Dear Headteachers,

I hope you have had a good week! Welcome to the latest edition of Heads Up.  

I would like to take the opportunity to draw your attention to a few of the new stories:

The next Early Years Designated Safeguarding Lead Network Meeting will be taking place on Thursday 19 October between 6:30-7:30pm. Find out more: https://headsup.warwickshire.gov.uk/heads-up-13-october-2023/securing-the-best-start-to-life/early-years-designated-safeguarding-lead-network-meetings

Find out more about the Warwickshire SEND conference, which brought together stakeholders from across the county last week to contribute to shaping a new Warwickshire strategy for children and young people with SEND: https://headsup.warwickshire.gov.uk/heads-up-13-october-2023/supporting-inclusion-for-send-and-vulnerable-groups/send-conference-sets-out-the-priorities-for-warwickshire

A universal smoking and vaping toolkit has been developed for all secondary schools in Warwickshire. Created in partnership with Trading Standard, Education and service providers, the WCC Public Health team developed the toolkit to help guide your school on what you can do to address both smoking and vaping. Read more: https://headsup.warwickshire.gov.uk/heads-up-13-october-2023/celebrating-warwickshires-family-of-schools/smoke-and-vape-support-for-warwickshire-secondary-schools

The Youth Conference is officially less than a month away! Voices of Tomorrow is a conference organised with young people aged 11-17 (18 if in last year of college/sixth form and up to the age of 25 for SEND). It has been scheduled to take place during the half-term break to enable more young people to attend, avoiding any interference with the school curriculum, particularly for older students preparing for exams. We would appreciate it if you could promote this to your students: https://headsup.warwickshire.gov.uk/heads-up-13-october-2023/championing-employability/voices-of-tomorrow-warwickshire-youth-conference

I hope you all have a great weekend when it arrives.

Johnny Kyriacou 

Director for Education Services