Essential reading
Help us to co-produce a new Education Strategy for Warwickshire
Councillor Colin Hayfield, County Council Portfolio Holder for Education and Learning, says; ‘We have given a lot of thought to providing this document as a ‘starter for ten’ but we want the end product to look far less bureaucratic. We are truly serious about co-producing this Education Strategy; the Council is a partner round the table with headteachers and education leaders. It is your voice that we want to hear, so that you will join with us in writing the final version’.
We have listened to headteachers. We have scrutinised data, information, compliments and complaints. We have considered strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. As a result, we are proposing the following priorities for Education in Warwickshire:
WE1: Promoting the best possible start in life through early education
WE2: Unlocking talent, building resilience, and fulfilling the potential of our vulnerable learners:
- Children out of school
- Children at risk of under-achieving
- Children who are Looked After, through the Virtual School
- Children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
- People with social, emotional and mental health needs
WE3: Supporting successful system leadership, empowering education communities, so that Warwickshire’s Family of Schools can thrive, there are sufficient good/outstanding school places, and outcomes for Warwickshire’s children exceed national levels.
WE4: Promoting employability; offering the best possible opportunities for all learners so that the local economy can grow, young people can take on the responsibilities of adult life and adult learners contribute to a growing local economy.
In order to work towards these aims, we think we should:
- Champion
- Challenge
- Empower
What do you think? Please tell us; if you were setting out an Education Strategy for Warwickshire, what would you include?
The online consultation is open from 5 March – 2 April 2018.
Please tell your staff, parents, students…. we want to hear from a wide range of stakeholders. We will be bringing the draft Vision and Strategy to meetings through March. We have also set up some face to face focus groups with staff, parents, secondary students, primary pupils and pupils in a special school.
Please visit our questionnaire at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/ask to register your comments.
You can also contact us by telephone: 01926 742588 or by email educationstrategy@warwickshire.gov.uk
Early Years Visioning Event 28 February 2018
Forty delegates worked in locality groups to co-produce an early years vision for Warwickshire, driven by the draft Education Strategy priority ‘the best possible start in life’. Facilitators from the Centre for Research in Early Childhood (CREC), Professors Chris Pascal and Tony Bertram led the session, contributing from their national and international work in early years (see below). 
Chris Pascal talked to us about:
- a can do approach; being tiggers not eeyores
- the values that drive decisions about spend
- every strategic decision should be checked back against principles and values
- early years as the foundation of democracy – children learn if they have a voice
- advocacy: asking 'what am I living out on my daily practice?'
- 'professional generosity' and collaboration rather than competition
- aspiration rather than competence
- teaching schools as an engine for the local authority to energise the system.
A prioritisation exercise resulted in the following, ranked, shared priorities:
- a professionally trained workforce
- a child-led approach that is responsive to need
- an integrated, multi-agency system
- inclusivity; a system that works for everyone
During discussion the following two priorities were added:
- language-led learning in language-rich settings
- working with parents
Attendees also asked for more development opportunities for headteachers, to help them to better understand early education.
Finally it was agreed that localised networks of professionals would be the way to promote a shared understanding of the vision across different professional cultures, building on the Smartstart vision.
Secondary School Offers Update - September 2018
The secondary offers for year 7 entry in September 2018 were released to families on Thursday 1 March 2018.
The Admissions Service have processed over 7000 applications for secondary school places this year – an all-time high.
The reallocation process – where we will begin to fill any vacancies using the waiting lists – will commence from Monday 19 March. We would appreciate all secondary schools’ cooperation during this extremely busy time, including ranking and allocating criteria, as well as checking sibling links via SAM for any new/late applications.
Team members are available on: 01926 414111 – please note this is a direct line for schools so we would encourage schools ONLY to use this number wherever possible. Please do not distribute to parents/carers/other external agencies.
