Dear colleagues,

Welcome once again to Heads Up which will be in lieu of the briefing that you usually receive on a daily basis.  It’s a difficult balance for us in making sure that you get enough information without you feeling overwhelmed so we feel that receiving Heads Up only at the end of the week – not that a weekend is the period of downtime that we once expected – might best suit you.  As ever, if you do need any additional guidance or clarity, you know we are only an email away.

Obviously, one of the major points this week was the Secretary of State’s announcement that primary schools will not be expected to reopen for all year groups before the summer.  That will have been greeted by many of you with mixed emotions; sadness that you can’t welcome back more of your pupils mixed with a sense of relief that you will have more time to develop your plans to safely welcome more children back.

That’s absolutely fine.  The year groups that were identified as priority, along with the vulnerable children and children of key workers that you have seen since lockdown was put in place, have to be your focus. Among that cohort of pupils is our Year Six. We recognise the stress and anxiety, as well as excitement, that the transition into a secondary school can cause for these children.  Even under normal circumstances, it is probably one of the largest steps that a child will take in their development.

Key to this happening effectively has always been the relationships that teachers enjoy with their Year 6 pupils at one end, linking effectively with staff at secondary schools.  But not having the mechanism to do this face to face does not mean that it cannot be done effectively.  It just needs to be done differently.

You’ll see in this link a document giving a range of guidance on how you can engage with future pupils and their families to ease any anxieties and make links between them and your school.  Take as much of it as you see fit; much of the guidance is based on tried methods that have been proven to be effective and there are some excellent links to other webpages that have been produced that might help you in the transition process. 

As we said last week, your wellbeing is vital at this moment so I urge you to take advantage of all the work that has already been done and alleviate some of your workload. Managing workload is key to managing stress. It is great when we are able to share and signpost materials and practice. Thank you for everyone that is sharing, kite marking and reviewing teaching and learning apps and content. There’s enough to do at the moment without duplicating what is already available!

Speaking of shared work, it has been great to see not only local schools but other local authorities sharing our social media messages and the animation that we produced to welcome back our Reception and Year One pupils.  Next week, we will be sharing the sequel, aimed at our Years Ten and Twelve students.  Please share this with the relevant pupils and we will hope that we go viral again!

If you can save time by tapping into good practice, I would urge you to use that, this weekend, to try and recharge. There is a lot of work ahead of us and we need to make sure that we are as mentally and physically refreshed as possible so that we can get through it. I shall be in touch with the briefing again on Monday. Take care of yourselves.

With best wishes, 

Ian Budd

Assistant Director for Education Services