A Learning Ambition for Norfolk

What is the Learning Ambition?

We want Norfolk to be a county where all children and young people can flourish. Our ambition is that all children and young people are achieving their full potential and developing skills which prepare them for life. This is a key part of our Norfolk Flourish ambition.

Why do we need a Learning Ambition?

We know that there exist challenges within our education system, which affect outcomes for  children and young people across the county. Over the course of the last year, we have been engaging with a wide range of education settings and stakeholders, to discuss the best way that Norfolk County Council can support a self-improving system.

Some of the priority challenges were identified as:

• Recruitment and retention of skilled staff
• Demands on support for Early Years learning
• The percentage of school pupils with SEND
• Increasing levels of challenging behaviour in Norfolk's mainstream schools
• Achievement at KS2
• Participation at post 16

We feel that our role as a Local Authority is to create the conditions for success within the system, facilitating joint pieces of work which help education providers to collaborate, support, challenge and learn with each other.

What does the Learning Ambition look like?

We want to be clear about our role in the education system and the areas in which we feel we can be most supportive, so that everyone understands how the system can work together.

Childrens Services is now engaged with a range of complementary strategies to address wider needs, all of which align with our Flourish ambition and which are designed to bring the system together.

These strategies are:

• The Learning Ambition
• Attendance is Everyone's Business
• Local First Inclusion
•  Speech and Language Transformation
• Prevention & Early Help Strategy
• Mental Health Strategy

Within the Learning Ambition, we have worked with the education system to identify and agree some core themes. Each of these has work currently underway, and is based around collaboration with schools, colleges and settings to achieve its aims.

These themes are:

Capacity and Expertise of the Education workforce

This Task Group has been set up to explore ways that education providers can work together to maximise Teacher and Teaching Assistant recruitment and retention. Their initial aims are to create a 'Teacher Future-proofing Framework', which would cover:

• Apprenticeships
• Teacher talent Pools
• Leadership
• Training & CPD
• ITT
• Recruitment Campaigns

Additionally, the intention to create a 'Teaching Assistant Career Framework', covering:

• Apprenticeship
• TA Talent Pool
• Job Descriptions
• Training, CPD & Induction
• Recruitment Campaigns

Ensuring Effective Transitions

This Task Group builds on learning achieved through the Norwich Opportunity Area transition group, including work on a Common Transfer Document. There is also a focus on Post-16 transition with the Education and Training Strategy group, and alignment with SEND transition.

Improving Data and Information Sharing

This Task Group  works in line with Education Data Authority workstreams within Norfolk County Council, with the ultimate aim of sharing more responsive, interactive data dashboards, which will enable leaders to benchmark their education setting against local & national data. This task group currently develops School and Community Team-level data, and provides a Universal 'data training' offer, with the ultimate aim of being better able to use data analysis to identify issues for system to address collaboratively.

Supporting Resilient Families and Communities

This Task Group is responsible for the introduction of and alignment with School and Community teams, Start For Life and Family Hubs. They also have a role in signposting parents to sources of support, alignment with Local First Inclusion and Attendance outcomes within the county. They aim to establish communities of practice, working with schools and settings to enable parents and families to understand and manage expectations and perceptions of schools and settings.

Enhancing the self-improving system through a Norfolk Collaborative Standard​

This groups primarily focuses on partnership projects, and aims to provide a platform to celebrate, capture and promote successes across the system. It will support the production and publication of case studies, and develop and publish materials to support effective, robust collaboration between education providers. It also has a role to support the Education Investment Area, by learning from, promoting and replicating impactful projects across the wider county. Their longer-term aim is the establishment of a Norfolk Collaborative Standard, to support education providers to work together.

School, Colleges & Settings Communication and Engagement​

To ensure that all of the above themes are as effective as possible, we are committed to redesigning the ways in which we communicate with schools, colleges and settings. This includes how, when and to whom we communicate key information and updates, support engagement and information sharing between providers, and how we make access to collaboration opportunities easier. This work is carried out with a reference group made up of representatives from across the education system in Norfolk, but we are always looking for more voices to contribute to making it as useful as possible; if you would like to join, or find out more, please get in touch.

