First Steps in Leadership - for teachers considering the step into middle leadership

Notification of Suspensions and Exclusions - With the correct email address

A reminder to all schools about the Statutory Duty around notifying the Local Authority on Suspensions and Permanent Exclusions.

All schools MUST notify the Local Authority on all suspensions and exclusions, these notifications should be sent to the Exclusions Inbox (exclusions@warwickshire.gov.uk )

All permanent exclusions must be notified to the Local Authority on day 1 in order for 6th day provision to be organised. All permanent exclusions should be accompanied by a LIF detailing relevant and detailed information pertaining to the CYP in support of accurate information sharing. We advise that the LIF is completed by someone who knows the CYP well and all the relevant factual information is included.

All schools and WCC in line with guidance must inform parents/carers about the process of exclusion and where they can access free legal advice. To support schools, working alongside families, the following resource has been coproduced between Warwickshire Parent/Carer Voice, Warwick University Law Students, Bailey Wright and Co, and Warwickshire County Council We advise that schools send this film out to help support parents/carers through the process.

WCC will be sharing this film with any parent/carer whose child is suspended or excluded.

Save the date - Spring Term 2023 Headteachers' Conference

Save the Date! 

Spring Term 2023 Headteachers' Conference 

Thursday 23^rd March 2023 (9.00am – 1.00pm) 

Venue to be confirmed.

Joint Heads Forum / DSL Network Meeting

HSE Asbestos inspections - schools

You may be aware that the HSE is currently carrying out a programme of asbestos inspections in Schools across England, Scotland and Wales.

The inspections are assessing how schools manage the risks from asbestos within the school estate and meeting the “duty to manage” requirements.

The West Midlands Health & Safety Group have released a document following recent visits by the HSE to schools in the West Midlands. It was thought it would be useful to share this document with schools to share some observations and recommendations.

Please check here the document. 

Important information from WFRS

The Warwickshire Fire & Rescue Service have released a letter to businesses, including schools, regarding possible industrial action by the Fire & Rescue Services.

The information outlines how premises should consider how this action could effect their business and what they should have in place to prepare for this possible outcome.

Please read more here. 

Helping All Children with Social & Emotional Learning - DfE Approved Course

WEYH EY Conference - Exploring Neurodiversity

‘Now that’s what Nuneaton calls Music’

Pupils and teachers from 25 Nuneaton schools got into the Christmas spirit and released an album of Christmas songs for local charities called ‘Now that’s what Nuneaton calls Music’.

The album, which was available to download through the Bandcamp app, cost a donation of at least £2.50 to buy and featured the Nuneaton schools doing their own special renditions of Christmas songs.  Some of the highlights include the Calypso Carol by Nursery Hill Primary School, Jingle Bells by Glendale Infant School and a lovely version of Walking in a Winter wonderland by Oakwood Primary.

The idea was thought of by Diane Compton Belcher who is head teacher of Michael Drayton Junior School and was supported by her colleagues from the Nuneaton Education Alliance Steering group.

The downloads of the album raised enough money to give £1200 to the Nuneaton Community Christmas Lunch where 56 people who would otherwise be alone on Christmas day were given a full day of food and fun at the Newtown Centre in Nuneaton.  £500 went to Nuneaton Salvation Army which funded a meal for vulnerably housed people on the 22^nd December and also £200 to Nuneaton foodbank.

If you’d like more information, or would like to hear about the charities that the album supported please email sarahcox@warwickshire.gov.uk

SACRE Spring Bulletin 2023

Please read the latest SACRE Spring Bulletin 2023. 

Secondary Network Meeting for school librarians

Please join libraries team virtually for their next meeting on Thursday 19^th January, 3.30pm-4.30pm. They share lots of useful information and resources and it is a great opportunity to network and gain support from others working in school libraries. Everyone is welcome. For more information please contact:  schoolslibraryservice@warwickshire.gov.uk 

'Help, I'm running a library' training course.

This course is suitable for primary and secondary school staff working in the school library. A great opportunity to gain knowledge, skills and confidence in the day-to-day running of the school library. Monday 30^th January, 9.30am-12.30pm

Teacher Networks Drama Event

Back to school - 5 things to do to help manage winter illness

As pupils return to schools and education settings, it’s important to be aware of the winter illnesses currently circulating and the steps we can all take to help reduce transmission and protect those around us.

UKHSA has issued guidance which includes 5 things we can all do to help stop the spread of winter bugs.

Read more here.  

Census day

Next Thursday (19 January) is Census Day, so you may wish to work with your school catering team to encourage pupils to order a school meal to boost your future school funding. 

Schools across Warwickshire will take part in the January census, which collects information about schools’ pupils and workforce, such as attendance figures and the number of pupils enrolled. You can read more about it here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/complete-the-school-census 

Census days take place during the autumn, spring and summer terms and the amount of funding a school receives increases in line with the number of eligible pupils taking a free school meal on Census Day. 

Educaterers, Warwickshire County Council’s Local Authority Traded Company school caterers, will have a special ’Junge Explorer’ themed lunch menu to help encourage pupils to have school lunch on Census Day. 

