watch this space

• a very successful Dance Showcase this year in partnership with the Schools Sports Partnership which meant we had to extend it to 2 evenings.

• A new partnership minibus with Catholic Extended Services signwriting.

Events and Activities.

In addition, there is now a partnership logo which will appear on all our publicity, presentations & newsletters. Soon to come are outdoor display boards outside schools to carry information for parents. For further details of events – visit the Events and Activities page.

Consult with partnership.

Community Inquiry performed by our high school students.  Students learn research methods and then this cascades through the partnership of schools and networks out to parents on a rotational basis.  In addition, we have begun parent forums and are gaining a lot of key information and knowledge from the parents. This year we are concentrating on transition issues, the year 14-19 agenda and Food 4 Life and a healthy lifestyle.

We have just completed a validation audit of all schools carried out by the Extended Services Co-ordinator are are really pleased to say we’ve got 100% full core offer right across the partnership.

The information gathered from children, young people, parents and the schools will be collated and form a vital focus for our plans up to 2011.

Communication.

We issue a quarterly newsletter and if you would like to be on our mailing list please contact Lyn Horton on Tel: 01670 822795 or Email: hortonl@ncesp.org.uk   Also, look out for the new noticeboards at your school and on your own school newsletters. Of course, our biggest communication channel is this website – and we are really pleased you have visited us.

Enhance the Parent Partnership strategy.

Detailed programme to help families, young people, school staff and multi-agencies to work together—’’it takes a whole village to raise a child’. We successfully ran two family programmes funded by Northumberland Family Learning to provide opportunities for the whole family, one in the Amble/Alnwick mini cluster and the other in the Blyth/Bedlington cluster. Over 64 families participated over several months and we’ve now received further funding for this next year. In addition to this, we are keeping in close contact with our families to ensure we understand what is really needed. If you would like to know about up and coming opportunities or would like to tell us what you think is needed in your area, please contact us on Tel: 01670 822795 or Email: hortonl@ncesp.org.uk

Resources.

Funding is constantly being accessed.  Partnership project funding is of particular interest and we are actively sourcing opportunities all the time.  In addition, as a partnership, we are pooling our resources so that more families can benefit. We are also going to start grouping our partnership PTA’s to enhance their resources.

Volunteers.

At present we have a few adult volunteers across the partnership who are very valuable to us – we have cooks, dress designers, minibus drivers and admin help. We constantly invite our volunteers to any training and skills workshops to enhance their personal profile. We believe our volunteers get a lot out of the experience as well as have a lot of fun! You can volunteer for as little or as much as you like!

If you are interested in joining us, please contact Lyn Horton on Tel: 01670 822795 or Email: hortonl@ncesp.org.uk. 

For further information on any parent courses visit the page on our site about  Parents - Training

In addition, our partnership have a group called the Youth Ambassadors whose aim is ; to bring together parishioners, families, young people and schools within the Catholic Partnership. Visit the Ambassadors page for more details.

If you would like to order a DVD on the work the Youth Ambassadors have done to date, please contact Lyn Horton on Tel: 01670 822795 or Email: hortonl@ncesp.org.uk.

Develop the transition programme between the schools at key points in a families life.

Joint working across the partnership sharing resources and programmes to help familiarisation and a sense of inclusion within the partnership.

• At present we are producing a film of the ‘journey through school’ with some of our sixth formers who collectively went to St Aidan’s, St Robert’s, St Bede’s, Ss Peter and Paul’s, St Andrew’s, St Wilfrid’s, St Benedicts and St Benet Biscop. They are talking to teachers, students and sharing their memories with current students. They are actively seeking parents, grandparents and great grandparents who also have tales to tell on any of the 9 schools – so if you know anyone, please contact us as we would love to hear from you.

• The Secret Squirrels (a social enterprise run by 6th formers) have been working hard running fun team-building workshops at the high school for all year 3’s and 4’s, successfully breaking down barriers between schools and building excellent relationships. Visit Events for the summer dates.

• Every year for the last 5 years we have been running summer camps at the high school for all year 8’s and this year is no different. Each year we build on the success of previous years and is always fully subscribed. This years summer week was on 27th July – 30th July inclusive and 45 attended for the whole week. Dates for next summers camp will be on our website by February 2010.

• Our focus is on any changes within the partnership especially with some locality areas becoming 2-tier and therefore we are always actively looking at creative ways to enhance positive change.

• At this years Sage, 11 schools participated from the partnership. We worked in mini clusters (ie the middle schools and their feeder first schools) and friendship groups formed from the different schools. As well as students, the parents also accessed these opportunities and are hounding us for the theme and date for next year! (please contact us on hortonl@ncesp.org.uk for more info).

Governance.

We are extremely pleased to say that we have a very pro-active group of governors (one from each governing body of our partnership schools) who meet to discuss and direct the partnerships extended services agenda. This has now meant that we have a completely separate bank account from the schools and a voluntary constitution is in place. Visit the Governance page.

Swift and easy referral.

Raise profile of Rainbows. Build up relations with FACT and SIAT teams so clear signposting and referrals can take place.  This incorporates the common assessment framework.

Raise the profile of 5 Every Child Matters Outcomes and Every Parent Matters. A colour coded tracking system has been put in place throughout all the schools.  Each school has a noticeboard to visually track that every child has access to every part of the core offer.

Visit the "Every Child Matters" page. 

Our partnership has placed this agenda at the heart of our work.