Warwickshire news
School Improvement Fund (Round 1) Update
In order to keep schools informed of the work going on as part of the Strategic School Improvement Fund (SSIF) Round 1 bid, we will be providing periodic updates via the SSIF Newsletter. The first newsletter (see link below) includes updates on:
- Governors Conference
- Peer Coaching
- SSIF Bid Launch Event
- Secondary Leadership
- Action Research Training
- Contacts
- Key Dates
SSIF 1 Newsletter - March 2018
The Key information for Warwickshire headteachers
Over 100 schools in Warwickshire subscribed to The Key in 2007 and have benefited from:
- Having unlimited access to The Key's online knowledge banks
- The Key's 'Ask-the-expert' services
- Access to thousands of resources including downloadable templates, QuickReads, case studies, planning tools, Ofsted preparation materials and more
- The Key's weekly briefing on news and latest policy developments
- Access to the Compliance Tracker and Safeguarding Training Centre
Schools will receive an invoice from Warwickshire County Council for the payment of their subscription fees. We expect the invoices to be raised and sent to schools towards the end of April/beginning of May.
Consortia Moderation - a report from Bedworth Consortium 2
Moderation is working well in consortia, in particular this seems to be most effective when the LA moderators run the programme. This is because the moderators have particular messages they need to get across, from the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) and the LA, as well as meet the needs of the consortia group.
Julia Wall, Cath Brown and Jacqueline Dixon have written a report about the work, so far, of their consortia moderation group. We though it was worth sharing more widely:
Best tips for KS1 and KS2 writing assessment
Two clear summaries to help with writing assessment
All of the information you need to make your writing assessments is in the Interim Teacher Assessment Frameworks statements for this year, on the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) website or on the STA YouTube video. However....it is quite confusing! There is information / clarification / and further clarification... and there are two very clear summaries that explain this really well, that it may be worth sharing with your schools, along with some advice from Rosie Parker and Judy McDonagh, our two LA moderation leads.
The first is from RS Assessment, Hodder and Staunton: 6 things you need to know:
http://rsassessment.com/2018/02/21/6-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-2018-ks2-writing-teacher-assessment-framework-february-2018-update/
The second is from Herts For Learning and ......says ADD LOV(v)E:
https://www.hertsforlearning.co.uk/blog/10-key-updates-2018-ks2-writing-assessment
Finally, some advice and guidance from Rosie and Judy as promised:
'.....Particular Weakness...'
We need to emphasise to teachers that the particular weaknesses are found WITHIN the statement - and are most definitely NOT the statement itself. Therefore re: weaknesses in spelling - they are particular weaknesses within the spelling statement but the qualifier must be maintained - so if it says 'Mostly correctly', then the child spells words correctly most of the time with only an occasional error.
For example in spelling at KS1 the child might, on occasion, misspell the 'ed' suffix and write just 'd'. Or on occasion confuse 'which' and 'witch'. On occasion the child might fail to use a capital letter for the pronoun 'I' - and need to be prompted for all these things, when writing.
At KS2, the child might confuse the homophones 'there', 'their' and 'they’re' or it’s and it’s. Or on occasion he might mis-spell the prefix 'dis' - as in disapears or confuse the endings -tion and -sion.
/assets/1/heads_up_article_particular_weakness_guidance_re_spelling.pdf
Specialist local services providing bereavement support
Up to 70% of schools have a bereaved pupil on their roll at any given time.
92% of young people will experience a significant bereavement before the age of 16.
We recognise it can be challenging to navigate the support that is available to help you support a child with bereavement. There are some excellent national charities that provide guidance, resources and training for teachers but we are also fortunate across Coventry and Warwickshire to have a number of charities who can provide more direct support if needed.
Information on the local services and links to national organisations can be found on the Care And Support Towards Life’s End in Coventry and Warwickshire (CASTLE) website www.c-a-s-t-l-e.org.uk.
