For all your information needs visit www.southwarkheads.org.uk

Southwark Council is pleased to announce it has appointed David Quirke-Thornton as its new Strategic Director of Children’s and Adults Services.

NEW DIRECTOR APPOINTEDMr Quirke-Thornton will join Southwark in the autumn from his previous role as Deputy Director, Children’s and Adult Services, at Medway Council.

He has 20 years experience working in so-cial care for local authorities including Med-way and Hertfordshire County Council.

Before joining local government, David worked for various organisations including the NHS in delivery of services for members of the community with learning disabilities and mental health issues.

Leader Cllr Peter John, said: “We are delight-ed to welcome David to our team. He brings with him a wealth of experience in the chal-lenging world of social care and I am sure he will prove to be a valuable asset to the council.”

David said: “I am delighted to be join-ing Southwark Council. Colleagues have achieved much already and I am proud to be taking up this leadership role. There are many challenges ahead and an ambitious programme of work to ensure that every Southwark resident and family benefit from the opportunities being created.

“I look forward to working with schools, part-ners and the local voluntary sector to ensure that we achieve our very best potential.”

Mr Quirke-Thornton will take over the role vacated by Ms Romi Bowen who recently re-tired from the council.

By Peter Chaste

Interesting fact: Before graduating from South Bank University in London and the University of Lancaster, David attended St. Patrick’s College Maynooth - Ireland’s National Seminary and Pontifical University

The council is rolling out its offer of free fruit for pupils aged 7-11, building on the existing scheme for infants so that every child who attends a local

authority primary school gets fruit daily.

The initiative is a part of the council’s plans to ensure that all children in Southwark get the best start in life possible by addressing their health and its link to their education.

In the borough almost half of the local authority primary schools have already signed up, with more expected to join the scheme in the coming weeks, and all 73 primary schools are anticipated to have implemented the plans by the end of the academic year.

Cllr Victoria Mills, cabinet member for children and schools said: “We all know that nutrition is a vital part of a child’s day at school. Our offer of free school meals over the last few years have been an important way of tackling the growing food poverty crisis and supporting par-ents who are finding it increasingly tough to make ends meet in our borough. This extension of a free fruit snack into the programme will we hope continue that work.

“With the start of term upon us I am pleased that so many schools are ready to go, and look forward to seeing more and more join across Southwark as the school year progresses.”

The new scheme is part of the council’s successful universal free healthy school meals pro-gramme which means every child who attends a local authority primary school in Southwark is entitled to a free, hot meal every day - with uptake currently at around 92 per cent (more than double the national average).

An apple for the pupils!

Heads Up is sponsored by Excellence in Southwark

The Poetry Society is aiming to help schools beat the back-to-school blues with a host of opportunities for the new year.

There is still time for students to enter the Society’s Timothy Corsellis WWII Prize, and also the legendary national youth slam, SLAMbassadors UK, this year judged by Kate Tempest.

The Society has events galore on National Poetry Day, and it is not too late for schools to book a poetry workshop. There will shortly be the announcement of the winners of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award on the poetry day, so keep an eye out for that.

While it would be easy to think that students are having the pick of the fun, the Society has a couple of adult events and excitingly a writing workshop just for teachers!

For more information, visit: www.poetrysociety.org.uk/education

A new school yearand poetry’s here

The Hilton Docklands Riverside, which is the venue for this year’s School Leaders’ Confer-ence, is offering Southwark schools a spe-cial discount if they wish to host their staff Christmas party at the venue.

The hotel is a superb venue, with great food and in a fantastic location by the riv-er Thames, close to most of the borough’s schools.

There is a significant £5.00 per person dis-count and a special deal for an evening’s dining and entertainment.

The Offer for Southwark Council Schools is :

• Christmas Parties at £29.95 per per-son, Which includes Christmas dinner buffet, Welcome drink on arrival, Christ-mas novelties, DJ & Music till 01.00am, Free Parking & Special rates for the bed room if they wish to stay over.

• Offer is Valid till 30th September 2014 (Early Bird Offer & they can quote Southwark as a offer code).

