WE1 Early Years
Free online guides to boost parents confidence
Since launching in summer 2017, more than 500 parents and carers in Warwickshire have benefited from access to three free online guides. Designed by the NHS and part of the acclaimed ‘Solihull Approach’ programme, the main aim of the guides is to help parents and carers to feel more confident and build positive relationships with their infants and children. This in turn strengthens emotional well-being and the ability of children to be able to bounce back from life's challenges.
The online guides on offer are:
- Understanding your pregnancy, labour, birth and your baby
- Understanding your baby
- Understanding your child (6 months to 18 yrs of age)
We want professionals working with families across Warwickshire to recommend these guides where possible. Please watch this short video of Sam Game, Clinical Lead for Health Visiting and expert in the Solihull Approach, talking about the evidence base for the approach, and why you should familiarise yourself with them (click the image below to view the video on YouTube).
If you would like to know more about the online guides and how they could help you support families in your work you can register your interest for a face-to-face session in the new year by emailing phadmin@warwickshire.gov.uk.
For more information please visit:
www.warwickshire.gov.uk/parentguides
WE2 An empowering curriculum
Religious Education survey for all schools
FAO. All RE Subject Leaders/ RE Coordinators in Warwickshire (with the exception of Catholic schools)
ACTION: Please respond to the survey by 18th January 2019
Warwickshire Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE) has a duty to monitor the provision and quality of Religious Education (RE) taught according to the locally agreed syllabus, together with monitoring the overall effectiveness of the syllabus. SACRE also plays a role in providing advice and support on the teaching of RE to Warwickshire schools.
The current syllabus was launched in 2017 and is available to all schools (except Catholic schools who follow their own syllabus) on the SACRE website.
In order to help SACRE to fulfil its statutory responsibility, we are asking RE coordinators and subject leads to complete an online survey to provide information on the provision and delivery of RE in school. The survey forms part of the overall monitoring process and data from the survey will be used to report back to SACRE on current RE provision and to offer monitoring support visits to schools where these would be helpful.
Please follow the link below to complete the online form by 18th January 2019:
For any queries please contact sacre@warwickshire.gov.uk
The Year of Wellbeing 2019 and your school
Coventry and Warwickshire will be celebrating a Year of Wellbeing throughout 2019, and every school will be able to take up free advice on participating in ways that work for you.
The Year is an opportunity for all organisations across Coventry and Warwickshire to help inspire everyone to take action to improve their wellbeing and the wellbeing of others.
During the Year, everyone - including pupils, parents, headteachers, and schools – will have the opportunity to think differently about how we can maintain and improve our health and wellbeing by doing simple, free things like keeping hydrated and taking a 10-minute mental break to clear your mind.
One important area for action is around children and physical activity, both in and out of school.
Education, leisure services, sports and health colleagues have already come together to find the best ways to help schools manage existing demands regarding physical activity in school. Together we aim to help make it easier and more logical for you to find the right approach, and the right support, for your school, pupils, parents and teachers. We intend to make free, good quality advice available to every primary school to help you get the right blend of activities for your school.
A trailblazer group is being convened to enable headteachers to shape this work. You are welcome to both participate and contribute, whether you are achieving great things already or want to improve.
Please take a couple of minutes to complete this simple survey to provide some more information about physical activity in your school by 20th December. Let us know how you think your school is doing, and how you want to be part of this work in future.
Free Mental Health First Aid Training
One in four people struggle with their mental health and wellbeing. Springfield Mind is delivering five Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training courses primarily aimed at early years practitioners. Training is fully funded by Public Health and Strategic Commissioning, Warwickshire County Council, who currently have a significant programme of work underway around parent and infant mental health.
Delegates will gain knowledge to help them identify, support and provide signposting to parents who are struggling to cope. The two day course qualifies delegates as a Mental Health First Aider and provides:
- an in depth understanding of mental health and the factors that can affect wellbeing
- practical skills to spot the triggers and signs of mental health issues
- confidence to step in, reassure and support a person in distress
- enhanced interpersonal skills such as non-judgemental listening
- knowledge to help someone recover their health by guiding them to further support - whether that’s self-help resources, through their employer, the NHS or a mix
- self-care – looking after your own wellbeing.
Delegates will be expected to take on a Mental Health Champion role in their organisation following the training. This is a great opportunity to earn an internationally recognised qualification that will provide you with invaluable life skills.
The courses are taking place as follows:
- 4th & 5th February - North Warwickshire
- 26th & 27th February - Nuneaton
- 21st & 22nd February - Rugby
- 11th & 12th March - Warwick
- 28th & 29th March - Stratford
To express an interest in becoming a Mental Health Champion and attending the course please email paul.thompson@springfieldmind.org.uk with your details, job role and preferred training location.
Please note that places will be allocated to ensure that delegates are trained from as wide a range of organisations as possible. Therefore places may be limited to one person per organisation if courses are oversubscribed.
Contact details:
Paul Thompson, Springfield Mind. Tel: 01789 298615 Email: paul.thompson@springfieldmind.org.uk
Specialist Teaching Service taster session
On Thursday 29th November the Specialist Teaching Service (STS) held a very successful taster session for schools and settings at Pound Lane, Leamington Spa.