Warwickshire Youth Parliament Elections results
The results evening to announce those young people who had been elected to represent Warwickshire Youth Parliament was held at Shire Hall on Thursday 15th February. It was attended by MP Marcus Jones, Cllr Isobel Seccombe, Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Seccombe, David Carter Joint Managing Director, Nigel Minns Strategic Director People Group and John Coleman Interim Head of Service Children and Families.
Announcements for Members of Youth Parliament (MYP) and Deputies 2018
For the 2018 election we had 18 candidates and 16,397 votes for MYPs – as a % of the Young People eligible to vote this equates to = 39.1%
This is a great achievement!
The 4 young people elected as Members of the UK Youth Parliament are:
- Jessica Yang Bourne - St Thomas More Catholic School, Nuneaton
- Thomas Thickbroom - St Thomas More Catholic School, Nuneaton
- Mawgan Stinchcombe - Ashlawn School, Rugby
- Pauli Tritter - North Leamington School
The 4 Deputy Members of the UK Youth Parliament are:
- Saheena Dhanda - Myton School,
Warwick
- Sophie Sturzaker - Henley in Arden School
- Samrem Reddy - Lawrence Sheriff School
- Ajay Bawa - Campion School, Leamington
A further 15 young people were elected from the five districts to represent their locality on Vox - The County Youth Panel.
Most important issues for young people
During the voting, information is also collected on issues that are most important to young people.
12,555 young people chose the issues most important to them. The top issues identified by young people county wide are:
- Mental Health – (Services should be improved with young people’s help)
- A Curriculum to prepare us for life – (Schools should cover topics like; finance, sex and relationships, education and politics)
- Protect LGBT people – (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender young people deserve to be treated the same as everyone else, discrimination needs to be challenged)
- Votes at 16 – (Give 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote in all elections & referendums)
- Transport – (Make public transport cheaper, better and accessible for all)
- Work Experience - (Government should create more opportunities and an online space to help young people with this)
- Support for young carers – (Government should increase funding to support young carers)
- Services for Young People – (Increase services and opportunities for young people)
Deli bag option helps maintain school lunch numbers
Primary schools wishing to maintain uptake of school meals and associated funding into the summer term may be interested to know that Educaterers ~ who have taken over delivery of school meals from Warwickshire County Council ~ offer pupils a ‘deli bag’ option as an alternative to a hot meal.
With the rise in temperatures as we move into the summer months, some schools see a drop off in the numbers of pupils wanting a ‘hot dinner’, with some students wishing instead to bring a packed lunch from home.
The Educaterers ‘deli bag’, which contains something different everyday ~ either a freshly made sandwich, wrap or baguette with fresh crunchy vegetable snacks, a dessert and a drink ~ gives pupils a lighter, cool option for their school lunch and helps maintain lunch numbers.
Knowing the content of the ‘deli bags’ is healthy and school approved also reduces the time that lunchtime staff need to spend policing pupil’s lunchboxes for unhealthy items. Parents also feel the benefit as they avoid the rush and dilemma of preparing a packed lunch every day!
The ‘deli bags’ meet the Soil Association’s Food for Life Silver Catering Mark ~ a guarantee that the food is freshly prepared. Educaterers only use free range eggs and organic yoghurts, and all meat is British Red Tractor approved. All cakes and biscuits are homemade by Educaterers’ skilled cooks, and products are temperature controlled.
Educaterers ‘deli bags’ also have great eco credentials, as all packaging used for their homemade items is compostable.
Educaterers, a Local Authority Traded Company ~ the first for Warwickshire County Council ~ delivers 125,000 meals a week across the county to 195 schools.
The company welcomes feedback from schools, which provides an active part in both the development of their future menus as well as the retention of favourite dishes and popular themes such as the recent World Book Day menu on 1 March.
For more information on Educaterers visit www.educaterers.co.uk or email contactus@educaterers.co.uk.
Governors
Training
We provide a comprehensive training programme for all school governors, clerks and head teachers, whether in maintained or academy schools. Places on training sessions are available to all schools - for subscribing schools these will be free of charge and for non-subscribing schools there is a charge per delegate.