It will include a choice of favourites: ‘safari potatoes’, sausages, hash browns and beans; or ‘jungle vine noodles,’ veggie curry and ‘cheeky chimps salad.’  

This will be followed by a pudding of either ‘Rainforest crunch cookie’ or ‘Jungle fruits with snakes eggs’ – (apples, pineapple and grapes) to tempt more children to take a meal. 

So please ask parents to support your school by encouraging their children to have a school meal on Thursday and help influence how much funding your school gets in the 2022-23 academic year. 

For more information on Educaterers, visit www.educaterers.co.uk. 

Working together to improve school attendance

School Attendance Network – Save the Date

The Warwickshire Attendance Service and the Stowe Valley Multi Academy Trust are jointly planning a school attendance network event.  The purpose of the event will be to discuss the new attendance guidance and begin the development of an attendance support network. 

The proposed date is 6^th March 2023, 12:30pm to 3:30pm. 

The initial meeting will be in person and is targeted at those responsible for school attendance, especially the school’s Attendance Champion. The venue is currently being arranged and further details will follow.

UKHSA advice for education and childcare settings amid high levels of flu, COVID-19 and scarlet fever (DfE guidance issued 13th January 2023)

As winter illnesses continue to circulate at high levels and pupils are returning to education, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has published a reminder on how to minimise the spread of illness in education and childcare settings.

UKHSA advice remains clear that children can continue to attend as normal unless they are unwell and have a high temperature. Further information on when a child is too ill for school or nursery is available. There is no requirement to be absent from school on a precautionary basis. School staff should continue to maintain their high expectations for face-to-face attendance.

For further information, please also see the DfE Education Hub post on the latest guidelines around COVID-19  a separate post on the exact circumstances in which children should be kept off school.

UKHSA is providing regular updates on Strep A. Both UKHSA and DfE are continuing to closely monitor the situation.

To help reduce the risk of some illnesses, including flu, vaccinations are being provided in schools. UKHSA, in collaboration with NHS England and DfE, have produced a briefing for secondary schools giving details about all vaccines offered to adolescents in schools and the role that schools play. This includes information on the flu vaccination programme being offered this year to those in Years 7, 8 and 9.

An invitation for schools to share daily attendance data and sign up for webinars

The DfE have advised local authorities that at some point this academic year they will start to contact schools who have not yet signed up to Wonde, as this will become a requirement.

75% of schools in England (74% of schools in Warwickshire) are now sharing daily attendance data with the DfE.  Sharing data means you’ll be able to access daily attendance reports on view your education data.

To help you access and use the free reporting service, the DfE have a series of webinars for schools, trusts and local authorities starting this month. They will be holding monthly webinars, where you can learn about new features and get support with non-urgent technical issues.

25^th January 2023 – 2pm – Using your attendance reports – an event for secondary schools

26^th January 2023 - 2pm – Using your attendance reports – an event for primary schools

2^nd February 2023 – 2pm – How schools are sharing automatic daily attendance data with DfE - Governors

You can agree to share daily attendance data by accepting the request in your Wonde portal. If you do not use Wonde, you should have received an email from them about setting up a secure portal. You can email them directly if you do not have this.

You can also view a public dashboard for pupil attendance and absence in England, allowing you to make local authority, regional and national comparisons.

We value your feedback, as we continue to develop the reports. Please sign up to take part in our research.

Using data on previous absence to predict current absence | Children's Commissioner for England (childrenscommissioner.gov.uk)

Last term the Children’s Commissioner published Education history and attendance, which found that previous absence was a strong predictor of current absence. Among pupils who had previously been persistently absent, the rate of persistent absence in autumn and spring of academic year 2021-2022 was 51%, over three times higher than the rate of persistent absence among pupils who hadn’t been persistently absent (14%).

A rapid evidence assessment from Education Endowment Foundation on attendance interventions found that targeted parental engagement strategies were more effective than untargeted parental engagement strategies. This review also found that responsive interventions, where a member of staff targets their approach specifically to the needs of an individual pupil, were effective. More needs to be done to target limited attendance resource, providing support or sign-posting existing support, to pupils likely to become persistently absent.

Further information can be found at the link above along with code that can be used by schools and Multi-Academy Trusts to better understand patterns in their pupils attendance data. This code is in R, a statistical software, but similar analysis can be done in excel or using other software.

Reminders

1. Working together to improve school attendance is now the attendance guidance that should be used for schools, trusts, governing bodies and local authorities. 
2. Improving attendance: good practice for schools and multi-academy trusts. There are some really useful effective practice attendance webinars produced by the DfE in conjunction with schools, with good or improved attendance, sharing their good practice. It is highly recommended that your attendance lead/champion access this free resource.
3. Additional attendance resources are available on the Education Hub and Teaching Blogs
4. The code ‘X’ code can no longer be used in the attendance register to record COVID-19 related absence.

Contact Us

If you wish to discuss any issues relating to school attendance, please feel free to contact the Warwickshire Attendance Service:

was@warwickshire.gov.uk