The aim of the session was to showcase the breadth of training, interventions and support that the STS staff can provide. The event was well attended by primary, secondary and special schools.
A further event will be held on 31st January 2019 at Cawston Community Centre.
Police Cadet recruitment 2019
Do you have any students interested in policing? Keen to make a difference to their community? Looking for a new opportunity?
The Warwickshire Police Cadets will be beginning a new recruitment round in January 2019 and are encouraging anyone interested to sign up now so they can be contacted with more information about the recruitment process at the start of next year.
Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police Cadets is a volunteer scheme aimed at young people who wish to be part of a two year programme that offers an opportunity to gain a practical understanding of policing and develop their spirit of adventure and good citizenship.
Applicants will need to be aged 13-16 on 1st September 2019.
More information is on the attached flyer.
CyberFirst Girls Competition 2019
Registration for the 2019 CyberFirst Girls Competition is now open, as the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ’s) National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) looks to crown the next female code-breaking champions.
The exciting competition is for girls in Year 8 in England and Wales and aims to give participants the opportunity to find out more about cyber security, to gain cyber skills, solve problems, work as a team and have fun with friends! Ultimately, it is hoped that the competition will spark an interest amongst girls in this field and encourage them to consider a potential career in this industry. With only 11% of the global cyber workforce made of women it is an exciting opportunity to encourage more girls into this field.
Teachers of any subject can register teams of up to four girls aged 12-13 years up until Monday 28th January 2019.
The competition begins with teams attempting to complete a series of online challenges during the week beginning 21st January – so although you can register your team up until 28th January it is best to register before the online challenges begin if you can! Teams must also be prepared to attend the grand final in Scotland on 24/25 March 2019.
Over the past two years, 12,500 girls in schools across the UK have participated in this annual competition of problem-solving and code cracking challenges to crown the UK’s most cyber-capable young women.
For more information please see the attached information pack or visit the website.
Please keep us informed if you do enter a team and let us know how you do!
WE3 Family of schools
Highlights from the Ofsted Annual Report 2017-18
Last week saw the publication of the Ofsted Annual Report for 2017/18 which gives a state of the nation picture of the performance of early years, schools, further education and skills, and social care providers in England.
Budbrooke Primary School, Warwick was highlighted within the report for improving its grading from ‘Inadequate’ to ‘Good’, as was St. Michael's Church of England Primary School, Bedworth.
Some of the other headlines for Warwickshire are:
- 89% of Primary Schools judged ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ compared to a national figure of 87% and our regional figure of 85% (4th of 14 Local Authorities in our region). This also represents a 1% increase from the previous year.
- 83% of Secondary schools judged ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ compared to a national figure of 75% and our regional figure of 75% (3rd of 14 Local Authorities in our region).
- 67% of Key stage 2 children reaching the expected standard in Reading, Writing & Mathematics (64% national, 62% regional)
- 77% of Key stage 2 children reaching the expected standard in Reading (75% national, 73% regional)
- 77% of Key stage 2 children reaching the expected standard in Maths (75% national, 74% regional) - this places Warwickshire 2nd out of 14 Local Authorities in our region.
- Provisional data for 2018 also places Warwickshire at the top within our region in relation to Key Stage 4 performance.
We must also celebrate the fact that our West Midlands region has the lowest national figure for pupils that did not progress between year 10 and year 11.
These results are testament to the excellent work that you are doing in schools and settings, set against the challenging times that we are currently experiencing.
Feedback invited on school term and holiday dates 2020/21
We would like to invite headteachers and chairs of governors to provide feedback on the proposed Warwickshire school term and holiday dates for 2020-2021 and also the date proposed for the secondary school induction day.
Two options are proposed:
- Option 1: Easter Holiday is set for after the bank holidays
- Option 2: Easter Holiday is set to span across the bank holidays
We aim to avoid part-weeks where possible however sometimes this is unavoidable in order to enable the required number of teaching days in the year.
More information about the proposed options is available in the attached letter.
How to provide feedback
Please provide your feedback by email to consultations@warwickshire.gov.uk or via the online questionnaire by Friday 18th January 2019 at the latest.
Excellence in Warwickshire Awards 2018
The 2018 Excellence in Warwickshire Awards usually take place during the autumn term, however this year we are reviewing the format of the event and have therefore postponed this until the spring term. So, please be reassured if you are a school who was inspected during 2017/18 and improved your grade or maintained an outstanding judgement that you haven’t been forgotten!
The Awards have previously recognised the achievements of schools in relation to Ofsted, and although we still want to celebrate where schools have done well in this respect, we are looking to widen the scope of the event to include other areas of achievement to tie in with the Education Strategy and the WE priorities. For example, we would like to use the event as an opportunity to recognise schools achieving Warwickshire Workload Charter status and also to include our Long Service Awards.
We know that our schools are doing a lot more that is worthy of celebration and this event is an opportunity to highlight the wide range of successes in schools across the county.
Further details will be confirmed in the new year so watch this space!