Celebrating Warwickshire’s Family of Schools
Applications for an in-year place for next academic year required by 7th July
The Admissions Team have reflected on the processing of in-year applications during the summer term and holiday period last year and to avoid the backlog of applications, which everyone found difficult to deal with, they are informing parents that they need to apply for an in-year place for next academic year by 7th July to be certain of securing a place for September.
This date will ensure the team have time to process the applications and get responses from schools. This will also mean that children will be on roll ahead of the census in October, thus securing funding for schools. In order to ensure they can get offers sent out to parents in time for a September start, they ask that applications are processed as quickly as possible, and responses returned to the team promptly. They politely request that schools have a member of staff available during week commencing 23rd August to liaise with the Admissions Team about available places and return any responses sent across to schools during the holiday period.
If you wish to discuss any specific issues regarding your school and this request, please contact Cheryl Wild - Lead Officer for In-Year Admissions and Fair Access on cherylwild@warwickshire.gov.uk or 01926 742061.
Early Career Framework Support from John Taylor Teaching School Hub
Please see this document with a variety of links for Early Career Framework Support from the John Taylor Teaching School Hub.
Please contact Early Career Framework Lead, Kirby Dowler k.dowler@jths.co.uk with any queries.
New peer support for parents of young people who self harm
Warwickshire County Council, in partnership with Kaleidoscope Plus Group, have recently launched a new peer support service aimed at parents of young people who self-harm or have thoughts of suicide. As part of the service, parents will be signposted to other services, who can support both the young person and/or families.
Self-harm in young people is a large and increasing problem in the UK, with an estimated 10-15% of young people self-harming at some point during adolescence. Between April 2019 and March 2020, 125 under 24s attended Coventry and Warwickshire A&E with a self- harm flag; in the same period, 853 under 24s were admitted to Coventry and Warwickshire hospitals because of self-harm.
The groups will be held twice monthly, and sessions will be offered both during the day and evening. The objectives of the service will be as follows:
- offer support to parents of young people who self-harm, living in Warwickshire
- bring together those people who have shared experiences of looking after a young person who self-harms, and to support each other in an informal setting
- provide a safe space where individual(s) feel understanding and are supported and will treat personal experiences with equal importance
- support parents to understand their child and learn how to support their child
Referrals to the service can by both by a professional or parents / carers self-referring, as follows:
Professionals : Referral link https://forms.office.com/r/PdZ1TduB1n
Parent/Carers: Referral link https://forms.office.com/r/PdZ1TduB1n or Email: SPPARK@Kaleidoscopeplus.org.uk /Phone:07970040016.
Schoolgenie: Developing Coaching Skills in your school
Following publication of the DfE's wellbeing charter, including their commitment to "designing-in" wellbeing, it has never been more important to embed trust at the heart of school culture.
However, making this a reality is not easy! For this reason, we are delighted to let you know that external training and support is available to help make your school a place where all staff and learners can flourish. .
Implementing the work described in The Trust Revolution in Schools (Davies, 2020) a pilot is running, called Schoolgenie, that includes Warwickshire schools from September 2021.
If you'd like to find out more or sign up, check this website. We are expecting there to be lots of interest in this work in the future as the new Ofsted framework includes a focus on wellbeing, workload, relationships and workplace cultures , so the opportunity to take part in the early stages is particularly valuable.
If you'd like to work out how important work cultures are to your school's finances, the DfE has this handy calculator. Click here for more info.
To register your interest in Schoolgenie or find out more, email info@schoolgenie.co.uk today.
See this flyer on the topic.
Updated Inspection Data Summary Report (IDSR)
We have updated the inspection data summary report (IDSR) with absence data from autumn term 2020, based on the DfE published data. The absence data used in the IDSR is based on the DfE census collection and has been provided as a new section within the IDSR. This is different to the daily attendance collection which schools have submitted throughout the pandemic, which will not be used in the IDSR.
This data relates to absences during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. As such, users should not directly compare 2020 autumn absence to historic absence rates. There may be a number of reasons for changes in absence rates. Inspectors will not use the 2020 autumn absence data by itself to draw conclusions but may use it to prompt questions regarding how well attended a school was during this period. Inspectors may also use previous years’ data to provide context to the latest data, particularly where a school has previously had high or low absence rates in relation to other schools.
It is important to note that:
- If a pupil tested positive for COVID-19 then this absence should have been treated as an illness and included within the data.
- However other COVID-19 related absence, such as pupils being sent home to isolate, did not count as absences within the data.
Further detail on how absence rates have been calculated can be found in the DfE published methodology.
