Securing the Best Start to Life
Help parents with childcare costs, increase revenue into early years and childcare settings, and open up new opportunities.
A FREE Tax-Free Childcare webinar for all types of childcare and out of school providers.
- 15th March 2022 - 1.30pm – 3.00pm
- 16th March 2022 - 6.30pm - 8.00pm
This 90-minute ZOOM webinar will be useful for all types of approved or registered providers in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales who offer paid for childcare and activities for families. If you provide childcare services for children aged 0-11 years (up to 17 years if disabled), you are invited to attend.
The webinar is designed to raise awareness of TFC and increase understanding of it. We will be providing a useful overview of Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) for providers of how it could better benefit children and families.
We also want to help and equip attendees with ideas and tools that can motivate parents to sign up and use TFC to pay for childcare, out of school and holiday activities. Helping families and children and the provider in turn.
HMRC has asked Hempsall’s, the specialist early years and childcare organisation providing consultancy, training and research for governments, councils and providers, to deliver the webinar.
- Book your place here - 15th March 2022 - 1.30pm – 3.00pm
- Book your place here - 16th March 2022 - 6.30pm - 8.00pm
A FREE Tax-Free Childcare webinar for local authorities/councils and family-facing professionals
Help parents with childcare costs, increase revenue into early years and childcare settings, and open up new opportunities.
A FREE Tax-Free Childcare webinar for local authorities/councils and family-facing professionals 10.00am – 11.30am 15 March 2022
This 90-minute ZOOM webinar will be useful for local authorities/councils and family-facing professionals across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
You should attend if you are a health visitor, social worker, housing officer, or work in children’s centres, early help, job centres, or if you are an early years and childcare provider, school teacher, or if you are someone else who works with families across the public, private and voluntary sectors.
The webinar is designed to raise awareness of TFC and increase understanding of it. We will be providing a useful overview of Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) and how it could better benefit children and families.
We also want to help and equip attendees with ideas and tools that can motivate parents to sign up and use TFC to pay for childcare, out of school and holiday activities. Helping families and children and the provider in turn.
HMRC has asked Hempsall’s, the specialist early years and childcare organisation providing consultancy, training and research for governments, councils and providers, to deliver the webinar.
To book your place: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tax-free-childcare-local-authoritiescouncil-family-facing-professionals-tickets-262460706037
Celebrating Warwickshire’s Family of Schools
Talking to children about Ukraine and war - resources
Please see a selection of resources below that can be used for children regarding the situation in the Ukraine.
Music Education Hub
Music Education Hubs are groups of organisations – such as local authorities, schools, arts/music organisations, community or voluntary organisations – working together to create joined-up music education provision and fulfil the objectives as set out in the DfE's National Plan for Music Education (DfE 2011).
Each Music Education Hub (MEH) is co-ordinated by a lead organisation, Warwickshire County Council’s Music Service is the lead organisation for Warwickshire’s Music Education Hub.
MEH's receive grant funding from the DfE via the Arts Council England to deliver the objectives set out in the National Plan for Music Education. ‘To enable children from all backgrounds and every part of England to have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, to make music with others, to learn to sing, and to have the opportunity to progress to the next level of excellence’, from early years through to post 16.
To support with helping to shape Warwickshire Music Hubs annual business plan for 2022/23, specialist consultants from People Make it Work have been commissioned by Arts Council England to:
- Produce a needs analysis to look at the range of musical genres and provision of Whole Class Ensemble Tuition opportunities available for children and young people in the county and in particular building focus on youth voice, stakeholder consultation, market analysis, access barriers, school needs and views of hub users/non-users
- Review the effectiveness of data capture and recommend future approaches to support needs analyses
- Review current and potential hub delivery partners
- Support effective hub governance practice
To achieve this the consultants would like to engage directly with education settings, young people, staff, stakeholders etc to gain views, via a short survey and focus groups, more details and invitations to follow.
We do hope you will support us with this important piece of work to further develop the musical opportunities for children and young people in Warwickshire.
Supporting Recovery Programme – making evidence informed choices, West Midlands Research Schools and EEF
As part of the EEF’s involvement in the DfE's Accelerator Fund, West Midlands Research Schools are now promoting and recruiting for the free 6-module Supporting Recovery programme. This new programme is linked to recovery, evidence-informed leadership and teaching and School Improvement Planning for 2022-23, building on free twilights that schools in Warwickshire have accessed.
Four regional Research Schools (including Staffordshire, St. Matthews, Billesley and Aspirer) will be offering this programme on multiple dates and with varied formats of delivery to support schools to access this and you can sign up via this form.
This link contains some more information about this programme, who it is most suitable for and delivery dates and options.
If any schools, leaders or teachers would like to try the pair of introductory Recovery Twilights first, they can still sign up via this link Supporting recovery: making evidence informed choices (google.com)
Youth conference 2022
Introduction to CASS Adults Online Session
Please find here more information.
Prepaid online courses from the Solihull Approach (NHS)
To ALL PARENTS & CARERS: sparkle and shine with these amazing FREE (funded) anonymous, evidence-based, online courses for all! J
1. Understanding your pregnancy, labour, birth and your baby (antenatal)
2. Understanding your baby (postnatal)
3a. Understanding your child (0-19+ yrs, main course)
3b. Understanding your child with additional needs (0-19+ yrs, main course)
4. Understanding your teenager’s brain (short course)
5. Understanding your brain (for teenagers only!)
6. Understanding your child’s feelings (a taster course)
7. Understanding your child’s mental health and wellbeing (accompanies 3a and/or 3b)
8. Understanding your relationships (coming soon!)
ONS Schools Infection Survey
Westgate Primary School has been involved on the SIS2 national antibody testing programme with the ONS.