If your governing board does not subscribe to Warwickshire Governor Services and you think it would be useful to do so, please contact Gurby Dhesi to discuss your requirements:
Email - gurbydhesi@warwickshire.gov.uk
Telephone – 01926 745 137
These courses are scheduled to be delivered this term and there are still places available on them:
SENco and SEN Governor (please note that this course must be attended by both the SENco and the SEN Governor)
Wednesday 21 March 2018
17:00 – 19:00
Stratford – upon - Avon College, CV37 9QR
Clerks Conference
Thursday 3 May 2018
09:30 – 12:30
The Welcome Centre, Coventry CV1 2HG
Governors Conference
Wednesday 16 May 2018
09:00 -16:30
Honiley Court Hotel, Honiley, Kenilworth CV8 1NP
We are in the process of producing our new 2017 – 2018 Training Programme but in the meantime, you can view the courses that are available until the end of March by using the link to our current Training and Support Programme (April 2017 – March 2018) available here
If you would like to book on a course, please email your booking to governors@warwickshire.gov.uk, or telephone Governor Services on 01926 745120 or book via the WES website at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/wes
Please remember to quote the course reference number, title and date when booking.
For any further information, please do not hesitate to contact Gail Evans:
Email - gailevans@warwickshire.gov.uk
Telephone – 01926 745 120
Maintained Schools – Subscription Reminder!
It is time to renew your school’s annual subscription to the Governor Training & Support Programme and The Clerking Service.
WES services have sent out service offers to schools asking them to make their decisions regarding which LA services they wish to purchase for 2018/19.
Governing Boards should be making the decision to subscribe to the Governor Training & Support Programme, GovernorHub, Learning Link and the Clerking Service.
All boards, no matter what type of schools or how many schools they govern, must be effective and encourage everyone involved in governance, especially those new to their role, to make the most of the resources, guidance and training available to develop their knowledge and skills.
Warwickshire Governor Services recognise that school governor’s responsibilities are wide – ranging, with boards facing new challenges on a regular basis. The service offered provides reliable, prompt and relevant advice, information and training enabling governors of all schools to fulfil their role in holding school leaders to account through support, challenge and driving school improvement.
Subscription to the Training & Support Programme entitles your Governing Board to:
- Unlimited access to best practice advice and guidance to Governors, Clerks AND Head teachers both via telephone and email;
- Unlimited bookings on centre-based courses as listed in the Training & Support Programme (subject to availability);
- Attendance for every new governor on the Induction to Governance course;
- Full access to the document resource library which contains downloadable resources including model policies, templates, checklists and tool kits;
- Regular email communications to Clerks and Chairs keeping them up to date with the latest legislation and good practice ;
- A two hour in-house training course (of your choice) chosen from our subject list and customised to the needs of your governing board. Delivered by one of our trainers at your school for your governing board on a date agreed with you;
- A reduction of 20% from the standard charge for further in-house training sessions;
- Access to Learning Link e-learning & GovernorHub at a reduced price;
- Attendance at Governor Briefings and the Governors’ Forum.
