You will find a new section dedicated to wellbeing in this week’s bulletin, something that we plan to incorporate on a regular basis throughout this Year of Wellbeing in Coventry and Warwickshire. Building emotional and mental health resilience amongst our pupils and workforce in schools, is a key priority for our education strategy (WE2e). This is important as we see this as an excellent opportunity to highlight support and initiatives available to help you to promote healthy, happy lifestyles for children and young people, and for your staff.

Another way we have continued to try and support schools during recent years, is through our partnership with The Key. This will be the sixth year that we have negotiated a significant discount for all Warwickshire schools, meaning you can continue to benefit from their service at a much reduced rate, if you sign up as part of the partnership deal. Be sure to read the information in this bulletin for further details, particularly if you are a school whose subscription is coming to an end on 31 March.

In February 2018, a ‘Transgender Toolkit’ was circulated to schools to provide advice on supporting transgender children in school. Following concerns raised by a group of parents about the content of the toolkit, the document is currently suspended from use by the County Council, as an interim measure. This is to give time for a review of the content and for further advice to be sought. We hope that the review will be completed as soon as possible, and in the meantime we would strongly urge any schools with concerns about particular individual circumstances to contact Adrian Over (adrianover@warwickshire.gov.uk) or Legal Services (01926 412361) for advice. Schools remain under an obligation to follow the Equality Act 2010 at all times.

I hope you all enjoy the half term break next week.

Best wishes,

Paul Senior

Interim Assistant Director Education Services