Update, March 2024

Work is currently underway to redesign the current eCourier/Management Information system, to make information and updates easier to access and share.

A Learning Ambition for Norfolk, through the Norfolk Learning Collaborative: Update, May 2024

The Learning Ambition for Norfolk works to support and deliver the aims of the Norfolk Learning Collaborative, where education leaders from across the county have agreed to work together to address key issues. At the first Collaborative meeting, members identified the Norfolk Challenge of improving the KS2 outcomes across the county as one of the main priorities, and this will be a core focus of the group moving forward, alongside the core themes in the Learning Ambition. The next meeting takes place on Tuesday, 11th June at 2pm at County Hall; if you would like to join please let us know. Six task groups within the Learning Ambition continue to work within these core themes, and we would like to share some of the collective work of these groups with the following highlights:

The School, Colleges & Settings Communication and Engagement​ task group has been working to improve communications with schools, colleges and settings. The new Norfolk Schools website now hosts all news items, categorised and tagged so that they are easier to find, share and revisit. The eCourier bulletin has now been redesigned for ease of access and readability, highlighting items which require action and foregrounding content to share with staff, parents, children & young people and the wider community.

Their next actions are to further develop the website so that information is easier to access. This will include the creation of 'one-minute guides' for a range of topics, including clear signposts to local and national guidance and ensuring that routes into teams within the Local Authority are clear. This, combined with a longer-term ambition to reduce the number of different platforms which are needed by education providers, aims to help education providers to access and use information effectively.

The Capacity and Expertise of the Education Workforce task group has launched a short-term, local recruitment campaign via EducationHR to grow the teacher and teaching assistant talent pools. This campaign is live and runs until the end of the summer term. They have also continued their work to improve retention rates in leadership by beginning to create resources to support headteacher well-being. In collaboration with Educate Norfolk, systems leaders are creating a graduated wellbeing resource for heads and systems leaders to signpost to local and national support available, and featuring Norfolk leaders' anecdotal experiences, challenges, and solutions. If you would like to contribute to this resource, please do get in touch.

The Ensuring Effective Transitions task group, building on work from the Norwich Opportunity Area, and aligned with transition work in Local First Inclusion, has created a questionnaire for parents, designed to understand how the education system can better support transition between all phases. Starting with a pilot year 6 and 7 group, the intention is to make this available across the county. They have also created a template for a research report to support strong transition practice, which will also be shared. Potential aspects for research have been identified, linking a number of other themes of work (such as work to support Key Stage 2  outcomes across Norfolk, and school communications).

The task group focusing on Enhancing the self-improving system through a Norfolk Collaborative Standard​has arranged a number of school visits across the county, including primary, secondary and special schools, to highlight and share good practice. A case study proforma has also been developed, designed to be easy to share and compare school improvement and development experiences. This group has representation from both Local Authority maintained schools and Academy Schools, but is always keen to hear from those across the education sector; if you would like to participate, ask a question or provide input, please get in touch.

If you would like to find out more about the task groups, or if you (or someone on your staff) are interested in supporting the education system, please let us know.

This half-term as part of the Learning Ambition for Norfolk, some of Norfolk's outstanding primary and secondary schools are opening their doors and inviting colleagues to visit them as part of a programme of exceptional practice visits.

Each visit will enable colleagues to hear about another school's approach, before seeing it in action and having opportunity reflect, ask questions and benefit from a professional discussion with the host school and other visitors.

If you would like to see how a small school primary school developed a curriculum rated outstanding by Ofsted, hear about how to create a holistic education that focuses on the whole child, learn from a special school about their provision or explore learning outcomes and cultures at secondary, then click on the links to find out more.

Wymondham College Prep School - Monday 24^th June - Creating a School Built on Kindness

Are you interested in learning about how we have crafted a holistic education that focus' on the 'whole' child? Are you curious about how we nurture and care for the culture and ethos we have shaped? Would you like to explore how expectations, choices, relationships, wellbeing and belonging can lead to unlocking all pupils' learning potential?

