MONTHLY BULLETIN – June 2013
REMINDERS
POP Nominations
You must renominate present POPs and nominate new POPs as soon as possible. The closing date has passed with about 5% of expected nomination form received.
School Orders
Please check on every visit whether your school has sent in their order form. Heads of Department would really like to begin writing timetables but need many more orders in before they can start.
Important - Postage
A number of items, including sessional pay claims, have been unable to be delivered due to insufficient postage. Services for Education will not pay the excess postage so please can you ensure that adequate postage is applied.
STAFF TRAINING DAYS
TUESDAY 23RD JULY 9.00 – 12.25
BEECHES MANAGEMENT CENTRE
SELLY OAK ROAD
BOURNVILLE, B30 1LS
SCHEDULE
9.00 / Registration and refreshments9.30 / Departmental Meetings
10.30 / Tea/coffee
11.00 / Staff Feedback: WCIT Assessment/Records of Musical Achievement
12.00 / Announcements – John Clemson
12.15 / Summer Singalong with Ruth and Claire
12.25 / Finish
MONDAY 2ND SEPTEMBER 9.00 – 4.00
BEECHES MANAGEMENT CENTRE
SELLY OAK ROAD
BOURNVILLE, B30 1LS
SCHEDULE
9.00 / Registration and refreshments9.30 / Introduction to the year - John Clemson
10.30 / Refreshments
11.00 / Staff discussion
12.00 / Lunch
1.00 / Departmental training
4.00 / Finish
All permanent staff who would normally work for the Music Service on these days are required to attend. All other staff are strongly urged to do so, if at all possible, since the future success of the Service depends on the quality of our work which, in turn, depends upon us all taking advantage of every training opportunity.
Please would sessional staff (and part-time permanent staff not contracted to work on these days) let the Office know which days they are attending by Friday 12th July.
STAFF MEETING – 4TH JUNE 2013
Please see below the Staff Priorities for the next academic year, agreed at the recent staff meeting:
Teaching and Learning
· Create opportunities for liaison between teachers in relation to Y.6 – Y.7 transition
· Create more opportunities for team teaching and peer observation (within and across departments), particularly utilizing cancelled teaching time for this purpose. And link this to professional conversations.
· Encourage more sharing of resources, including cross-departmentally.
· Non-musical team building.
· Intensive taster opportunities for large numbers of Y.7 pupils, to boost recruitment.
· Continuity of teachers, where possible, between feeder primary schools and secondary schools.
· Introduce staff training in GCSE and A level course requirements.
· Extend strings secondary starter events to other instrumental areas.
Management/Leadership
· Explore ways of making greater use of Assistant roles.
· Publish timetable information in July, to allow more time for consultation with schools and teaching staff prior to September.
· Opportunities for staff to give termly, written feedback and requests for support.
· Increase opportunities for one-to-one meetings with Heads of Departments
· Explore ways of developing more opportunities for meaningful contact between colleagues.
· Organise teaching in “cluster groups” geographically to support collaboration.
ICT
· Use website for links to educational initiatives, guidelines, resources.
· Use website to publish information about which teachers work in which schools – to facilitate collaboration in schools and areas.
· Use website to publicise calendar of events.
ALL STAFF
We’ve been notified by salaries department of deadlines for the remainder of the academic year. Please note revised dates which now includes week 9 for this period.
SESSIONAL CLAIM DATES
Week 10 Week Ending 2nd June 2013 half term, no claim
Week 11 Week Ending 9th June 2013
Week 12 Week Ending 16th June 2013
Week 13 Week Ending 23rd June 2013
Week 14 Week Ending 30th June 2013
Forms will need to be in the office by 12pm on Tuesday 2nd July and payment will be made on 26th July 2013.
Week 15 Week Ending 7th July 2013
Week 16 Week Ending 14th July 2013
Week 17 Week Ending 21st July 2013
Week 18 Week Ending 28th July 2013
Forms will need to be in the office by 12pm on Tuesday 30th July 2013 and payment will be made on 28th August 2013.
Car Mileage
Forms for the period Monday 22nd April to Sunday 19th May 2013 will need to be received in the office by 12pm on Tuesday 21st May 2013.
Forms for the period Monday 20th May to Sunday 23rd June 2013 will need to be received in the office by 12pm on Tuesday 25th June 2013.
Forms for the period Monday 24th June to Sunday 28th July will need to be received in the office by 12pm Tuesday 30th July.
Website
I hope you have all had a look at the website. During the full staff meeting many matters were raised which can be accessed/ found/ answered through the website. To allow things to be easily accessed Mike Bates has suggested copying these links for you to simply click on - you could even add them to your 'favourites' and they'll be stored on your machine;
http://www.servicesforeducation.co.uk/index.php/what-we-do/music-service
This will take you to our music service home page ( escaping the main pages for Services for Education)
http://www.servicesforeducation.co.uk/index.php/stafff
this one takes you directly to the staff section. It will link to the staff resources site but you need the username and password.
username: 4bms
password: warwick
Mileage claims.. bulletins...deadlines...resources...ideas....union info....everything is on there!! Now in one handy place.
WHOLE CLASS INSTRUMENTAL TEACHING (WCIT)
Dear All,
Can I thank all of you who have returned your WCIT assessment documents to me. I realise some of you have had problems in your schools in completing these and I look forward to receiving these shortly. Please remember that a copy goes to someone in the school (class teacher or music c/o). We are going to be having a 30 minute feedback session on the last day of term in which you will have the opportunity to highlight any suggestions for future.
Electives:
Please can I ask that you get an idea of how many elective instruments you are going to need for September and let you relevant Head of Department know as soon as possible? This particularly applies to new schools this year and schools with electives in year 5 moving to year 6.
