Reaching out to all families for the Census 2021
On Friday, February 12 the National Campaign for Census 2021 will launch.
Soon after households will receive notification of the forthcoming Census and the first week of March they will then receive their access code to complete the Census questionnaire.
There are many ways to help and encourage people to take part in the Census, including using the attached leaflets which are available in different languages and will answer questions about the Census.
Your Questions Answered -
Bangladeshi English
Gujarati Hindi Polish
Punjabi Gurmukhi Shahmukhi Punjabi
Other Resources are available here
Child and Social Care Head Teacher Briefing Schedule
Please click here to download the current schedule for the head teacher briefings which are run monthly providing updates on each service within Children and Families. There is also the opportunity to invite guests from other services to discuss topics requested by Head Teachers.
Please note the additional dates at the end of the year.
Specialist Leader of Education Recruitment - Spring 2021
The Warwickshire Teaching School Alliance are pleased to announce a new Early Years Specialist Leader of Education (SLE) recruitment round.
We will be accepting applications from Thursday 11 February through to Friday 26 February. Interviews will be held on Thursday 11 March.
Remote Learning: useful updates
Remember:
Remote Learning is 'a broad term encompassing any learning that happens outside of the classroom, with the teacher not present in the same location as the pupils' (from OFSTED guidance: 'What's working well in remote education'. Remote Learning therefore does not have to be online - it means 'remote from' the school
For Primary Schools: How can our consortium Remote Learning 'expert user' help us
Online Training Sessions available to all consortiums: Webinar and PPt
- Using digital teaching to improve learning
- Preparing your school for blended learning
- Exploring options for blended learning
- Considering online safety
Expert Users:
Remote training can be offered on the following topics; to be discussed and agreed with the school prior to any training session. Subject to the expert user’s availability, help and support can also be given through phone calls and email.
Blended Learning using MS Teams
- Creating classroom Teams
- Setting up school areas
- Creating meetings
- Calendar
- MS Teams
- Scheduled meetings
- Ad hoc meetings
- Inviting external guests
- Setting up permissions when creating an online meeting
- Stop children entering a meeting before the teacher
- Stop the children from chatting
- End a meeting so children cannot reopen it
- How to restrict pupil permissions
- How to download a register
- Creating assignments
- Exploring the different types of assignments
- How to add Word/PPT/ PDF /photos documents
- Marking assignments
- Adding rubric/marking scheme
- Providing feedback
- Setting up private channels
- 1:1 with pupils
- Support and wellbeing
- Intervention
- Using MS Teams for parent consultations
- How to record lessons and share pre-recorded content
- How to incorporate Sways into lessons
- How to utilise Forms
Blended Learning using Google Classroom
- Creating classrooms
- Creating assignments
- Marking assignments
- Creating and using rubrics
- Using Google Meet within Classroom for live lessons
Recording and sharing lessons
- How to utilise Google Forms
- Using Google meet for Parent consultations
Blended Learning using Purple Mash
- Creating and setting a 2Do
- Marking a 2Do
- Feedback to children
- Creating your own 2Dos etc PDFs that can be written on
- Curriculum coverage
- Monitoring and assessment
Monitoring and analysis of blended learning solutions
- Tracking of pupils work
- Monitoring of work
- Using Insight within MS Team
- Monitoring meetings
*Please note the experts are working teachers and support/ training offered will need to fit in with their availability.
Scam Publication Warning to Businesses, Schools, and other Organisations
Businesses, schools, and other organisations are being cold called and offered advertising space in bogus anti-bullying, drugs, and safety related publications.
The callers sometimes claim they are working with the Police, Fire Service, or other Government services and that the publications will be distributed to schools. In reality, these bogus publications are not being produced with the agreement of any Government service and have little or no circulation, meaning that the advertising is worthless. The fraudsters use cleverly worded sales pitches to trick owners and employees in to agreeing to buy advertising space when they would otherwise not have done so. In some cases, fraudsters cold call and claim the business/organisation has already agreed to pay for advertising, even when they have not. These callers can be very persistent and threatening.
Never agree to buy advertising from a cold caller. Do not even ask to see example copies of the publication or request further information. Some scam publishers will treat any such request as an agreement to buy.
Scam publishers also threaten legal action if their 'customers' don't pay up.
Business owners and organisation heads are advised to alert their staff to this scam.
Support for Vulnerable Children from Schools During Lockdown
Warwickshire Safeguarding is responsible for ensuring learning from safeguarding case reviews is effectively shared and changes implemented across the partnership to improve quality of safeguarding practice.
The following briefing has been prepared by Warwickshire Safeguarding Partnership in response to the initial findings of an ongoing Child Safeguarding Practice Review (CSPR), formerly known as Serious Case Reviews, which has identified variances in the support offered to vulnerable children during the Covid 19 epidemic. This briefing should be read in partnership with current Government Guidance and advice from Warwickshire Education Entitlement Team.
School Attendance
Since January 2021, all children and young people defined to be as vulnerable should be attending on site school provision. Vulnerable children and young people include those who:
- are assessed as being in need under section 17 of the Children Act 1989, including children and young people who have a child in need plan, a child protection plan or who are a looked-after child
- have an education, health and care (EHC) plan
- have been identified as otherwise vulnerable by educational providers or local authorities (including children’s social care services), and who could therefore benefit from continued full-time attendance, this might include:
- children and young people on the edge of receiving support from children’s social care services or in the process of being referred to children’s services
- adopted children or children on a special guardianship order
- those at risk of becoming NEET (‘not in employment, education or training’)
- those living in temporary accommodation
- those who are young carers
- those who may have difficulty engaging with remote education at home (for example due to a lack of devices or quiet space to study)
- care leavers
- others at the provider and local authority’s discretion including pupils and students who need to attend to receive support or manage risks to their mental health
If a vulnerable child or young person does not attend, schools should:
- work together with the local authority and social worker (where applicable) to follow up with the parent or carer to explore the reasons for absence,
- work together with the local authority and social worker (where applicable) and other relevant partners to encourage the child or young person to attend educational provision,
- be in daily contact via telephone or online provision with the child or young person. This daily contact includes all those children that remain on the school roll even if they attend off site settings or are part of a managed move.
- A minimum of weekly contact with the parent/carer with whom the child resides to seek their perspective of how they are managing
- where daily contact with the child or young person has been unsuccessful a home visit is to be completed, during which the child or young person should be seen and spoken to.
- If the child or young person has not been seen for a period of 10 working days, the school should make a Child Missing Education (CME) referral. The CME team will carry out further checks and submit a MASH referral if the child or young person remains missing from education. Further details are available on the following webpages
https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/childrenmissingeducation
For advice, guidance and support, Schools can contact the CME Team on 01926 736 323 or by email on: cme@warwickshire.gov.uk.
Every child on the vulnerable children register/database will be allocated to a named Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) who will be responsible for ensuring that the identified level of support and contact is provided. DSL’s will record all contacts and outcomes with vulnerable children and their families in the usual way so that those records are visible to colleague DSL’s and can be reviewed in regular DSL meetings.
Further Information
For further information on the work of Warwickshire Safeguarding please visit the website. Here you will be able to access relevant information and guidance on safeguarding policy, procedures and practice, as well as accessing the following resources:
- Lessons Learned Briefings (2 page brief providing synopsis of case and key learning points); and
- 7 Minute Briefings (Single page briefing placing the spotlight on key topics of information identified as requiring further promotion and understanding amongst all professionals working with child and/or adults).