This learning visit would benefit anyone working in a school because it takes every person to have buy-in to the vision of creating a school culture where everyone has a responsibility to 'Do the right thing, Make a difference and Value every voice'. Headteachers and members of SLT particularly welcome because for something special to be fostered, it needs to be lived and breathed.

Visit Programme

9:45am - 12:00pm Monday 24^th June

• 9:45am - 10:00am Coffee and welcome with Simon Underhill (Headteacher)
• 10:00am - 10:45am Presentation
• 10:45am - 11:15am Talk to children during break time
• 11:15am - 12:00am Reflections, Open Discussion, Collaborative Planning and Next Steps

To get the most out of your visit it would be helpful if you reread and brought with you, your school's behaviour policy.

To book https://forms.office.com/e/gZk0iRC58W

Little Melton Primary School Tuesday 9th July - Designing a Curriculum for a Small School

Being a small school can present unique challenges to designing and implementing a curriculum. If you are a small school and are contemplating curriculum, come and talk to colleagues at Little Melton, a small school recently judged Outstanding in all areas by Ofsted, to learn how they developed a curriculum praised for enabling pupil's understanding to Flourish and that show pupils how the world works and to what they can aspire.

Visit Programme

9.00am - 11am Tuesday 9^th July

• 9.00-9.45 Designing a Curriculum with Alex Pritchard (Headteacher)
• 9.45-10.30 Tour of school & the curriculum in action
• 10.30- 11 Professional discussion and Q&A: An opportunity to ask questions, share ideas and reflect on any actions.

To get the most out of your visit it would be helpful if you work in a small school.

To book https://forms.office.com/e/rk96yTgKFE

The Parkside Special School - Tuesday 2^nd July - Exploring Provision

The Parkside School is a specialist school supporting the individual needs of pupils with significant learning and intellectual disabilities. Children say it is a great place to learn and parents describe it as 'brilliant'.

If you are a mainstream school interested in finding out more about provision in special schools and learning how practice there might benefit your own learners, visit on 2^nd July. You can find out more about the school before you visit at The Parkside School - learn grow thrive

Teachers, Leaders and SENCOs from both primary and secondary settings interested in finding out more about provision in special schools are welcome.

Visit Programme

2^nd July 9:15 am - 11:45pm

• 9:15 am - 9.30am Welcome & Context
• 9.30am - 10:45am Tour of school and Pathways- seeing The Parkside School in Action
• 10:45am - 11:00 am Coffee and biscuits
• 11am-11.45am  Reflections, Open Discussion, Collaborative Planning and Next Steps

To get the most out of your visit it would be helpful if you took a moment to look at the school's website The Parkside School - learn grow thrive

Unfortunately all the spaces on this date are now full. To register your interest in future similar visits please email Victoria Groom

Ormiston Venture Academy - Wednesday 10^th July - Curriculum, Learning Outcomes and Learning Cultures

Join colleagues to explore Venture's approach to curriculum, learning outcomes and cultures at secondary.

Visit Programme

• 9.00am - 10.15am Welcome Overview and Tour With Simon Gilbert-Barnham (Principal) 
• 10:15am - 10.30am Break with Simon Gilbert-Barnham, Principal
• 10.30am - 11.15am Learning & Teaching - Curriculum With Jodie Gilbert-Barnham, Vice Principal 
• 11.15am - 12.00pm Choice of break out session Learning Outcomes - with Dave Richards, Vice Principal Learning      Cultures - Nicole Rossage, Vice Principal 
• 12.00pm - 12.30pm  Lunch and Q&A with Simon Gilbert-Barnham, Principal

To book  https://forms.office.com/e/Mg8HHPCKb8

To assist host schools to plan for others colleagues visiting you book your place on the guest list via the links above.

Please contact victoria.groom@norfolk.co.uk if you would like more information, feel your school has expertise it can share with other or would like to visit another school with a particular area of strength.