NSPCC calls on EY practitioners to promote Look, Say, Sing, Play

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is calling on early years practitioners to help promote their new campaign that encourages better childhood brain development.

The charity launched Look, Say, Sing, Play across the UK on 3 June which aims to provide tips to help parents boost their child's development and encourage them to turn everyday moments into brain-building ones.

Early years practitioners can access a whole host of resources for their setting to highlight the campaign to parents and will also find a guide for running a Look, Say, Sing, Play session with families to help them understand how different brain-building activities can be incorporated into their daily routine.

Parents themselves can access lots of different resources too including different activities that they can try at home when interacting with their children.

Further information can be found at the links below:

• NSPCC Look, Say, Sing, Play resources for professionals working with children

• NSPCC YouTube video - Sound Sensor activity

• NSPCC Look, Say, Sing Play - support for parents

Outstanding result for The Links Day Care Centre Ltd, Nuneaton

Congratulations to all the staff at The Links Day Care Centre Ltd Nuneaton who recently received ‘Outstanding’ judgements across all the four Ofsted inspection areas - leadership and management; quality of teaching, learning and assessment; personal development, behaviour and welfare; and outcomes for children.

Ofsted stated:

"Staff closely observe children's play and interactions. Their excellent knowledge of what children know and can do enables them to plan an extensive range of exciting activities. Staff skilfully adapt their interactions to build on and support individual needs."

"Learning and progress of individuals and groups is rigorously monitored by key workers and the manager and any gaps are quickly addressed. For example, when a weakness in mathematics was identified, staff received focused training, and resources were enhanced to include items such as measuring tapes and scales."

"The very high quantity and quality of interactions between staff and children has a positive impact on language development. Extremely stimulating activities and resources support conversation and the introduction of new vocabulary. The early language development of two-year-olds, children with additional needs, and those who speak English as an additional language is skilfully supported. Staff repeat words and rephrase children's speech into short sentences. Parents provide key words in children's home language to support their transition into the setting."

"Activities provided for children consistently encourage them to experiment and think for themselves. For example, when children make dough, they consider what to add to make it less sticky. Children eagerly wait in anticipation to see if a programmable toy moves as they intended. They delight in the marks it makes on paper and suggest it looks like a map. Later they compare it to a real map and push cars along the roads."

"Children are superbly supported to learn to care for themselves and develop their independence. They understand why they cannot prepare their own snack at the moment and the importance of washing their hands well. Outdoors, children are fully involved in managing risk assessments. They discuss and record how to use equipment safely, such as, 'You must be careful on the steps', and how to jump safely from climbing equipment."

"Children develop their literacy skills in real and meaningful ways. Non-fiction texts, such as recipe books, construction books and magazines support all areas of learning. Children often choose to look at books themselves. Staff demonstrate their shared interest to children as they read with enthusiasm and enhance children's thinking with comments and questions. Children thoroughly enjoy developing their drawing and writing skills using different materials. They draw and write on large paper on the floor, in notebooks, on whiteboards and with chalk."

"Staff talk about and celebrate the differences and similarities between children and families and model highly respectful interactions. Children's understanding of other communities is enhanced by tasting foods and learning about festivals as part of their continuous provision."

"The managers and experienced staff team work closely together to provide a consistent and coherent approach to learning. They rigorously evaluate and improve their practice. Current developments are focused on reviewing group times and improving the outdoor area. The manager prioritises the well-being and professional development of staff."

You can read the full report on Ofsted's website here. 

Free symbol materials to support the wider reopening of schools

Widgit Software has produced a free Back to School toolkit of resources to help support signage, wayfinding and personal care around a socially distanced school environment.

The toolkit also includes a set of wellbeing and mental health  resources to assist children returning to school after such a major disruption to their normal day-to-day lives.

The toolkit is available in both PDF and InPrint3 format.

Download your free Widgit Back to School toolkit here

Training and networking for Designated Teachers moving online

Warwickshire's Virtual School for Children Looked After (CLA) and Children Previously Looked After (CPLA) will still be offering support and training for Designated Teachers during the autumn term, albeit in a slightly different format than usual.

Some sessions have been adapted and will now be offered online through Microsoft Teams, as there is some uncertainty around whether any face-to-face training will be possible due to Covid-19. 

Please find below details of sessions being offered in the autumn term and information on how to book your place.

New to Designated Teacher (DT) training

Have you taken on the role of DT this year or taking over the role in 2020-21? This training will cover understanding the roles and responsibilities of being a DT including the ePEP online system.