The school was selected to produce a film explaining the programme to other schools and below you will find the link to the video on You Tube https://youtu.be/EQOSv3wphCQ.
Creative Commonwealth Project
Through this project you will have the opportunity to work with likeminded people, develop skills, visit arts, cultural and sporting venues and explore what it means to you to have the Commonwealth Games in your city!
Working with a team of creative specialists- a spoken word artist and a creative film maker, you will have chance to learn new skills and create a short film collectively that will be used at the Commonwealth Games live sites. (Please note the film will be created by the young people as film makers but will not specifically feature them or allow them to be identifiable).
Download here more information.
Free educational programming for young people by Cambridge Uni: 4-9 April
The event runs from 4-9 April (Easter break) and consists of 5 days of 2-hour sessions around different themes (e.g. arts & humanities, STEM, etc.). Each session in turn has 4 different lessons, which are specifically designed to be interactive, exciting, and inspiring. In addition to interactive activities throughout the lessons, students will have the chance to ask questions after each session, which can be about the lesson content, subject area, or university life more generally.
More information about the event and how to register can be found here: https://www.festival.cam.ac.uk/events/gates-scholars-teach-thon
It’s never too late to quit smoking.
National no smoking day was on 9 March and is an opportunity for people to focus on quitting the habit for good. Warwickshire County Council is reminding residents not to give up on giving up and highlighting the support available.
It’s estimated that the average smoker takes 30 quit attempts to succeed and this No Smoking Day is a reminder that each quit attempt is a step closer to success. Smokers can access support across Warwickshire via the quit4good website which details where and how to access stop smoking services. Alternatively digital support is available through the NHS stop smoking app, providing daily support and tracking to monitor progress.
The benefits of quitting smoking begin immediately, the sooner you stop the greater the health gains but whenever you stop your health will benefit. After 48 hours of quitting smoking all carbon monoxide is flushed out of the body and after 1 year the risk of a heart attack is halved compared to a smoker.
For those who are pregnant and thinking about quitting, there is lots of support to help along the way either online or through a midwife. Quit4Baby Warwickshire is a friendly and welcoming service that can help people to quit during pregnancy. They are a supportive team who are committed to helping pregnant women and partners who want to stop smoking.
Connect for Health
Our March family health and wellbeing newsletter is out, and includes information about World Sleep Day, Child Exploitation Awareness Day, and the Hebrew festival Holi. We hope the public health messages covered will help families to get a better night's sleep and learn to spot the signs of child exploitation. You can download and share the newsletter using this link: https://cutt.ly/c4h-newsletter-march
We have also put together information packs for the public health campaigns listed above.
For World Sleep Day, we created a family information pack full of useful resources and websites that can help establish a healthy bedtime routine: https://cutt.ly/world-sleep-day-2022
For Child Exploitation Awareness Day (‘STOP CE’ Awareness Day), we created a resource pack for schools with information to help school staff and families spot the signs of exploitation and seek support when needed: https://cutt.ly/ce-awareness-pack
We also compiled lesson materials to facilitate sessions for pupils with SEND around two key topics relating to child exploitation: body awareness and online safety: https://cutt.ly/STOP-CE-SEND-lesson-materials
We hope you find these resources useful and are able to distribute them to colleagues and families as appropriate. If your school would like any further support with these topics or resources, please get in touch via phone on 03300 245 204 or email at connectforhealth@welearn365.com.
Notice regarding Healthcare Plans
You will be aware of the Supporting Pupils at School with Medical Conditions, DfE 2017 document. This document states that the Individual Healthcare Plans for pupils (and their review) may be initiated, in consultation with the parent/carer, by a member of school staff or a healthcare professional involved in providing care to the child. Healthcare Plans should be developed in partnership between school, parent/carers and a relevant healthcare professional, who can best advise on the particular needs of the child. The pupil should also be involved whenever appropriate. The aim should be to capture the steps which a school should take to help the pupil manage their medical condition and overcome any potential barriers to getting the most from their education and how they might work with other health and social care professionals to achieve this.
Partners should agree who is best placed to take the lead in writing the health care plan, but responsibility for ensuring it is finalised and implemented rests with school. If you require any assistance in the writing of a Healthcare Plan, please call us on 03300 245 204.
Schools encouraged to get involved with National Remembrance and Reflection Day in aid of social care workers
On Thursday 17th March Warwickshire, along with colleagues in Coventry, will pay tribute to the hard work and dedication seen by our social care colleagues during Covid-19 and going forward, post pandemic.
To celebrate we have commissioned a special poster that we are asking schools to print off and offer to school children across the county to colour in. The poster can then be displayed either at home or at school. There is even a space for children to write a name of a social care worker, who they know, and who they can dedicate the poster to.
The theme of the day is very much about appreciation and kindness to others, which may offer a theme for a school assembly. To download the poster please click here
Dedicate a Warwickshire honeysuckle to a social care worker for Social Care Day of Remembrance and Reflection – Warwickshire County Council
Social Care Day of Remembrance
Dedicate a Warwickshire honeysuckle to a social care worker for Social Care Day of Remembrance and Reflection – Warwickshire County Council