A big Christmas bonus

For more information, contact: Sreedevi Sharma - Cluster Meetings & Events Man-ager on 020 7064 4515 or email: sreedevi.sharma@hilton.com. www.hilton.com

The national i-HOP service, funded by the DfE, supports professionals who work with offenders’ children and their

families. There are an estimated 200,000 children of offenders in England and Wales and 7% of school-aged children will have ex-perienced the imprisonment of their father. These children are far more likely to suffer poor outcomes than their peers.

i-HOP provides professionals with free online information providing up to date resources, strategies, services, policies, research and practice models. There is also a free helpline (0808 802 2013).

More information for education and Local Authority professionals about i-HOP can be accessed at: www.i-hop.org.uk.

i-HOP is keen to develop understanding and awareness about children affected by paren-tal imprisonment.

The organisation offers free workshops to suggest ways in which Local Authorities can develop strategic multi-agency responses to needs. The workshop includes a mother’s story and key research and statistics relat-ing to the impact of parental imprisonment. There is also practical information about support services in Southwark Please con-

tact Polly Wright (polly.wright@barnardos.org.uk) for further information or Alice Craw-ford, Helpdesk Worker on 0161 702 1000, or email rebeccac@partnersofprisoners.co.uk. Visit www.partnersofprisoners.co.uk.

HELP FOR OFFENDERS’ CHILDREN

Their Name Is TodayMany things can wait. Children cannot.Right now their bones are being formed,their blood is being made,and their senses are being developed.To them we cannot answer, “Tomorrow.”Their name is today.–Gabriela Mistral

Their Name Is Today is a beautiful new book defending childhood. It calls on everyone who loves children to help them flourish by giving them time to play, access to nature and personal attention.

Community Products found the child-cen-tred vision of this book so hopeful that it is sponsoring a free copy for anyone who cares about children.

Request your free copy of Their Name Is Today at: www.communityplaythings.co.uk/their-name-is-today

Please also pass this offer on to anyone who would appreciate it.

Free book is visionary

Heads Up is sponsored by Excellence in Southwark

Candia Crosfield is the Area Coordinator for the ChildLine Schools Service in South East London. She says: “I wanted to let you know about the free service that the NSPCC has been delivering in Primary Schools across the country and now in Southwark. Since starting up in South East London in 2013, we have so far visited nearly 10,000 children in more than 100 schools and would love your school to be next”.

The ChildLine Schools Service is a ground-breaking initiative that aims to deliver free to every Year 5 and Year 6 child in the UK once every two years. ChildLine’s research shows that younger children can be especially vul-nerable to abuse because they have less awareness of what it is and may not know how to seek help if it happens. We believe that with early intervention we could hope to see a reduction in the numbers of children suffering abuse and for children to speak up from an earlier age.

The objectives of the ChildLine Schools Ser-vice are:

• To ensure children have an understand-ing of abuse in all its forms, including bullying, and an ability to recognize the signs of abuse.

• To ensure children know how to protect themselves from all forms of abuse.

• To make them aware of how to get help and sources of help.

The delivery model is in two stages. Firstly, ChildLine delivers a 30 minute assembly to

Y5 and 6 pupils to inform them of the differ-ent types of abuse and where they can go to seek help. The second stage, which hap-pens approximately one to two weeks later, is an interactive classroom-based workshop lasting up to one hour, to reinforce the as-sembly messages and encourage discus-sion and questions.

If you would like us to visit your school please contact me via email on candia.crosfield@nspcc.org.uk or give me a call on 07795970594 to find out more and book.

Further information about the service can also be found on the NSPCC website at: www.nspcc.org.uk.

Candia Crosfield is Area Coordinator for the ChildLine Schools Service in South East London.

ChildLine Schools Service

The HGCA (Home Grown Cereals Asso-ciation) Breakfast Week returns for a 16th year in January 2015. This is

an opportunity to teach children about the importance of eating a healthy breakfast.

HGCA has many school caterers who get in-volved with the campaign and offer ‘theme days’ during the week offering breakfast foods as part of the school menu. There is also the opportunity to run competitions or activities to engage the children and get them to think about the origins of their foods (for example, schools could run a competi-tion for them to design a healthy breakfast menu).

A website www.shakeupyourwakeup.com provides more information about the cam-paign which is run on behalf of UK cereal farmers to encourage the nation to eat breakfast more regularly!

HGCA would be grateful if schools could let them know the name of their school catering providers and the best person to speak to about the campaign. For further information contact: Kate Saunders, Marketing Adminis-trator, HGCA, Stoneleigh Park, Kenilworth, Warwickshire CV8 2TL. Telephone 024 7669 2051. E:kate.saunders@hgca.ahdb.org.u. www.hgca.com

SHAKE UP YOUR WAKE UP!