This will be delivered through Microsoft Teams with 10 places per session to allow the opportunity for discussion and questions.

Early Years

Wed 16 Sept, 9.30 - 11am

Fri 25 Sept, 1.30 - 3pm

School age (primary and secondary)

Wed 23 Sept, 1.30 - 3pm

Tue 29 Sept, 9.30 - 11am

Thu 8 Oct, 3.30 - 5pm

Post-16

Tue 13 Oct, 10 - 11.30am

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Designated teacher and support staff network meetings

We have been unable to run our first network meetings during the summer term as hoped. Instead, we plan to start these in the autumn term using Microsoft Teams and will move to face-to-face meetings when it is safe to do so.

For the autumn term, meetings will be in geographical areas and will be an opportunity to provide updates and to share good practice and new ideas - a similar format to the Teach Meet meetings. They are for all Designated Teachers and Designated Teacher support staff in any setting.

Rugby area - Thu 22 Oct, 4 - 4.45pm

South Warwickshire - Wed 4 Nov, 4 - 4.45pm

Nuneaton/Bedworth and North Warwickshire - Thu 12 Nov, 4 - 4.45pm

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How to Book

To book any of the sessions above please email virtualschool@warwickshire.gov.uk with the name, date and time of the session being booked and the name and email of the person attending the training, so that the Microsoft Teams invitation can be sent to the correct email address.

Support for Pupil Premium pupils to sit the 11+ test

One of Warwickshire County Council's overall priorities is to support our most vulnerable and disadvantaged children and a main area of focus within education is on working to reduce the attainment gap between advantaged and disadvantaged pupils, an area led by the Closing the Gap Board.

As a county we are high achieving but Warwickshire’s disadvantaged pupils do not do well compared to disadvantaged pupils nationally.

With this in mind, and with the 11+ application deadline for 2021 school entry on 29 June 2020, we would like to remind primary schools of the additional support that is available for Pupil Premium pupils and encourage you to share this information with your Year 5 pupils, parents and carers. 

Grammar schools in Warwickshire give an increased priority to pupils eligible for the Pupil Premium, with many reducing the Automatic Qualifying Score (AQS). Despite this, numbers of pupil premium pupils in our grammar schools remains low and we would like to encourage more eligible pupils to register for the 11+ test.

Warwickshire ​grammar schools have worked collectively to provide an offer of support to all Free School Meal (FSM) eligible pupils who are registering to sit the 11+ test. Eligible pupils who apply will receive a joint letter from the grammar schools inviting them to access 10 hours of online familiarisation (FROG) resources.

Any primary heads who would like more information can contact the headteacher at King Edward VI School, who is coordinating the support, Bennet Carr - head@kes.net.

Many of the grammar schools also provide additional support for disadvantaged pupils with the cost of uniforms, trips, 4G access, wifi and laptop/devices. Please refer directly to their websites for more information and FAQs. 

Familiarisation materials are also available directly from the 11+ pages of the Warwickshire Admissions website, as well as full details on how to register for the test.

Pupils are being advised to register as usual and will be contacted with further information about the testing sessions in due course and how these will be conducted during the current coronavirus pandemic. 

The deadline for all pupils to register to sit the 11+ test is Monday 29 June 2020.

Government announces extra mental health support for pupils and teachers

The DfE has announced new online resources and charity grants to help schools and colleges respond to the impact of coronavirus on mental health and wellbeing.

Grants of £750,000 to boost pupils' resilience 

Grants worth more than £750,000 for the Diana Award, the Anti-Bullying Alliance and the Anne Frank Trust will be allocated to help schools and colleges build relationships between pupils and continue to tackle bullying both in person and online.

Pilot project to focus on teachers' and leaders' mental health

A new £95,000 pilot project in partnership with the Education Support Partnership will focus on teachers’ and leaders’ mental health, providing online peer-support and telephone supervision from experts to around 250 school leaders. The School Standards Minister, Nick Gibb, has also written to the members of the DfE's Expert Advisory Group (EAG) on education staff wellbeing, accepting its recommendations which include a commitment to develop a wellbeing charter for the teaching sector. Read Nick Gibb's letter to the Expert Advisory Group here.

Supporting the delivery of compulsory mental health and wellbeing education

A new training module for teachers will also be published next week to support them in giving lessons on the Government’s new Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) curriculum, which will make mental health and wellbeing a compulsory part of pupils’ education in primary and secondary school. The training module will help teachers deliver the new curriculum when it becomes compulsory from September.

