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

---

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

---

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