For more information please contact Gurby Dhesi
Email: gurbydhesi@warwickshire.gov.uk or Tel: 01926 745137
Dates for your Diary
Clerks’ Conference:
The Clerks’ Conference will take place on:
Date: Thursday 3 May 2018
Venue: The Welcome Centre, 47 Parkside, Coventry CV1 2HG
Time: 9:30am - 12:30pm
Further details to follow
Governors’ Conference:
The Governors’ Conference will take place on:
Date: Wednesday 16 May 2018
Venue: Honiley Court Hotel, Meer End Road, Honiley, Kenilworth, CV8 1NP
Time: 9:00am – 4:30pm
Topics will include:
- GDPR Training for Governors
- Dealing with Complaints
- Exclusions
Area Governor Meetings:
The Area Governor Meetings (formerly Patch meetings) will take place in the Spring Term, the dates are:
Date: Tuesday 24 April 2018
Venue: Stratford upon Avon School, Alcester Road, Stratford-upon-Avon, CV37 9DH
Time: 7:00pm - 8:30pm
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tuesday 26 April 2018
Venue: Brooke School, Overslade Lane, Rugby, CV22 6DY
Time: 7:00pm - 8:30pm
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tuesday 1 May 2018
Venue: Nicholas Chamberlaine School, Bulkington Road, Bedworth, CV12 9EA
Time: 7:00pm - 8:30pm
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thursday 3 May 2018
Venue: Aylesford School and Sixth Form College, Tapping Way, Warwick, CV34 6XR
Time: 7:00pm - 8:30pm
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An agenda will follow in due course.
To reserve your place, please email your booking to governors@warwickshire.gov.uk, telephone Governor Services on 01926 745120 or book via the WES website at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/wes
Education Strategy Consultation
Our new Education Strategy will guide and support education in Warwickshire for the next 5 years.
It is very important to us that governors and clerks have an opportunity to give their views and as a starting point we would like to invite you to register your comments by completing the questionnaire at: https://ask.warwickshire.gov.uk/
Annual Governing Board Membership Return Reminder
As a Local Authority we hold a database of maintained school governing boards. Such information is needed for governor recruitment purposes, in cases of urgency, safeguarding, Ofsted inspections, and schools where there is a cause for concern.
Recording of names and categories of all governors, including vacancies, are also requested in order to effectively identify and manage the nomination process for any vacant LA or other governor posts. Clerks are responsible for supplying the information using the Governing Board Details Form.
For the reasons listed above, we also ask our Academy colleagues (especially from those who subscribe to our services) to provide us with their governor details with as, the minimum, contact details for the Chair of Governors and Clerk.
All data is stored and accessed in accordance with the Data Protection Act. The only piece of information we can give out publicly is the name of the Chair of the Governing board, which is already in the public domain. We do not give out personal contact details or any other information.
With contact details frequently changing we ask Clerks to notify us of changes made and on an annual basis we contact all schools and academies to provide us with their current GB Membership.
In October 2017 we emailed all schools / academies asking for the contact information but we are still waiting for 100 clerks to reply to us. If you haven’t returned your Annual form, please can you complete it and send it back to governors@warwickshire.gov.uk
We often send out communications from the LA to all schools and having up to date contact details helps you and certainly helps us to be better informed about local and national issues.
Have you confirmed your Staff Disciplinary Procedure?
Like a Complaints policy, you don't need your Disciplinary procedure ... until the day you need it.
But when the need does arise, the procedure has to be right.
Why? Because the first line of defence is always to challenge whether the school is following its own policy.
If yours is a school where the county council is the employer, or if your academy or VA or Foundation school participates in the Warwickshire Consultation Framework, the Warwickshire Disciplinary Procedure applies to your teaching and support staff.
It's essential that all employees should be aware of this, and have access to a copy of it (published by WCC Schools HR on the WES website, My Documents section).
It's important that the governing board should be aware of it, and where the GB is the employer, there should be a record in GB or committee minutes that they have adopted this procedure.
Do We Need a Code of Conduct?
Maintained schools
The Department for Education (DfE) has published statutory guidance on the constitution of maintained school governing bodies.
The constitution of governing bodies of maintained schools
Paragraph 16 on page 8 of the document says:
A code of conduct should be maintained and communicated to all prospective governors to set clear expectations of the governors’ role and behaviour.
Explicit agreement to the code of conduct will mean there is a common reference point should any difficulties arise in the future.
As this guidance is statutory, maintained school governing bodies must follow it unless they have good reason not to
Academies
The recommendation to maintain and communicate a code of conduct is also set out in section 4.1.2 of the DfE's Governance Handbook; (DfE Governance Handbook see pages 30 / 31) a document aimed at both academies and maintained schools.
