Education Challenge Board update from Peter Kent

The Challenge Board had its most recent meeting on the 1st July.

As might be expected, a lot of our discussion focused upon issues facing schools at the moment and how they might be addressed in order to enable fuller opening in September.

We considered a whole range of issues which might appear small in themselves but which had an impact upon the ability of schools to accommodate their full quota of pupils. Examples included cleaning, the structure of buildings, toilets and hand washing facilities. We also discussed the way in which the LA would be able to support schools across all phases through their messaging and through their strategic role working with groups such as transport providers. It was also very encouraging to hear about the constructive and positive dialogue that had been maintained throughout with teacher associations in Warwickshire.

Everyone appreciated the update that we received from our colleagues in Public Health England and the chance to hear about the way in which some of the national issues relating to the pandemic were impacting upon schools in the county. Many of us working in schools now know a lot more about ‘bubbles’ than we ever thought possible and it was very helpful to test out what the concept would mean for individual pupils, classes and year groups.

As might be expected in a semi-rural county, when considering broad strategic issues, quite a lot of our discussion centred upon transport. Areas such as the reduced capacity of both double and single-decker buses were explored as well as the impossibility of altering bus timings because of the long journeys that many of them were completing.

Ways in which schools could be supported when summer examination results were published also occupied part of the meeting. The process of centre assessed grades makes GCSE and A level in 2020 more complex than ever before and we also considered the impact of the autumn round of examinations that have now been put in place. We all agreed that one way in which the LA could support schools during what would be a challenging few weeks would be through their messaging to parents and other groups.

In a packed agenda other items considered included the range of approaches to transition for either Year 6 or Sixth Form, issues arising from risk assessments and support with approaches to blended learning. We also received a very helpful update on Ofsted’s plans for inspection activity over the rest of the calendar year.

The lengthy agenda highlighted to me how hard everyone has been working as a result of the pandemic. I hope that you are able to have a well learned break at some point over the summer and I look forward to updating you further after our next Challenge Board early in the autumn term.

Dr Peter Kent

Chair of the Education Challenge Board and Lawrence Sheriff School Headteacher

Warwickshire Safeguarding Offer 2020-2021

An Integrated Approach

From September 2020 important developments are being introduced to Warwickshire’s safeguarding offer to schools. Together with continuity of key areas of support and training there are a range of developments being introduced to integrate safeguarding provision available for education settings. The attached slides outline the main changes, where responsibility will sit for each element of safeguarding provision and contact information. Developments to our approach aim to ensure that all elements of safeguarding support and training for schools are integrated more fully across key Warwickshire services and provision overall.

In Summary:

• Warwickshire Safeguarding Board will continue to have regular meetings of its Education Group chaired by Ian Budd, Assistant Director
• The Safe Education Partnership will continue to develop its role supporting collaboration across partner services
• Termly briefings and updates about their work will be provided
• A comprehensive integrated training programme with new additional modules will be provided from September. Costs have been reduced and access improved in localities. Full details will be sent out to schools next week.
• The annual safeguarding audit process is being developed and will include support from the Early Help team and earlier reporting on findings each year shared across all stakeholders helping to inform future support and training.

Principles Informing Change

The principles underpinning our refreshed approach are:

• Increased collaboration across partners and stakeholders
• Integration of service planning and provision
• Improved access and delivery of support and training
• Meeting statutory duties and responding to feedback/need analysis
• Responding to the Covid-19 context and service recovery process
• Commissioning specialist input and accessing external support as required

Review and Collaboration

This comprehensive review of our safeguarding offer has involved research into development of safeguarding provision nationally and collaboration with key partners and stakeholders, including:

• Warwickshire Safeguarding
• Safe Education Partnership
• Schools
• A wide range of WCC services beyond Education Services

Our Key Partners

Examples of partners we are working closely with to ensure our safeguarding offer is informed by key information, specialisms and experience: 

• WCC Children and Family Service
• WCC Education Services
• NHS (Regional and District)
• District and Borough Councils
• Age Concern
• Community Rehabilitation Company
• Warwickshire Police
• Warwickshire Fire and Rescue
• National Probation Service
• Care Quality Commission
• Healthwatch Warwickshire

 

 

Headteacher Wellbeing

It’s going to be a different summer holiday - we’re still not sure what it will look like. But two things are true:

• You can’t work all summer - you need a break.
• You can’t not work this summer - this pandemic isn’t over.

So how do you do the work that needs to be done and recharge?

We are very clear that all our leaders need a good break over the summer but we know that particularly at this time it will be difficult to switch off.

We continue our commitment to the wellbeing of our school leaders during these unprecedented times. We have extended our team of school improvement professionals to lend a listening ear to any Warwickshire headteacher. The four colleagues highlighted in our second Headteacher Wellbeing poster are offering their services, in addition to those we introduced in our last edition. Headteachers are welcome to select the person they feel is most appropriate for their needs.

We are very pleased to have secured some free places for Warwickshire headteachers on two webinars being provided next week by the Heads Up school improvement company (not to be confused with this publication) which focus on supporting you, to ensure you have a well-balanced summer holiday.   

Places are limited and will be first come, first served: 

Register your free place here:

15th July 10am - 11am - calendly.com/take-control-summer-holidays

16th July 10am - 11am: calendly.com/plan-your-summer

Support for Children Transitioning from Schools

Information and guidance has been produced to school leaders evaluate the support they are providing students in their transition to the next phase of their education; i.e. into reception, from infant school, or primary to secondary school.

The guidance covers children transitioning from school and children transitioning into school and covers keys questions relating to the proportion of students who have a known destination and those who have not accepted their transition destination.

The full details can be found in this document

Keeping Children Safe in Education 2020

Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) has been updated for September 2020 and was released on June 17^th  2020 via the Department for Education website.