Read the full press release on the Gov.uk website here

Wellbeing Wake-Up for reception and Year 1 children

The wellbeing charity Compass has launched a series of ‘Wellbeing Wake-up’ videos for primary school aged children, aimed to help schools, children and families in reception and year 1 classes transition back into school.

Each video is aligned to one of the five ways to wellbeing and will include a short explanation for adults on why it is important to promote wellbeing. This is followed by a ‘wake up and shake up’ for children’s minds and bodies to become focused, finishing with an interactive activity that can be carried out with the child and adult at a convenient time.

The videos can be found here: Wellbeing Wake-Up Videos

Free bite-size road safety videos help Year 6 transition to secondary

In response to the current Covid-19 pandemic, Warwickshire's Road Safety Education Team has developed a brand-new online learning resource for Year 6 pupils, to support with transition and journey planning.

Four bite-size videos have been created to support pupils to plan, prepare and rehearse for their new journeys to secondary school. This resource has been designed to be used flexibly within schools or as a home learning activity.

The resource was initially launched to Warwickshire Road Safety Club member schools and the offer has now been widened to enable all Warwickshire schools to access this free of charge. 

For information about how to access the Year 6 session and resources, please contact roadsafetyeducation@warwickshire.gov.uk.

Are you looking to develop or review your school's bereavement policy?

Claire Kime, Trainee Educational Psychologist at Warwickshire County Council, is looking for schools to take part in her third year educational psychology doctoral research project, looking into school approaches to childhood bereavement.  This research was due to take place earlier this year, but had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Plans have now been made to enable research interviews to take place via remote methods.

Although death and bereavement are inevitable parts of life, childhood bereavement can present as a risk factor in the development of academic, social, emotional and mental health difficulties.

Research suggests that nearly 5% of children experience the death of a parent by the age of 16 and many more will experience the death of other family members, friends, pets or other significant individuals in their lives. Tragically, the UK has seen an unprecedented number of deaths in the past few months due to the coronavirus, resulting in many more children experiencing bereavement.

Primary, secondary and special schools in Warwickshire are welcome to get in touch about participating; and initial discussion would take place with key members of staff. Schools that consent to take part will be asked to provide copies of any policies or curriculum resources related to bereavement and a small group of staff (between three and six) will be invited to take part in a 90 minute group interview via Microsoft Teams. This would include teachers and support staff who have an interest and/or experience in the topic and who are keen to explore the issues 

Participating schools will be provided with information and feedback based on the findings of the research that can be used to inform the development of their policies and practices in supporting pupils affected by bereavement.

Contact and further information

If you would be interested in taking part, you can find more details about the project in the attached information sheet from Claire.

You can also contact Claire for more information on 01926 742921 or email clairekime@warwickshire.gov.uk. 

Carers Week 2020

This week is Carers Week. You may have already seen (or even retweeted) posts and tweets from Warwickshire County Council – so thank you.

Have you had a virtual cuppa yet? Last week we talked about holding a virtual get together with friends and family to discuss what you think caring is all about in Warwickshire.

You could even hold a carer themed quiz, if anything at least it gives you a chance to sit down and have a natter.

A carer is a husband, wife, son or daughter, or friend who cares for loved ones who couldn’t cope without their help. The caring responsibility could be anything from doing everyday tasks as well as providing emotional support. Unpaid carers juggle work, kids and a homelife as well as having a caring responsibility. Caring can be rewarding but also very challenging. There is support available for those who care to maintain their wellbeing and Warwickshire County Council can help.

Please don’t feel you have to do it all on your own. For more information about services and groups who can help support you and your caring responsibility go to www.warwickshire.gov.uk/carers

Keep following us across Twitter @Warwickshire_CC and Facebook WarwickshireCountyCouncil

Ps. Here is a photo of Warwickshire County Council comms team having a Virtual Cuppa on Wednesday. Looks like they were having far too much fun!

NHS Crisis Support for Children and Young people

The Rise Crisis & Home Treatment team (Coventry & Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust) provide multi-disciplinary support to children and young people (under 18s) who present in mental health crisis.

We assess those who are:

• an immediate and significant risk to others due to their mental health
• being considered for admission to a mental health inpatient unit
• at risk of immediate and significant self-harm
• in acute psychological or emotional distress that is causing
• them to not be able to go about their daily activities, such as going to school and looking after themselves

For urgent calls, for children and young people who are experiencing a mental health crisis contact the Rise Crisis team between 8am-8pm 02476 641799 or call 0300 200 0011 outside of these hours.

During the COVID-19 response, this is service is available 24-hours a day, 7-days a week, with an advice-only service outside the core hours of 8am-8pm.