Although the Governance Handbook is not statutory, and therefore academies are not required to have a code, it is considered good practice for them to do so.
GDPR – is your school on track?
With the new General Data Protection Regulation approaching quickly - May 2018!
Please click here to download a copy of the free ‘GDPR Readiness Tracker’ (original source ICO).
Pupil Premium – What is the Pupil Premium
The pupil premium is additional funding given to state-funded schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and close the gap between them and other pupils.
The government does not prescribe what the pupil premium should be spent on, as it says schools are best placed to assess what additional provision their pupils need. However, schools are held accountable for how they use this funding to support the pupils eligible for it.
All schools must publish a pupil premium strategy
The Department for Education (DfE) has published guidance for what maintained schools must publish online.
The DfE guidance says that maintained schools must publish a strategy on their use of the pupil premium. It is no longer a requirement to publish a ‘pupil premium statement’.
For the current academic year, the strategy must include:
- Your school’s pupil premium grant allocation amount
- A summary of the main barriers to educational achievement faced by eligible pupils at the school
- How you’ll spend the pupil premium to address those barriers and the reasons for that approach
- How you’ll measure the impact of the pupil premium
- The date of the next review of the school’s pupil premium strategy
For the previous academic year, you must include details of:
- How you spent the pupil premium allocation
- The impact of the expenditure on eligible and other pupils
The guidance says:
- Pupil premium funding is allocated for each financial year, but the information you publish online should refer to the academic year, as this is how parents understand the school system.
- As you won’t know allocations for the end of the academic year (April to July), you should report on the funding up to the end of the financial year and update it when you have all the figures.
The requirements for what Academies must publish online are set out in their funding agreements.
The DfE's guidance for academies says that, regardless of what your funding agreement requires you to publish, the Department recommends publishing the same information as maintained schools, listed above.
Governors are expected to know how the funding is being used and in particular what impact this is having on the pupils who receive the funding.
Governors must remember that not all the pupils receiving Pupil Premium will be struggling with school work. The pupil premium ‘group’ may also contain high-achievers or those with the potential to achieve highly and it’s important that the school has sufficiently high expectations of all pupils.
Interventions put in place should be properly matched to individual needs in order to allow all pupils to achieve their best.
Most governing boards now have a designated governor for Pupil Premium who will report to the remaining governors and this may make monitoring more effective and focused.
We have listed some questions that any governor could ask regarding Pupil Premium.
Pupil Premium Questions for Governors to ask?
- What is the PP gap in school? (for English + Maths, Reading, Writing, Maths?)
- How does this compare with National? How has this changed over time? How are we tracking the changes?
- Who are the PP pupils in school? How many? Boys/girls by year group? What is the overlap with other groups – EAL, BME, G&T etc.?
- How much PP funding do we receive? Can you detail how it is used? Who decides how it will be spent? Is it used to support pupils other than PP?
- What do we do to encourage parents/carers to claim Free School Meals (even if they don’t use the meal)? Do they understand how much money can benefit the school and their child?
- Does our school website meet the requirements for reporting on Pupil Premium?
- How are Governors involved in monitoring Pupil Premium? Do we have a designated governor assigned to Pupil Premium?
- What interventions/actions has the school used to narrow the gap? What was their impact? How was it measured? What is the most effective strategy the school has used to reduce the PP gap?
- Do class teachers know who the PP pupils are in their class? Do teachers have PP targets as part of their performance management? What support do teachers receive in order to address PP gaps?
- Do we have Pupil Premium pupils who achieve national expectations but who ought to be achieving more highly? What does the school do for them? Could more be done?