Ukulele Showcase:
We are holding our first ever Ukulele Showcase on July 15th in the Adrian Boult Hall and are finishing the day off with a concert at 2.00pm. If any of you are free and would like to come along and see our 8 WCIT Ukulele classes please let me know and I can reserve a seat for you.
And finally – a gentle reminder that my email address is – and not my sky email address.
Thank you
Stuart
BRASS DEPARTMENT – MARTIN ORGILL
Auditions
Many thanks to everyone who helped make these possible. A record number of pupils auditioned. Some of the statistics will be studied at a future brass meeting and we will review the process to see if we can make any further improvements.
In the meantime you can help by
· When the results come out please encourage your successful pupils to take up the place by sending the reply slips back. These are posted to their homes.
· Some will have an offer of two bands even though they asked to be in one. If the offer is Training Brass Band and either Training Wind Orchestra or Training Jazz Orchestra please use you influence to get them to join BSTWO or BSTJE over Training Brass Band. BSTBB is always over-subscribed and the other groups really need the players. They can of course be in both.
Timetables
There are still a few more weeks before these will start. Keep checking your schools for returns. To date the following schools have put their brass orders in:
Bartley Green, Bordesley, Bournville Junior, Broadmeadow, Chilcote, Cockshut, Elms Farm, Great Barr Pr, Grendon, Grestone, Hodge Hill, Hollywood, Holyhead, KE Sheldon Heath, Kings Heath Pr, Kings Nortin Boys, Maney Hill, Perry Beeches Academy, Quinton Pr, Selly Oak Trust, St Mary’s Pr, St Mary’s Junior, Sutton Girls, Swanshurst, Arthur Terry, Thornton Pr, Wheelers Lane Tech, Wilkes Green Jnr, Woodthorpe Jnr
As you can see we are still waiting for many orders. Just to be clear if your school is not on this list we have not received their order at the time this bulletin was written.
Please e mail me with any of your thoughts / ideas for your timetable.
Brass Department Social
You are cordially invited (the only cordial you are likely to see!) to join us on Saturday 20th July for a get together on the Severn Valley Railway. Please feel free to invite friends or partners. Here are the details.
Snow Hill depart 10.43am or meet at Kidderminster in the King and Castle
station pub at 11.30am. 12.45pm steam train to Bridgnorth.
Through fare from Birmingham to Bridgnorth SVR is about £21.
If you join at Kidderminster the return fare is £17. Return on any train!
GUITAR AND KEYBOARD DEPARTMENT – NICOLA WALKER
Hello everyone! I hope you are all feeling more refreshed after your half term break!!
This is a busy term for everyone, and I am still arranging some visits, so you may be one of the lucky few to see me before the end of term.
I have seen some excellent teaching and learning taking place this year, with some very thoughtful and creative planning taking place,
Thank you.
By now most of you hopefully will have finished your pupil records of achievement and handed them to schools and are now preparing for all those end of term performances.
I know I say this every term, but please let me know when they are so that if there is any possibility I will try and get there.
My time is very tight at the moment but I would much rather hear some children performing than be sat here at my desk!
Electives – Guitar, Keyboard, Ukulele
If you are teaching a new WCIT class this year could you please let me know ASAP how many electives you are expecting to continue next year so that I can ensure sufficient instrument provision. If you have only Year 5 electives this year, can you please let me know how many new electives you will have next year from the Year 4 class.
Battle of the Bands
So, our final event is almost upon us. Please make sure that all of the finalists have received their forms to be returned to me asap!! At the time of writing I have not had any responses apart from one email from a band member at Washwood Heath!
It would be great to see as many staff there to support as possible – we’ve had a great time over the past three or four years and the standard this year has been very high. We finally received 12 entries and they were whittled down to 6 for the grand final at Queensbridge on Thursday 4th July. The event begins at 7.00pm with Bands arriving from 5.00pm for sound checks!
Ukuleles
I have already emailed guitar teachers, but please let me know if you would like to do some WCIT Ukulele teaching next year. It has proved to be very popular with the schools this year, and with current schools continuing as electives, we need more staff!!
To mark the success, Stuart has organised a showcase day on Monday 15th July at the Adrian Boult Hall which I am sure will be a great event!
Next year
We have had many changes over this academic year to come to terms with, and now is the time we are thinking forward to next year. As always, I am happy to listen to, and consider any preferences you may have regarding your teaching from September 2013, if you would like to email them to me.
I am trying very hard to find the time to have a telephone conversation with some of you but it is proving very difficult at the moment, and I’m sure you really don’t want to chat at 11.00 pm!!
Orders
Remember that our jobs rely on schools ordering our teaching…. We all must take responsibility for ensuring schools are happy with the service they receive. Make sure you give them the best value for money and show them the successful results in the form of performances as often as possible.
Emails
I hope by now that you have all been able to get your services for education email addresses running smoothly. I am still sending out some information to both email addresses where I am uncertain you have been successful. As has been said before, you must take responsibility for informing the help desk if you have a problem, all staff are required to have this email address .helpline 01213035100
Drinks/Food?
If any staff are interested, I thought we could go to the Village Inn, Toby Carvery pub just down from Cotteridge on the right past Kings Norton Station, Pershore Road South following the training day on our last day?
Look out for Gala Concerts………..
Nicola
STRING DEPARTMENT – SALLY HOBBS
Dear colleagues,
I enjoyed seeing many of you at Broadway last week and felt that the meeting was both positive and instructive. Clearly we enjoy and value seeing more of each other and somehow this will be addressed!