This PDF version of the document includes highlights where sections have been changed.

This Word document lists the changes with additional notes to help your staff navigate the new guidance.

Warwickshire Libraries - Click and Collect

The promotion of virtual library services has led to Warwickshire Libraries seeing a dramatic increase in the number of individuals accessing digital resources in the county.

Warwickshire Libraries have continued to offer online and delivery services throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, such as access to e-books and e-audiobooks through the BorrowBox online app, e-newspapers and digital reference resources, and a home book delivery service for vulnerable and self-isolating residents.

A new ‘Click and Collect’ service, which will enable people to pre-order books online free of charge and pick them up from a library at a pre-arranged time, launched on Wednesday 8th July.

Customers will be able to collect their pre-ordered books from selected Warwickshire Library locations around the county. It is planned that Nuneaton, Rugby, Leamington and Warwick will be ‘Click and Collect’ locations from Monday 13th July and Atherstone and Stratford-upon-Avon from Monday 20th July.  It is the first phase of Warwickshire County Council reopening face-to-face library services in the community after the disruption caused by Covid-19.

From Tuesday 14th July, customers can also use the ‘Staff Select’ option by phoning or emailing Warwickshire Libraries to request up to three books on a particular subject or from a genre that they like (e.g. crime fiction), in a specific format if necessary (e.g. large print), which libraries staff will then select especially for them.

Books will be issued for the standard three weeks and can be renewed online if not reserved by another customer. There will be no reservation charges.  People will also be able to return library books when they pick up their ‘Click and Collect’ books. Fines will be waived if items are returned late, but customers will be encouraged to return their items on time for the benefit of other customers who may be waiting for that item.

For more information, visit www.warwickshire.gov.uk.

For the full article and for information on the new booking system for computers please use this link

School pupils experience Junior Book Awards online thanks to Warwickshire Schools Library Service

Fourteen Primary and Junior schools from across Warwickshire have been taking part in the annual Junior Book Awards, which this year has been organised completely digitally by Warwickshire Schools Library Service (WSLS).

Over the last 10 weeks, pupils have been reading four shortlisted books, carefully selected by Warwickshire Schools Library Service to include some of the best books published in the preceding calendar year.

The shortlist comprised ‘Swimming Against the Storm’ by Jess Butterworth, ‘Runaway Robot’ by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, ‘Wildspark’ by Vashti Hardy and ‘D-Day Dog’ by Tom Palmer.

Warwickshire Schools Library Service worked with the publishers, authors and Warwickshire Libraries to ensure the books were as accessible as possible for pupils during the Covid-19 pandemic, which included increasing the number of e-book copies available for loan.

The Warwickshire Junior Book Awards usually culminate in a final award ceremony at the Bridgehouse Theatre in Warwick, where pupils and authors come together for a wonderful celebration of reading. Sadly, due to Covid-19, this was not possible this year.

However, pupils have now voted for their favourite book and Warwickshire Schools Library Service were delighted to share their Digital Book Award ceremony with participating schools on Wednesday 8th July.

Warwickshire Schools Library Service will shortly be finalising their longlist for the Year 9 Award that will take place in the Autumn term 2020.

Students will be actively involved in choosing the final four shortlisted books for this Award. They will then read the shortlist and vote for their favourite at the beginning of December 2020.  Warwickshire Schools Library Service are looking at new ways for students to engage and interact with the Award online as well as in person this year.  Their third and longest-standing award, the Warwickshire Secondary Book Award, will take place in the Spring Term of 2021 and is aimed at Years 7 and 8.

Self-harm and suicide prevention in children and young people

A series of repeated webinars on self-harm and suicide prevention in children and young people will be run between July – September. There will be several dates to choose from, colleagues need only attend one. For ease, the dates, times and links can be found using the links at the bottom of this article, colleagues will need to add these to calendars. 

Self-harm and suicide prevention in children and young people webinar will cover the following:

• What is self-harm
• What types of self-harm do young people engage in
• Prevalence of self-harm
• How self-harm links to suicide
• Assessment of self-ham with young people
• Safety plans
• Resources

The webinar will be delivered by Jade Stanley, CAMHS Crisis and Home Treatment Team Lead, and Anne Prendergast, Lead For Clinical Risk and Suicide Prevention at Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust.

Full joining instructions can be found by clicking here

Young People's Mental Health Posters

Please see the attached posters to support Young People who may be struggling with their Mental Health.

Further information can be found via www.cwrise.com

Mental Health Posters

National Professional Qualification for Headship

The Griffin Teaching School Alliance will be running The National Professional Qualification for Headship; a nationally accredited programme for those who are, or are aspiring to become, a headteacher or head of school with responsibility for leading a school.

The programme incorporates :

• Personal learning and reflection;
• Self-study of revised modular materials;
• A whole school development project and written assessment;
• A partner school placement and written assessment;
• Support through the programme by a sponsor from your school .

The course start with an introductory session on Friday, November 13th 2020 from 10 until 12.

For further information please use this link to access the flyer.

National Professional Qualification for Senior Leadership

The National Professional Qualification for Senior Leadership is a revised, nationally accredited programme offering the opportunity to consider your school leadership through discussion and debate with your peers and coach. 

The programme incorporates

• personal learning and reflection;
• self-study of online modular materials;
• a whole school leadership challenge;
• support through the programme by a learning coach from your school;
• evaluating the leadership of teaching 
• learning and the skills needed to close achievement gaps.

The course start with an introductory session for delegates and coaches Thursday Nov 12th 2020 - 3.30pm until 5pm

For further information please use this link to access the flyer.

Key Dates for all Primary FAP and Assessment Gateway Meetings 2020/21

Please use the link below to access the full schedule of meetings.

Key dates for 2020/2021 meetings