Coronavirus update: How to help yourself

We can all take steps to help protect ourselves and others against viruses, including COVID-19. Whilst it is important to feel reassured that the UK is very well prepared for more cases of COVID-19, we can all be taking action and following steps as outlined in Public Health England’s (PHE) helpful guide to help reduce the spread of germs, which you can view here: ‘5 things you can do to protect yourself and your community’. The first of these is to “wash your hands regularly and catch coughs and sneezes in a tissue”. 

Public Health England guidance recommends that you:

• wash your hands with soap and water often – do this for at least 20 seconds
• always wash your hands when you get home or into work
• use hand sanitiser gel if soap and water are not available
• cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when you cough or sneeze
• put used tissues in the bin straight away and wash your hands afterwards
• try to avoid close contact with people who are unwell

If you have recently been to one of the affected areas and are feeling unwell, you should use the NHS 111 online coronavirus service or call NHS 111 for further advice straight away – please don’t go to your doctor or a hospital. Please see the gov.uk website for up to date information for the public.

The NHS 111 service continue to take many calls around COVID-19 concerns, but please note there is also a helpful and easy to use online advice service too.

There’s lots of advice on how people can protect themselves online at www.nhs.uk/coronavirus.

Public Health posters

A series of posters with information and tips are available from PHE which you can use and display and are available to download from here:

Catch It Bin It Kill It

Generic Coronavirus advice

Advice for places of education

Feedback to help improve the support for Religious Education in schools

Warwickshire Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE) would like to understand how they can better support schools to deliver an effective RE curriculum.

To do this, they would be grateful if schools could take the time to answer some questions about the current Agreed Syllabus and, for secondaries only, to provide information about the exam entries for Religious Education in 2020. The information that schools provide will help SACRE to plan future support for RE teachers in Warwickshire. 

Please follow the links below to access the surveys:

RE Exam Entries Survey - for secondary only

Respond to the Exam Entries survey here

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RE Agreed Syllabus Half Way Review - for all schools

Respond to the Agreed Syllabus survey here

You can find more information about SACRE and the support they provide to schools on the SACRE website.

CPD opportunities for teachers of Religious Education

Warwickshire Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE) would like to highlight the following national CPD opportunities for teachers of RE/subject leaders:

Understanding Humanism Primary Teacher Training 2020 | London

26 March 2020, 9.30am - 12.30pm

The Commission on RE recommends that all young people should have the entitlement to learn about non-religious worldviews as part of a rigorous and academic education about religion and worldviews. This course offers an opportunity to develop your subject knowledge of humanism as an example of a non-religious worldview and be provided with ideas for how to teach about it.

Read more>>

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Arts and RE Symposium | Cambridge

8 July 2020

This free national symposium will bring RE teachers, creatives and police makers together, providing a platform for discussion on how best to provide pupils with an academically rigorous and critically aware understanding of religion and worldviews.

Deadline for booking is 27 March 2020.

Read more>>

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RE XChange 2020 | Birmingham

3 October 2020, 9.30am - 4pm

The aim of this event, as well as being an excellent networking opportunity, aims to provide a forum for an exchange of ideas and knowledge between teachers and researchers to support teaching and learning. The conference is sponsored by Culham St Gabriel’s Trust and the Templeton World Charity Foundation so the cost for delegates is only £30 per person. 

Read more>>

Opportunity to find out more about the new parent carer support pathway

Thank you for all of the contributions received to the recent Parent Carer Support Pathway consultation.

The responses will help the Council to re-shape and improve the support offered to parent carers of a child (under the age of 18) with a disability.

There will be an opportunity to gain feedback on the results of the survey and to put forward questions relating to the proposed pathway at some additional drop-in sessions at Exhall Grange School on 26 March.

Different time-slots are available between 10am and 2pm and anyone who would like to attend is advised to book onto a time slot using the online form below:

Parent carer feedback booking form

Please Note: Due to Coronavirus, this event is subject to cancellation should guidance from Public Health change and public gatherings be banned. If a cancellation is unavoidable, updates will be provided on Ask Warwickshire and Warwickshire's Facebook and Twitter feeds:

Twitter: @warwickshire_cc

Facebook: @WarwickshireCountyCouncil

Fully-funded training for senior leaders - leading a mentally healthy school

Click the image below for a PDF version of the flyer.

Register to attend here

New folk opera depicting history of Nuneaton

The Undoing of Polly Button

A Folk Opera by Katherine Fear

Local English and History teachers may be interested in this new work by a Nuneaton-educated songwriter, based upon a true story which shocked the town in 1832.

The brand new folk opera will premiere at Nuneaton's Abbey Theatre on Easter Saturday, 11 April. Links with George Eliot and with events in the town such as the decline of the ribbon industry, the election riots and the only outbreak of cholera are narrated and sung in this unique production. The show could act as an introduction to George Eliot and a depiction of local history which schools might wish to buy into during next academic year.  

Plot

Polly Button, a weaver with five children, was murdered in 1832 by her married lover while she was heavily pregnant with his child. John Danks was convicted and executed for this infamous crime which horrified the whole country. However, the newspapers saw Polly as “victim of her own gross immorality”, considering her at least partly responsible for her own demise.

At the heart of this story which has been worked into a poignant musical retelling, there is a battle for women’s rights, a mystery which may never be fully solved, and a lesson of resilience and unbelievable courage in the face of adversity. Watch and listen as the ghost of Polly teaches a young writer to “weave another world”.

Further Information

For further details, please visit the Polly Button Folk Opera Facebook page or phone Katherine on 07757 483342.

Twitter @pollybuttonfolk