LEADING IN PARTNERSHIPA one day seminar for Headteachers/Prin-cipals and Chairs of Governors will be held on Friday, 23 January 2015 from 9.30am to 3.30pm at 160 Tooley Street, SE1 2TZ.

The working relationship between the Head-teacher and the Chair of Governors is crucial in ensuring school effectiveness. This one day course is designed to enable Heads and Chairs to:

• clarify their understanding of shared strategic leadership

• identify what more they could do to con-solidate that in their working relationship

• consider how to refresh the shared val-ues and vision for their school

• review how they manage strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation to achieve the vision

• action plan to ensure effective distribu-tion of leadership within the governing body

Essentially we will explore the three key roles of the governing body in the context of each school.

For all subscribing schools the day is free of charge; for non-subscribing schools the price is just £90 per person. To book plac-es please email: Ela Cleary at ela.cleary@southwark.gov.uk or telephone 020 7525 5107.

For all your information needs visit www.southwarkheads.org.uk

HEADS UP is published month-ly during term time by South-wark Headteachers Executive. We would love to hear from you, so tell us your news: Yolanda HoustonT: 01797 364366 M: 07770 347616E: yolanda@headexec.com

SEND US YOUR NEWS!

The Wheel of Wellbeing website has been launched as a new re-source from SLAM (South London

and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust) to get people to think about looking after their emotional health.

As part of its work SLAM has been trialling a ‘Truth, Dare or Share’ game with Year 7 students. This game is now available to pur-chase (approx £50) plus the cost of training. It was co-produced with young people in col-laboration with the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) and has proved popular. The idea is that PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) teachers be trained and use the game in lessons.

Visit www.wheelofwellbeing.org/communi-ty/want-get-year-7-students-happier-school for ideas for activities on the site that could be adapted for use in schools.

For more information, contact: Lucy Smith, Public Health Manager - Mental Wellbeing, Lambeth & Southwark Public Health Direc-torate. Email - lucy.smith@southwark.gov.uk., telephone 020 7525 7530 or mobile 07733 307 539.

Get onto the Wheel of Wellbeing

Southwark Costumes and Atrefects Service (SCAS) celebrates its fourth birthday and has invited schools to its birthday party which held at LESOCO, Southampton Way, London SE5 7EW on Thursday 18th Septem-ber from 4.00-6.00pm.

SCAS’s Maggie Bulman said, “I hope schools can make it. We’ll be serving tea and cake, which can be enjoyed whilst perusing the collection and picking up costume and arte-fact requirements for the term ahead”.

Roles and responsibilities in schools are becoming more diverse with increasing de-mands being made on Senior Leaders.

The Inspiring Leadership Conference has been devised, following consultation with South-wark SLTs, to provide a programme aimed at all Senior Leaders, with workshops and key-note speakers providing the opportunity to compare, discuss and implement new ideas as Leadership teams.

The conference is open to all Senior Leaders with workshops and speakers covering a broad range of topics from finance, governance and human resources to curriculum subjects, teaching and learning. The aim is to make the conference accessible to everyone in School Leadership Teams across the different sessions taking place during the conference.

Prices have been kept as low as possible: First Senior Leader is just £195.00pp, with ad-ditional Senior Leaders at £65.00pp or £95.00 including dinner

Delegates get access to all sessions over the course of the two days, lunch, information and delegate packs, tea/coffee, free WiFi.

Rooms can be booked to stay overnight for £159.00 which should be arranged directly with the Hilton Docklands Riverside hotel (details on www.southwarkheads.org.uk).

Entry to either the Employment or the Charity Fair during the afternoon on 13 November.

BOOK NOW at www.southwarkheads.org.uk...PAY OCTOBER... Bookings close on Friday 10 October 2014

BOOK YOUR LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE TICKETS NOW!

SCAS hosts 4th birthday party

There are some new Viking costumes and shields which were made over the summer holidays, which will be available to loan for class assemblies. SCAS also has Anglo Sax-on artefacts and Iron Age artefacts (which will be delivered soon). These are available alongside the usual selection of amazing re-sources.

Schools should contact Maggie Bulman atscas.manager@gmail.com or call 07940 365630 to let her know numbers and for security access purposes. Free car parking available - use the staff car park.