Revised KS2 and early years data available through Analyse School Performance (ASP)
The Department for Education (DfE) have released an update regarding the data available on analyse school performance (ASP), the government’s replacement for RAISEonline:
- revised 2017 data is now available for key stage 2 and the early years foundation stage
- the revised 2017 data for key stage 4 will be available this month
Governors are encouraged to access ASP and use it as an essential resource for knowing your school(s) well. To set up governors please follow the steps in this video link here
SGOSS is now Governors for Schools
SGOSS: Governors for Schools is pleased to announce their relaunch. They are now known as Governors for Schools
Short video on Primary Assessment Changes
The Standards and Testing Agency (STA) has published a short video setting out changes to primary assessment. This video for school staff will also be informative for governing bodies for a brief overview. Click here.
Updated Career Guidance for Schools – Feb 2018
The Department for Education (DfE) has updated its careers guidance for further education and sixth form colleges. This guidance incorporates the Gatsby Benchmarks into the careers strategy for post-16 providers. This means that colleges and sixth forms should provide:
- A stable careers programme;
- Access to learning from careers and labour market information;
- A programme which addresses the needs of each student;
- A curriculum linked to careers;
- Encounters with employers and employees;
- Work experience placements;
- Encounters with further and higher education;
- Personal guidance.
You can view the guidance here
Key dates for School Governors
Maintained schools
Suggested Spring Term Tasks for the Governing Board
-
Agree curriculum plans
-
Review school improvement plan progress
-
Publish proposals and admissions arrangements for next autumn
-
Review special educational needs (SEN) policy
-
Review equality information and objectives
-
Review equality information and objectives
-
Review pay policy
-
Agree budget and staffing structure
15th March
Admissions authorities must send a copy of their admission arrangements to the LA by this date - School Admissions Code
31st March
Deadline for submission of schools financial value standard (SFVS) – Schemes for financing schools
Academies and MATs
March
ESFA issues 16 to 19 allocations, including student support (16 to 19 Bursary Fund and free meals in further education where applicable).
ESFA publishes 16 to 19 student support eligibility and operational guidance.
ESFA publishes CIF outcomes.
15th March
Deadline for sending a copy of your admission arrangements to your LA.
31st March
Deadline for publishing your admission arrangements for entry in September 2019 on your website
ESFA issues academy revenue funding allocations for 2018/19
Request and review an internal report on likely outcomes of summer examinations
Key tasks for the board of trustees to complete by the end of the spring term (or for the local governing body if delegated).
- Review school improvement plan progress
- Review special educational needs (SEN) policy
- Review equality information and objectives
DfE Updates
Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in schools - How schools can buy, install and maintain an automated external defibrillator.
Multi – academy trust performance measures: 2016 - 2017 – Statistics on the performance of state-funded schools in multi-academy trusts in England.
An update to correct the Key Stage 4 MAT EBacc weighting and the Key Stage 2 MAT writing progress bandings.
Characteristics of Young People who are Long – Term NEET - Analysis of the characteristics of young people who were not in education, employment or training (NEET) for a year, 3 years after completing key stage 4.
Concrete cladding - monitoring building condition - Departmental guidance to support monitoring of building condition by schools and responsible bodies.
Ready reckoners and transition matrices for key stage 2: 2017: Ready reckoners to calculate progress scores for pupils and schools and key stage 2 transition matrices by key stage 1 prior attainment.
Schools causing concern: Statutory guidance on local authorities' and regional schools commissioners' responsibilities relating to schools and PRUs causing concern.
PE and sport premium: funding allocations for 2017 to 2018: PE and sport premium allocations and conditions of grant for the 2017 to 2018 academic year.
Multiplication tables check trials to begin in schools: Government follows up phonics success with new multiplication tables trial.
Education provision: children under 5 years of age, January 2017: Early years provision for children under 5 years in the local-authority-maintained, private, voluntary and independent sectors in England.
GCSE new grading scale: factsheets: Information about the new GCSE grades for parents, employers and further and higher education providers.
Multi-academy trust performance measures: 2016 to 2017 : Statistics on the performance of state-funded schools in multi-academy trusts in England.