Please ensure you download the latest version of your IDSR, which will have 7 June 2021 release date.
Should you have any IDSR or Ofsted IDSR service queries, please contact either:
Schoolwear Association publishes guidance to help schools with uniform tenders
The Schoolwear Association, the organisation that represents all those involved in the supply of school specific uniforms, has recently released new uniform tendering guidance for schools. The guidance aims to simplify the often-complex process of appointing a new school uniform supplier, so schools are properly equipped to secure the best value and highest quality uniform by ensuring competition at the point of selecting a uniform provider.
Whilst the benefits of school uniforms are widely recognised by schools and parents, this is the first time that guidance is being provided across the sector to embed consistent competitive processes and standards in the uniform tendering process.
Secondary Maths Mentor Support Sessions
Have you mentored trainee maths teachers in your school this year?
Will you be supporting trainee or new maths teachers in your department next year?
Origin Maths Hub are hosting a couple of free online sessions relating to issues surrounding supporting trainee teachers with mathematics teaching.
They take place on:
Thursday 1st July 2021
Monday 12th July 2021
4:00 - 5:00pm
You can find out more and register your interest here.
Kooth Online Mental Wellbeing Community for Children and Young People
If you are a Y6 teacher or Y7 Transition Coordinator please see here for a link to a primary to secondary transition support session to support the use of the Kooth resource.
These sessions aim to support teachers to confidently share Kooth information with year 6 pupils and how Kooth can help with the transition from primary to secondary school.
Eventbrite Primary to Secondary Transition Support Sessions (Teachers)
Cyber Safe Warwickshire seeking views of young people on gaming and wellbeing
Cyber Safe Warwickshire wants to get the views of young people and their patterns of gaming during lockdown (between March - September 2020, November - March 2021), so that we can identify the changes in gaming and whether this has had an adverse effect on young people's wellbeing.
The Warwickshire Gaming Survey 2021 aims to find out the usage, type, time spent on, reasons for gaming and to check whether young people are aware of the risks associated with cyberspace. The survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete.
Cyber Safe Warwickshire is a local resource funded by the Police Crime Commissioner. Abbey and Joe the Cyber Crime Advisors for Warwickshire County Council funded by the Police Crime Commissioner are responsible for delivering the Warwickshire Cyber Crime Action Plan on behalf of Warwickshire community safety partners, focussing on delivering initiatives to prevent and reduce risk of harm from cyber-crimes to individuals.
Please could those with secondary age children could encourage their children to complete by the end of June.
Complete the survey here: https://ask.warwickshire.gov.uk/insights-service/2cfd15bd/
Think Active Opening School Facilities Webinar, 17th June 12.00-13.30
The Opening School Facilities Fund aims to support young people to be active by allowing schools to operate safely, as we transition to recovery and reinventing what sport and activity provision looks like in the future. By helping schools to either re-open or open their sports facilities, we are supporting clubs and groups, some of which have not been able to do anything for almost 12 months, to access local facilities. This will facilitate much needed activities for young people during evenings (after 5pm) and weekends.
This webinar/drop in session is available for schools across Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire to attend if they are interested in the Opening School Facilities Fund. This will give the opportunity to find out more information and ask any questions they have.
Date: Thursday 17th June 2021
Time: 12:00 – 1:30pm
Venue: Microsoft Teams
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A note on information sharing and GDPR
All practitioners must have due regard for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, these are outlined in the Government guidance “Information sharing” produced in 2018 which outlines advice for practitioners providing safeguarding services to children, young people, parents and carers.
Information sharing is essential for effective safeguarding and planning for support for all children and young people. See page 13 of the Information Sharing Advice to Practitioners document which addresses some of the key Myths around information sharing e.g.
The GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 are barriers to sharing information:
No – the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 do not prohibit the collection and sharing of personal information. They provide a framework to ensure that personal information is shared appropriately. In particular, the Data Protection Act 2018 balances the rights of the information subject (the individual whom the information is about) and the possible need to share information about them.
Never assume sharing is prohibited – it is essential to consider this balance in every case. You should always keep a record of what you have shared.
In February 2021 a series of senior colleagues from across WCC which included Local Authority (LA) Education and Social Services, Early Years Providers, Schools, Colleges and Academies convened to co-produce a series of principle and establish best practice in relation to information sharing. This is summarised in the Information Sharing Protocol and WCC requests that all providers follow these key principles to create a consistent approach.