More about Rise

Rise is a family of NHS-led services providing emotional wellbeing and mental health services for children and young people in Coventry and Warwickshire.

It aims to build resilience and empower children and young people (as well as the adults in their lives) to know where to go for help and advice.

The majority of services are for those up to the age of 17.

Non-urgent referrals can be made through the Rise Navigation Hub on Tel: 0300 200 2021/ Fax: 024 7696 1579 8am-6pm

 

Public consultation: Home to school transport policy

Warwickshire County Council is running a public consultation on a proposed change within the Home to School Transport Policy which could affect the way in which a pupil's qualifying school is determined. 

Currently, the 'qualifying school' is defined as the closest school to the pupil's home with a space available and with the distance being measured by the shortest available route (driving route if over the statutory walking distance or walking route if the journey is less than the statutory walking distance). This may, therefore, not be the pupil's priority area school but will be the one physically closest to their home address.

The proposed amendment to the policy would mean that a pupil's qualifying school could be:

1) The school closest to the pupil's home address that has places available and that provides education appropriate to the age, ability and aptitude of the pupil and takes into account any special educational needs that the pupil may have;

AND / OR

2) The priority area school in which the pupil resides.

This could mean that some pupils would have two qualifying schools.

The way that transport is determined for pupils attending selective and faith schools will remain unchanged.

The consultation opened on 8 June 2020 and will close on Friday 17 July 2020.

Further information on the proposal and ways to provide feedback can be found on the Ask Warwickshire consultation pages.

We would appreciate it if schools could make parents and carers aware of this consultation via their usual communication channels.

Free national recruitment service for schools and teachers

Is your school currently recruiting?

All publicly funded primary and secondary schools can sign up to use the Government's free national job listing service, Teaching Vacancies.

The service has been developed to help schools save time and money on recruitment and allows them to widen their talent pool with adverts being seen by potential candidates from the local area and countrywide.

You can read more about the Teaching Vacancies service and sign up for free here

West Midlands Virtual FE Open Week 22 – 26 June

Students from across the West Midlands region will be able to take part in a Virtual Open Week for schools and colleges from Monday 22 to Friday 26 June.

During the week, current Year 11 students will have the opportunity to benefit from a series of virtual college open days, information sessions and careers advice and guidance from colleges across the West Midlands. Events will include live sessions with college staff, overviews of courses plus links to websites and other sources of information to help school leavers explore further education on offer from colleges across the region.

The event is being organised and managed through the Launchyourcareer.com platform, in partnership with West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), the Titan Foundation and the Career Development Institute (CDi). Launchyourcareer.com is an intuitive online platform which takes young people on a journey of career discovery and is free for schools and students to use. 

Students are encouraged to explore their career and future learning options whilst The Careers Adviser Dashboard gives you access to all of your students’ profiles right at your fingertips.

So, what steps do you need to take to get involved?

Step One: Go to Launchyourcareer.com/virtualopenweek and you will be guided on how to register your school.

Updated guidance on T levels capital fund

The roll out of T Levels, planned for September 2020, has inevitably been affected by the coronavirus pandemic and the Government has issued an update this week setting out their revised approach on T Levels capital projects for schools and post-16 institutions.  

The Government made a commitment to bringing in T Levels on a phased basis starting with the first three T Levels in September 2020 - Digital, Construction and Education and Childcare routes. A total of £38 million of capital funding has been made available to help the first T Level providers to deliver T Levels in world class facilities. 

Any settings looking to apply for funding from the Competitive Buildings and Facilities Improvement Grant (BFIG) will need to submit their applications by midday on 26 June 2020.

View the updated T Levels Capital Fund guidance here

Ofsted to review students' and apprentices' online further education experience

Ofsted is working to review further education learners’ experience of online learning during the Covid-19 (coronavirus) lock-down.

The review aims to provide insights into the sector’s experiences of online education and to identify areas of strength and potential for improvement. This will support post-16 providers re-visiting their online education strategies, particularly from September 2020 onward. The review will look at the online education that providers are delivering in light of the necessary social distancing measures.

The review will take place in June 2020 and Her Majesty’s Inspectors will be speaking remotely to managers, teachers and trainers in volunteer further education colleges and skills providers to discuss their delivery of online teaching and learning.

Inspectors will also speak to students and apprentices about their experience of learning online and the support that they have received. This will be done by phone.

The review is not an inspection and there will be no consequences for the providers. Involvement in this review is entirely voluntary. Data gathered during the review will be confidential and staff, students and apprentices will not be identified.

For more information about the review please click here