There are key documents which support the delivery of these key principles and these are available here:
Information Sharing Protocol 2021.pdf
WCC Learner Information Form Primary.docx
WCC Secondary Learner Information Form.docx
Warwickshire Early Years Learner Information Form.docx
Warwickshire County Council Children Missing from Early Education.doc
File Transfer Record and Receipt (1).docx
Accelerating Spelling and Language Skills: free training sessions
Following the overwhelming success of the Accelerating Reading Progress Webinars, Warwickshire and Staffordshire Educational Psychology Services are pleased to be offering a second series of Webinars for primary/secondary school staff, and other professionals, focusing on spelling and language/vocabulary skills. This training is free to access as part of our work supporting schools n line with the county’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
See this flyer for the full details.
End of Year Reporting
We continue to await government guidance, however we have received and update from the Regional Delivery Directorate:
We can confirm due to the cancellation of the national curriculum assessments there is no requirement to include any statutory assessment information in your end of year reports.
The Education (Pupil information) Regulation legislation amendment confirms changes to end of year reporting requirements including information about excluding pupil attendance from reports.
www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2021/482/note/made
The reporting to parents’ guidance is due to be updated shortly. Generally, schools should take a proportionate approach in deciding what information to include within their pupils’ reports. As in previous years, schools should decide the appropriate level of detail required within reports, recognising that pupils’ education may have been disrupted.
COVID-19 information for educational settings
WCC Education during Covid-19 Web pages and Helplines for education leaders
Education COVID Response Team Helpline: 01926 412011 09:00 to 17:00 Monday to Friday.
Education COVID Response Team Mailbox: education-corona@warwickshire.gov.uk
Early Years mailbox: earlyyearsadvisors@warwickshire.gov.uk
Public Health mailbox: dphadmin@warwickshire.gov.uk 08:00 am to 8:00 pm 7 days a week
WCC Online resources:
Reporting Form: Reporting Positive Covid Cases to WCC
Public Health Toolkit: https://schools.warwickshire.gov.uk/coronavirus/covid-19-toolkit-schools-early-years-settings/1
Education during Covid-19 web pages: https://schools.warwickshire.gov.uk/coronavirus
Links to sign up for regular news updates:
Updates from GOV.UK for: Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Updates from GOV.UK for: Department for Education
Teacher Bulletin from GOV.UK Department for Education
Heads Up the weekly Heads Bulletin from WCC
Department for Education COVID-19 helpline
The Department for Education COVID-19 helpline and the PHE Advice Service (option 1) is available to answer any questions you have about COVID-19 relating to education settings and children’s social care.
Phone: 0800 046 8687
Opening hours: Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm, Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 6pm
Bank holiday opening hours: Monday 31 May from 10am to 4pm
Department for Education guidance
Our guidance to support education providers, local authorities and parents during the COVID-19 outbreak can be accessed using the links below:
Look up your unique organisation number (UON)
If you have not received your unique organisation number (UON) for ordering new COVID-19 test kits you can look it up using your unique reference number (URN) or your UK provider reference number (UKPRN) or by calling the Test and Trace helpdesk on 119.
Agenda for Summer Term Headteachers' Conference (16th June 2021)
This is a reminder for headteachers that this term’s conference will be taking place next Wednesday 16th June 2021 (9.15am – 12.00pm) and will be held virtually on Microsoft Teams. To join the conference on the day, please click on the below link:
Summer Term 2021 Headteachers' Conference 16.06.2021
The focus of this term’s conference is ‘Celebration of Success and Positive Reflection’. Please find below agenda with further details. We hope you will be able to join us.
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Programme
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Lead
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9.15am
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Welcome & Conference Opening
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Ian Budd
Assistant Director - Education Services, Warwickshire County Council
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9.25am
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Why We Hoarded Toilet Rolls
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Richard Gerver
Richard Gerver has been described as one of the most inspirational leaders of his generation. He is an award-winning speaker, bestselling author and world-renowned thinker.
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10.10am
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Positive Pause 1
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Matthew Biggs
Strategic Lead for Education and Early Years, Warwickshire County Council
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10.15am
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Coffee Break
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10.25am
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The EEF Tiered Approach
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Caroline Bilton
Literacy Content Specialist, Education Endowment Foundation
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10.55am
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Positive Pause 2
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Darren Barrow
Schools Sustainability Lead Officer, Warwickshire County Council
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11.00am
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Employment for All
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Claire Cookson
CEO, DFN Project SEARCH
Introduced by Natalie Williams Technical Specialist Employability and Post 16, Warwickshire County Council
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11.25am
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Positive Pause 3
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Margot Brown
School Improvement Lead Commissioner, Warwickshire County Council
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11.30am
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Closing Remarks
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Mark Ryder
Strategic Director for Communities, Warwickshire County Council
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